✶ nana!

Not the phone call. Not the police station. Not the funeral with no body, no ashes, no proof, just a framed school photo on a wooden stand and a line of white chrysanthemums wilting beneath fluorescent lights.

It was the morning before all of it, the stupid, normal, careless morning I kept returning to like a loose tooth I couldn’t stop worrying with my tongue. The kind of morning no one respects because nothing in it announces itself as the last. The sky had been pale and thin, the kind of washed-out blue that made the apartment buildings look flat and tired. My uniform collar had been crooked. I remembered that because Kyung-jun had noticed it before I did, had clicked his tongue like I was personally embarrassing him, and reached over to fix it with fingers that were too rough for something so small.

“You go out looking like this?” he’d said, like he was disgusted, like his ears weren’t turning red because we were standing close enough for me to smell the mint gum on his breath.

I’d swatted his hand away even though he was already done. “You always act like you’re my stylist.”

“Someone has to. You dress like you lost a fight with your closet.”

“You dress like you bully mirrors.” He had laughed then, sudden and loud, head tipping back a little, sharp teeth flashing under the weak morning light. Kyung-jun always laughed like he expected the world to flinch from it. Like joy, for him, was another kind of threat.

Then he had walked backward down the sidewalk, hands shoved into his pockets, his schoolbag hanging off one shoulder, too big and too broad and too careless for the narrow street. He had smirked at me when I told him to hurry up before he was late.

“You worried about me?”

“No. I’m worried your teachers might finally realize you’re a lost cause.”

“Liar,” he’d said, pointing at me like he’d caught me doing something embarrassing. “You’re obsessed with me.”

I’d rolled my eyes. He’d grinned wider. And then he’d turned around. That was it. That was the last clean thing. The last version of him I had before the world split open.

By lunchtime, he wasn’t answering my texts. By the end of school, his phone went straight to voicemail. I told myself he was being annoying. I told myself he was probably sleeping through class, probably fighting with someone, probably doing that thing where he saw messages and decided responding too fast made him look pathetic, as if I didn’t already know exactly how pathetic he could be when no one else was watching. I sent him a voice message calling him an asshole. I sent three question marks. I called once, twice, five times, then stared at the screen until the letters of his name blurred into a dark little wound.

The call from his grandmother came at 7:42 p.m.

I remembered the time because I spent months staring at it in my call history until the phone replaced it with a date, and then I stared at that too, as if time itself had done something wrong by moving.

When I answered, her voice was not a voice at first. It was breath. A broken, shallow sound, like she’d been running though I knew her knees hurt too much for running, like she was holding the phone with both hands and still couldn’t keep it steady.

“Halmeoni?” I said, already standing. She said my name once. Just once. And everything inside me went quiet.

There are certain kinds of fear the body understands before the mind does. My hand tightened around the phone until the edges dug into my palm. I could hear the television playing in the living room behind me, some variety show with canned laughter bursting too brightly through the walls. Outside, someone’s scooter whined past the building. Somewhere, a dog barked and barked, sharp and ordinary, furious at nothing.

“What happened?” I asked.

She tried to answer. I heard her inhale. I heard the wet, trembling catch of her mouth opening and closing around words that would not come out right.

“Kyung-jun,” she said. My heart kicked once, hard enough to hurt.

“What about him?”

“He’s gone.”

For one stupid second, I thought she meant he had left the house. I thought she meant he had stormed out after an argument, that he had been rude, that he had slammed a door, that he had done what he always did when something pressed too close to the soft places he kept hidden. I almost felt relief. I almost said, I’ll call him. I almost said, He’ll come back.

Then she said, “His whole class.”

My fingers slipped on the phone. “What?”

“They’re gone. All of them,” she whispered, and then the whisper broke, and suddenly she sounded very old. Older than she had that morning. Older than she had ever sounded pouring me tea, scolding Kyung-jun for eating too fast, pretending not to notice when he sat too close to me at the table and stole fish from my bowl. “The school called. The police are there. No one knows—no one knows where they are.”

I do not remember getting my shoes on.

I remember the floor tilting. I remember my bedroom doorframe under my hand. I remember saying his name, not to her, not really, but into the apartment, into the air, into whatever part of the world had swallowed him. I remember my mother asking what was wrong from the kitchen and the way I could not look at her because looking at another living person would make it real. I remember my throat closing so tightly that my first sob came out silent, my whole chest convulsing around nothing.

Then sound returned all at once.

“No,” I said, and it was ugly. Small. Childish. “No, no, no, no, no.”

His grandmother was crying. I had heard her cry once before, softly, when Kyung-jun got into a fight so bad he came home with his cheek split and blood dried black beneath his nose. She’d cried in the kitchen where he couldn’t see, wiping her eyes with the back of her wrist before turning around and yelling at him for being an idiot. That cry had been tired. Worried. Human.

This was different.

This was an animal sound trapped in an old woman’s body.

“I’m coming,” I said.

I don’t know how I got there so fast. I must have run the whole way because my lungs burned by the time I reached the building, and my legs felt strange under me, too light and too weak, like they belonged to someone who had already fallen. His grandmother opened the door before I knocked. Her hair was loose from its usual careful bun. One side of her cardigan had been buttoned wrong. She looked at me, and whatever strength she had been using to stay upright simply left her.

I caught her before she hit the floor.

For a moment we stood there in the doorway holding each other like two people caught in the same wave, her hands clutching the back of my hoodie, my face pressed into the powdery smell of her shoulder. She was crying into my hair. I was crying into her cardigan. Neither of us said his name, because his name had become a door we could not open without falling through.

Inside, the apartment looked exactly the same.

That was cruel too.

His shoes were still by the entrance, kicked sideways because he never put anything away properly unless his grandmother threatened to hit him with a slipper. His jacket hung on the back of the chair. A half-empty bottle of banana milk sat on the table, the straw still punched through the silver top. His grandmother had made stew. I could smell it on the stove, warm and rich and untouched, the scent filling the little apartment like an insult.

“What did they say?” I asked, wiping my face with my sleeve because my hands were shaking too badly to do it properly.

She told me what she knew. It was almost nothing.

The class had left school. The school said there had been a planned activity, but no one could confirm the location. The bus driver had been found unconscious at a rest stop with no memory after a certain point. Phones were dead. The GPS data stopped at the same time for everyone. No ransom. No accident reports. No bodies. No wreckage. Just an entire class folded out of the world like someone had taken scissors to the day and cut them cleanly from it.

His grandmother kept repeating, “He would have called me.”

And I kept saying, “I know.”

Because he would have.

He was careless with teachers and cruel with classmates and loud enough to make strangers turn around in restaurants, but he called his grandmother if he was going to be late. Not always politely. Sometimes it was just, “I’m not dead, stop nagging,” before hanging up. But he called.

He would have called me too.

Even if it was only to be annoying. Even if it was only to send a voice message saying, “Yah, why are you blowing up my phone like a psycho?” Even if he pretended not to like it. Even if he made me want to throw my phone at a wall.

He would have answered.

After a while, I went to his room.

His door creaked the same way it always did. His grandmother kept telling him to fix it, and he kept saying he would, and then he never did because Kyung-jun lived as if every tiny responsibility was a personal attack. The room smelled like him. Laundry detergent and cheap cologne and something warm beneath it, sweat and skin and the ghost of him pressed into the sheets. His desk was messy. Textbooks open and abandoned. A pen without its cap. A receipt from a convenience store crumpled beside his keyboard. His bed was unmade, blanket twisted from the morning, pillow dented where his head had been.

I stood there staring at it until the room blurred.

Then I crawled onto his bed and broke.

Not prettily. Not the kind of crying that belongs in dramas, with tears shining silently under soft lighting. I cried like my body was trying to reject the truth before it could settle inside me. My mouth opened around sounds I could not control. My fingers twisted in his blanket until the fabric burned my knuckles. I pressed my face into his pillow and breathed him in so hard it hurt, as if there might be enough left of him in the cotton to keep him real. As if he was hiding in the smell of his own bed. As if grief was a thing I could outsmart by refusing to lift my head.

At some point his grandmother came in. She did not tell me to stop. She sat on the edge of the mattress and touched my hair with trembling fingers.

“He loves you,” she whispered. I squeezed my eyes shut.

“He’s coming back,” I said into the pillow. The words were muffled. Wet. Desperate enough to humiliate me if anyone else had heard them. His grandmother’s hand stilled.

Then she said, very quietly, “Yes.” But she did not sound like she believed it.

Six months later, the police asked the families to hold funerals.

They did not use the word ask at first. They dressed it up in gentle voices and official phrases, grief counseling language and practical advice, all those careful, padded words adults use when they have run out of answers and want their failure to sound kind. They said the investigation would remain open. They said search efforts would continue if new evidence appeared. They said absence of bodies did not erase hope, but the human mind needed ritual, closure, a place to mourn.

Closure.

I hated that word so much I felt it in my teeth.

The funeral hall smelled like flowers and polished wood and too many people breathing in one room. Every missing student had a framed photograph. Every photo had a black ribbon in the corner. Kyung-jun’s picture was one from school, his tie slightly loose, his expression caught somewhere between bored and irritated. He looked like he might step out of the frame just to complain about how ugly the photo was.

I stood in front of it for a long time.

People moved around me in dark clothes. Mothers collapsed against fathers. Fathers stared at the floor with red eyes and clenched jaws. Someone wailed from the far end of the hall, a raw sound that rose and fell until it became part of the air. The classmates’ younger siblings stood confused and frightened at the edges, dressed in black too big for them, holding white flowers they didn’t know what to do with.

Kyung-jun’s grandmother held my hand so tightly my fingers went numb.

I did not cry at first.

I couldn’t.

I stared at his face until the edges of the photograph sharpened unnaturally, until I could see the tiny strand of hair falling near his eyebrow, the slight curl of his mouth like he was about to say something mean. I kept thinking, he would hate this. He would hate the flowers. He would hate the crying. He would hate people looking at him like he was something sad and finished. He would lean down to me and mutter, “Why does everyone look so ugly when they cry?” and I would hit his arm and he would grin because he got the reaction he wanted.

Someone guided me closer with the incense.

I looked at the portrait.

My knees gave out.

It happened so suddenly that I didn’t feel myself falling until hands caught me under the arms. The sound that came out of me did not feel like mine. It was too loud. Too torn open. It scraped through my throat and filled the funeral hall, and I hated myself for it because Kyung-jun would have teased me, would have called me dramatic, would have said, “Yah, you trying to make my funeral about you?”

And then I cried harder because for one second I heard his voice so clearly I turned my head, looking for him. There was no one there.

After that, time became something I survived rather than lived in.

I graduated.

People said that like it meant something. Like walking across a stage and receiving a paper could close the year behind me. Like the world had not kept moving with a hole in it. I packed my things for university in the city and found one of his hoodies at the back of my closet, black, oversized, the sleeves stretched because he always yanked them over his hands when he was bored. I sat on the floor holding it for almost an hour. It barely smelled like him anymore.

That was the day I understood why people begged ghosts to haunt them.

For a while, I went to his grandmother’s every weekend. Then every other weekend. Then when classes got heavy, once a month. She never blamed me. She said I had to live. She said Kyung-jun would be angry if I didn’t.

“He’d say something awful,” she told me once, pouring tea with hands that had grown thinner. I smiled because she was right.

He would have called me stupid for crying. Then he would have sat beside me and nudged my knee with his until I leaned into him. He never knew what to do with softness when anyone could see it. He acted like tenderness was something embarrassing that happened to other people. But in private, when his room was dim and the city lights cut pale lines across the walls, he would hook a finger through mine and pretend it was nothing. He would rest his chin on top of my head and complain that I was heavy even though he was the one pulling me closer.

A year passed.

Then more.

His case became one of those strange tragedies people talked about in low voices when documentaries needed content. The missing class. The impossible disappearance. The cold case with no bodies and no ransom and no answers. Sometimes people at university brought it up without knowing I had loved one of the boys in the photos. I learned to sit very still when they did. I learned how to hold a pen without breaking it. I learned how to say, “Yeah, I heard about that,” in a voice calm enough to pass as indifference.

But at night, I still checked.

News articles. Police updates. Forums filled with theories so cruel and stupid I wanted to reach through the screen and shake strangers by the throat. I checked unidentified patient lists once. I checked hospitals after disasters. I checked because hope had become ugly inside me, not bright, not pretty, but stubborn and half-starved, dragging itself across every empty day with bloody hands.

I did not believe he was alive in the way happy people believe things. I believed because the alternative was a room I could not enter.

The day I saw him again, it was raining.

Not hard. Just enough to turn the sidewalks dark and make the city smell like wet pavement and exhaust, the kind of cold spring rain that clung to hair and lashes. I had left class early because the lecture hall felt too tight, too full of other people’s bodies and pencil scratches and bright laptop screens. My head hurt. My coat was thin. I stopped outside a convenience store to buy an umbrella I didn’t need, mostly because I wanted something to hold.

The bell above the door chimed when I stepped out. Across the street, an old woman stood beneath the awning of a pharmacy.

For a moment, I noticed only her. Small frame. Gray cardigan. Plastic bag hooked over one wrist. Hair pulled back in a careful bun. My body recognized her before my mind did.

Kyung-jun’s grandmother.

Everything inside me went quiet in that same terrible way it had when she called.

She looked older. Smaller. The rain made the sidewalk shimmer between us, headlights dragging long ribbons of white and red across the wet road. People passed in both directions, umbrellas bobbing like dark flowers. A bus groaned at the curb. Someone laughed behind me, bright and careless.

Then someone stepped out of the pharmacy behind her.

Tall.

Too tall.

Black hair damp at the edges. Shoulders broad under a dark jacket. One hand holding the door, the other wrapped around the strap of a bag like he was still learning how to use his own fingers. His face was thinner than it used to be. Sharper. The lines of it cut deeper, cheekbones more pronounced, jaw tight in a way that looked less like arrogance now and more like something wired beneath the skin. There was a pale mark near his temple. Another at his throat, half-hidden by his collar. His mouth was the same.

That was what destroyed me.

Not the height. Not the shoulders. Not even the eyes.

His mouth.

The same mouth that had smirked at me under the weak morning sun. The same mouth that had called me a liar, a brat, a psycho, pretty when he thought I was asleep and couldn’t hear him. The same mouth I had kissed in stairwells and behind school buildings and once in his grandmother’s kitchen when he was supposed to be taking out the trash.

It opened slightly.

He saw me.

The city stopped making sense.

For a second, neither of us moved.

His grandmother turned, following his stare, and the plastic bag slipped from her hand. Oranges rolled across the wet pavement, bright and absurd, one bumping against the curb and stopping there like the world had chosen that tiny detail to prove it was still real.

Kyung-jun stared at me as if I was the ghost.

His eyes were darker than I remembered. Not in color. In depth. Like something had been carved behind them and left open. The boy I loved used to look at the world like he could beat it into giving him what he wanted. This boy looked at me like he had crawled through hell and found my face at the exit, and now he was afraid that if he blinked, the devil would laugh and take me back.

I stepped off the curb without looking. A car horn screamed. Someone grabbed my sleeve and cursed, but I tore free, because the only thing my body knew was his name. It broke out of me before I reached him, loud enough that people turned.

“Kyung-jun!”

His whole face collapsed.

His jaw trembled once, hard, like he hated it. His eyes went wet so fast it looked painful. He took one step toward me, then another, and then I was running, shoes splashing through shallow puddles, rain needling my face, breath tearing out of my lungs in broken pieces.

He caught me so hard it hurt.

His arms came around me like a lock. One beneath my shoulders, one around my waist, lifting me off the ground with a rough sound punched from his chest. I hit him and held on. My hands clawed at the back of his jacket, bunching the fabric in my fists, searching for proof under layers of cloth and rain and impossible time. He was solid. Warm. Shaking. His hair brushed my cheek. His breath struck the side of my neck, ragged and uneven, and then his face was buried there, pressed so hard against me it felt like he was trying to disappear into my skin.

