Genre: Suspense/Thriller

⚠️Trigger Warnings:

Descriptive visuals of:

🔹A Psychotic Partner

🔹Psychotic Violence

🔹Blood

🔹Strong Language.

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❝ Love is friendship that has caught fire❞
- Unknown, Source: Google

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Introduction

There are some things in life that we cannot choose. Like family, for instance, is not chosen, it is bestowed upon us. But what about a relationship of the heart? Can't that be chosen?

Well, the simplest answer is... No. So, what happens when you choose who you want to love?

Does this work?

Perhaps if you persuade or force someone to love you?

Still a firm no.

You're probably wondering, why is this guy asking such philosophical questions?

Well... Hehehe... Uh... I think it's safer if I just showed it to you...

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▶️ Play

Friday, 13th April...

Two years ago ...

"Jungkook, sweetheart, where are you?" Came a syrupy-sweet, breathy voice from behind me. It was almost like a hiss.

'Oh no... Not this again.' I thought to my self.

I'd fallen asleep on the single-seater couch while watching the game. It had been an exhausting week at the office... We had tight deadlines to meet and the boss was persistent about quality.
Finally happy with the project, he had let us go earlier today. Most of my colleagues were off to the local pubs but I'd decided it was best to come straight home from work and turned on the television. I knew that my team was playing. I felt safer watching at home. That way, if I dozed off, I knew I was at home.

I loved football.

It was captivating. My team was playing well. We had 57% ball possession, which meant we had a higher chance of winning the match. If we won this game, we'd be on top of the log and we'd also win the Premier League.

I felt my eye lids droop heavily with sleep. I must have dozed off for about fifteen minutes or so, at most. But, for some reason, it had bothered her.

My wife.

The woman I'd chosen to marry.

I had chosen to love her and marry her. But, I guess now I know that you cannot choose these things.

It either happens on its own, or you end up like me.

The woman was obsessed with me. And not in a cute, adorable wifely way. It was beginning to get really creepy.

"Jungkook?" She asked more incessantly, which stirred me from my peaceful nap.

"Huh? Yes, Veronica?" I blinked the sleep away a few times. Who was I kidding? There was no peace with this woman.

"We have been married for six years now. You're at work the entire week and sometimes you even have business trips. As if that isn't bad enough, on weekends, all you do is sit there in front of that television like an ape. Let's go out?" She rambled, although her pitch and tone had rose with anger as she mentioned my exhaustion so casually and fell back into that sickly sweet, incessant tone once more when she asked me to take her out.

I blinked again a couple of times trying my best to process what she was trying to communicate.

... ⏸️ Pause ⏸️ ...

Did she have severe anger issues?

Well, I'm not so sure anymore.

Were the signs always there?

Yes, I suppose they were, but I was too blinded by my own obsession to have a wife, a house, a car and a family by the age of thirty-five.

Did I achieve my goals?

Well, no. I got the wife and the car. And I'm not too keen to have any children anymore. Besides, I'm only 34.

Will I get the house and family? I guess you'll have to just wait and see...

Because I waited a long time for that answer too... Six years of marriage with this woman had taught me patience on a level beyond man's understanding.

... ▶️ Play ▶️ ...

"Darling," I began, smiling as I turned my head to face her. "I'm exh-"

"Exhausted. I know." She snapped. Her eyes were narrowed at me.

Uh-oh...

I tried again. This time I was a little more friendlier in my approach.

"Let me rest a bit. I'll be with you as soon as I get up." I gently assured her, feeling a little bad about the lack of time we spent together.

But the reality of it was that whenever we did spend time together, she was always so up in my face. It quickly became stifling and I didn't appreciate the awkward stares we received at restaurants when she insisted on feeding me every single morsel of the food and every last crumb of the dessert we ordered.

The harsh whispers around us hadn't seemed to bother her either. And my colleagues looked at me apprehensively the few times I did bring my wife along for a work event. The woman was just psychotic.

If I tried to reciprocate the romance, she didn't always like it. And as the years had passed, I began to feel like I'd married my mother... Some people even asked me if I took my mother out often.

Others thought I'd married someone older than me. They believed she was my noona... (Cringey, I know).

Slowly, over time, I had lost any hope with romance. But I didn't want to leave Veronica for no good reason. There were things she could use to threaten me.

And I didn't want her to hurt Soo-Ah.

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And this just gets more complicated...

After about four years of this nightmare in hell, I met Soo-Ah. No before you go ahead and judge me, Soo-Ah isn't my girlfriend and I am not cheating on my psychotic wife. (Do you think I'd be alive to tell you this tale if I did?)

Nah... Soo-Ah was just a friend of mine from school. We got along really well and I did consider asking her out a long time ago, but feared that I might ruin our friendship.

She never married, claiming that her career in education was more important than a husband and children. Which I agreed with. She is a level-headed intelligent and independent woman. And I admired that about her.

Veronica, on the other hand, immediately hopped on board with the marriage topic (something I should have seen as a red flag!) She didn't want to work but had a basic 9 to 5 job and gossiped away with her colleagues about anything and everyone.

