You tried to pretend you were asleep as Yeji pulled the covers back and laid down beside you.

There was a pang of disappointment deep in your heart when you were met with silence and the cool air continuing to hit your skin instead of her arms that you're sure are warm and secure, that you which he'd pull you into and never let go.

"I know you're awake." She suddenly said, to which you just sighed in response.

"Why do you care whether I'm awake or not? You barely say a word to me." You spoke, hoping that the obvious sadness you felt wasn't noticeable.

You stared down at your painted nails as she moved further away from you, marking yet another night of awkward tension between the both of you.

You'd think you'd be used to it by now. Because today marks three weeks since you both tied the knot and so far, your marriage was far from a happy one. You struggle to see eye to eye on a lot of things.

Deep down, you both understand the reasons why you're both struggling. Your marriage wasn't exactly something you were enthused about. At least, not for the first little while. Arranged marriages aren't always easy, are they?

But something's changed for you recently.

You don't want to admit it. You still haven't spoken the words out loud and you definitely haven't told Yeji.

But you know you're falling head over heels in love with her.

You know it because you enjoy the feeling of her laying beside you because you know you're not alone and the spacious bed isn't as cold without her there with you.

You wake up a few minutes earlier than she does so you can watch her sleep. You live to see her smile, although she doesn't smile all that much around you. But when she does, your heart melts.

You're not even a month into your marriage. There's still a lifetime of falling in love with her, even more, every day to go.

However, you know that you're alone on that. She doesn't seem to feel the same way about you. She's quiet and a little cold.

She doesn't open up to you the way people that marry usually do. She spends most of her days working and you're sure she's pulling extra hours so she won't have to come home to you as early.

You know she's not exactly over the moon about being in an arranged marriage, but you wonder if she feels worse because she's stuck in this arranged marriage with you.

You snapped out of your thoughts and tried to quiet your busy brain. You sighed and tossed and turned for a moment, which agitated Yeji.

"Can you stop?"

"Sorry. I can't get comfortable."

"Well I'm comfortable and I'd like to sleep sometime tonight. I had a bad day and you're not making it any better."

"Whatever." You scoffed and then let the awkward silence hit the air.

You knew she knew you were still wide awake as she laid sleepless next to you. You stared up at the ceiling while your mind continued to run.

You've had a lot of nights like this recently; where you just can't sleep and you stay up wondering what a future with a wife who despises you is going to be like.

"Yeji?"

"What?" She asked groggily.

"I can't sleep."

"Okay." She replied tiredly, her one-word answer only heightening your disappointment.

"Thanks for the help."

She rolled onto her back and stared at you as she brushed her hand along her face.

"What do you want me to do, y/n?"

"I don't know." You mumbled and shrugged your shoulders. "You could just talk to me..." you suggested and held back the other words on the tip of your tongue about how you just like the sound of her voice.

"About what?"

"Anything. We don't talk much."

"Because there's nothing for us to talk about." She huffed and began to fidget with the string of her pajama shorts.

"Oh, really? I think there's a ton for us to talk about. For example, we could talk about how much you seem to hate me."

She looked sorta surprised by your words before she put her head back with a sigh.

"Can we talk about this tomorrow?"

"Really? When? Because you're working so much now that I only ever see you at night. I see you for two minutes before you close your eyes and go to sleep. That is if I'm not already asleep by the time you get home."

She didn't say a word. She just swallowed thickly and listened to you rant a little. Because she didn't really know what to say.

"Yeji," you spoke, your voice cracking, catching her attention. "I don't want to do this. I don't want to spend the rest of my life like this. Laying next to you, feeling like you're some sort of stranger who couldn't care less about me. I don't want to live a life where I'm stuck in this marriage, wondering if you feel the same about me that I do about you. Wondering if the next day will be as disappointing as the last."

She felt saddened by your words, but there was one particular sentence that stood out to her.

"How do you feel about me?" She wondered and watched your eyes go wide.

"Forget it." You said and sat up, trying to swallow back the lump in your throat as you reached for your pillow. "I'm going to sleep on the couch."

"No." She whispered and wrapped her fingers around your wrist ever so gently. "Don't... please."

You've never heard that word fall from her lips before, nor have you ever heard her speak so softly to you.

You didn't want to leave her side in the first place. You just didn't want her to see your tears.

So you laid down and swallowed them back as she rolled you over to face her again.

"Tell me how you feel about me."

"Why? Why does it even matter?" You scoffed.

"Because I'm falling in love with you."

She didn't raise her voice at you as she spoke to you, saying the opposite of what you thought you'd hear fall from her lips.

You were shocked, staring at her with the biggest eyes she'd ever seen before.

"You want the truth? Now you know. I'm falling in love with you, alright? And I know you don't feel the same. I get it."

"But you don't." You said and watched her head lift slowly, her eyes now locked with yours instead of the string of her shorts and her painted yellow nails.

"You obviously don't know how I feel, considering I've been holding myself back from saying those exact words for the last few days now."

She chuckled in disbelief and looked down at the mattress, her gaze falling to your hand. She looked back up at you, slowly inching her fingers closer and closer to yours as she stared at you with soft eyes until she intertwined them together.

"I'm in love with you, Yeji."

You watched her sigh in relief before she pressed her lips onto your cheek for a soft kiss.

"You missed." You teased and slowly leaned in to steal a real kiss from her lips; one so soft, one so full of love that it took your breath away.

She laid down and pulled you into her arms, holding you as close as she possibly could as her heart began to beat wildly against your chest. Her eyes full of stars, her hands holding yours tightly.

"I'm sorry for everything." She whispered, only for you to quickly shake your head and silence her apologies with a sweet kiss.

"Can we just," you paused, wiggling your fingers out of hers to cup her cheek with one hand and caress her soft shoulder with the other. "put everything behind us? Because I think I might actually really love being married if it's you that I get to spend my life with."

She smiled brightly at you before slowly nodding her head.

"I'd actually really love that."

She leaned in to kiss you again, just as soft and sweet as the ones you gave her before. Only this time, she rolled you onto your back to hover over you and let her fingers brush along your thigh.

"I can't wait to spend the rest of my life falling deeper and deeper in love with you every day." She said, pulling you a little closer as you shared all the kisses you've both been dreaming of sharing all this time.