The Affair

I'M SORRY.

I know I'm lucky to have you.

I know I'm asking too much.

And that I'm causing you trouble you don't deserve.

But I'm just so, so sorry.

I can no longer stay in this marriage.

I want a divorce.

Summerine was up all night perfecting her message.

Because this time, she was no longer in denial.

She had accepted that she was a coward.

And so no, it was not possible at all for her to say these things to her husband's face.

She was a coward, and that was why she waited until she was safely within the walls of her university before hitting Send on her message.

Oh, bleep.

Every second that passed was like waiting for a ticking bomb to explode. Her heart felt as if it was about to burst from her chest, but minutes turned into hours, and it was already time for lunch, but she had yet to hear anything from her husband.

Why isn't he texting back?

Her message was already labeled Read .

Could he have accidentally opened her message without actually reading it?

Or did he simply not care?

Summerine decided to skip lunch and spend her hour-long break in the storage shed at the back of the university.

The place was something she had accidentally discovered some months ago, and she had come to think of it as her private little retreat when she needed time to think without anyone knowing where she was.

The shed had been dusty during her first visit, but after hours of cleaning and Summerine sneaking in furniture she had bought online every now and then, the place now possessed a rather cozy atmosphere with a thick rug laid over the floor, a bean bag, and a dozen throw pillows.

Summerine kept refreshing her inbox, but nothing came up. Exhaustion seeped into her bones, and her eyes began to droop.

She wasn't quite sure what woke her up later on. All she knew was that it started with this uneasy feeling of being stared at. And as the cobwebs of sleep gradually cleared, and she remembered that she was still in the storage shed, and—-

Oh no.

She sat up in a start, her eyes wide open, and oh dear.

Ryu was seated right in front of her, his dark gaze hooded, his lips pressed in a tight line, and his jaw clenched tight.

He had taken one of the wooden chairs piled up at the back of the shed, and as he leaned back and crossed one leg over the other, Summerine finally remembered one last but extremely important thing.

Oh no.

"Hello, Summerine."

She had asked him for a divorce this morning, and the thought had her croaking out in reply.

"H-Hello."

"I received a text from you this morning."

Summerine's mouth went dry. How could such a soft voice sound so terrifyingly menacing at the same time?

"I was hoping it was an ill-thought prank."

Was that why he hadn't replied?

"But when I didn't hear from you again, well..."

Ryu's voice trailed off, but this alone felt as if she suddenly had the barrel of a gun pointed at her head.

"May I ask why you want a divorce?"

She slowly opened her mouth, but Summerine wasn't surprised when no words came out.

"Cat got your tongue?"

Ryu had her so frightened that even the act of thinking straight was a problem, much less string words together coherently. "I...I..."

"You're what?"

Cold sweat coated her skin at Ryu's biting tone.

Never had he spoken to her in this manner—-

"Having an affair behind my back?"

And the reason he did so was because he had clearly lost his mind!