Chapter Text
True love lasts forever. The pithy aphorism, in hindsight, requires some serious revisioning. Nothing lasts forever. Now, that is an adage most can get behind. Happily-ever-after is a concept children and overgrown fools believed in. Those fools, clearly, have never been married.
Does anyone know what happened to Snow White after her Prince Charming had whisked her away to a faraway castle to live their so-called happily-ever-after? No. The story ends there. People find each other, fall in love, overcome obstacles together, and reach their cathartic happily-ever-after. This is the general chain of events one is to likely meet in stories. Because no one would want to portray the dullness the narrative that comes after.
Marriage. The joining of two hearts and souls. A sacred institution that binds two people together and fortifies the love between them. Another diegesis so popular that it is overromanticized and insipid to the taste. Coming from another standpoint, marriage is a crime.
True love, happily-ever-after, marriage. Sehun had believed in all of them religiously once. In fact, he had desired them for the longest time. Since he was a child even. But like all, he had been naïve.
A heart that was once full of hope, love and dream, is now full of spite and bitterness.
The house is too big for two, he thinks to himself as he vacantly gazes out the window of his bedroom like any other day. The 16-year-old gardener is mowing the lawn, which—thanks to him—is always green and well-kempt. Sehun spends quite a bit of time in that garden, often with a book or his laptop in his hands. It is where he gets his best ideas for his novels.
So close to the city, he can hear the morning commotion when he opens the window. He often wishes that he lived somewhere in the suburbs just so that he could escape the city air.
With a deep sigh, he pulls away from the window and checks himself one last time in the mirror. There is absolutely no one in the house he has to impress, but he likes looking neat and decent throughout the day.
He is wearing a simple white knitted sweater and a pair of blue jeans today. His husband has a thing for sweatpants, but Sehun despises them. They are unseemly and too ugly for casualwear.
As he makes his way out of the bedroom, he is faced with the huge portrait in the hallway, which never fails to turn his mood sour every single time. He would have had it relocated—say to the garage or perhaps even the dumpster—but he hasn’t for the reason that it might have provoked a conversation. He does not need that conversation.
They make do with two servants in the house. One of them manages the cooking and the kitchen, the other mainly takes care of the dusting and the mopping. There isn’t much else to do here, except maybe fetch the mail every day. They both leave sharp at six o’clock in the evening, unless they are asked to stick around. For extra pay, of course.
The house is quieter, especially, during the night.
Usually, it is just Sehun himself.
As he descends the stairs, he finds Mrs. Han dusting the railing. She ignores him. He ignores her, too. Everything is always in order around the house. Whenever Sehun makes a mess, it gets cleaned up within seconds.
He finds his husband at the dining table, as he always does in the morning. Kai has his phone in one hand and a fork in the other. His plate is almost empty.
Sehun takes his seat on the opposite end of the table and pours himself some cranberry juice from the jug. He looks to the TV in the dining area as he fixes himself a plate of scrambled eggs and toasts.
Kai does not look up from his phone. He never does. Sehun does not mind. They both have finally gotten used to being in the same room without minding one another. In fact, they have gotten so good at ignoring each other that it is as though the other is completely invisible.
But today, Kai puts his phone down and takes a sip of the juice while looking at Sehun. “The lawyer called this morning,” he says casually.
Sehun arches an eyebrow at him. “Yours or mine?”
“Mine,” says Kai. “We need to fix a meeting to go over the property distribution.”
Sehun nods dully as he stuffs some eggs into his mouth. It lacks salt, so he adds some. Kai likes his food bland. Even after six years of living together, Sehun has not gotten used to the way Kai eats his food.
“I’ll call my lawyer, then,” mutters Sehun.
And that’s it. The conversation ends.
Kai rises from the table and adjusts his necktie. Sehun does not usually care about what Kai is wearing, but today, he is wearing a navy-blue shirt Sehun had given him for their second anniversary.
He must have stared it for too long because Kai is looking at him again. Sehun averts his gaze back to the TV. The bastard probably did not remember anything about their second anniversary.
Sehun tries not to linger on past memories, too. Especially the good ones. Whenever one of them pushes through, he quickly shuts himself down. They are too far gone. There is no going back.
Kai leaves for work, like he always does, even during the weekends. He’d do anything to get away from Sehun.
And Sehun would do anything to keep it that way.
To think that they had once been so madly in love that they would go to the very end of the world to be with each other… It really does feel like another lifetime.
* * *
He had not realized it when he was getting dressed for work earlier. Not until he saw Sehun staring did he notice the fact that he is wearing the shirt Sehun had gifted him for their anniversary. The second one. The one where they had made love in the kitchen in the middle of the day.
Kai shakes his head as he sits idly in the car. He should go back in and change shirts. But he is already late for work. So, he starts the car and pulls it out of the driveway. The gardener boy waves at him. Kai waves back, smiling.
He’d sell the house, he thinks as he drives away. There is no point keeping it. He might downsize to a condo near the office. Unless Sehun wants to continue living in it, though Kai doubts that Sehun could afford it.
When he reaches his office, he sits at his desk and stares aimlessly at his wedding band for a long moment. He still remembers the day they had eloped together to the courthouse to get married behind their parents’ backs. On that day, nothing else mattered. It was just them in their own little world where no one was allowed. They had been young, dewy-eyed, and so very in love.
Kai remembers the way he had cupped Sehun’s face in his hands and kissed him for the first time. And he remembers the last time he had kissed Sehun, too. It was right before Sehun had shoved him back and slapped him across the face.
He wants to take the ring off. And toss it into the trash.
But before he could get to it, the office door opens and the intern walks in, sporting her glasses, her tight skirt, and a blouse that puts her cleavage on a fantastic display.
She smirks at Kai the same way she has been smirking since the first day she joined. “Good morning, Mr. Kim,” she says in that sultry tone of hers that instantly brightens Kai’s day.
“Indeed, it is, Lia,” Kai replies, leaning back in his seat. “What can I do for you?”
She makes her way over to the desk and leans over it. She has her hair up in a ponytail today. It’s pretty. “You know exactly what you can do for me, Mr. Kim.”
Kai scoffs. “It’s office hours, Miss Rahm.”
“It hadn’t stopped us before.” She takes hold of Kai’s necktie and pulls him forward. “My apartment. Tonight?”
Kai sighs. “Of course.”
“You know,” she says, straightening up again. “You should just move in with me since you spend almost all of your nights at my place, anyway.”
“I would. But I do not want to impose.”
“Oh, please. You know that if it were up to me, I’d keep you there forever.”
Kai lets out another sigh. “It won’t be long now. Once I’m divorced, I promise you, it’s going to be simpler.”
Alia crosses her arms over her chest. She shakes her head next. “He doesn’t even care if you’re there.”
That is not a lie. Sehun knows about the affair, too. And the only thing he had bothered to say to Kai about it was, “Just don’t bring her home.”
They have moved on. They might still be legally married, but they have nothing else left between them.