‣ room 101.

@❀ ┇ kwon eunjae。 Gyuri wondered if this was a mistake.

She and her husband hadn't been alone together in a room—hadn't shared the same bedroom—in years. She couldn't remember when that started, or what had prompted it. Memories had blurred in an array, her busy schedule mixing all the work and family meetings she had had to endure even before her marriage to Eunjae. But her secretary was the one to give her this idea, to simply spend a week away from the usual busy buzz of Seoul and spend that rare free time with her partner.

That sounded easy enough. That sounded good. Except it wasn't easy at all, she was quickly realizing. Not when her husband's first suggestion was to sleep on separate beds. (But what was so unusual with that? When they hadn't slept together in years?)

"The couch?" Gyuri raised an eyebrow, directing her gaze at her companion. "We're married, aren't we? We can share the bed, like other couples do," she said, crossing her arms by her front. 'Or is being with me no longer that appealing to you?' was a thought that nagged at the back of her mind, dancing on the tip of her tongue rather dangerously, but she kept closed, hardening her jaw. "But if you're so keen on sleeping separately, then I suppose I should've asked for two suites."

@❀ ┇ kwon gyuri。 Luxury still feels like a stranger to Eunjae, even after all these years.

Sure, the room bears more resemblance to their (or Gyuri’s, as it seems to be for the past couple of years) bedroom back home, but somehow the view that greets him upon opening the door reminds him of his family’s home in Naju. He wonders if it’s the stark difference between the two spaces—how his old room had probably collected dust at this point, the toppled action figure he got as his only birthday present in his teenage years still lying somewhere on the floor, whereas here, there is only the salty breeze from the beach and suitcases which have arrived before them, resting at the corner of the lotus-patterned walls of the hotel’s self-proclaimed finest suite.

He’s quick to gloss over the bed as he scans the room. It was bigger—much bigger than any of the apartments the university granted him before he moved in with Gyuri. There is a separate section dedicated to some sort of lounge, equipped with a flat-screen TV and sofa chairs surrounding a decently-sized coffee table. But his attention lies on the velvet couch by the window, perhaps a bit too short for him to stretch out his whole body on it, but it’ll do.

“I can take the couch,” he says to Gyuri without even meeting her eyes. “I’ll try not to be in too much, so…” So she could have her freedom? So they won’t have to see each other much? What a strange thing to say to someone who took a whole week off *and* singlehandedly paid for the two of them to be here. Eunjae shakes his head. This isn’t going to work. He doesn’t know why she thought it would be a good idea to go on this… reconciliation trip, whatever it’s called. “Never mind. Forget I said anything.”