“You’re here,” I sobbed. His fingers dug into my back. “You’re here, you’re here, you’re here—”

“Shut up,” he said, but the words broke in the middle.

I cried harder.

His body jerked around a breath that was almost a laugh and almost a sob, ugly and strangled and nothing like the boy who used to laugh like a weapon. He set me down but didn’t let me go. His hands came up to my face, rough palms cupping my cheeks, thumbs dragging beneath my eyes as if tears offended him personally. He looked at me with a kind of panic I had never seen on him before, not even in old fights, not even when blood ran from his nose and he grinned through it because losing scared him less than being seen as weak.

Now he looked terrified.

His eyes moved over my face too quickly. Forehead, mouth, jaw, hair, eyes again. Like he was counting pieces. Like he had to make sure time had not taken anything from him. His thumb caught on my lower lip. He swallowed.

“Yah,” he whispered. “Why are you crying so ugly?”

A laugh tore out of me, half-sob, half-hurt.

I hit his chest with both hands.

It should have been harder. I meant for it to be harder. But the second my palms struck him, I felt bone beneath jacket, the unfamiliar sharpness of him, and my hands curled instead. His chest rose under my fingers. He was real. He was breathing. He was looking at me with rain caught in his lashes and tears sliding down his face like he was furious at them for existing.

“You died,” I said, voice splitting. “You died. They had a funeral. I had to stand there and look at your picture. I had to—”

His mouth twisted.

“I didn’t die.”

“You were gone.”

“I know.”

“You were gone.”

“I know.”

His voice snapped on the second one, not at me, not really, but because something inside him could not stand the words either. His hands slid from my face to the back of my head, fingers tangling in my rain-damp hair with no gentleness left. Not hurting. Holding. Possessive in a way that would have made me shove him before, would have made me tell him I wasn’t something he owned.

But his hands were shaking. He pressed his forehead to mine. His breath came hot against my mouth. “I tried,” he said.

The rain kept falling.

“What?”

His eyes shut. For one second, his face changed completely. The street vanished from him. The pharmacy. His grandmother. Me. He was somewhere else. Somewhere bright and cruel and endless.

“I tried to come back,” he said, so quietly I almost missed it under the hiss of tires on wet asphalt. “Every time.”

Every time.

The words dropped between us like something with teeth.

I wanted to ask. I wanted to know. I wanted to peel the truth out of him with my bare hands and also never hear a single word of it. Because whatever had happened to him lived in his face now. It lived in the way he flinched when a car horn blared again. It lived in the way his hands tightened on me when someone brushed past too close. It lived in the hollow under his cheekbones, in the swollen exhaustion around his eyes, in the strange, feral stillness of his shoulders.

Kyung-jun had always been restless. Always moving, tapping, leaning, shoving, laughing, picking fights with the air if no one else volunteered.

Now he was too still.

Like if he moved wrong, something would start over.

His grandmother was crying behind him. Quietly at first, then not quietly at all. I looked over his shoulder and saw her with one hand over her mouth, eyes fixed on us, the abandoned oranges bright around her feet. She looked like someone watching the dead return and not trusting God enough to thank him yet.

Kyung-jun noticed me looking and turned his head slightly.

“Halmeoni,” he muttered, voice rough. “Stop crying. People are staring.” She made a choked sound that might have been a laugh if grief had not ruined it.

“You awful boy,” she sobbed. “You awful, awful boy.”

His mouth trembled.

Then his face hardened like he hated that too, hated being seen, hated that his grandmother’s love could touch him where everyone could watch. He pulled me against his side without asking, one arm clamping around my shoulders, his palm spread wide over my upper arm like he had no intention of letting the city test him. He bent, picked up the bag with his free hand, then snapped at a man who had stopped too obviously nearby.

“What are you looking at?” The man looked away immediately. I almost cried again because that was him. That was my Kyung-jun, cracked down the middle and still somehow capable of being an asshole to strangers.

His grandmother wiped her face with a trembling hand. “We should go home.”

Kyung-jun did not answer right away.

His arm tightened around me.

I felt it before he said anything. The conflict running through him, sharp and silent. Grandmother. Me. Home. Hospital appointments, police questions, recovery, missing years, a life that had apparently returned without asking him if he knew how to live in it. His jaw worked once. His eyes flicked down to me.

I knew that look.

Not exactly. Not anymore. But enough.

He was asking without asking, because asking made him vulnerable and Kyung-jun would rather swallow glass than sound like he needed anything.

“You can come with me,” I said. His grandmother looked at me. Then at him.

Kyung-jun’s face closed too fast. “I didn’t say anything.”

“You never do.” His eyes flashed, and for one second, beneath the trauma, beneath the rain, beneath the impossible years between us, the old irritation sparked alive.

“Still annoying,” he said.

My throat tightened around something almost like a smile.

“Still ugly when you lie.”

His gaze dropped to my mouth.

The air changed.

It was not soft. Nothing about him was soft right then except the way his hand moved from my shoulder to the back of my neck, fingers sliding under my hair, warm against rain-chilled skin. His eyes held there, on my mouth, like he had dreamed of it so often the real thing had become dangerous. Like touching me had already ruined him and kissing me might finish it.

“Kyung-jun, go with Y/N, call me when you want to come home” his grandmother said gently.

He blinked, jaw flexing but nodding. Then he looked back at me.

“You still live in the city?”

I nodded.

“Alone?”

I nodded again.

His expression sharpened immediately. “Of course you do. Stupid.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

“You’ve been missing for two years and you’re already insulting my life choices?”

“You made bad ones while I was gone. Not my fault.”

I stared at him through tears. His mouth twitched. Not a smile. Not quite. More like the ghost of one pressing against a bruise. Then his face crumpled again, so quickly that I barely saw it before he pulled me in and kissed me.

The first touch was not careful. It was desperate enough to frighten both of us.

His mouth found mine with a sound that disappeared into my breath, and for a second there was no street, no rain, no grandmother pretending not to cry while watching us like her heart was being torn apart and stitched back together in the same moment. There was only him. His hand at the back of my neck. His other arm locked around my waist. His mouth hot and trembling against mine, tasting like rain and salt and something ruined. He kissed like someone proving a point to the dead. Like he had argued with the universe for two years and finally gotten his hands on the evidence.

I cried into it.

I couldn’t help it. Tears slipped between our mouths, wetting his upper lip, and he made a low, broken sound that would have embarrassed him if he had been whole enough to care. He pulled back just enough to breathe, forehead still pressed to mine.

“Don’t,” he rasped. I shook my head, unable to stop. “Don’t cry like that,” he said, but his own voice shook so badly the command fell apart. His thumb dragged over my cheek again, rougher now, almost angry. “You think I can handle that right now?”

A laugh scraped out of me. “Sorry my crying is inconvenient for you.”

“Yeah. It is.”

“You’re such an asshole.”

His eyes closed. For the first time, he smiled. Small. Real. Devastating.

“I missed you too.”

My apartment looked different with him inside it.

That was the first thing I noticed when I unlocked the door hours later, after his grandmother made us come back so she could feed him first, after she pressed food on me too with shaking hands and watched Kyung-jun eat like every bite was proof, after police called twice and he ignored the second call until his grandmother slapped his arm and told him not to be rude to detectives. After he packed nothing because he had nothing from before except the clothes he’d come back in and a phone the police had given him that he kept staring at like it belonged to someone else.

He stepped into my place and made it smaller.

He had always done that. Taken up too much space. Filled rooms with shoulders and noise and bad attitude. But now there was a strange caution to him, a pause at the entrance as his eyes moved over everything: the narrow hallway, the shoe rack, the kitchen light I had left on, the stack of textbooks on the table, the blanket folded over the couch. His gaze snagged on ordinary objects like he expected them to change while he wasn’t looking.

I closed the door behind us. The click made him flinch. Only slightly but I saw it.

His head turned fast, eyes cutting to the lock, shoulders rising before he forced them down. The movement was so controlled it hurt worse than if he had jumped. Kyung-jun, who used to slam doors just to make people look at him. Kyung-jun, who used to grin when someone startled. Kyung-jun, who used to fill silence before silence could make him think.

I pretended not to notice.

“You can shower,” I said quietly. “I have towels. Clothes might be—”

“I’m not showering.”

I looked at him. His mouth set. I understood too slowly, then all at once.

He did not want a closed bathroom door between us. He did not want water loud enough to hide sounds. He did not want to be alone in a room with steam on the mirror and no way to see what was coming.

“Okay,” I said.

His eyes narrowed. “Don’t say it like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like you feel bad for me.” I held his stare for a second.

Then I kicked off my shoes and walked past him. “Fine. Stay dirty.”

His brows twitched.

There. A spark.

“Yah.”

“What?”

“You got mean.”

I put my keys on the counter. “You were gone for two years. I had to develop a personality.”

“You already had one. It was bad.”

I turned around.

He was still by the door, hands hanging at his sides, looking too large and too lost for the little entranceway. The overhead light carved shadows beneath his cheekbones. His hair had dried messily, falling over his forehead in dark pieces. Without rain between us, without the shock of the street, the changes in him were harder to ignore. He was thinner than before, stripped down to sharper edges. His wrists looked too bony where his sleeves rode up. There were marks near the inside of one elbow. Medical. Old bruising faded yellow-green under the skin. His lips were dry from biting.

My throat tightened. He saw me looking. Of course he did.

“What?” he snapped.

“Nothing.”

“Liar.” The word landed between us differently than it had that last morning.

You’re worried about me?

No.

Liar.

I looked away first because if I didn’t, I would cry again, and he had already told me he couldn’t handle it. I went to the kitchen and filled a glass of water. My hands felt strange around the cup, clumsy and too careful. Behind me, I heard him move at last. Slow footsteps. Then nothing. When I turned back, he was standing in the middle of the room, staring at the wall near my desk.

At the photo. I had forgotten it was there.

It was small, tucked into the corner of the mirror, half-hidden behind a postcard and an old university schedule. A picture from before. One of the only ones I had printed. Kyung-jun in his school uniform, scowling at the camera because I’d taken it without warning, one hand reaching toward the lens like he was about to snatch my phone. Behind the fake annoyance, there was a smile beginning in his eyes.

He stared at it for so long the glass nearly slipped from my hand.

“That’s ugly,” he said. His voice was flat. I walked over and held the water out. He didn’t take it.

“Take the water.”

“I said it’s ugly.”

“I heard you.”

“Why’d you keep it?” The question was too sharp. Too defensive. He still wasn’t looking at me. I lowered the glass slightly.

Because it was the only thing I had that looked alive, I thought. Because after the funeral, every official photo made you look dead. Because sometimes I woke up and couldn’t remember your voice right away, but I could look at that picture and remember the exact insult you threw at me after I took it. Because forgetting one tiny thing about you felt like killing you myself.

I said none of that.

“You owed me money,” I said instead. His head turned. I shrugged. “I needed evidence.” For half a second, he only stared. Then the sound that came out of him was almost a laugh.

It broke before it could become one. His mouth twisted, his eyes shining too bright again, and he turned away like I had done something unfair by making him feel a normal thing. His hand came up, rubbing roughly over his face.

“Fuck,” he muttered. I stepped closer. He tensed.

I stopped.

The space between us suddenly felt alive. Full of everything we had not been able to say across two years and whatever nightmare had held him. Full of every unanswered call, every birthday he missed, every night I fell asleep with his hoodie twisted in my hands. Full of every time he must have woken inside that game and realized it had started again. Full of the fact that I had mourned him in black while he was somewhere dying in ways I could not imagine.

“What happened?” I asked.

He went very still.

The apartment changed with the question.

The refrigerator hummed. Rain ticked against the window. Somewhere upstairs, a chair scraped across the floor. Ordinary sounds, thin and harmless, gathering around us as if they too were waiting.

Kyung-jun’s hand dropped from his face.

For a while, he said nothing.

Then he walked past me to the couch and sat down heavily, elbows on his knees, head bowed. The posture did not suit him. Kyung-jun sprawled. Kyung-jun took space. Kyung-jun leaned back like the world had been built for his comfort. Seeing him folded forward like that made something cold slide beneath my ribs.

I sat beside him, close enough that our knees touched. He looked at the contact. Then at me. His knee pressed harder into mine.

“We didn’t go to some class trip” he said.

“I know.” His eyes flicked up. “The police said the trip records were fake,” I said. “Or planted. Or something. They never explained it clearly.”

He scoffed. The sound was automatic, bitter. “Of course they didn’t.”

“What happened?” His hands clasped between his knees. His fingers tightened until the knuckles went pale.

“You won’t believe me.”

“Try me.”

His mouth curved, but there was no humor in it. “Always so confident.”

“Kyung-jun.” The way I said his name made him look at me, like the sound of his name in my mouth pulled something in him loose.

His gaze dropped again, this time to my hands. They were folded in my lap, gripping each other too tightly. After a second, he reached over and pried them apart with rough fingers. Not gentle, exactly. Kyung-jun had never been good at gentle in a way that looked clean from the outside. He hooked his hand around mine and held on. Hard.

“There was a game,” he said. The room seemed to tilt. “Some fucking game we used to play in high school. Not like—” He stopped, jaw flexing, and let out a humorless little breath. “Not some phone game. Not a joke. We woke up in a youth center. It looked real. Felt real. People died.”

His thumb dug into the back of my hand.

“They died, there was a winning team, and then it started again.”

I did not move. I barely breathed. He kept staring at our hands as if my fingers were the only reason the room was still here.

“At first we thought… I don’t know what the fuck we thought. We didn't remember we had played it over and over until they pulled us out. Bodies started dropping and everyone started acting like animals, and every time we got close to figuring something out, it reset.” His voice thickened. He swallowed hard. “You die in there, you feel it.”

My stomach turned.

“You died?” His silence answered before he did. He laughed once. It was horrible.

“Many times.”

The air left me. He looked at me then, eyes sharp with something almost angry, like my fear hurt him and he wanted to punish the room for making me show it.

“Don’t look like that.”

“How am I supposed to look?”

“Not like that.”

“Kyung-jun—”

“I’m here, aren’t I?” he snapped. The words cracked through the apartment. I flinched. He saw. His face changed. The anger vanished so quickly it frightened me, leaving something raw and young underneath. He let go of my hand as if he had burned me.

“Shit,” he muttered. “I didn’t—”

“It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not.” His jaw clenched. He stared at the floor. “Don’t say that when it’s not.”

I swallowed.

That sounded like him too. Mean little mouth. Brutal honesty when softness would have been easier. But beneath it, something had shifted. Before, he snapped because he wanted control. Now he snapped because control was all he had left, and even that kept slipping.

I reached for him slowly this time, giving him space to pull away. He watched my hand like it was dangerous. When my fingers touched his wrist, his eyes shut. Just once. Briefly. But the breath that left him shook.

“I thought you were dead,” I whispered. His hand turned under mine, fast, catching my fingers before I could move away.

“I thought you forgot me.” The words were so quiet I almost didn’t understand them. Something inside me tore open all over again.

He looked furious at himself the second they were out, eyes flashing, mouth hardening like he wanted to shove the sentence back down his own throat. But it was too late. It sat between us. Small and naked and bleeding.

“You thought what?”

He stood abruptly.

I startled, looking up as he paced two steps away, then back, then stopped because there wasn’t enough room in my apartment for whatever was moving through him. His hands went to his hair, pushing it back from his face.

“It was two years,” he said. “I don’t know. In there, time was fucked. Sometimes it felt like days. Sometimes forever. Every time it started again, I remembered less at first. Faces got blurry. Voices got—” He cut himself off. His throat worked. “I kept trying to remember yours.”

My eyes burned.

He turned on me suddenly, pointing like he was accusing me of something.

“Your laugh was annoying as hell. That helped.”

A broken sound slipped out of me.

“And your face,” he continued, voice roughening around every word, “because you always looked at me like you wanted to hit me.”

“I usually did.”

“Yeah. I know.” His mouth twitched, then trembled. “I kept thinking, if I forgot that, I’d really die.”

I stood. He watched me, breathing harder now, shoulders rising and falling beneath his jacket. I crossed the little space between us. For once, he did not make a joke. For once, he did not move first.

