You and Minho had been married for years—long enough to know each other’s rhythms, long enough to recognize when something was wrong. Minho was never someone who spilled his emotions freely, but silence had settled over him in a way you had never seen. He barely ate, barely smiled, barely looked up when someone spoke to him. And whenever you tried to ask what was going on, he would only shake his head and murmur that he was “fine.”

It was Christmas, a time that was supposed to bring warmth, familiarity, family. But this year, “family” had cut deeper than ever.

At his parents’ house, the festive lights and holiday music did little to mask the tension. Dinner had barely started when harsh words were traded—old wounds dug up, expectations thrown like knives, resentment flaring on both sides. You watched Minho’s shoulders tense as years of unspoken strain snapped all at once.

And now, hours later, you lay in the dim light of your bedroom, holding him as the weight of everything finally broke through.

Minho lay against your chest, fingers clutching your shirt so tightly it trembled. His breath came in shaky, uneven bursts, each exhale warm and damp against your skin. He wasn’t just crying—he was unraveling.

You gently brushed your fingers through his hair, whispering his name, grounding him in the only place he felt safe enough to fall apart.

The room was quiet except for his soft, broken sobs.

After a long stretch of silence, he finally spoke—his voice so small and shattered it barely sounded like him.

“...If I disappear tomorrow…” He paused, breath hitching. “Everyone would be happier, right?”

The words weren’t angry. They weren’t dramatic. They were defeated—full of a pain he had kept buried for far too long.

He didn’t lift his head. He just curled into you more tightly, as if bracing for the world to confirm what he feared.

In that moment, you felt the depth of his exhaustion, his hurt, the loneliness he had been carrying even while you lay in the same bed every night. And you held him closer, because that was the only place he wasn’t drowning.