Her idea of a marriage was going out all the time (and treating me like a child by feeding me - which naïve me had thought was romantic at first). Veronica also thought that marriage was about buying expensive things and showing off.

Thus the reason we did not buy a house. She wasted a lot of money on pointless fads and trends that faded away in a couple of months.

When she wasn't looking, I used to either return the items or resell them... (Feigning ignorance whenever she looked for something that wasn't used for more than a year.)

A man's got to do what a man's got to do.

She also didn't know how to do anything properly - be it taking care of me with regards to being a wife (you know...) or even when it came to taking care of pets or children.

I realised this when we had my nephew Ji-Hoon over once. Taehyung hyung and his wife Hye-Jin were on a short holiday and needed someone to babysit Ji-Hoon for a week.

The poor child was almost traumatized by the end of the first day. It was lucky that I had realised this sooner, rather than later.

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Late that night, April 13th...

I eventually steeled myself to take Veronica out for the evening. We watched a movie and ended up eating at a fancy restaurant (because she insisted).

But to my surprise, Soo-Ah was there too. With my friend Jimin. They were meeting for business, but Veronica insisted that Soo-Ah was following us.

My wife glared at my friends and threw me a seething look of pure poison.

"I didn't expect to see her here." She spat when we had taken our seats on the other side of the restaurant. (She'd insisted on staying, but wanted a seat as far away from my friends as possible.)

My heart sank a little.

"I didn't know they were here, my dear. Besides, I hoped that, after six years of marriage, you would have gotten over your dislike for my friends." I explained.

But Veronica gave me a distasteful look, clenching her jaws tightly.

Because Veronica didn't just hate Soo-Ah. She hated Jimin too. Jimin and a few of my other friends had seen how Veronica behaved and tried to warn me. But every time they did, her behaviour changed back to the façade she had put on for me. (And sometimes, they'd find that their tyres would be slashed in the parking lot of the restaurant or cinema.)

At first, we all weren't sure who had done those things. Until, we caught some footage of her slashing Jimin's car tyres on camera. The video had sound as well and I was embarrassed at what she was screeching. Because by then, she was already my wife.

Fear coursed through my veins, curdling it. It had taken every last fibre of bravery and courage within me to go back home with her.

It wasn't easy and Jimin was really understanding about it too. He even refused to take the money, so I paid for new tyres and sent it to his house as an apology.

A few weeks after that incident (still shaking in my skin) I casually broached the topic with her. She immediately dismissed even going anywhere close to Jimin's car (though she was a little too thorough in describing his vehicle).

The next victim was Taehyung's child...

When Ji-Hoon had stayed over, Veronica almost lost her mind (despite happily agreeing to take him in that morning). The poor child was innocently lying asleep on the couch when I walked into the living room, just in time to save him from her psychotic attack.

She wanted to carry him out in a cardboard box and leave him back at his parent's house. I stopped her just in time, taking the box gently out of her hands and coaxing her with a bottle of white wine.

As soon as she'd had her second glass and dosed off, I carried the little one back to my car and drove him to Soo-Ah's home. I didn't have to say much, because by now, Soo-Ah had known my plight.

"I'm sorry you're going through this Jungkook. I really am. I wish things didn't have to be this way. But Veronica had threatened to kill my entire family if I agreed to marry you." She confessed. I had seen tears in her eyes for the first time ever.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner Soo-Ah? I could have avoided all of this?" I gawked at her choice.

"Because, Jungkook..." She cried, her eyes pleading with me. "If I did, she threated to kill you too."

My heart had sank completely at these words. And I realised that I never truly loved Veronica. I'd married her out of convenience. She wanted to get married and Soo-Ah didn't want to get married (though I didn't know that her family was threatened if she did say yes to me).

Soo-Ah had sacrificed so much for me.

Because it was common knowledge that our parents had wanted us to be married before we turned 29.

But somehow, I'd met Veronica by then and things had changed drastically. It all made sense now.

It was then that I began to distance myself from her as gently and subtly as I could.

I began working extra hours at the office, volunteering to take on long-distance trips either alone or with a willing colleague. (Many of the people at the office knew about my psychotic wife by now.)

Life wasn't easy for me.

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Back at the restaurant

"I don't care if you knew or not. But it would certainly explain why you suddenly changed your mind to take me out!" She snarled.

What?!

"Where is this coming from?" I asked her, feeling hurt.

"Psshht. Don't act innocent. Don't think I wouldn't find out that you've been visiting Soo-Ah recently. I wonder why." She added to her accusation dryly.

I didn't say anything to her. It was pointless.

Deciding that I was done with her behaviour, I rose from my seat to pay for the bill and leave.

"Oh... Going to see her now are you?" She spat jealousy at me.

But I ignored her. I was directed to pay at the reception desk by the manager, since I was in a hurry to leave, and walked off, out through the front entrance of the restaurant.

But Veronica wasn't having this distance between us...

... ⏸️ Pause ⏸️ ...

Did I do something wrong?

Perhaps, I shouldn't have left her at the restaurant... But I needed some time away from her nagging to think straight.