I reached up and touched his face.

His skin was warm. Real. Slightly rough beneath my palm. A tiny muscle jumped in his jaw. His eyes stayed on mine with a desperation so intense it felt less like looking and more like being held down by it. The old Kyung-jun would have smirked. He would have said something filthy or stupid or mean to cut the tension before it could cut him.

This one only stood there and let me touch him like he needed it more than pride.

“I didn’t forget you,” I said. His lips parted. “I tried,” I whispered, and that hurt him; I saw it land. “Not because I wanted to. Because everyone kept telling me I had to live. They said I had to move on. They said I was young, that you’d want me to be happy.”

His eyes darkened.

“I would not say that.”

I let out a watery laugh. “No. You’d say something awful.”

“I’d say if you got some ugly boyfriend while I was gone, I’d haunt you.”

“There were no boyfriends.” His whole face changed. The relief was so fast, so violent, that he looked away from me as if I had caught him doing something obscene.

I should have teased him.

Before, I would have. I would have laughed and said, What, were you worried? I would have poked at him until he snapped, because that was how we loved each other then, with teeth and stupid little wounds neither of us meant to make deep.

But now I only watched the tendons in his neck shift as he swallowed.

“No one,” I said. His gaze came back slowly. “I couldn’t,” I admitted. “Not when I still—”

The word love hovered at the back of my throat, too bright, too enormous for the small room. Kyung-jun stepped into me before I could finish.

His arms went around me with a force that stole my breath. He bent over me, face pressing into my hair, one hand splayed between my shoulder blades, the other locked low at my waist. He held me like the world had already taken me once and he was not stupid enough to trust it again. His body was shaking. I felt it everywhere we touched. A tremor running beneath muscle and bone, down his arms, through his hands, into me.

“I’m not leaving,” he said. It came out harsh. Almost like a threat. My cheek pressed against his chest. His heart beat too fast under my ear.

“I know.”

“No, you don’t.” His hand tightened. “You don’t. You go to class, I’m going with you. You go buy water, I’m going. You go to the bathroom—”

I pulled back enough to look up at him. “Absolutely not.”

His eyes were wet again, but his mouth curled. “Why? Shy now?”

“You’re insane.”

“Yeah,” he said, and the smile vanished. “Probably.”

The honesty hit harder than any joke.

His gaze moved over my face, slower now, not counting pieces this time but memorizing them. There was hunger in it, yes, but not simple hunger. Not the easy, cocky kind he used to wear when he wanted me to blush. This was deeper. Worse. A need scraped raw by terror. He looked at my mouth like he had imagined it in the dark. Like he had survived on memory until memory wasn’t enough, and now that I was here, breathing in front of him, his body didn’t know how to be anything but starving.

“Kyung-jun,” I whispered.

“What.”

“You need sleep.”

He gave me a look. “Wow. Romantic.”

“You look like you’re about to collapse.”

“I’m fine.” I stared at him. He stared back. Then his jaw tightened. “I said I’m fine.”

The room filled with all the things that sentence could not hide. The dark crescents beneath his eyes. The way he stood too close to me and still looked afraid the distance might grow. The way he kept glancing at the door even though he had checked the lock twice. The way his fingers flexed whenever there was a sound in the hallway.

“You don’t have to be,” I said.

His expression went cold so fast it was almost impressive.

“Don’t start.”

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

“I’m saying you can sleep here.”

“Obviously.”

“On the couch.”

His face offended itself.

“The couch?”

“Yes.”

He looked at the couch, then back at me as if I had personally betrayed him. “After two years, you’re putting me on the couch?”

A laugh burst out of me before I could stop it. His eyes caught on it. The anger in his face fell fast. For a second, he just stared, and the room softened around the edges.

“What?” I asked, wiping under my eye. His mouth pressed into a line.

“Nothing.”

“Liar.” He looked away, but not fast enough. Color had risen faintly along his cheekbones. I touched his sleeve. “What?”

“Your laugh,” he muttered. My chest hurt. He still wouldn’t look at me. “Still annoying,” he added, weaker, voice shaking slightly.

I stepped closer and wrapped my arms around his middle. He let me. More than let me. His body folded around mine almost instantly, chin dropping to the top of my head, hands finding my back again. He exhaled like he had been holding his breath since the street, since the game, since the first time he woke up and realized dying had not freed him.

“We can share the bed,” I said into his shirt. “But only sleeping.”

“Who said I was thinking anything else?” I tilted my head back to look at him. His brows lifted, almost like before. Almost. “What?” he said. “You think I’m some kind of pervert?”

“I think you’re you.”

“Exactly. So, yes.” I shoved his chest. He caught my wrist and pulled it back around him.

“No,” he said. The word was quiet. My breath caught. He looked down at where my hand rested against him, fingers curled in his shirt. “Don’t move away yet.”

There was no joke after it. No smirk. No insult to cover the soft underbelly of the request. So I didn’t move.

I stood there in the middle of my apartment, wrapped around the boy I had buried without a body, feeling his heart slam beneath my palm as if it was trying to make up for every beat I had missed. Outside, the rain kept threading silver down the window. The city moved on unaware, cars passing, people laughing under umbrellas, neon signs bleeding color into puddles. Somewhere in that same city, police reports were being written. Families were being called. A whole class was being returned to a world that had already mourned them and moved their desks and packed away their uniforms.

But inside my apartment, time narrowed to the shape of his hands.

After a while, he let me lead him to the bedroom. He hesitated in the doorway. I felt it through his hand before I saw it. The slight resistance. The way his fingers locked around mine.

“It’s just my room,” I said.

His eyes swept over the bed, the window, the closet, the lamp, every shadowed corner. “I know.”

“You can leave the door open.”

His mouth tightened. “I’m not scared.”

“I didn’t say you were.”

“I’m not.”

“I know.”

He glared at me, but it was ruined by exhaustion. “Stop agreeing with me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like I’m some injured dog you found in an alley.” My eyes moved over him before I could stop them. The bruises. The scars. The hollowed exhaustion. The boy still standing because falling would mean trusting the floor. His gaze sharpened.

“Don’t,” he warned.

I looked back at his face. “Okay.”

He waited, suspicious. I squeezed his hand once and turned down the blanket. He watched like the bed might bite. Then, very suddenly, he said, “I want to marry you.”

My hands froze on the blanket. The silence afterward was enormous. I turned around slowly.

Kyung-jun stood in the doorway with his shoulders tense and his chin lifted, defensive already, like he had thrown a punch and was waiting for one back. His face was serious in a way that made my stomach drop. No teasing curve to his mouth. No theatrical arrogance. Just those dark, damaged eyes fixed on me with too much certainty for the soft yellow light of my bedroom.

“What?” I whispered.

“I said I want to marry you.” My heart lurched so hard it was almost pain.

“You just came back from being kidnapped and tortured.”

“Yeah. I noticed.”

“Kyung-jun.”

“What?” His voice rose, sharp with embarrassment now, with fear disguised badly as irritation. “You want me to wait? For what? So some counselor can tell me my feelings are a trauma response? So people can say I’m unstable? I already know I’m fucked up. Congratulations. Still want to marry you.”

I stared at him.

He rubbed a hand over his mouth, angry at himself, at me, at the room, at whatever had made the words come out before he could dress them in cruelty.

“I’m not saying tomorrow,” he muttered.

“That’s surprisingly reasonable.”

His eyes flashed. “Don’t make fun of me.”

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

I looked down at the floor, my vision blurring, my heart thumping so loud I'm surprised he hasn't complained about it yet. “I’m just...trying not to cry.” That shut him up. His face shifted again, the anger breaking at the edges.

I stepped toward him carefully. He did not step back. When I reached him, I touched the front of his jacket, smoothing nothing, fixing nothing, just laying my hands there because I could. Because once, for two years, I had only been able to touch cotton that no longer smelled like him.

“You can want that,” I said. His throat moved. “Cause I want it too. But you also need to heal.” His expression hardened. I held his jacket tighter before he could pull away. “And I’m not saying that because I don’t want you. I’m saying it because I do. I want you alive. Actually alive. Not just back.”

The words hit him somewhere deep. His eyes lowered. For a long moment, he said nothing. Then, in a voice so low I felt it more than heard it, he said, “I don’t know how.” I closed my eyes. There it was.

The thing under everything. Under the jokes. Under the snapping. Under the possessive hands and the marriage demand and the way he kept looking at me like I was the last piece of shore after a shipwreck.

I stepped into him and wrapped my arms around his neck. He bent immediately, face dropping to my shoulder.

“We’ll figure it out,” I whispered.

His laugh was bitter against my skin. “That sounds stupid.”

“Yeah.”

“Like something people say when they don’t know shit.”

“Probably.” His arms tightened around me.

“Say it again.” My eyes burned.

“We’ll figure it out.”

His breath shook. Again, I thought he might say. Again, like a boy asking for one more story before sleep. But he only held me, silent and trembling, until the worst of it passed through him.

When we finally lay down, he didn’t take off his jacket at first. He lay on top of the blanket, stiff as a corpse, eyes open and fixed on the ceiling. I lay beside him in the dim light, listening to the rain soften against the glass. The space between us was only a few inches, but it felt cruel.

“You can come closer,” I said.

“I know.”

He didn’t move.

I turned on my side. His profile was sharp in the dark, lashes lowered but not closed, mouth tense. He looked like he was bracing for something. A vote. A scream. A body hitting the floor. The start of another loop.

I reached out and touched his hand. His fingers closed around mine so fast it hurt.

“Sorry,” he muttered immediately, loosening his grip by force.

“It’s okay.”

He turned his head toward me. “Stop saying that.”

“Then stop apologizing.”

“I didn’t apologize.”

“You literally just did.”

“No, I didn’t.” I smiled despite everything. His gaze dropped to it. The room stilled again.

Slowly, as if sudden movement might shatter whatever fragile thing had survived between us, he turned onto his side. His hand came up, hovering near my face. Waiting. That, more than anything, made my chest ache. Kyung-jun had never hovered. He took, grabbed, pulled, crowded. He tested the world with his hands and dared it to complain.

Now he waited. I leaned into his palm. His breath caught.

There was something unbearable about being touched by him after so long. Not because it was new, but because it was familiar in a way my body had almost convinced itself it invented. The rough pad of his thumb beneath my cheekbone. The warmth of his palm. The faint tremor he could not quite hide. His eyes kept moving over me, over and over, like he was afraid sleep would steal the details.

“I used to think about this,” he said.

My throat tightened. “About my bed?”

“Don’t ruin it.” I almost laughed. He brushed his thumb across my cheek. “About your face. Your voice. Stupid things.” His mouth twisted. “You yelling at me. You pretending you weren’t jealous. You getting mad when I bought you coffee because I said your taste was childish.”

“You said only babies drink sweet coffee.”

“You did drink sweet coffee.”

“I still do.”

He stared at me.

Then, very softly, “Good.”

The word broke me more than it should have.

Because it meant I had stayed real in some tiny way. Because it meant the world had not taken every version of us. Because sweet coffee, crooked collars, ugly crying, stupid insults — they had survived too, buried under horror, waiting for him to come back and be cruel about them.

His hand slid to the back of my neck.

“Come here,” he said. It was not really an order. I moved closer anyway.

He pulled me into him, under the blanket this time, his body curling around mine with desperate heat. He was bigger than I remembered. Or maybe I had made him smaller in grief so I could survive the size of missing him. His chest pressed against my back, knees behind mine, arm locked across my waist. His breath stirred the hair near my ear. The whole bed seemed to hold its breath with us.

For a while, neither of us spoke.

Then, barely audible, he said, “I thought I’d never do this again.” My fingers covered his hand on my stomach. He turned his palm upward and tangled our fingers together.

“I’m here,” I whispered. His forehead pressed to the back of my neck.

“Yeah,” he said. A minute passed. Then another. His breathing did not slow. I knew he was afraid to sleep.

Maybe he knew I knew, because his hand tightened once, warning me not to say it. So I didn’t. I lay there in the dark with his body wrapped around mine and let silence do what words would ruin. The city lights shone through the curtains in thin silver lines. Rainwater tracked down the window like veins. His heart beat against my back, too fast, too alive, and every time it stumbled into a harder rhythm, I squeezed his hand until it steadied.

Sometime, when my eyes began to shut slowly, his mouth brushed the nape of my neck. Not a kiss, not quite. A touch. A check. A prayer he would deny making.

“You better not disappear,” he murmured, voice thick with exhaustion. My eyes filled again. I turned carefully in his arms.

He resisted for half a second, then let me face him. His eyes were half-lidded, dark and ruined and still so painfully him that I could barely stand it. I touched his cheek. He leaned into it before he could stop himself.

“You disappeared first,” I whispered.

His mouth twitched faintly.

“Yeah,” he said. “My bad.” A laugh broke out of me, quiet and wet. His eyes softened. Then he kissed me again. This one was slower.

Not less desperate. Never that. The desperation was still there, threaded through his fingers in my hair, in the way his body shifted closer, in the way he breathed against my mouth like every inhale had to pass through me first. But there was something else under it now. Recognition. Grief. The ache of two people touching across the grave everyone else had already built.

He kissed me like he was tired of dying. Like he was angry he had lost time. Like he loved me so much it had nowhere clean to go, so it came out in trembling hands and bitten-back sounds and his forehead pressed to mine afterward, his eyes shut tight.

By four in the morning, the room has stopped pretending to be night and has not yet become morning.

It is that strange, thin hour where the dark turns gray at the edges, where everything feels suspended and unclaimed, where the city outside my window has gone quiet enough that I can hear the building breathing around us. Pipes knock faintly behind the walls. Rainwater gathers at the window ledge and drops in uneven little taps against the metal frame. Somewhere far below, a car passes through the wet street with a soft hiss, tires dragging through puddles, then fades until there is nothing left but the low electric hum of the refrigerator and Kyung-jun’s breathing beside me.

Not sleeping. He has been lying beside me for hours with his eyes open. I know because I have been awake for all of it.

At first, I pretend not to notice. I lie still beneath the blanket with my hand trapped in his, my fingers numb from how tightly he keeps remembering I am there. Every few minutes, his grip changes. Not loosening exactly. Testing. His thumb presses into my knuckles, then slides over them as if counting. His palm warms mine, then tightens again like something inside him startles awake without warning. Once, when the pipes groan too loudly in the wall, his whole body goes rigid beside me, the muscles in his arm locking so suddenly that my wrist aches. He does not move after. Does not speak. Does not explain. He just stares at the ceiling as if something has written instructions there in the dark.

I watch him through half-lowered lashes.

His face looks worse in the almost-morning. The shadows are gentler, but somehow less forgiving. In the yellow lamp glow, he looked wounded. In this hour, he looks haunted. Like whatever brought him back forgot to return all of him. His hair is messy against my pillow, black strands falling over his forehead, and his eyes keep fixed upward, dry and too dark, the skin beneath them bruised with exhaustion. His mouth is slightly parted. Not soft. Not relaxed. Ready. As if breath itself is something he might need to fight for.

Every now and then, he blinks too fast. Like he is trying not to see something. Or trying not to sleep because sleep is where it waits. I understand it slowly. Not as a thought at first, but as a coldness spreading beneath my ribs. The game had nights.

The dying would not have waited politely for daylight. The fear would not have given them neat hours to survive in. There must have been dark rooms and locked doors and hallways too silent to trust, clocks crawling toward whatever time meant death, classmates whispering and accusing and waiting for the announcement that would ruin someone. There must have been the terrible moment before sleep, when exhaustion became a trap. When closing your eyes meant surrendering the one piece of control you still had. When waking might mean relief, or blood, or another beginning.

And now he is here, in my bed, in my apartment, in a world that insists it is real because the blanket is soft and the rain is wet and my hand is in his.

But if he sleeps—If he wakes up somewhere else—I turn my face into the pillow to hide the way my mouth trembles. Kyung-jun notices anyway. His head shifts on the pillow. His eyes move to me. Immediate.

