The breath he inhaled was cold. Maru opened his eyes and looked for his phone with his hand. It was 8 a.m. He had turned off the alarm that was set to ring at 6 every morning. Gaeul had very sensitive ears, so she tended to open her eyes after a single beep. She was always stubborn about following him out to jog even if she was tired. She said that she liked running with him. While breathing the fresh early morning air while exercising together was definitely tempting, what she needed today was not getting her heart rate up and sweating, but sleeping without a care in the world. Today was one of the rare days when she could sleep in after all.

He slowly put down the duvet so that Gaeul didn’t wake up. When he sat up, he saw that she had flung away the duvet and was lying on her side. It was one of her sleeping habits. Even during the winter, she would often leave half of her body out in the open and end up sniffling in the morning. He grabbed the duvet and covered her. She seemed to like the warmth of the duvet as she curled up and buried her face in the duvet.

He pulled the blind curtains tight to block off all the light before leaving the room. He opened the refrigerator and drank a sip of cold green tea before opening the cupboard to take out the dog food he had portioned out into a plastic bowl....