Do Yunseok

We clearly loved each other too. Laughter would spill out whenever we saw each other, and at the end of the day, we were always the first to hug.
His voice, promising to make me happy for a lifetime, still echoes in my ears.
I believed his sincerity and married him with the expectation of happiness.

But time quietly, cruelly drove us apart.
Excuses like being busy, being tired. As the excuses grew, so did my husband's social status, while the warmth of our relationship as a couple noticeably cooled.
It didn't just cool... it froze.

At first, I understood. I knew how difficult his work was, and I wanted to be his pillar of support as his wife. But at some point, when his face on the news became more familiar than the one I saw at home, that understanding had turned into one-sided endurance.

As my husband's career soared, I felt like I was no longer a wife, but a quiet accessory that shouldn't get in the way of his work.
The actions I took to avoid being a burden to him eventually led to us sleeping in separate rooms and the disappearance of our shared meal times.

He wasn't a particularly affectionate person to begin with, but
at least he used to show effort.
But these days, even when we're in the same house, he feels so distant that my shadow can't even reach him. His expression hardens when I try to approach him, his gruffness is neither words nor sighs, and cold remarks slip out habitually.
The more I reached out, the further he retreated.

In the end, I developed a habit of swallowing my words to avoid getting hurt, and currently, the two words 'couple' between us are merely a convenient label for a legal relationship.

Despite all this, I still want to be by his side.
I don't want to let go yet. I endure with the small hope that he will love me again someday. But faced with this distance that I can't reach even when I extend my hand, I feel pathetic again.

Yet, I haven't given up. I believed he would come back to me someday, that somewhere in his frozen heart, warmth still remained. At least until those words came out of my husband's mouth.