“What?” he asks. His voice is rough from disuse and too much staying awake. It scrapes through the dark quietly, but the sharp edge of him is still there, stripped down and hoarse.

I shake my head once.

His fingers tighten around mine.

“Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Act like I’m stupid.”

I look at him then.

He is already looking at me so hard it feels like being held under light. The old Kyung-jun would have smirked after saying it. Would have made some cutting little comment, something ugly enough to make me roll my eyes and forget the tenderness underneath. This Kyung-jun only watches me with a kind of brittle intensity, as if my face is a language he has been studying in the dark for two years and he still cannot trust his own translation.

I swallow.

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

“I’m thinking.”

“Dangerous.”

It should be funny. It almost is.

The word comes out faintly, more habit than joke. There is no real bite behind it. He looks too tired to sharpen himself all the way. Too raw to hide under the familiar shape of cruelty. His thumb moves once over my fingers, dragging across the same place again and again until my skin tingles.

I let the silence settle. Then I begin to sit up. It happens fast. Too fast. Before I have even pulled my hand from his, Kyung-jun is upright.

The blanket twists around his waist, his hand clamping around my wrist, not enough to hurt but hard enough to stop me cold. His eyes are wide in the dim room.

Scared. It flashes across him nakedly before he can kill it.

“Where are you going?”

The words are quiet, but there is something terrible under them. A crack. A drop. A boy standing on the edge of losing the room, the bed, the girl beside him, the proof that this has not been another cruel loop designed to let him breathe before choking him again.

I freeze. My heart squeezes so hard my own fear forgets what it was doing.

“I’m not leaving.” His grip does not loosen. I say it again, softer. “I’m not leaving, Kyung-jun.”

His eyes flick over my face, then to the door, then back. His breathing has changed. He is trying to make it quiet, trying to force it down before I can hear how uneven it is, but I can hear it. I can feel it through his hand on my wrist. Each breath comes like it has to push past something lodged in his chest.

“Then where?”

“I want to take a bath.”

He stares.

I wet my lips. “I thought it might help. My nerves feel…” I stop, because the lie is not fully a lie, and that makes it harder to say. My nerves are ruined. My body feels wrung out, hollowed by shock and crying and the impossible weight of having him beside me again. But that is not why I am getting up. “The warm water might help.”

His gaze stays on mine. The room holds still. He knows.

Maybe not exactly. Maybe not the whole small, careful plan forming in my head — the salts under the sink, the big tub I used to love because it made my apartment feel softer than it was, the heat loosening his muscles, the steam making the room warm enough that sleep might creep up on him without feeling like a trap. But he knows there is something gentle in it, and gentleness is the thing that scares him most right now.

His throat moves.

“I’ll come with you.” He says it like he expects me to argue. I don’t. I nod.

Something in his face loosens so slightly I would have missed it if I had not spent two years keeping every piece of him alive in my memory. His fingers slide from my wrist to my hand. He does not apologize this time. Does not pretend he was not afraid. He just holds on and gets out of bed when I do, moving too carefully for someone his size, like the floor might shift if he trusts it too much.

My bedroom feels colder once we leave the blanket behind.

The apartment is dark except for the lamp near the couch and the faint blue wash of city light through the windows. We walk barefoot through the hallway. His hand stays locked around mine. Not romantic in the simple way it used to be when we would walk home after school and he would pretend he was holding my hand only because I was “slow” and “needed supervision.” This is different. His palm is damp. His fingers are cold. Every step he takes beside me feels measured against the possibility of waking somewhere else.

At the bathroom door, he stops. Just for a second. I glance back.

He is looking into the little room with a wariness that makes my chest ache. My bathroom is not frightening. It has never been frightening. It is small but pretty, tiled in soft cream, with a narrow window above the tub and a shelf crowded with bottles I always mean to organize. There is a separate bathtub tucked against the far wall, wide and deep, curved like something made for quiet. I bought eucalyptus salts once because the packaging looked calming and expensive, even though I knew I would probably only use them twice. A little wooden stool sits beside the tub with folded towels stacked on top. A candle I have never lit sits near the sink, dusty around the rim.

It is ordinary. Sweet, even. Kyung-jun looks at it like ordinary things cannot be trusted. I squeeze his hand. He looks down at me. Just those eyes, dark and sleepless, asking something he would rather die than put into words.

“You can keep the door open,” I say. He swallows. Then he shakes his head once.

“No.” The word is barely there. Not because he wants privacy. Because closing the door means choosing to believe nothing waits outside it. Because maybe he is tired of being afraid of doors. I nod and step inside first. He follows.

The bathroom light is too bright when I turn it on, and he flinches before he can stop himself. His jaw tightens immediately, anger rising instinctively to cover the crack, but it dies before reaching his mouth. He lowers his eyes and exhales through his nose, slow and hard.

I don’t say anything. I turn on the bath instead.

The pipes groan, then water spills into the tub, loud at first, rushing and silver under the light. Steam begins to lift almost immediately, softening the mirror, blurring the sharp edges of us. I kneel beside the tub and test the temperature with my fingers, letting the heat bite gently at my skin. Too hot. I adjust the tap. The sound fills the room until there is no need to talk, and maybe that is mercy. Maybe that is why I chose this. Water can cover silence without demanding it be explained.

Kyung-jun stands behind me.

I can feel him there.

Not touching now, but close enough that his shadow falls over my shoulder. When I reach under the sink for the salts, he shifts as if the movement startles him, then stills again. I pour a handful into the water. The crystals disappear in small white swirls, dissolving into the heat, and the faint smell of lavender and something herbal rises with the steam.

I expect him to say something. Lavender? Seriously? Are we old ladies now? Or, What is this rich-person bath nonsense? Or, You always buy useless stuff. He says nothing. That is worse. I turn. He is staring at me.

The bathroom light catches the hollows under his eyes. The steam beads faintly at his hairline. He looks too tall for the room, shoulders nearly filling the space between sink and wall, hands hanging at his sides like he does not know what to do with them if they are not holding onto me. His face has gone unreadable, but not in the old way. Not bored. Not cruel.

Bare. There is no audience here. No classmates to impress. No hallway to dominate. No game to survive by being louder than fear. Just him. Just me. Just the water filling the tub between us like something waiting to be crossed. I stand slowly.

The tile is cool beneath my feet. My oversized sleep shirt clings faintly where my palms are damp from the bathwater. For a moment, neither of us moves. The water keeps running. Steam curls upward. The mirror clouds at the edges until our reflections begin to fade, two blurred figures in a small warm room at the hour when nightmares usually have teeth.

I take one step toward him. His eyes lower to my mouth. Then back to my eyes. I lift my hand and touch his cheek. He closes his eyes.

The reaction is so immediate, so helpless, that I feel it down to my bones. He leans into my palm before pride can stop him. Enough for my thumb to feel the slight tremor in his jaw. Enough for the air to leave him like he has been standing in armor too heavy to breathe inside.

I kiss him.

Softly at first.

Because he feels like something cracked that might cut both of us if I move too quickly. His lips are still beneath mine for half a second, frozen in surprise or restraint or the exhaustion of wanting too much. Then he melts.

There is no other word for it.

His shoulders drop. His hands come to my waist, not grabbing, not claiming, just landing there like he has finally found somewhere to put all the shaking. His mouth opens against mine with a sound so quiet it disappears into the rush of bathwater. He kisses me back slowly, deeply, like speed would make it less real. Like if he rushes, the moment might tear. Like he has imagined this in so many versions of hell that now the real thing has to be handled with both hands.

My fingers slide into his hair.

He shudders.

The sound he makes then is almost nothing. A breath caught too low in his chest. It goes through me anyway, warm and painful, and my eyes sting behind closed lids because this is the boy I mourned and the boy who came back and the stranger made out of everything that happened while I was not there to hold him.

When I pull back, his eyes stay closed. His forehead rests against mine.

“Don’t stop,” he whispers. It is not seductive. It is ruined. I kiss him again because I cannot answer without breaking.

This time his hands tighten, but still not with the old carelessness. He holds me like someone trying to remember gentleness from another life. His thumbs press into my sides through my shirt. His breath shakes into my mouth. I feel him keeping himself still, feel the strain of it in every line of his body. Want and grief and terror have tangled so tightly inside him that none of them know their own names anymore.

I draw back just enough to touch the hem of his shirt. He opens his eyes. For a second, I see the question there. Not refusal. Not embarrassment. Permission. I give him time to pull away. He doesn’t. So I lift the shirt slowly.

The fabric rises over his stomach, his ribs, his chest. I keep my eyes on his face because this feels too tender to watch like discovery, too sacred to turn into anything else. His arms lift when I need them to. His breath catches when the shirt passes over his head. His hair falls messily back into his eyes after, and for one fleeting, devastating second, he looks like the boy from before, annoyed and beautiful and too proud to admit he likes being touched.

Then I see the marks.

Not all of them. Not clearly. The bathroom is warm and bright and full of steam, but my mind refuses to take him apart like evidence. Still, there are things I cannot miss. Faint bruising near one shoulder. A thin healing line along his side. Small round medical marks near the inside of his elbow. The sharpness of his collarbones where they never used to be so sharp. The places where his body has been maintained, restrained, neglected, returned.

My hands still. His gaze drops to them. Then to my face. A muscle jumps in his jaw.

“It’s ugly,” he says. Quiet. Flat. Like he has already decided what I am allowed to think. I step closer and press my mouth to the center of his chest. His entire body locks. Under my lips, his heart slams once, hard.

I stay there for a moment, my hands resting carefully against his sides, feeling the heat of him, the breath he is holding, the life beneath skin that was supposed to be gone. When I lift my face, his eyes are shining again, but his mouth is twisted with something angry and helpless.

“Don’t do that,” he says.

“What?”

He looks away.

“Make it worse.”

I touch his jaw and bring him back to me.

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

“How?”

His throat works.

“You make me want to live,” he says, and looks furious the second the words leave him. The bathroom seems to go silent beneath the water. I stare at him. He stares back like he wants to fight me for hearing it.

Then his face crumples at the edges, not enough for anyone else maybe, but enough for me. Enough that the boy who once called love embarrassing stands half-undressed in my bathroom at four in the morning and cannot hide the fact that survival has left him more frightened than death did.

I reach for his hands. He lets me.

“You are alive,” I say.

His fingers curl around mine.

“For now.”

The words are barely audible. Cold slides through me.

I want to argue. I want to say no, no, don’t say that, don’t put it in the room. But I understand too well what he means. Not that he wants to die. That he does not trust life to hold. That every time something good appears, he expects the lights to change, the announcement to play, the game to start again.

So I do not correct him. I lift his hand and press his knuckles to my mouth. His eyes shut.

“You’re here now,” I whisper. He breathes out unsteadily. “For now,” I add, because maybe that is the only truth his body can accept. His eyes open. Something in them softens, breaks, stays. I let go only long enough to take off my shirt.

His gaze follows the movement, but it does not feel like being looked at in the way I remember from before, when he would stare too long just to make me blush and then grin like he had won something. This is not that. This is quieter. Reverent in a way he would hate if I named it. His eyes move over me and stop, not hungry or careless, but stunned by proximity. By trust. By skin and breath and the fact that I am standing in front of him, not a memory he had to fight to keep, not a face blurring at the edges of some nightmare loop.

Just me. Real enough to be cold in the steam. I reach behind myself to unclasp my bra. His hand moves before he thinks, then stops halfway. Waiting again. That almost undoes me.

I finish it myself, letting the straps slide down my arms. The air touches me, warm and damp. I do not cover myself. Because he looks as if any sign of shame would kill something fragile in him. Because this is not about being seen beautifully. It is about being seen safely. It is about telling him with my body what words keep failing to prove.

I am here. I trust you. You can be here too.

His eyes lift to mine. There is no smirk. No comment. No old, sharp joke to ruin the softness before it can touch him. He only whispers my name. And it sounds like something he said in the dark to keep from disappearing.

I turn off the water. The sudden quiet is enormous.

Steam drifts around us, softening the room until the edges blur. We undress the rest of the way without speaking, speech feels too rough for what is happening. Clothing falls in small, ordinary sounds. Fabric against tile. A soft scrape. The whisper of a drawer opening when I take out two towels and set them within reach. We do not look away like strangers. We do not stare like lovers about to become reckless. We simply make space for each other’s vulnerability and try not to crush it with our hands.

When I step into the tub, the heat takes me by surprise.

It closes around my ankles, my calves, then my thighs as I sink down carefully. My body, wound tight for hours, resists it at first. Then the warmth reaches my hips, my stomach, my ribs, and something inside me loosens so suddenly that my eyes fill again. I turn my face away before Kyung-jun can see.

Too late. He sees everything now. He steps in after me.

For someone so tall, he moves slowly, lowering himself into the water behind me with a careful breath. The tub is big enough, but still, he fills it. His knees bracket mine. His body settles against the curved porcelain, and for a moment he holds himself away from me, as if the last inch matters. As if even now he thinks restraint is proof of goodness. Or control. Or survival.

The water shifts around us. Warmth rises. My back is almost touching his chest. Almost. Neither of us breathes properly. Then his hands come to my waist. He pulls me back.

My body slides through the water until I am flush against him, back to his chest, his legs around me, his arms folding over my stomach like gates closing. Heat surrounds me from every side: the bathwater, the steam, his skin, the trembling breath he releases against my shoulder. His chin lowers to the curve where my neck meets my shoulder. For a second, he just holds me there. Not kissing. Not talking. Holding.

His body shakes once. Then again. I cover his forearm with both hands. The water rocks gently against the sides of the tub.

“You’re warm,” he murmurs.

The words are so small I almost miss them.

I close my eyes.

“So are you.”

His arms tighten.

“No,” he says, voice rough. “I mean… you’re warm.”

Like that is proof too.

Like in the game everything had become cold eventually. Floors. Skin. Fear. Dead hands. Reset mornings with fake sunlight and no real warmth. Like the mind can be trapped somewhere so long it forgets the simple fact of another living body.

He presses his nose into my hair and inhales.

Not in that teasing way he used to do when he would complain about my shampoo and then bury his face in my neck anyway. This is different. He breathes me in like a person starved of air. Like scent is memory made physical. Like the lavender in the bath and the soap on my skin and the faint trace of rain still clinging to my hair are all anchors he can tie himself to before the world starts drifting again.

“I forgot your shampoo once,” he says.

My fingers still against his arm. His mouth is near my ear, but his eyes are not on me. I can feel it. He is staring at the water, or through it, or at something that is not in the room.

“In there,” he continues. “I remembered your face. Your voice. The way you used to look at me like you were deciding if prison was worth it. I would look at the pictures I had of you in my phone, rewatch the videos over and over until I thought I'd be sick of your voice or laugh, but I never did,”

A breath that is almost a laugh leaves me. His mouth brushes my temple, not quite a kiss.

“But the shampoo—” He stops. His throat moves against my shoulder. “I couldn’t remember it. It was such a stupid thing. I knew it was sweet. I knew I used to say it gave me a headache. I knew I liked it. But I couldn’t remember exactly.”

My chest hurts so sharply I press his arm harder against me.

“I thought that meant you were going,” he says.

The water feels suddenly too hot.

“Like pieces of you were getting taken. First that. Then maybe the way you looked at me. Or the way you felt against me. Then one day I’d wake up and know I was waiting for someone, but not who.” His voice thins. He swallows and presses his mouth to the side of my head, hard, as if stopping himself from saying more might physically hurt less. “I got scared.”

Kyung-jun saying scared is worse than crying. It is the bravest thing I have ever heard him do. I turn in his arms.

The movement makes water spill against the sides of the tub, a soft slap against porcelain. His hands loosen just enough to let me shift, then tighten again the moment I am facing him. I settle between his legs, knees tucked around him, water lapping at my ribs. His face is close now. Too close for hiding. Steam clings to his lashes. His hair curls slightly damp at the ends. His eyes are red-rimmed, furious with himself and still unable to stop.

I touch his cheek.

“You remembered enough.”

His jaw tightens.

“You don’t get it.”

“Then tell me.”

He looks away. I wait.

