Holy motherfuck college is hard. It's been all of two days and I'm ready to die.
But otherwise I'm good and want to write so badly but holy motherfuck college is hard.

But anyways.
Thank you so much Krysyuy. You are an amazing beta and I love you very much.

Hae Soo

Whether there were stars behind the smog-choked sky, she had no idea. Soo looked up and heaved a sigh as she listened to Yoon cry. The little girl pressed her face into her grandmother's skirt and wailed as her sister bragged about her new presents.

"Hwang Bo Mi, stop antagonizing your sister," Soo called, crossing her arms and turning towards her oldest with narrowed eyes. Her daughter's mouth slammed shut and she pursed her lips before running towards her grandfather and holding his hand. The guests were all gone and the darkness of night surrounded the brightly lit backyard.

Soo looked over at Yoon who rubbed her eyes and opened her arms to be picked up. "Grandma can't pick you up anymore, Yoonie," said Soo's mother as she leaned down to wipe her granddaughter's wet eyes. "My knees are bad, darling."

When Yoon began to cry again, Soo tasked Chae Ryung with soothing her daughter, already making her way back indoors. She ignored the nanny that rushed into the backyard to collect Yoon into her arms. Soo no longer saw Chae Ryung with the same trust she had initially, but she did not yet fire the nanny. Too much cluttered Soo's mind for her to focus on someone that possessed information the people that cared already knew about.

Soo knew Wook sat in his office, working on the paperwork required to fire So.

When she pushed his door open, Soo did not bother announcing herself. Her husband sat at his desk with his glasses perched on his face. The sleeves of his sweater and button-up were folded to his forearms, and he held a pen, only glancing up to check who had arrived.

"Have your parents left?" he asked, returning his attention to the matters on his desk.

"No, they're still here. I think they want to have Yoon and Mi over at their place."

"No." Soo agreed with his decision but did not voice her opinion. Instead, she walked up and around his desk to lean against the side, looking down at the resume laid out in plain view.

"Why did you fire my bodyguard?" Soo asked. Her husband never glanced her way or stopped working, his hand flying as his elegant calligraphy marked out the answers to her question.

"I assume he told you," Wook murmured. He set his pen down and lightly blew on the paper to dry any ink that had not already hardened.

"Why?" Soo asked again. She had to know the reason.

"Gross negligence."

So you were jealous. She looked at her husband with accusation in her eyes, but he still didn't look at her. Instead, he touched her hip and let his hand stroke over her belly so he could hold her by the waist and pull her closer. "Your bodyguard has been lax in keeping the security team upright, and he's been foregoing his duties as a bodyguard for some things I find unforgivable."

Soo sensed danger in his voice, but she knew it was not directed at her. Her ire flared as Wook continued to keep his hand on her even after doing something as audacious as to fire So without her consent. This had never happened before, and Soo knew that she had to fight for So.

She noticed the images of workers with open containers of liquids around their computers and workspaces, voicing her annoyance when she read over Wook's notes. "You fired him for allowing our employees the smallest of luxuries? They're adults, Wook, I doubt they'd spill things everywhere. You're being hypocritical," she snapped, sifting through the various pictures on Wook's desk and shaking her head at each one. "You allow people at your office to have drinks at their desks, yet my bodyguard can't?"

"I pay him to continuously protect our family and you. He's betrayed enough of my trust to warrant his termination."

"You fired him without my consent," Soo immediately shot back, refusing to admit to her cheating. The accusation in Wook's eyes bore into her, yet she did not allow him to touch her resolve. "How can you throw a man onto the street for allowing his subordinates a bit of convenience?"

"How many bodyguards have you fired without my consent?" Wook asked, releasing her. He crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at her through the lenses of his gold-rimmed glasses. Soo sensed his fury and felt the heat emanating from his body as his anger mounted. "I recall at least five, but I'm sure I'm missing some. All those people I hired to protect you and our family. You 'sent them onto the street' for being annoying because you didn't want to be followed around. Now you're getting onto me about firing one for a clear violation of guidelines?"

Soo knew there was no way she would win against her former lawyer of a husband. He spent his days practicing speeches and writing for the president. His words outweighed hers, so Soo pulled any petty move that she could.

"Fine." She looked her husband dead in the eyes with a glare that she hoped would leave a lasting impression. "You may have hired him, but I'm the one paying him. Wang So does not leave this house until I fire him."

They stared each other down, neither willing to give in until Wook cut the connection between them and stood from his desk. His slippers tapped against the wood floors of their home as he heaved a sigh and walked to the window behind his workspace.

