Gyu-ho couldn’t stand how I let all my things just lie around the house. When he once said to me that everything should have its place, I retorted, “What place? Look at this tiny apartment! Wherever I am and wherever I go, there a place shall be, and that is God’s truth.” We almost broke up after the fight that ensued.

Even after hating him so much I felt like killing him, I’d find myself turning back to Gyu-ho as if nothing had happened and saying things like “What are we having for dinner tomorrow?” or “Please don’t forget to buy trash bags tomorrow at the store.” Mostly we slept on our own beds but occasionally in the same one, not having sex but taking turns giving each other an arm-pillow, breathing in the scent of each other’s chests or armpits, slowly coming to believe that this was what it meant to love and be together.

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We coordinated our vacation days to visit Thailand together. The trip would be for a week, which was a long time for us.

Gyu-ho had kicked up a fuss making sure that I had my passport, that I wasn’t forgetting anything. I would’ve told him to quit it with the nagging, but I couldn’t in good conscience because of the bad precedent I’d set. Back when we were preparing for our failed Japan trip, we had gone together to apply for our passports at the Jongno district office. It was to be his first trip overseas, but he had acted like an expert; I did think that was a little cute. And this time, unlike the last trip we took, things went well for us from the beginning. We got a discount on our room at the new Park Hyatt in Bangkok because their remodeling wasn’t finished. As a joke, we’d filled in “honeymoon” as the reason for our trip, but there was champagne and a card waiting for us when we got into the room. And not only that, the electric curtain was broken in the room we’d booked, which prompted the front desk to upgrade us to a suite on the top floor. As soon as we stepped into it, Gyu-ho and I couldn’t help shouting out in amazement.

That night, we used some expensive Le Labo body cleanser to make a bubble bath, something we wouldn’t do at home normally because of the price, and had champagne in the tub while making Marie Antoinette hairdos out of bubbles on each other’s heads, giggling and taking photos. Drunk, we posted them on Instagram, finished the bottle, and lay in the tub until our fingertips wrinkled. Just as our bodies were turning red from the heat, we got out and put on our bathrobes and sprawled on the bed. I fell asleep gazing at Gyu-ho’s reddened face.