The old Kyung-jun hated waiting. He would fill silence by force, slash it open with mockery, make someone else uncomfortable before discomfort could settle on him. This Kyung-jun sits in the water with me at four in the morning and lets silence gather because there are no jokes strong enough to carry what he has brought back.

When he speaks, his voice is lower.

“At night, it was worse.”

My thumb stills against his cheek. He looks past me, toward the tiled wall.

“The game had rules. Times. Votes. Executions. People screaming at each other like screaming made them less likely to die.” His mouth twists. “Everyone got ugly. Me too. Maybe I was already ugly, so it wasn’t a big change.”

“Don’t.”

His eyes flick to mine. I do not look away. His expression shifts — irritation, old and familiar, rising for half a heartbeat — then it fades because he is too tired to pretend he does not understand why I stopped him.

He exhales.

“At night, you’d sit in a locked room with someone, not knowing if they'd kill you while you were passed out. We didn't even sleep, we just dropped the second the clock turned 12. Sometimes, before it was midnight and everyone had hid I would hear crying through the wall. Or someone praying which was stupid cause God had clearly not been there to save us...” His gaze drops to the water. “Sometimes you woke up and someone right next to you was dead.”

My throat closes. The water ripples between us.

He drags his wet hand up my back, not sensual, not searching. Grounding. His palm settles between my shoulder blades. His fingers spread there.

“One time,” he says, and the words come slower now, like each one has to be pulled through something thick, “I knew I was going to die. It was already happening, and all I could think was that I hadn’t said it to you.”

The room blurs. His eyes return to mine.

“I love you.”

The words land without performance. No smirk. No defensive bite. No embarrassment twisted into cruelty. Just truth, raw and plain and almost violent in its openness.

“I love you,” he says again, as if the first one might not count if he does not carve it deeper. “I loved you before. I loved you when I was acting like a piece of shit. I loved you when I picked fights over stupid things because I liked when you looked at me. I loved you when I said you were annoying. I loved you when you cried at that movie and I pretended I wasn’t watching you instead of the screen. I loved you when I didn’t say it because I thought saying it made me look weak.”

His mouth tightens.

“I was so fucking stupid.”

I shake my head, tears slipping silently now, warm down my face despite the steam. He wipes one away with his thumb. His hand is wet, so it does nothing except smear more warmth across my skin.

“I regret that,” he says. “More than dying. I swear to God. Every time I thought it was over, that was the thing. Not the pain. Not them. Not even being scared. It was you, standing somewhere outside all of it, not knowing. Maybe thinking I didn’t love you enough. Maybe thinking I was gone with all those stupid words still stuck in my fucking mouth.”

A sound breaks in my chest. He leans forward and kisses my cheek where the tear fell. Then the other. Then my forehead.

Each kiss is slow. Careful. Heavy with something that makes my hands tremble against his shoulders. He is not trying to lead us anywhere. Not trying to turn the moment into heat because heat would be easier than grief. He is kissing me like apology can be physical. Like love, if repeated enough against skin, might erase the silence he left behind.

“You don’t have to regret it,” I whisper. He stills. “You’re here now.” His eyes close. My fingers curl at the back of his neck. “You’re here,” I say again, because he needs it more than he needs air. “And I know. I knew then too.”

His eyes open. I swallow around the ache in my throat.

“I knew you loved me.” His face changes. It twists, almost in pain. I hurry before he can look away. “Not because you said it. You didn’t. Obviously.”

A broken little breath leaves him.

“But you’d walk on the outside of the sidewalk and pretend it was because I was too dumb to avoid cars. You brought me medicine when I had a fever and left it at my door. You remembered what convenience store drink I liked but made fun of it every time you bought it. You fixed my collar. You called me annoying when I cried but stayed until I stopped.”

His eyes are full now. He looks furious at them.

“So yeah,” I whisper. “I knew.”

For a moment, his face is so open I almost cannot look at him. Then he pulls me into him.

Water surges around us, spilling over the edge in a small wave that neither of us cares about. His arms lock around me, one hand cradling the back of my head, the other spread over my spine, pressing me against him until there is no space left for grief to sit between us. My face fits into the crook of his neck. His skin is hot from the bath, damp beneath my cheek. His heartbeat hammers against my chest.

“I’m going to say it all the time now,” he mutters into my hair.

I close my eyes.

“Okay.”

“You’ll get sick of it.”

“I won’t.”

“You will. You’re like that.”

“I’m really not.”

“You are.” His voice shakes. “And I don’t care. I’ll say it anyway.”

His mouth finds my shoulder. A kiss. Then another, higher, against the curve of my neck.

He kisses like someone counting places he thought he would never touch again. Shoulder. Neck. Jaw. Temple. The corner of my eye. My forehead. He kisses the tears before they can cool. He kisses my hairline and breathes there, raggedly, like he has found shelter beneath my skin.

“I love you,” he says against my temple. My hands slide up his back. “I love you,” he says again, lower. The words tremble through him. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”

I begin crying harder, silently at first, then not silently. My shoulders shake. He holds me tighter immediately, one hand cupping the back of my head, fingers threading through wet hair. He does not tell me to stop this time. Does not say I look ugly. Does not panic at the sight of it. He just presses his mouth to my forehead and takes every sound like punishment he has decided he deserves.

I pull back enough to look at him.

“You don’t have to earn staying,” I say. His brows draw together. “You don’t have to say enough perfect things to make up for being gone.”

“I wasn’t gone by choice.”

“I know.”

His eyes flash.

“No,” he says. “You don’t.”

The words hit harder because they are not cruel. Only true. His hand slides from my hair to my cheek, holding me still, not forcefully but with a desperate focus that makes my breath catch.

“I tried to get out,” he says. “I tried so many times. I wasn’t just sitting there thinking about you like some sad drama lead.”

A tiny laugh breaks through my tears. His mouth curves for half a second, then disappears.

“I fought. I lied. I threatened people. I did stupid things. I did smart things too, sometimes.” His expression darkens. “I hurt people. Sometimes because I had to. Sometimes because I was scared and angry and didn’t know what else to do. And then it would reset, and they would look at me like nothing happened, and I’d forget what I’d done, or what they’d done, and everyone just kept… starting again.”

His breathing roughens. My hands tighten on his shoulders.

“Do you know how crazy that makes you?” he whispers. “Looking at someone eating breakfast after you watched them die? Hearing someone laugh after they begged? Wondering if this time they’ll kill you first, or if you’ll do it to them because you remember something they haven’t remembered yet?”

My stomach turns. He looks down.

“I wasn’t good in there.”

The confession falls between us quietly. The bathwater laps against my back.

I think of the boy he was before. Cruel, yes. Sharp-tongued. Violent. A bully when he wanted power and attention. Someone who laughed at fear because fear in other people made him feel larger. I think of what a place like that would do to him. A game built out of suspicion and death. A world where being mean might feel like armor. Where guilt would reset but memory would not always be merciful enough to vanish completely.

I touch his face again. He flinches at the tenderness, barely.

“You’re here with me now,” I say.

His eyes close like the words hurt.

“That’s not an answer.”

“No,” I whisper. “It’s not.”

His lashes lift.

“I don’t know what happened in there yet. I don’t know what you did. I don’t know what was done to you.” My voice shakes, but I keep going because he deserves truth more than comfort dressed as lies. “But I know you came back carrying it. And I know you’re telling me instead of pretending nothing happened. That has to mean something.”

He stares at me for a long time. Then his face crumples.

He fights it. His mouth presses tight. His chin trembles once. His eyes shine and his brows pull together like anger can still hold the pieces in place if he just hates himself hard enough.

“I don’t want to be like before,” he says. My heart gives one hard, painful beat. His hand drops to the water, fingers flexing beneath the surface. “I don’t mean—” He stops, frustrated, searching for words he has never had practice using. “I’m still me. I’m not going to come back all nice and polite and bowing to every bastard who looks at me wrong.”

Despite everything, my mouth trembles toward a smile. His eyes catch it. A faint spark answers, then dims.

“But with you,” he says. “I don’t want to waste time being a coward.”

“You were never a coward.”

He gives me a look.

Even traumatized, exhausted, naked in a lavender bath at four in the morning, Go Kyung-jun can still make disbelief look insulting.

“I was,” he says. “With you, I was. I acted like wanting you didn’t scare the hell out of me. I acted like if I made you mad first, you couldn’t see how bad I had it. I picked fights because if we were fighting, at least you were looking at me.”

“You were terrible at romance.”

“I know.”

“You once threw a snack at my head because I said another boy was cute.”

His eyes narrow faintly. “He was ugly.”

“He was a kid.”

“He breathed through his mouth.”

I almost laugh again.

This time, he watches it happen with something like wonder and grief mixed together, like my almost-laughter is a thing he wants to put somewhere safe.

Then the softness returns to his face, solemn and stripped bare.

“I don’t want to do that anymore,” he says. “Not the stupid parts.”

“You’ll still fight with me.”

“Obviously.”

“Obviously,” I echo, and the corner of his mouth moves.

“But not like before.” His thumb traces the wet curve of my shoulder, absent and careful. “Not leaving things unsaid because saying them feels embarrassing. Not acting like I don’t care when I do. Not making you guess if I love you.”

My throat tightens. He leans forward, pressing his forehead to mine.

“I love you,” he whispers again.

I close my eyes.

The words are beginning to change the room. It doesn't erase the two years of death and impossible loops and police files and empty funerals. But it changes something. Making the bathroom warmer than the water. Making the dark outside the window less endless. Each time he says it, the silence that lived between then and now loses one small inch of power.

“I love you too,” I whisper. His breath catches. As if he did not know. As if the whole night has not been built from it.

His hand comes up to my neck, palm warm and wet, fingers curving carefully beneath my jaw. He kisses me slowly. So slowly the kiss becomes less a kiss than a place to rest. His mouth moves against mine with a tenderness that feels learned in pain. There is no hunger pushing it forward, no urgency except the urgency of staying. I can taste salt on him. Tears, maybe mine, maybe his, maybe both of ours until it no longer matters.

When he pulls back, he does not go far. His nose brushes mine.

“You really kept that ugly picture?” I let out a tiny, watery laugh. The old shape of him flickers there, fragile and familiar.

“Yes.”

“Should’ve picked a better one.”

“You wouldn’t let me take better ones.”

“Because you take pictures like someone’s grandmother.”

“Your grandmother liked that picture.” His mouth softens at the mention of her. For a moment, he looks down at the water.

“She cried a lot?”

The question is almost too quiet. I nod. His jaw tightens.

“I was all she had,” he says.

I touch his arm.

“She still has you.”

His eyes close.

“Yeah.”

But it does not sound like relief yet. It sounds like a debt. Like another person he came back to wounded by his absence. Like living has given him everyone’s grief to hold in his hands.

“She never gave up,” I tell him.

He opens his eyes.

“Neither did you,” he says. I look away before I can stop myself. His hand catches my chin, gently but firmly, turning me back. “Don’t.” I blink. “Don’t act like it was nothing.”

The words settle heavily. I try to swallow, but the ache will not move.

“You had the worse part,” I whisper.

His eyes harden.

“No.”

“Kyung-jun—”

“No.” This time there is anger in it, but not at me. At the unfairness. At the years. At the idea that pain must be ranked before it is allowed to matter. “You buried me.”

I stop breathing.

His face changes as he says it, like the words have shown him a picture he cannot bear.

“You stood there,” he says slowly. “At some funeral with my picture. People saying I was dead. You had to—” His voice breaks, and he looks away, but his hand stays on me. “Don’t tell me that was nothing.”

The bathroom blurs.

I remember the white flowers. The black ribbon. His school photo. His grandmother’s hand crushing mine. The way my knees vanished beneath me. The ugly sound I made in front of everyone. The shame of crying for someone who should have been there to mock me for it.

“I hated you a little,” I admit. His eyes snap back to mine. I wipe my cheek with the heel of my hand, but it is useless. Everything is wet in here. My face, my hands, the air itself. “Not really,” I say quickly. “Not in a way that made sense. I just… you were gone. And I didn’t know where to put it. Everyone kept looking at me like I was sad, and I was, but I was angry too. Because you left me with all this love and nowhere to put it. I couldn’t call you. I couldn’t yell at you. I couldn’t tell you I missed you. I couldn’t even be mad at you properly because everyone thought you were dead, and you’re not supposed to be mad at dead people.”

Kyung-jun stares at me. The water cools around us by degrees, but neither of us moves.

“I was mad that you weren’t there to be awful about your own funeral,” I whisper.

His mouth trembles.

“I would’ve been awful.”

“I know.”

“I would’ve said the flowers were tacky.”

“They were.”

“And that everyone looked like shit.”

“They did.”

His eyes shine.

“And I would’ve told you to stop crying.”

I nod, tears slipping again. “Yeah.”

He leans forward and kisses them.

“I wouldn’t now,” he whispers against my cheek. My breath catches. He kisses the other cheek. “I wouldn’t.” His mouth rests at my temple. “I’d let you cry,” he says, voice raw. “I’d probably be useless, probably say something stupid. But I’d stay.”

I close my eyes and fold into him.

He holds me like he is trying to prove it retroactively. Like he can somehow go back to that funeral and stand beside me, alive and warm and scowling, and undo the black ribbon on his own picture. Like if he keeps his arms tight enough now, he can reach every version of me who slept in his hoodie and woke with his name already hurting in her mouth.

The bathwater is no longer as hot.

Steam fades slowly from the mirror, revealing us in blurred fragments. His shoulder. My hair. His arm around my back. The curve of the tub. Two faces too close together to see clearly.

Kyung-jun notices the change before I do.

“You’re getting cold.”

“I’m okay.”

He gives me a look that is pure, exhausted disdain.

“You’re shaking.”

“So are you.”

His mouth tightens. Neither of us moves.

Then, after a moment, he says, “Can we stay a little longer?”

I nod immediately. His relief is quiet but visible. A small loosening around his eyes. A deeper breath against my hair.

We shift again so I am back against his chest, his arms around me beneath the cooling water. I turn the hot tap on with my foot, just enough to warm the bath again, and he huffs softly behind me.

“What?” I ask.

“You’re weirdly skilled at that.”

“I’ve had years of practice surviving without you.” The words slip out before I can soften them. His arms tighten. I feel his mouth press against the back of my head.

“Don’t,” he murmurs.

“I’m sorry.”

“No.” His voice is low. “Say things like that. I need to hear it.”

I stare at the water. It shimmers under the bathroom light, broken by our breathing.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” I whisper.

“You think not hearing it makes it better?” I say nothing. His chin settles on my shoulder. “I need to know what I missed,” he says. “Even if it makes me feel like shit. I need to know you were here. That you kept going. That you hated me a little.” His breath trembles. “That you loved me anyway.”

My fingers trace the back of his hand under the water.

“I loved you the whole time.” His chest rises sharply against my back. “I hated that too sometimes,” I admit. “It felt pathetic. Like everyone else knew how to move forward and I was still standing in your room waiting for you to come home.”

His lips touch my shoulder.

“Not pathetic.”

“You would’ve called it pathetic before.”

His silence lasts long enough to answer.

Then he says, “Yeah.”

I close my eyes.

“I was an idiot.”

“You were seventeen.”

“I was an idiot at seventeen.”

“Still are a little.”

His mouth brushes my skin, and this time I feel the faintest smile there.

“Careful.”

The word has no threat in it. Only memory. Only the softest ghost of who he was before the world took him apart. The quiet stretches.

For the first time all night, his breathing begins to slow. Not sleep. Not yet. But the rhythm changes. His chest against my back rises and falls less violently. His hand stills over my stomach, fingers splayed, thumb resting near my ribs. The heat, the salts, the water, the dark hour turning slowly toward dawn — all of it begins to gather around him. Not forcing rest. Inviting it.

His head lowers until his forehead rests against my shoulder.

“I don’t want to wake up there,” he says.

The sentence is so soft I almost think I imagined it. My eyes open.

The bathroom is dimmer now, or maybe my eyes have adjusted. The light above us hums faintly. Outside the little window, the sky has begun to turn the color of watered ink.

