—Jeon Residence, year 2026—

Mornings were always the same.

I would wake up alone, finding the opposite side of the bed empty. Sometimes with ruffled sheets as a subtle hint of him joining me on the bed when I was fast asleep, only then leaving the bed and my sleeping figure before sunrise, before I opened my eyes to find him there. On other times, the sheets on his part of the bed would stay cold and tidy, which happened mostly when he either spent his night out and away from home, or when he hid in his private home office, the only part of the house that was restricted to all, even to his own wife.

It was one rare morning, when I woke up finding the other half of the bed being occupied by my very own husband, still lost in his deep sleep. It had been quite a while since I found myself sharing the enormous bed with him, and it had been a while since I was able to look into his sleeping face, with him lying so close to me. He looked so peaceful, and I completely have forgotten all the tension that we always had when he wakes.

I lied still on the bed, with my body facing him as I watched him closely, enjoying the serene moment and his beautiful face while he was lost in his dreams, regretting the reality that we had between each other in our lives. Admitting silently in my heart that behind every anger I had for him, no matter how much I felt my heart boiling of hate and sadness when I was sharing my life with him, I still loved him. I loved my husband with all my heart. And nothing could change that.

At least, at that morning I believed it so.

I believed nothing in my life could change. For better or worse.

Completely oblivious at the twist of fate that was about to happen.

I placed two plates of food on the dining table, walking off to pour myself some coffee before sitting down with my breakfast. I had decided to leave the bed an hour ago, immediately making myself busy by preparing breakfast for two.

It was one of the habits I could never let go of ever since our wedding day. We used to always wake up together, spent the mornings over breakfast and coffee with light conversations, ended them with both of us doing the dishes together which may took a little too long due to the lack of control he had over his playful hands that wouldn't stop teasing me, either by touching or tickling my body.

I was halfway of finishing my meal when he finally came down from the bedroom. Even before he appeared before me, the tension had started to grow, so I kept my eyes on the food right in front of me, refusing to look his way. He stopped in his tracks, right before entering the dining room, and I could feel his gaze locked towards me.

"Good morning, Jungkook," I said quietly, breaking the silence between us.

"Um—Morning," he answered with an exhaled sigh, before he walked towards me and brushed his lips over my temple—a little too short, and a little too soft. "Have you been up long?"

"Yes," I glanced up at him for a short second. "I made breakfast. You should eat first."

"Mhmm, thank you." He brushed lightly over my shoulder, walking to his seat and waited for me to pour him his coffee. I sat back after helping him, lifted my eyes to look at him only to catch him in the middle of staring back at me, although he quickly looked away and started to eat his meal quietly.

"It's unusual for you to sleep in," I said to him, hoping to start a conversation. One that we could no longer have without attacking each other's throats.

He cleared his throat before answering with a glint of embarrassment in his tone of voice, "Yeah, I—uh, I got back really late and drank a little. I was probably too tired."

He continued eating while I stared at him, silently wondering how everything had come into this. How was it possible for the two of us to have so much distance when he was there, sitting right across to me on the table. How was it that we became strangers within our own home, barely ever talked to each other more than short sentences that felt so vacant.

I shuddered, feeling chill all over my body when my mind started to whisper all the reasons why.

I got lost in my thoughts, completely unaware that he was staring at me without saying any words, and I accidentally caught his gaze once more the moment I was drifted back to present.

He avoided my eyes again, starting to gather his unfinished plate and coffee. "I—uh, I have some things to finish up before I go to work, so— I'm gonna take these to my office," he said, carefully leaving his seat with the plate and his cup of coffee in his hands. "You should finish eating. Thank you for the food and coffee."

And with that, he left me in that room, alone, with a regretful smile on his face.

I watched his back as he walked away, before disappearing behind the doors to his private home office. My heart was filled with disappointment, although I had already known that he might eventually leave. He could never stand being in the same room as I was for more than five minutes anyway.

I continued my day with my daily routine, cleaning out the kitchen and dining room before I took a shower and started to get ready for work. I was in the bedroom when I heard him leaving his office, cleaning after his finished meal and disappeared once more into the guest bathroom.

One hour later, when I was sitting alone in the living room, he appeared before me, only to mumble a goodbye under his breath with—

"I'm off to work."

