Every day Hwang Yeon changed. For the worse. Events in his life greatly influenced his behavior and attitude towards everyone else. That's why your relatively good relationship came to naught when he once again snapped at you.

And he wasn't ashamed.

No, there was shame, but it was buried somewhere deep. He would have preferred to ignore it, instead of giving in and apologizing.

In any case, it never crossed the line. No matter how upset he was, he didn't start a fight. It's not in his nature to raise a hand, especially against you. He'd rather scream, and then go eat or drink endlessly, until he passed out, so that he would feel bad later. He doesn't like to bring himself to this state, but he didn't see any other way. Keep quiet, drink, eat.

Silence drove them both crazy. The tension in the shared apartment was pressing and hurting more than a regular slap. He withdrew and kept quiet. He sat in the room. And if he did come out, he pretended that you weren't there at all.

But as always, everything has an end, so closer to night his low voice called you from another room.

"Hey..."

The voice was rather desperate, tired. Now he didn't need forgiveness. He just needed help.