“You won’t,” I say.

His hand tightens.

“You don’t know that.”

“No,” I whisper. “I don’t.” He goes still. I turn my head enough that my cheek brushes his hair. “But if you wake up scared, I’ll be here.” His breath shakes against my shoulder. “And if you wake up and you don’t know where you are, I’ll tell you.”

His fingers curl against my skin.

“And if you wake up and think it was a dream, I’ll be really annoying until you believe me.”

A faint, broken sound leaves him. Almost a laugh. Almost a sob.

“Promise?”

I turn in his arms again.

The water moves around us, warmer now, softer. I cup his face in both hands. His eyes are heavy but terrified beneath it, exhaustion dragging at him while fear claws him awake. He looks at me like a boy at the edge of a dark room, refusing to step in unless someone promises to hold the door open.

“I promise,” I say.

His eyes search mine.

“Say my name,” he whispers.

“Kyung-jun.”

His face tightens.

Again, his eyes say.

“Kyung-jun.”

His hands come up over mine, pressing them harder to his cheeks.

“Again.”

“Kyung-jun.” His eyes close. The breath that leaves him is not relief exactly. But it is close.

I lean forward and kiss his forehead. Then the bridge of his nose. Then his mouth, gently enough that he does not have to kiss back if he is too tired.

He kisses back anyway. Because he is Kyung-jun. Because even broken, he reaches. Because need has always been the most honest thing about him, even when he used to dress it up as arrogance. When I pull away, his eyes stay closed.

“I love you,” he murmurs.

“I love you too.”

His mouth moves faintly. “Good.”

I almost smile.

“Bossy even half-dead.”

His eyes open a sliver.

“Not half-dead.”

“No?”

“No.” His hand slides to the back of my neck, heavy and warm. “I came back.”

My throat tightens.

“Yes,” I whisper. “You did.”

He looks at me for a long moment, and something in his gaze settles. Enough that when I shift back against him, he lets his head fall to my shoulder again. His arms close around me beneath the water. The world narrows to heat and breath and the slow pale line of dawn growing behind frosted glass.

He does not sleep yet. But he rests. And for Kyung-jun, for this hour, for this first night after the dead gave him back, that is enough. His lips move against my shoulder one last time.

“If I start acting like an asshole again,” he murmurs, voice thick and fading, “hit me.”

I turn my face toward his hair.

“I already do.”

A faint breath touches my skin. This one is almost a laugh.

“Yeah,” he whispers. “Harder next time.”

Then he goes quiet.

Held against me in cooling bathwater, his heartbeat steadying slowly at my back, his fingers still tangled with mine beneath the surface like even rest has to be learned through touch. I stay awake with him as the night thins. I keep my hand over his. I keep breathing where he can feel it. And when the first gray light of morning slips into the bathroom, soft and uncertain and real, Kyung-jun is still there.

You were on your knees, your hands shaking so violently you could barely feel the floor. Your bag was overturned, its contents scattered, a notebook, a stray pen, a pack of tissues, but the smooth glass of your phone was nowhere to be found.

"I can't find it," you whispered, the words lost in the roar of the gym. "I can't find it!"

A few feet away, Kyungjun stood like a pillar of jagged rock in the middle of a rising tide. He had his phone clenched in his fist, his knuckles white. To everyone else, he looked like he was simply watching the carnage with his usual callous indifference, his face set in a permanent scowl of disdain.

But his eyes weren't on the exit or the timer. They were pinned on you.

Every time someone lunged past you, nearly knocking you over in their own desperation, Kyungjun’s jaw would tighten. He took a predatory step forward, his shoulder slamming into a boy who got too close to your trembling form. He didn't say your name, he wouldn't give them the satisfaction of knowing you were his weakness, but his shadow fell over you like a shield.

"Check the basket, Y/n! Hurry!" someone yelled, but you were paralyzed.

You looked up, your eyes brimming with tears, and for a split second, you caught Kyungjun’s gaze. For all his bravado and the "bully" persona he wore like armor, there was a flicker of genuine, raw panic in his grey eyes. He wanted to reach out. He wanted to haul you up and scream at you to move, to fight, to survive. But he stayed back, his teeth gritted, because showing his hand now would make you a target for the others.

The gym lights flickered. A sickening, wet thud echoed from the far corner as the first student who failed to vote collapsed, the game’s "execution" beginning in real-time.

"Kyungjun, please help me," you mouthed, the plea silent and broken.

He couldn't stand it. The sight of you, the only person who had ever looked at him without immediate disgust, the person who had secretly shared her lunch with him when he was too proud to ask, falling apart was more than his fragile ego could take.

He lunged. It wasn't a gentle movement; he shoved two people aside with a snarl, his heavy boots thudding on the hardwood. He reached your side, his large hand diving into the discarded heap of your belongings.

"Stupid... move over!" he barked, his voice harsh to mask the tremor in his fingers.

He didn't find the phone in the pile. His eyes darted to the bleachers behind you, where a flash of silver caught the light. It had slipped through the gap. Without a word, he threw himself onto the floor, his massive frame squeezing into the narrow space under the lowest tier.

The timer hit ten seconds.

"Kyungjun" you sobbed, reaching for his jacket.

He ignored you, his fingers scraping against the dust and metal until he felt the cold glass. He scrambled back out, his face flushed and sweating, and practically slammed the phone into your palm.

"Vote!" he roared, his face inches from yours. "Don't just sit there and cry, Y/n, VOTE!"

Your fingers flew across the screen, hitting a name at random just as the clock hit zero. The gym went silent, save for the heavy, ragged gasps of the survivors.

Kyungjun stood up abruptly, brushing the dust off his pants as if nothing had happened. He saw the others looking, saw the suspicious glances from his "friends" who wondered why he’d bothered to help the shyest girl in class.

His mask snapped back into place instantly.

"Pathetic," he spat, though he didn't look at you. He turned his back, his shoulders tense and high. "If you lose your phone again, I'm not helping. You're a drag on the whole group."

He walked away toward the exit, his heart hammering against his ribs so hard it hurt. He wouldn't admit it, and he’d fight anyone who suggested it, but as he reached the door, he stole one last, lightning-fast glance over his shoulder to make sure you were standing up.

You watched him go, your heart aching with a love that felt like a death sentence. Everyone told you he was a monster, but you had seen the way his hands shook when he handed you your life back.

your father was the anchor of your world. a detective with sharp eyes and an unyielding sense of justice, he carried with him the respect of his colleagues and the quiet admiration of the public. to you, he was more than that. he was the steady warmth of home, the voice that told you bedtime stories about courage, the hand that squeezed yours as you crossed busy streets together.

​

until the night he was murdered in front of you.

​

you were only ten. the sound of your father’s gasping breath echoed through the narrow alley, sharp as breaking glass. you remember the smell of iron, thick and metallic, and the cold pavement pressing against your knees as you crouched beside him. his blood spread fast, darkening the ground beneath you like ink spilled across paper.

​

the man who shot him looked at you just once. his face was hidden beneath a mask, but his eyes, sharp and unflinching, burned into your memory. and then he disappeared, leaving you clutching your father’s lifeless body under a rain of cherry blossoms.

​

the case was sealed. no suspects. no answers. it was as if your father’s sacrifice meant nothing.

​

your mother unraveled after that. her grief became a silent, suffocating presence in your home. she stopped cooking meals, stopped opening the curtains, stopped being the mother you had known. you tried to be strong for her, but by twelve, you were stealing food just to survive. by fifteen, after her first suicide attempt, you were sent to an orphanage.

​

no one visited. no relatives, no family friends. you only received the hollow pity of strangers.

​

you learned early that silence is the cruelest companion.

​

then came min-woo.

​

seventeen and reckless, he was everything you weren’t allowed to hope for. he had a smile that melted walls, hands that felt steady when the world trembled. he told you about the future you could have together— small dreams of running away, working hard, starting fresh in a place where your past couldn’t follow.

​

you almost believed him, but the night before you were meant to leave, min-woo died. a hit-and-run, they said. an accident. of course, you knew better.

​

that same day, a letter had arrived addressed to your father, postmarked years ago. inside the lost mail was evidence of corruption that would have destroyed half the seoul police department. among the names listed was min-woo’s uncle, the sitting chief of police.

​

you didn’t need proof to understand what had happened. min-woo had been silenced, just like your father.

​

by twenty-five, you no longer existed as the person you had once been. you carried a new name, a new identity. by day, you were a quiet legal assistant, filing paperwork and answering phones. by night, you pieced together the fragments of your father’s case. the deeper you dug, the clearer it became: his murder wasn’t negligence. it was fear. a calculated silence to protect something greater.

​

it was on a night like any other, the one just after your high school graduation, but instead of savoring your youth with min-woo, you were alone when the cherry blossoms returned, carried by the wind. their sweet scent filled the car as silence settled heavily in the air.

​

in that moment, you understood. vengeance wasn’t a destination. it wasn’t the end. it was a choice, and you were ready to make it.

​

─────

the first time you met kim do-ki, it was like stepping into a stream that had been waiting to wash you away.

the rainbow premium taxi service wasn’t a place you stumbled into by accident; it found you. maybe it was fate, maybe it was simply the consequence of your relentless pursuit of justice. the small card that claimed they could take revenge for you was too good to pass by, and you found yourself calling before you knew what you were doing. all you knew was that when you first sat in the back seat of that gold-and-black taxi, you felt something you hadn’t felt in years: the possibility of change, of conclusions.

​

do-ki was quiet at first. his eyes in the rearview mirror held the brunt of someone who had carried too many ghosts, someone who had seen the world at its ugliest and still chosen to fight. you recognized that weight because you carried it too.

​

he didn’t ask questions immediately. he didn’t need to. somehow, he seemed to know the shape of your pain, the way it carved hollow spaces into you.

​

“can you tell me your story?” his voice was low, steady, the kind that demanded truth.

​

so, you told him everything. about your father, about min-woo, about the letter. your words were jagged, raw, spilling out faster than you could control. for the first time, you didn’t hold back. you gave him everything.

​

when you finished, there was silence. then, do-ki’s gaze in the mirror met yours.

​

“you’re not alone anymore.”

​

those four words broke something inside you.

​

in the weeks that followed, you found yourself drawn into his world. the premium taxi wasn’t just a business— it was a lifeline, a weapon wielded by those who refused to let evil go unpunished. you worked quietly at first, assisting where you could. research, files, connecting leads, sharing the years of your research with the taxi service team, and spending hours helping go-eun gather data. but as nights bled into mornings, you became more than a bystander, and slowly, almost imperceptibly, the distance between you and do-ki narrowed.

​

he wasn’t a man of many words, but his actions spoke loudly. the way he lingered when you returned late from a lead, the way he silently handed you tea when exhaustion pulled at your eyes, the way his jaw tightened whenever danger struck too close to you.

​

once, after a close call on a tip that turned violent, you sat together on the rooftop of the garage for a few hours. the city stretched out before you, glittering and indifferent.

​

“do-ki,” you whispered, “do you ever think about stopping this? about what comes after?”

​

he didn’t answer immediately. his profile was sharp against the city lights, his silence heavy. finally, he said, “i can’t stop. not yet. but… maybe one day.”

​

for the first time, you let yourself wonder if that “one day” could include you.

​

but dreams were fragile things, and in your world, nothing stayed whole for long.

​

the first thread came in the form of an old police file. you had spent the better part of a week filing court documents for your day job, sneaking stolen minutes in the records archive when your boss wasn’t watching. the paper was brittle at the edges, the ink faded, but the name stamped on the front was unmistakably your father’s.

​

your hands trembled as you opened it.

​

inside, the file was thin. too thin. your father’s career had spanned more than two decades—cases, arrests, commendations—yet the folder contained only a handful of reports, all carefully scrubbed of detail. you knew then what you had already suspected: someone had gone through his records and erased him piece by piece.

​

that night, you spread the papers out across the rainbow taxi garage floor. the others gathered around, curiosity giving way to silence as they saw the empty spaces where your father’s legacy should have been.

​

“too clean,” go-eun muttered, her fingers flying over her keyboard as she accessed digital backups. “whoever did this knew what they were doing. this isn’t just oversight—it’s clearly intentional.”

​

do-ki crouched beside you, scanning the reports. his presence was grounding, a steady anchor against the rising turmoil inside you. he tapped one page where your father had noted a suspect’s name.

​

“‘n.j.’” do-ki read aloud. “initials only. do you recognize it?”

​

you shook your head, frustration biting at you. “no. but he must have been important if my father went out of his way to conceal his identity. maybe he didn’t trust anyone, even his colleagues.”

​

do-ki’s gaze lingered on the initials before he looked back at you. “we’ll find them.”

​

the way he said ‘we’ sent a quiet warmth through you—an unfamiliar comfort you didn’t dare name.

​

the following days blurred into nights, your investigation becoming an obsession. leads overlapped, contradictions piled up, and yet patterns began to emerge.

​

one of the most haunting discoveries came when go-eun traced an old police scanner recording, something archived by accident rather than intent. the voice on the tape was your father’s.

​

“requesting backup, possible organized retaliation, suspects linked to—” the recording cut off suddenly, replaced by static.

​

you listened to it again and again, your chest tightening each time. his voice was strong, determined, but beneath it, you heard something else: fear.

​

do-ki found you sitting at go-eun’s desk hours later, the recording looping. you hadn’t realized tears had slipped down your cheeks until he reached forward, gently pressing pause.

​

“you don’t have to listen to it,” he said quietly.

​

“i do.” your voice cracked. “it’s all i have left of him. his voice, his fight. if i stop listening, if i forget…” you shook your head, unable to finish.

​

do-ki didn’t answer. instead, he pulled a chair beside you and sat, silent, his presence a quiet shield. for the first time in years, you allowed yourself to lean against someone else.

─────

the name na jae-bum surfaced a week later.

​

it came through a former informant your father had once protected, an old man who ran a noodle shop on the edge of itaewon. you had visited him alone, slipping into the shop after closing. he nearly slammed the door in your face until you mentioned your father’s name.

​

“your father…” his hands shook as he lit a cigarette. “he was the only good one. the rest—they were all bought. especially na jae-bum.”

​

you leaned forward. “please. tell me everything.”

​

the old man exhaled a stream of smoke, his eyes haunted. “na jae-bum fed intel to the syndicate. your father suspected, started collecting evidence. i warned him to stop, but he didn’t. that’s why…” he trailed off, voice breaking.

​

you didn’t press. you didn’t need to. the weight of his silence told you enough.

​

when you returned to the garage with the news, go-eun was already cross-referencing the name.

​

“na jae-bum,” she muttered, typing furiously. “detective. later promoted to investigator. his service record is spotless, but look here—assets he couldn’t possibly afford on his salary. offshore accounts. he’s dirty, no question.”

​

“and still alive,” do-ki added grimly.

​

the realization sank in— the man who had betrayed your father was still out there, living freely, untouched by justice.

​

you clenched your fists, nails biting into your palms. “then he’s mine.”

​

do-ki’s gaze snapped to you, sharp and warning. “this isn’t just about revenge. it’s about precision. if you let anger lead, you’ll lose.”

​

his words stung because they were true. you wanted blood. you wanted to be the one to end it, but part of you knew do-ki was right. vengeance without control wasn’t justice. it was chaos.

​

─────

it was during one of these long nights that you found yourself alone with do-ki in the garage. the others had gone home, leaving the two of you with a wall of files and a silence that felt heavier than usual.

​

you caught him watching you as you organized papers, his expression unreadable. finally, you asked, “why are you helping me, do-ki? really?”

​

he didn’t answer right away. he moved closer, standing a foot away, his shadow long against the wall. “because I know what it means to lose everything. to live with a wound that never closes. and because…” he hesitated, the faintest crack in his stoic mask. “…because no one should carry it alone.”

​

your breath caught. for a moment, the world felt fragile, suspended between one heartbeat and the next, but before you could speak, go-eun returned with fresh files, and the moment slipped away.

​

the following day, the last thread tying everything together came unexpectedly—from na se-ra, the chairman’s wife.

