Work Text:
The first thing Hyunwoo did after returning to his room was to safely stash away the divorce papers into the safe. He doesn't need them anymore, he supposes, but did not want to destroy his only sure shot way of getting out of this hellish family.
He was....happy?
Hae in was dying. 3 months she said. He can finally escape this family, no messy divorces, a simple, clean break. The part of him tired of this family, this life, was elated. Freedom was within his grasp, and he didn't have to put a target on his head (didn't have to break Haein's heart) to get that freedom.
Years of heartbreak, years of lonliness, isolation, criticism by his in laws was finally coming to an end.
Then, why was he crying?
Was it the overflow of joy and the promise of freedom Haein's death brought?
Then why did his heart feel heavy?
Why did his throat feel clogged up?
Years of mistreatment, miscommunication had wrought their fruit. There was no love left between them. Or so Baek Hyunwoo thought.
He didn't love his wife. He didn't care. Her death would not impact him, would only grant him his freedom.
Haein was always too busy in her work, too busy trying to achieve her success, that she left him behind. She was a cold woman, too cold for Hyunwoo's warmth. He wore his heart on his sleeve, feeling all emotions deeply and unabashedly. Her heart was locked beneath layers of ice, so deep that it made you question if it even existed.
Baek Hyunwoo resented his wife. He resented how she could just turn off her emotions. He resented how she refused to talk, resented how her work had to always come first.
He hated, hated how she broke her promise, to never make him cry.
But the one Baek Hyunwoo hated the most, was the tiny shadow of the man inside who still loved her, who was disgusted by his happiness on hearing about Haein's condition