Jonghoon’s POV

                My phone rang.

                “Yeoboseyo?”

                “Yeoboseyo, Choi Jonghoon-ssi. It’s me, Yoon Eunji.”

                “Yes, Miss Yoon. Is there anything I can help you with?” ‘Is there anything wrong with Taera?’ my mind thought. After that movie incident, I haven’t seen her around a lot anymore. She no longer sleeps in our room. Instead, she crashed at the kids’ room. And she no longer waits for me to return from work; she’d be fast asleep by the time I reached home. I guess I really did push her button this time.

                “Ne. I was told by Ahn Taera Sajang-nim to ask you to send her handphone over to the office. Apparently she left it at your children’s room last night and forgot to take it back this morning. Are you perhaps free to do so?” said Miss Yoon over the phone. I glanced at my watch on my wrist. It’s still early, but I was feeling reluctant. I tried to rationalize myself to think straight and not to act according to my emotions.

                “Ne. I’ll be there in a while.”

                “Kamsahamnida, Choi Jonghoon-ssi.” I replied her words with a simple ‘yes’ and hung up on her after that.

                I climbed my way up the stairs, and stopped in front of children’s room. That room has been empty for almost three months now since our first quarrel took place that night. Ever since then, I’ve sent them to live with umma. I’m not pushing them away – it’s just that I don’t want them to witness the fights between us. They’re too young to see all of it. I do visit them, of course – every morning, before I head off to work. And according to umma, Taera has been doing so, too. Except that she’s visiting in the afternoon, after she gets off from work. It’s ironic how we’ve never met our way there even once. I sighed as I turned the doorknob to the room and pushed it open, revealing a space with two beds on each opposite sides.

                I scanned the room interior – my eyes met with various pictures of our little family, hung in colourful photo frames against the wall. I walked to one end of the wall and studied the first picture there; it was a picture of Taera not long after her labour with Joongki in her hands and Joongli in mine. She smiled weakly to the camera, her face pale – also, not missing the tears of happiness streamed down her cheeks. I my thumb across the picture as I drew a bitter smile. Can we relive this memory again? Or will it all ends here?

                The sound of Taera’s handphone’s ringing brought me back to reality. It downed to me my intention of coming into this room in the first place was to take Taera’s phone to her. I looked around in search for the gadget and found it lying on the bedside table next to Joongki’s bed. I hurried my way to the handphone, but the ringing has stopped by that time. I took her handphone in my hands and scrutinized it while my mind contemplating whether should or not I take a peek of its content. Well, she has never really minded me doing so before. But I don’t know now, after everything that has happened between us.  

                If I really want to know the truth, I would have to do so. And so, I did. I started with her contact list. I looked for my number first, to see whether she has changed my caller ID and its picture. Nope. My number is still put under the name ‘Hooney’ and the picture was still the same as last time – the picture of me pecking her cheek. I made her put that picture as my caller ID. Except that, now my caller ID has an extra heart at the end. Satisfied, I looked for Jaeseop number.

                Caller ID: Jaeseop Oppa

                Mobile Number: ***-****-****

                It was quite the opposite from my thought, honestly. I was thinking that maybe she has put an ‘aeching’ for Jaeseop – but no. It’s just ‘Jaeseop Oppa’. Thoughts running through my mind; what if she was saying the truth all this time? What if everything was just a mere misunderstanding? [Aeching - couple nickname]

                I decided to invade her message inbox this time. There weren’t much conversation thread made by her. There were the members’ conversation thread, mine, Jaeseop, Miss Yoon and another one written in English – Li Yi. I realized that Taera doesn’t really have that much of girl friends. Most of her school times were spent with us. I wonder how she could cope with everything that happened when there’s almost nobody she could rely on, or even for her to confide with. I opened her conversation thread with Jaeseop only to found a various text messages regarding their work. Sure there were a few warmed-feeling text messages from him asking whether she has eaten or not lately – and I was sure that was only because she has been too busy with work. I closed the thread and proceed to see mine. Each text messages that I’ve sent her was still there. Even the ones that she said she’s going to delete because she can’t stand its cheesiness were still there.

                Ahn Taera, what exactly is happening to us?

***

                “Annyeonghaseyo.”

                “Annyeonghaseyo, Miss Yoon. Is she in?” I asked the lady in front of me. She smiled sweetly before replying me.

                “She’s in, but she has a staff with her right now. I’m afraid you can’t meet her yet. Please have a seat first,” she offered.

                “I can’t stay too long, though. I’ve shootings afterwards. Can I just pass it to you?” I said as I glanced at the clock hung against the wall behind her. I’ve to be at the location by 11.

                “Yeah, sure. I’ll give it to her later.” I handed her the phone and prepared to take my leave before I heard Miss Yoon called out to me again. I turned to her with a questioning gaze.

                “I wonder if you can take sajang-nim for a vacation for a few days. She has been too stressed out lately – she hasn’t been taking her meals. She would only eat if I force her to eat. It scares me to see her like that. She used to be so happening. But now that the Arts School project is facing problem, her attitude has turned 180 degrees. She’s no longer the old sajang-nim that I know.” I felt myself frowned at her statement, not understanding half of her rants. The Arts School project is facing a problem? How come I not know of it?

                “I’m sorry, but problem regarding the Arts School project? What kind of problem?”  My cheeks heated up as I asked the question in embarrassment – what kind of husband doesn’t know the problem that his wife is facing? Miss Yoon looked shocked hearing my question.

                “You didn’t know? The construction work was paused for almost two weeks due to some problem faced by the contractor. She even pulled an all-nighter for a few days at the office last week in order to find a way fix the problem. Thank God it has been solved a few days ago.”

                “Oh. I was out of country last week. And Taera is not the type to talk about work at home.” Miss Yoon nodded her head at my reply. I was about to leave when I heard a familiar voice boomed in the room. Kim Jaeseop.

                “Eunji-ssi, is sajang-nim in?” He asked to Miss Yoon.

                “Yeah, she’s in but she’d in a discussion with Park Seonsaeng. You know, a lot of parents have been complaining about her teaching method. Why? Anything important?” answered Miss Yoon.

                “Not really, I’m here just to pass the file that she asked for this morning. Do me a favour, please?” said Jaeseop to Miss Yoon, smiling as Miss Yoon took the file from his hand. It was then he noticed my presence in the room.

                “Jonghoon-ssi! Hey, long time no see. How have you been doing?” He held out a hand in front of me as I reciprocated it half-heartedly.

                “I’m doing fine.”

                “So, what’s the occasion? Taking Taera for a coffee break?”

                “No, I was just passing her handphone. She left it at home.” Is this really the guy that my wife cheated me with? Because if he is, well I guess he really lacks of guilt-conscience.

                “Aww, too bad. I thought us four could go grab coffee together and have a nice chat. It has been so long since I last saw you. I couldn’t even remember when it was.”

                “Us four?”

                “Yeah, us four – you, Taera, me and my girlfriend, Li Yi. She’s Taera’s roommate at US before. You know her, right?”

                Girlfriend?

                Okay, what the hell is happening?

Hello :D :D

I'm trying my best writing this as I would be going back to my hometown next Wednesday and will only get to online back on March 1st. I'll try my best to finish this story before that :)

JongRa : The Drabbles

The content of the collection, will be opened to you guys to ask questions of what do you want to know about them since they have been friend for 6 years before they got married - such as; how do they meet (this question is invalid since it has already been explained in this fic) or how did Taera get to be so close with Jaejin or even moments of Taera with other members :).

But of course I have my own ideas. It's just that, it's open for you to ask if you wanted to do so.