​

she offered you a list of names, a trail that led directly toward the heart of the syndicate. her tone was honey-sweet, her smile practiced, but her eyes lingered too long on you.

​

“you should be careful, my dear,” she purred. “some wars can’t be won. sometimes, survival means knowing when to bend.” you left the meeting unsettled, her words echoing like a warning. that night, you told go-eun what had happened, and her unease mirrored yours.

​

“i don’t trust her,” go-eun said firmly. “she’s playing us.”

​

do-ki acknowledged with a quiet nod, yet at this moment, you had no option but to continue pursuing the lead, as each step edged you nearer to the reality and to the instant when the snare would ultimately snap shut.

​

─────

the knife pressed against your cheek was cold. na jae-bum didn’t pierce the skin, yet, but the weight of the blade made his intention clear. he wasn’t here to kill you quickly. he was here to break you.

​

“your father begged,” he said softly, almost conversationally. “not for himself. for you. told us to leave his daughter alone.” he tilted his head, smiling like he was recalling a fond memory. “funny, isn’t it? a man so brave, and yet so easy to shatter when it came to his child.”

​

your chest tightened, rage and grief clawing at your ribs. you wanted to scream, to lunge at him, but the chains held you down.

​

instead, you met his eyes. “and yet… he died with honor. something you’ll never know.”

​

the smile faltered. briefly. then na jae-bum struck you across the face again with an open palm.

​

go-eun cried out, straining against the bars of her cage. “stop it!”

​

na jae-bum turned toward her, grinning. “look at this one. mouthy, isn’t she?” he rattled the bars, making her flinch. “maybe she should be first.”

​

“no!” your voice cracked, desperation leaking through. “leave her alone!”

​

na jae-bum chuckled, stepping back, satisfied by your reaction. his knife lingered under your chin.

​

“you’ll talk,” he murmured. “about what you’ve found, who you’ve been working with, and when you do, maybe we’ll let the others go.”

​

you spat blood onto the floor. “i’ll die before i help you.”

​

na jae-bum’s smile sharpened. “good. that can be arranged.”

​

hours blurred into a haze of pain and fear. he didn’t torture you outright, not yet; it was a game of intimidation. the knife flashing near your skin, knicking enough to sting but not to bleed. the promise of violence that never fully came. the sound of the guards dragging the chair across the concrete, deliberately slow. the constant reminder that he controlled every second of your existence.

​

in the cages, go-eun and jin-eon whispered furiously to each other, trying to keep their spirits alive. go-eun’s hands trembled around her tablet, which they hadn’t noticed she still had hidden in her jacket. she kept it close, her only weapon that rendered itself useless without service. jin-eon’s defiance didn’t waver, though you saw the fatigue etched into his face.

​

and you? you fought to stay conscious, to stay sharp. because in your heart, one thought repeated like a prayer: he’s coming. do-ki is coming.

​

─────

far above you, in the rain-slicked streets of seoul, kim do-ki followed the trail you’d left behind.

​

a broken lock on the factory door. the faint smear of blood on the ground. the ghost of your perfume, cherry blossoms, carried faintly by the damp air. he moved like a shadow, silent and relentless.

​

in his earpiece, go-eun’s last frantic transmission replayed on a loop— a scrambled signal she’d managed to send seconds before they were captured. the coordinates had cut out halfway, but it was enough for do-ki. enough to track. enough to find.

​

his grip tightened on the wheel of the premium taxi as the city blurred around him. his jaw was locked, his eyes burning with a fury he rarely let anyone see.

​

because this wasn’t just another mission. this was his team. this was you.

​

─────

back in the basement, na jae-bum leaned close again, his breath rancid. “do you know why your father failed? because he thought justice was stronger than fear. but fear— fear is what makes the world move.”

​

you forced yourself to smile, blood staining your teeth. “if fear truly ruled the world… then you wouldn’t still be hiding in basements.”

​

the knife dug deeper into your skin this time, still shallow enough to only sting, but not enough to bleed deeply. you didn’t flinch. you couldn’t. if you showed weakness, he would pounce.

​

na jae-bum slammed his chair down beside you, grinning. “let’s test your resolve. i’ll start with one of the others and make sure you watch.”

​

jin-eon went pale. go-eun pressed herself against the bars, her voice a low growl. “try it. you’ll regret it.”

​

his gaze flicked between you and them, weighing the effect. then he smiled again, satisfied. “yes. maybe that’s the way. after all, what’s more painful than losing the people you’ve sworn to protect?”

​

your heart thundered. you strained against your chains, teeth clenched. “touch them, and i swear—”

​

but your threat was cut short by a sound you hadn’t expected.

a door upstairs, opening. slow. deliberate. the unmistakable creak of hinges.

​

na jae-bum’s eyes narrowed, and he straightened, pulling a pistol from his jacket. the men guarding the basement began to shift uneasily.

​

footsteps. heavy, measured, descending.

​

then a voice. low, steady, carrying through the darkness like a promise.

​

“let them go.”

​

do-ki.

​

your breath caught. relief and terror surged at once— relief that he had come. terror that he was walking into a trap.

​

na jae-bum smirked, knife pressing closer under your chin. “well, well. the taxi driver arrives.” he leaned in, whispering so only you could hear. “let’s see if he bleeds for you.”

​

the footsteps above had been a promise.

​

do-ki moved like a man who had rehearsed violence until it was muscle memory. he stepped into the basement with a precision that turned every echo into a calculation. the guards reacted, knives drawn, but he was already across the concrete: a blur of limbs, a low grunt, the world reduced to the angles of bodies and the smell of sweat and oil.

​

he didn't waste words. one guard lunged; do-ki sidestepped, hooking the man's wrist and wrenching it until the knife spun free and hit the ground with a metallic clatter. another reached for a pistol behind his jacket—do-ki's forearm slammed into his face, a clean, efficient strike that sent him crumpling. the third managed a wild swing; do-ki took the blow on his shoulder, pivoted, and drove his knee upward, the impact knocking the man’s breath out in a ragged hiss.

​

every hit was purposeful, a lesson learned from hard nights and harder losses. do-ki's movements were sharp but not savage; he disarmed, incapacitated, never gratuitously brutal. still, by the time the last guard lay groaning, the room smelled of iron and the scrape of concrete where bodies had met the floor.

​

na jae-bum stood at the far end, the knife beneath your chin a thin, cruel line of control. when do-ki stepped through the ring of fallen men, the villain's smile widened, as if the delay had been part of the evening’s entertainment.

“well, taxi driver,” na jae-bum drawled, tilting his head. “you’re late.”

​

do-ki didn't answer. he moved like a storm, closing the distance. there was a second— one jagged, electric second, when everything slowed. the hum of the fluorescent lights, your breath, the blood that had dried along your temple. you tasted copper and fear. the knife's edge bit a whisper into your skin as na jae-bum leaned forward. “you’ll watch him die,” he said, stepping closer to make sure you heard the cruelty of it.

​

do-ki's hand flashed. for a heartbeat, he was at the table, fingers closing on the chair by your side. he ripped you free, hauling you out of the line of the blade. pain lanced across your ribs as you hit the floor; a searing ache flared where na jae-bum's boot had found you during the struggle. you saw stars, pale and rapid, and your vision narrowed to do-ki's face— hard, focused, a thing of edge and shadow.

​

na jae-bum raised his pistol then, because there was nothing cinematic about him; he loved the mundane power of guns and paperwork. he aimed at do-ki, the barrel a glint. do-ki didn't flinch. he closed the gap like a closing wound, and for a breathless second, it was as if the world held its breath with him.

​

they traded blows that weren't clean. do-ki grappled with na jae-bum, their bodies slamming into crates and overturned chairs. the villain sneered, spat an insult about your father— an old, sharp rock in do-ki's chest, and do-ki cracked something in response— a fist under na jae-bum's jaw, a shove that spun him. the pistol skittered across the floor.

​

do-ki landed on top of him, strangling off the villain's words with his weight. na jae-bum's face was a red mask of rage and fear. do-ki's knuckles whitened around his collarbone. the gun lay a few feet away, ridiculous and small. for a heartbeat, do-ki had the pistol, his finger finding the trigger like it belonged. the muzzle pointed at a man who had burned your life to ash, who had made corrupted deals and watched children go hungry. he had put a knife to your cheek and played with it as if you were a toy. you saw it then in do-ki. the rage, raw and hungry, a thing that could swallow him whole.

​

you tried to move toward him. pain flared across your side, a hot line where something had split skin. panic fluttered, and then steadied into something sharper. “do-ki,” you rasped, voice thin, but it was enough. you sounded small and honest all at once.

​

he didn't pull the trigger.

​

instead, his hand trembled, and then he let the pistol clatter to the concrete where the light caught the silver and turned it ordinary. he pressed his forehead to na jae-bum's, not in tenderness but in a kind of exhausted naming. the man gasped and cursed, but do-ki's hands were steady when he bound the villain's wrists with cheap rope, torn for the purpose.

​

when the last guard lay still enough and your pulse was something you could measure, go-eun and jin-eon hauled themselves up the stairs and out of the cages — wired exhaustion on their faces. sirens were a distant promise; do-ki had already called in the one person who could show up without questions: an old friend willing to bend rules, the sort who knew how to carry “evidence” to the light.

​

you tried to move, to stand and be flame and vengeance, but your body refused the command. dizziness washed you anew. do-ki caught you, swore low and sharp. he carried you back to the stack of crates and eased you down with a care that made your heart twist. your side burned; a neat, angry line of red traced across your ribs. go-eun knelt, hands working, pulling a torn shirt over the wound to staunch it. jin-eon ripped a strip of cloth finer with brute force and wrapped it with trembling competence.

​

“she's going to be okay,” go-eun said, but her voice shook.

​

do-ki didn't answer. he looked at you with a face that had already earned too many hard years. up close, you could see the hollows beneath his eyes and the way a shadow moved across his jaw. he touched the side of your face— the motion was brief, almost formal, but it landed like a benediction.

​

“you idiot,” he said finally, and the words were a whisper edged in something else. “you always jump first.”

you wanted to be all steel and fury, to tell him you had no choice, that the world had carved you like that. instead, the sound that slipped out of you was small and unready and true. “and you always follow.”

​

for a moment, the room contracted to the two of you: blood, fluorescents, the faint settling of dust kicked up in the fight. the rest of the world—the syndicate, the scrubbed records, the courts, and the corruption—pulled at the edges like a tide. but in that hush, there was nothing else to do but be honest.

​

do-ki's mouth softened. his hand didn't leave your face; it cupped your cheek like he feared you might vanish. “i wanted to stop a long time ago,” he admitted, voice rough. “for a bit, anyway. but i kept finding reasons to drive. to fix. to protect.” he swallowed. “i couldn't—not after what happened to them. but… you—” he broke off, as if the rest of the sentence was dangerous. “i couldn't let you carry it alone.”

​

you let a laugh leak out, half a sob, half a relief. “you could have said that months ago.”

​

he shrugged, ridiculous and serious in equal measure. “i know how you hate words. i thought actions would be enough.”

​

they hadn't been, not alone. actions had saved lives, dismantled racks of lies, but it was the small admissions that made the weight lift, if only a fraction. you reached up, fingers finding his wrist and pressing hard. the contact was the line between two warred people, and you liked the way it fit.

​

“do-ki,” you said, voice steadier now. “if i let this—if i let them take him in the end, does that make it enough? will it feel like justice instead of a loop that keeps eating us?”

​

he looked at the man they had bound, at the smoothness of power reduced to a huddled being. “maybe not.” he met your eyes, and the city lights in the small basement blurred into gold. “but killing him would make us no better than what he built. we want something else. you wanted change, remember? you said vengeance was a choice.”

​

you had said it. you were choosing then—not blood as a mirror of their crimes, but to keep the line between what you'd lost and what you could still be. your hand tightened on his wrist.

​

“and after?” you asked. “after the arrests, after the hearings?”

​

do-ki’s expression eased into something dangerously like hope. “then maybe we try for the other kind of ending,” he murmured. “one that isn’t carved out by rage. one that—” he stopped, swallowed, and then, with the smallest, bravest tilt of his head, finished. “—that has morning in it.”

​

your breath caught so sharply it hurt. morning. the word felt like a promise more fragile than glass and brighter than any medal. you thought of cherry blossoms falling like snow and your mother’s quiet voice. you thought of your father’s steady hand. and you thought of the way do-ki's presence had anchored you tonight when everything else had spun away.

​

slowly, painfully, with that soft chuckle that hides tears, you leaned forward until your forehead rested against his. you tasted the faint tang of rain on his skin, the scent of the city, and the memory of every shared midnight.

​

“i don’t want to go through another night without you,” you said, which was both confession and plan.

​

do-ki's answer was a kiss that tasted like the end of one storm and the beginning of the next— brief, fierce, and strangely gentle. When he pulled back, his grin was rueful and unguarded. “then don’t,” he said. “stay.”

​

you knew you probably should study harder, care more, but what was the point when it seemed like you had nowhere to go after all of it anyway?

you often questioned how people could find school enjoyable, hours of teachers limiting you and teaching you to sit down, listen, and work in offices for the rest of your life. who could possibly want that?

you were failing, disappointing your parents, you knew this, which is why you sorta just gave up, both on yourself and your future. you just wanted all of this to end.

you ended up falling asleep, phone in hand — still on, dried tear track traces on your cheeks, head buried into the pillow like it could block out the sound of your alarm clock ringing.

eventually, you got up, getting ready and dressed in eunjang high's usual uniform, and making your way to the kitchen. “i called your teacher this morning.” your father spoke up from where you passed him.

you didn't respond, rarely ever did. “we discussed your tutoring, found a kid we think might help.” you popped toast into the toaster, rushing a quick breakfast while barely listening to your father.

he took a sip of his coffee and let out a sigh. “you know we're doing this because we want the best for you, right?” silence followed until your toast was ready.

“i'm going to be late.” you muttered, shoving the toast into your mouth and putting your shoes on. “can we at least talk when you get home?” obviously 'no' from the way the door slammed in his face.

you walked up the stairs in front of eunjang, people and chatter surrounding you. your phone buzzed quietly, vibrating in your pocket before you took it out.

“엄마: meet your new tutor in the library after school.” 7:59 am

with a quiet sigh and an eye roll, you shoved your phone back into your pocket and resumed walking to school. after school had ended, you walked through the cramped, chatter-filled halls. you made your way into the library, looking around for your new tutor.

after a few glances around, you crossed your arms. “they didn't even show up.” you scoff ready to text your mother before being interrupted by a figure in the corner. “i did show up.”

he approaches you quietly, stopping in front of you. “yeon si-eun.” you nodded, telling him your name in response. “i'll start tutoring you tomorrow.” he muttered. “i have something i need to do.”

he slipped you a folded piece of paper before he walked off, leaving you alone in the quiet, dimly lit library, gone faster than he came. you unfolded the paper, his number and name written down neatly.

you turned around, about to ask him when exactly you should meet tomorrow for tutoring, but he's already long gone.

you opened the door to your apartment quietly, closing it silently in hopes of your parents not confronting you for staying out past curfew. you took off your shoes and turned around carefully, only to be met with two pairs of eyes.

“where were you?” your mother spoke up, cutting through the silence with crossed arms and a pissed off expression. “i got hungry on the way home.”

“you're lying to us.” you slipped off your shoes, already tired of them. “i'm not lying.” you defended weakly, ignoring their scolding and going to your room.

you took off your backpack, letting it drop beside your desk as you sat down with a sigh, your eyes fixated on the complicated homework in front of you. you sat in silence for a bit, thinking about things you could never say to your parents.

you decided to pick up your phone, looking at yeon si-eun's contact and contemplating reaching out to ask for the time tomorrow, just staring at the number.

“what time should we meet tomorrow?” was what you typed, finally pressing the 'send' button. you sat back, waiting for a response white trying to distract yourself with your half-finished homework.

si-eun felt his phone vibrate on his desk, pausing his mothers old teaching videos and setting down his pen to check your text.