And I was left at that quiet house, alone once again, drowned in the silence that had become my best friend.

It was always the same for our mornings.

And it was killing me slowly inside on how our married life had become similar to a mere business relationship. Nothing more than an errand that he must keep doing in his everyday life.

And I was nothing but a shadow that roamed the house he was living in.

An empty soul that was merely waiting for the right moment to turn into dust and left forgotten in his memories.

It was late in the afternoon when I finished my work and started cleaning the living room. I stopped at one of the low bookcases at the corner of the room, having my eyes caught on the frame pictures neatly arranged on top of it. There were pictures of us, from back when we were so young and just started dating, until the ones that were taken over the early years of our marriage.

I reached over the framed picture that was taken on our wedding day, touching lightly at the glass surface over our younger looking faces. We were still young when we got married—perhaps too young, and much too naive—under the fierce belief that we could survive just by what we had thought as our undying love.

I remembered back then how I had so many dreams, so many things I wanted to accomplish, so many things I wished I could have had a chance to do. And I gave them all up to be with him. I was still struggling to finish college when we got married, and after I was done with my study I didn't even get a chance to work professionally since Jungkook wouldn't let me.

"I will take care of you. I already promised that I will, so I will try my best to make sure I fulfil it myself, okay?"

That was what he promised me.

So I did what he asked of, started my life as a simple housewife while he would work every day with his business. Until one day, he finally let me take some freelance jobs many years after our marriage, when I succeeded in convincing him to let me do so after I complained about how boring my life had been by staying at home all the time.

I put the picture back to where it was standing before, and looked into the different pictures around them. They were mostly pictures of us, while pictures of our families were hidden safely at the back. Most of the pictures that were arranged on the front side were taken during our trips. Jungkook did so many business trips for his work, and he would always take me along with him, calling them our annual honeymoons.

Things have changed over the past year. He would mostly leave on his own, only taking me when the trip was done close to any important dates, either close to our anniversary, my birthday, his birthday, or when it was close to holiday seasons. Even the look of my face on the pictures we had taken more recently have changed a lot. Our faces might have aged a lot compared to they were before, but it certainly was not the only thing visible through the pictures. The look on my eyes and the smile on our faces were different. The happiness that was emitting on our faces that were captured in them were growing less and less, looking more forced and faked no matter how hard we tried to hide them.

Some things were meant to be hard to hide under masks and lies.

I looked away, looking far out through the windows on the living room, staring straight at the clouded sky. My mind wandered back into the past; reminiscing on how we met the first time, how shy he was reacting when he pulled my hand into his soft, hesitant grip during our first date, how gullible and innocent we once were before our lives were twisted by fate.

And then I pictured the day of our wedding, when I looked into my husband's eyes the first time while he held me close on our first dance, how he was staring back at me with his adoring eyes, leading me to believe on that fateful day that it was the start of our happiness.

We were happy.

He protected me like I was a fragile glass doll, and I did my best to be his anchor, his strength to keep pushing on in chasing his dreams and success. We were perfect for each other. We wanted a perfect life together, building the perfect family. But life was never meant to be as picture perfect as we wanted them to be.

Not when even after so many years, and so many times we tried, we couldn't have a child of our own.

The struggle was real, and we stood at each other's side, supporting and comforting each other through the many years of our efforts, and we kept on trying. We tried, and tried, until we finally grew tired of trying, tired of hoping and being disappointed by each failure, tired of figuring out what went wrong and who to blame. Until finally, we grew tired of each other.

He started to distant himself for me, and I stopped trying to reach out to him.

Then my mind wandered back to one eventful night, one that happened a year prior to our wedding. The night that changed us both, and even changed the course of our lives.

I could not help to wonder what might have become of me if that night never happened. Or if everything that led to that very night never occurred. Would I be standing here regretting my life choices?

I wondered what would my life had been if only I took a different path, if only I made a different choice.

I looked up into the sky with my eyes that were brimming with tears, absentmindedly placing my palm over the underside of my stomach, before brushing my palm lightly when I could picture the empty void that was hidden underneath. I whispered with regrets at the sky, hoping that my words would reach to the heavens above for them to hear out my regrets.

"I'm so sorry."