Annyeongz One-shots

39. Wife ? ( 2 )

The guest room was huge—bigger than her entire childhood home—but it felt unbearably cold. Not because of the temperature. Because it felt like a room designed for someone who was never meant to leave a mark on it.

A place for temporary existence.

A place for someone who didn’t matter.

Wonyoung closed the door behind her, leaning against it for a moment as silence wrapped around her like a heavy blanket. Her wedding dress was beginning to feel too tight, suffocating her ribcage, so she carefully unzipped it and let it fall to the carpet.

She stood there in her slip—bare shoulders trembling, eyes fixed on nothing.

You survived the wedding. You survived the car ride. You survived the apartment.

But now she was alone.

And the hurt she had swallowed all day began to rise like a tide.

She walked slowly to the bathroom—marble walls, soft lighting, everything too luxurious for her to feel comfortable in. Like she didn’t belong. Like she was an intruder in someone else’s life.

She turned on the shower.

Water cascaded down in a steaming, gentle stream.

She stepped inside.

The moment the hot water touched her skin, her breath shattered.

Her knees gave out, and she slid down to the shower floor, curling her arms around her legs.

She pressed her forehead against her knees as the water washed over her, and for the first time that day… she let herself feel it.

The loneliness.
The humiliation.
The shock.
The weight of an unwanted marriage.

Everything.

A small, strangled sound escaped her lips before she could stop it.

And then—

She cried.

Not loudly.
Not messy.
Not dramatic.

Just a quiet, trembling heartbreak she had hidden for far too long.

Tears mixed with the water running down her face. She didn’t sob. She didn’t shake. She just… cried silently, the way someone who had learned not to inconvenience anyone cries.

Why does it hurt?
Why does it feel like I'm disappearing?
Why does it feel like he already broke something inside me without even trying?

She covered her mouth with her hand, the sound muffled.

Her chest ached.

Not from love.
From loss.

Loss of the life she could’ve had.
Loss of her freedom.
Loss of her sense of worth.

Every cold look Yujin gave her today…
Every word he spoke without care…
Every moment she felt invisible beside him…

It piled onto her until she felt like she was shrinking inside herself.

Do not break. Do not break. You promised.

But she was breaking anyway.

And no one would ever know.

She didn’t know how long she sat there—five minutes, ten, more. The water never changed its temperature.

She finally lifted her head, wiped her face, and forced her breath to steady.

No matter how much she cried, morning would come.

And she would still be his wife.

A stranger in a golden cage.