"Hae Soo," he murmured. From where she sat, Soo's line of sight included Wook's backside, and she let her stare rest on the back of his head, where strands of silver showed through neatly styled black hair. "What do you think our children will think of us in the future? What will they see when they imagine us?"

The question hit her by surprise, but Soo remained unflinching. "They'll know what the world knows." Her voice remained cool and collected, though her inner turmoil reflected something different. "And they'll know what we divulge."

Sensing the underlying threat in Wook's voice, Soo took a breath and closed her eyes before opening them once more and noticing Wook facing her, a pale silhouette against the dark night. The moon made a halo over his head, and Soo crossed her arms.

"No matter what, Yoon and Mi will look up to their parents. They deserve that luxury. They deserve to believe that their parents are good people and that we were a united front."

"Aren't we still a united front?" asked Wook. He moved away from the window to approach her, his hands touching her elbows. "I tried for us, Soo. I gave up any... unnecessary baggage for us."

The muscles in Soo's body tensed as Wook referred to the woman he had seen behind her back as baggage. She had no idea how to feel about that.

"Now, it's your turn to try," he continued. "Make our marriage work. If not for me, then for our children."

His voice faded into a whisper and Soo knew when her resolve wavered.

"I won't fire him," Wook murmured, leaning in until his face was a hair's breadth away from hers. "But I want you to stop whatever it is you're doing. Return to our family. I did it for you and for our girls. Come back to me, Hae Soo."

Soo barely relaxed as Wook patted her arms and took a step back, picking the documents off of his desk and walking them to his paper shredder. She remained frozen as the grinding sound of destroyed papers left her with the bitter taste of regret on her tongue.

Her family. According to Wook, she had to give up So for her family.

But what happens when Wang So is my family? What happens if I love him more than I love you?

Soo hesitated as Wook asked if she would leave his office with him to bid her parents a safe drive back to their home.

She followed him out of the room and walked by his side, glancing into Yoon's bedroom to see her already in bed, tuckered out from a strenuous day. Mi danced around her bedroom with one of her gifts in her hands as Chae Ryung organized her new toys into the compartments on her shelves.

Soo wondered what might happen to their family if she and Wook separated. If she remarried and began anew. She wondered how her children might be affected by such a decision.

Wang So

He had two guesses as to how Chae Ryung found out he and Soo were having an affair.

One theory involved the time he had fucked Soo on the piano. The other involved the time when he and Soo had borrowed a hotel room to spend an afternoon together. He remembered Soo telling Chae Ryung to file the room as a work expense.

Other than those two times, So knew for certain that no one in the house could trace them. He cursed himself for being so careless. He should have known better than to be with Soo in the house.

Sifting through the cluttered thoughts in his mind, So sat in his chair and counted the cranes on his wall as he wondered how Soo had managed to get Wook to revoke his termination. Not only that, but why she had done it.

For the first time, So wondered if Soo was beginning to love him in the way he did her. He had seen her marching up the stairs to Wook's office, and after a long discussion, the man himself had come down. Granted, he had used Chae Ryung to deliver his message, but So heard loud and clear that Soo had won.

"Mr. Hwang Bo has revoked your termination and asks that you still remain in the house and protect his family."

Of course. Of course I'll protect Soo and Yoon and Mi… but will I protect you? So thought. He touched his chin as a clamor came from outside his door as the other staff prepared to go home or go to bed. So heard their passing comments about him. They asked how he had managed to stay on so long and why Wook had decided not to fire him after already making his decision known to Chae Ryung.

To her credit, Chae Ryung did not speak. So did not trust her at all, but he knew where her loyalties lied, and there was a reliability in knowing that. As the nanny remained silent, the staff shuffled out of the lounge, and So unfurled his legs to place his feet on his bed.

His shoulders sagged with the weight of his guilt, and his eyes shut as he wondered if the time had arrived. Knowing that Soo had turned against Wook to save her boyfriend gave So all the validation he needed. He no longer wanted to lie to Soo.

With each passing day, his burdens increased, and So anticipated and dreaded the time he could go before Soo and tell her everything. It no longer rested on his shoulders to determine if his actions could be justified. If Soo told him to leave, he would leave. And if Soo told him to stay, even after finding out that he had been hired to kill her and possibly even the children that So had come to see as his own… He doubted Soo would let him stay while knowing that information, but she deserved to know everything.

So had already bared most of himself to her; she knew all there was to know… except for the single, dirtiest detail that had consumed most of his adult life.

Sitting alone in his bedroom, So opened his eyes. The time had come, so now all he had to do was build up the courage to stand before Soo and open himself completely.

Sooner or later, the blessed peace he found in the arms of the woman he loved would end, and he would fall to the depths of hell once more.