Since we'd started dating, it's been nothing but "Jungkook this and Jungkook that... Nag ... Nag... Nag..."

Did I expect her to do what she did after I left her?

Also no...

... ▶️ Play ▶️ ...

I'd made the grave mistake of leaving my psychotic wife alone at the restaurant - where my friends were.

About fifteen minutes after I'd walked out of the restaurant, I received a panicked call from Jimin, urgining me to come to the restaurant as soon as I could. Jimin sounded panicked. Almost as if he'd lost his mind.

He only behaved that way when there was...

No.

God no.

Please?

I got back to the restaurant to find that it had been evacuated in a matter of twenty minites.

Because there was something wrong with the main entrance area.

There was...

Blood...

And lots of it.

Soo-Ah! I panicked.

I wouldn't forgive myself if something had happened to her here.

But instead of Soo-Ah, I had found Veronica's body lying on the ground.

Blood oozed out of her chest cavity, and her neck. It soaked through the dress she was wearing and formed a pool around her on the floor. The restaurant staff had her lying face down when I got there.

"We're so sorry Jungkook." Jimin consoled me, a hand on my shoulder.

But, I was frozen to the spot. I felt odd. I felt unlike a man should be feeling when he saw his wife's corpse lying before him.

I felt free.

Soo-Ah was crying in a corner, all by herself. I could hear her, but barely registered anything she was saying. Her hands, face and white shirt were splattered with blood.

The entire restaurant smelled like iron - a sickly smell that began to make me feel nauseated.

I didn't say much to anyone except the staff to offered me assistance.

Ofcourse, the police were called in. And I was taken to the station to be questioned. Everything was happening so fast.

My wife was dead.

That made me a- It made me a widower...

At 34 I became a widower. My wife was dead.

But... HOW? WHY?

Yes, I wasn't in love with her anymore, I felt distanced from her, astranged even. But I'd never kill her, nor would I hire anyone to do so.

The police had kept me in for questioning for almost a day. Jimin and Soo-Ah were key witnesses as well as the restaurant manager and some of the staff that had interacted with us.

After almost 15 hours and two lie detector tests later, the police had finally realise that the three of us really didn't have anything to do with Veronica's death.

Apparently, Veronica had ordered some shooters after I'd left and within seconds, she finished them all then stalked over to Jimin and Soo-Ah who were innocently having their own private conversation.

My wife had walked up to them, picked up Jimin's steak knife and killed herself in front of them. She didn't say anything, except: "This way, I win."

This had sent poor Soo-Ah into a fit of incontrollable tears. Later, I learned of the conversation that Veronica had with Soo-Ah the day before our wedding. My head wife was the one who had found me... She forced herself into my life because she didn't want her cousin, Soo-Ah, to marry me. It was a power struggle in their family - because I am a popular criminal lawyer and it was a political move.

It didn't make sense to me.

Soo-Ah and I decided to marry each other... And then all of a sudden she didn't want to anymore and I'd met Veronica.

Sigh...

I opened my phone to find the last text my wife would even leave me:

Veronica: Jungkook, I'll be yours forever.

My heart almost stopped.

Perhaps she did love me, but just didn't know where to draw the line. Or perhaps it was pure obsession, an obsession to have what her cousin and I had.

An obsession to replace her cousin.

I couldn't get my head around it. And I didn't want to.

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After the funeral

Soo-Ah and I sat on a bench outside the crematorium while I waited for my wife's ashes. We talked for a long time.

And then everything made sense...

Why she withdrew from our marriage.

Why Veronica had magically popped up in my life.

And why her parting words to Soo-Ah were: "This way, I win."

Veronica was obsessed with me from the beginning. She didn't just threaten Soo-Ah. She'd held her at a hostage. Both financially and physically - Soo-Ah's little brother was kidnapped (and almost killed).

Veronica also threatened my friends Jimin and Taehyung... So they couldn't tell me.

Though they did drop a lot of hints - which made sense as the years went by.

I was so foolish.

Thankfully, none of my friends were physically harmed. Thankfully, everyone was alright.

Except Veronica.

I'd never expected her to commit suicide. Not like that. Not ever.

If only she actually spoke to me rather than made everything about material objects and feeding me...

If only.

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Two years later

After a year of mourning and processing our thoughts, Soo-Ah and I decided to try our relationship again. This time, we kept it to ourselves. We were now dating for a full year.

"Happy Anniversary Jagiya." I smiled at her. We were at the beach together, relaxing in the sand.

After that day... We both swore to never set foot in a restaurant again.

"Happy Anniversary Yeobo." She said, and kissed my lips.

I had finally found everything I've ever been looking for.

Right here with Soo-Ah.

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----- The end -----

A/n: Uh... Two things.

One. I am so sorry for this horrible story.

Two. Thank you for reading anyway if you have reached this portion of the page.

🧁🍰🍮🍡💟🕉️☸️☮️☪️✝️🕎💟

Just thought maybe you'd want some reassurance after the story.

And I did begin writing the first draft at midnight 🫣