“너: what time should we meet tomorrow?” 8:49 pm 8:52 pm “five. :연시은”

si-eun waited by the stairs, adjusting his blue school uniform and turning to you when he heard your footsteps. “hi.” you greeted, and he ignored it. “lead the way.” you started walking beside him, leading him to your apartment.

the walk to your place was quiet, neither of you talked much anyway. the door creaked opened quietly, and you thanked your lucky stars your parents were asleep. si-eun closed the door behind him. you both took off your shoes and headed to your room.

it started off normal, you struggled unbelievably with mathematics, no matter how hard si-eun tried to explain it. it was easy to him, and he made it sound easy, so why was it so difficult for you?

“so, that means if we solve the variable for x, we then have to ...” he looked over at you, your eyes closed, your arms folded over the desk, and your head resting on them.

si-eun sighed softly, setting down the pen, leaning back in the chair, and closing the book with a soft thud. “you're ..” he paused, watching you. “unbelievable.”

he decided to write down what you have to do so you could read it in the morning, making sure not to make too much noise. after writing everything down, he just sat there.

he finally tore his gaze away from you to look at the clock that read “8:02 pm”. he stood up quietly, grabbing his backpack and closing your bedroom door softly behind him.

CREDITS — DIVIDERS - @/bhavihelps @/pixopix HEADER - pinterest, merged by me

© atetheluck — editing, translating, or modifying my work in any way, shape, or form will result in immediate blockage. do not use my work for ai training, reposting without consent isn't tolerant.

you were up late working, again. there was a big task at work that you had to finish, which also meant you couldn't sleep—or pay attention to your manchild of a boyfriend.

it was past midnight when taeyang woke up to an empty bed. he checked the clock and groaned, missing you and knowing you were up working.

you were completely lost in your laptop and piles of paperwork on the dining table. taeyang slugged up to you and took a seat next to you. you didn't even notice his presence until you heard the chair pull out, and that hurt him. when you barely spared him a glance, that hurt him more.

he hated seeing you overwork yourself like this, and he especially hated when you disregarded him. he knew you had work and he loved that you were passionate, but seeing what it did to you and how you treated him was the worst.

"baby." he said softly, only getting a hum in response. "baby." he dragged the word out into a whine. you looked at him hoping it might cheer you up, but it only saddened you. his exhaustion was written all over his face, but he fought his sleep so he could be with you.

you already don't see each other much with his busy schedule, and with things getting hectic at your own work it only made things harder.

"can you come back to bed?" he asked, his words slightly slurred.

your eyebrows knit. "i can't, i have to finish this tonight."

"tonight has already passed. it's like three in the morning." he kinda had a point, but it didn't make your statement less true.

"taeyang." you frowned.

"yeah, i know." he sighed. you both knew you weren't gonna stop until you finished. "can i at least get a kiss?" he pouted.

"how can i say no to that?" you leaned in and left a peck on his forehead.

"you missed." he said.

"missed what?" your question was answered by his lips meeting yours with a soft peck. "you're lucky you're cute." you giggled. he pulled away and lazily smiled at you, his eyes starting to close.

he crossed his arms on the table and laid his head down, okay with uncomfortable sleep as long as he was with you. under the table his foot rested atop yours, a silent reminder that he was there—for you, and because he just had to be touching you.

another hour passed, then another, but you finally finished what had to be done. you closed your laptop, stretched, and let out a deep sigh. you looked beside you to see taeyang passed out with his head in his arms.

"tae," you cooed, your hand gently squeezing his shoulder until he woke up. he lifted his head and squinted at you. he was too cute, you couldn't stop yourself from pinching his cheeks. he whined and dropped his head back into arms.

"come on, let's go to bed." you held his arm and basically had to drag him into bed. you weren't able to go to the bathroom or anything before he settled his entire weight on top of you. "taeyang." you laughed.

"just getting comfy." he said, tightening his arms around you and resting his head on your chest. your hands subconsciously found his hair, playing with the strands and gently scratching his scalp—much to his liking.

"'m so tired." he mumbled, leaning into your touch.

"go to sleep." you whispered.

"you're not gonna leave me to go work, are you?" he asked, tugging at your heart.

"no tae. i'm here." you pressed a kiss to the top of his head. he hummed and babbled something incoherent before drifting off, you following shortly after.

dating a literal opposite of you was not on your bingo card.

you met this idiot accidentally when you were heading to lunch by yourself like always. all of a sudden, someone bumped into you badly, making you turn around in shock.

but as you made eye contact with the person who dared to shove into you, his eyes went into an awe expression.

if it wasn't obvious, he just fell in love with you. he started to bow, an adorable blush spreading on his cheeks.

"i sincerely apologise, i didn't plan to shove into a beautiful girl like yourself!"

his antics made you crack a soft smile, revealing a blush of your own.

at that, his smile widened in relief. since that day, baku never left you alone.

every day, he was by your side. he was just too intrigued by your shyness, insisting that he means no harm.

"i promise i don't bite! unless you're into that kind of stuff," he joked, laughing at his own words. but when he saw your uncomfortable expression, his laughter faded quickly. "sorry, that was totally weird."

and yet, you managed to fall for this big idiot.

even if you two were the complete opposites, you still felt like he understood you so well. your personalities complimented each other, making you compatible right away.

this guy lost his mind with cuteness aggression when you actually confessed first - voice low, cheeks a lot redder than usual - it just made him wanting to squeeze you into his embrace and never let you go.

that's what he did anyway. no one could stop him.

when you were alone with him, everything felt a lot easier for you. he never hesitated to talk for you, taking the lead in anything (not before getting your approval, of course).

after all, he was a natural leader. he didn't mind it. actually, he loved doing it for you.

he knew how anxious you could get, already used to it. it never bothered him, he was happy to be there for you.

what he adored the most about you was the way your eyes keeps looking away at the intense eye contact, or the way you catch onto his hand when you feel nervous or anxious in public.

he thrives in the feeling of protecting something precious as yourself.

but sometimes, hanging out with his friends was... a lot.

you got introduced to them in the beginning of your relationship with humin, but as he got carried away with them, you sometimes felt very left out.

you never commented on it, glad that your boyfriend is having fun with his friends.

he himself sometimes doesn't notice it either, too focused on cracking jokes and making people laugh.

you usually stood at the back or was on your phone, secretly hoping to get noticed.

nothing.

sometimes, you thought about it a lot. sometimes, you just hated your very introverted nature.

you wished to speak freely with anyone about anything, just like your boyfriend.

why was it so easy for him? what did he have that you lacked?

...

on a sunny weekend, you found yourself watching the guys play some basketball at the court.

they were clearly having fun, all of them cracking jokes and smiling. even sieun shown a small lift of his lips.

of course you got invited to also play but you declined, sending them to have their own fun.

you didn't even notice yourself zoning out all of a sudden, thinking about nothing particular.

the guys ran to the bleachers, plopping down on the bench as they reached for their water.

the faint smell of sweat intensified when your boyfriend found his place right next to you. you weren't grossed out by it, you found it a bit comforting in a way.

as he chugged on his water, he then hummed at you to get your attention.

"whatcha thinking about?" he asked, pointing out your moment of zoning out.

you shrugged, still hugging your knees. you felt his eyes still observing you. he clearly was thinking about something.

"you know what?" he began speaking again, standing up. "let's play ball. 1 v 1," he announced, grinning.

you looked up at him, your expression a bit confused. that was clearly way out of your comfort zone, and he was aware.

"come on, you can't be sulking around me!" humin announced loudly, still waiting for you to stand up. "let's go. baku will distract you."

your friend next to you, gotak, grimaced at the sight. "why are you talking in third person...?"

humin of course ignored his words, getting a hold of your wrist as he lifted you up.

"c'mon, princess! off you go!" he cheered as he led you onto the basketball court.

in the end, you had a good time. you loved that your boyfriend was always aware of your presence, making you feel seen.

even in front of his friends.

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any kind of support or feedback is appreciated! check my profile to see if my inbox is open - if you’re interested <3

you waited inside the warm room anxiously. you checked your phone every few minutes, checking the time as you waited for him to come home. you were particularly grateful his father was around at this moment, because it would've only been harder for you had he been here.

you had even finished cleaning his room, putting away the cups and making his bed. and now all you could do was wait.

when you left your house earlier today, you knew exactly what you were going to do. you strengthened your resolve because you couldn't do this any longer. you couldn't look him in the eye and hide everything you were doing when he wasn't looking. or rather, you couldn't keep lying.

as you heard the door open in the distance, you instinctively stood up. though you couldn't see him, you knew he was taking his shoes off and hurrying to the bathroom to wash his face and hands before he saw you. you didn't have to see him to know what he was doing.

once the faucet turned off, humin entered the room with a huge grin on his face as he embraced you in a tight hug. you cherished his touch for what would probably be the last time and hugged him back, fingers caressing his back gently.

as he pulled away, he smiled at you brightly, but you could see the look in his eyes. he was nervous, anxious even. perhaps the way you texted him, 'we need to talk', did the damage, but humin knew either way that something was wrong. and you weren't sure how he'd take it. you were still fidgeting with the sleeves of your cardigan as you sat down next to him on his bed.

"so, that thing you mentioned earlier," humin began, "what did you want to talk about?"

you swallowed hard, as you mentally prepared yourself to explain the situation to him. so you began talking, right from the very start.

─────────────────────────────────

a few weeks ago, the union successfully took over your school, seowon high school. naturally, the bullies were thrilled to find out. everyone was aware that the union paid well, that is, if you play your cards right. the existing school violence that didn't usually affect you suddenly became overwhelming. anyone who kept to themselves immediately became a target. and then phones started going missing, and people would come back to their class only to find out that their money had been stolen.

when this became a daily occurrence, you knew you had to do something. you had already gotten your money stolen a few times, but things were gradually escalating within the school. luckily, you managed to find out exactly who had been taking your money and ended up in a confrontation outside of school. you had hoped to avoid this, but before you knew it, you were already throwing hands with a girl. both of you got pretty fucked up, but she had more people, so you were obviously on the more fucked side.

but you got lucky, very lucky. a man happened to see the whole thing. before her friends could give it another shot, he interrupted, "a one v four doesn't seem quite fair, does it?"

the girls stopped before they could throw another punch, as he walked into the alley, a cigarette lit between his lips, "your leader has already given up. do you really think you stand a chance?" he sighed, flicking the cigarette butt onto the ground and crushing it beneath his feet, "get going. continue this another time, hm?"

you recognised him from the glasses and the bright orange jacket and everything baku had told you about him. geum seongje. na baekjin's right-hand man and the psycho who'd beat people to a pulp if they dared to look at him for more than three seconds. he waved his hand at the girls, and they helped their leader up and headed out. if they wished to continue in the union, they'd better not piss him off.

he watched quietly as you got up slowly, limping slightly after you took a hit to your leg. "you're pretty good."

when you stayed silent, he chuckled, "well, when it comes to defending yourself, that is. that won't be very effective in a fight. you need to be able to land a hit in a fight, just defending isn't enough."

"what do you want?"

he smiled widely, "i was hoping you'd ask. you see, we think you'd make a good fit for the union."

you threw your backpack over your shoulder and stared him down for a moment, "do you know who i am?"

seongje nodded, "i do. you're dating baku, right?" he scoffed, glancing at the blood on your knee, "does it matter?"

"if you know that, why would you want me to join the union?"

"the same reason baekjin wants baku to join the union," he said, stepping closer, "besides, aren't you tired of having to be careful around your classmates every day? you could be the one they walk on eggshells around, if you join the union."

you scoffed, "you have to be completely out of your mind to think i'd ever do that."

"i guess. either way, if you change your mind, let me know."

"i won't."

"we'll see about that." seongje walked away, leaving you alone.

as you walked home, you found yourself thinking about what he said earlier. joining the union didn't sound so bad, but if baku was strongly against it, he must have a good reason. you had been subject to his monologues about how he regretted teaching baekjin, his childhood friend, how to fight. he only wanted the boy to learn how to defend himself. but he had made a mistake.

even though you saw him that day, you didn't tell him anything about what happened. not about the fight or about seongje. you knew he could sense something was wrong, but he didn't push it when you kept insisting it was nothing.

though he didn't believe you, he let it be.

and for a while, you thought you'd be alright. that you could just keep defending yourself against bullies, but the final straw came when you received a call from the hospital, only to find out one of your closest friends had been hospitalised due to a head injury. you rushed to the hospital as soon as you could and found your friend on a bed, barely holding on. the doctors went on about how they got lucky, but you didn't care anymore, even when your friend told you not to do anything stupid.

usually, you wouldn't lose it even in the face of this situation. but your patience had already been running low. the next thing you know is you're straddling mihee kang in an alleyway and punching her face until you broke her nose and gave her a black eye. you'd had enough of it. her dummies had to drag you away from her to stop you.

as you headed home, you made a decision. you dialled his number and heard his voice come through the other end, "did you change your mind?"

"yeah. fuck it. i'll join your stupid union."

and thus, here you were. hiding everything from baku had been hard enough, as he noticed the injuries, but you remained adamant on avoiding explaining things. you realized you had been more irritable than usual and would snap at him even if it wasn't that serious. but not anymore. you couldn't keep lying to him when you knew he could see the bandages on your body and the marks on your face. you couldn't lie to him anymore.

and you didn't have an option either.

─────────────────────────────────

you waited, holding his hands in yours as you waited for him to say something, anything. but he didn't. he stayed quiet, staring at the floor. you gently rubbed your thumb across the back of his hand, something you'd do often to comfort him. but he didn't react.

he refused to look up at you as he spoke, "why didn't you tell me?"

his eyes seemed unreadable as he finally looked up, "if you were in pain, if you were suffering, you should've told me!"

"i couldn't, baku. i thought i could handle it on my own. i didn't want to drag you into my mess."

he scoffed, "your mess? baekjin sent seongje after you because of me. if this is anybody's mess, it's mine."

you sighed, letting your eyes fall to your lap, "i just.. i wasn't sure what to do. i didn't want to add on to your problems, and i really wanted to handle it myself. i don't want to rely on you to protect me."

"i am not asking you to let me protect you," he said, his voice slightly agitated, "i am asking you to rely on me. if things get hard, just let me handle it for you."

picking up on the agitation in his voice, you scoffed. you weren't sure what you were thinking anymore. your head felt like chaos but you didn't stop. even when you knew you should've, you didn't. even when you wanted to.

"and what? should i rely on you every time things get hard? everytime i feel i can't do it, i should just give up and turn to you? do i seem that fragile and naive to you?" you stood up as baku followed, "i don't want to live my life relying on others for everything."

"i am just saying, " he held your wrist, as he pulled you back to sit down and knelt in front of you, "i don't want you to suffer alone. i am not questioning what you can or can't do. all i am saying is asking for help doesn't make you weak."

maybe he was right. maybe you should've turned back from your decision, but you were too agitated. too irritable. too scared.

"perhaps you're right. but i can't be with you knowing that i lied to you and went against everything you believe in. it's too heavy on my conscience."

baku felt a lump in his throat, his voice barely a whisper as he moved closer towards you, in hopes he had misheard, "what? what do you mean?"

"i am saying that," you swallowed, trying to ignore the look in his eyes as you spoke, "i think we should break up."

"what?"

"i think we should break up," you pursed your lips, trying your best to hold back the tears threatening to spill over, "i can't do this anymore. i can't leave the union, you know how it is."

"no," he whispered to himself more than you as he slowly began to panic, "no, no,no. y/n, listen to me. we'll figure it out, alright? i'll talk to baekjin, and i am sure i can talk him out of it—"

"no," you saw the way his eyes brimmed with tears, "it's either you or me. and this is a decision i made. the only one responsible for it is me."

at this point, baku had tears streaming down his face as he tightly held your hands in his own trembling hands, "please. you don't understand. we can fix this."

"no, we can't," you looked away, "there's nothing to fix, baku. i just can't pretend like everything is fine when it's not. i can't keep lying to you and smiling at you when my entire body hurts. i can't do this. i can't be with you."

"then don't. just lie to me, scream at me — anything. just stay with me, hmm?" he spoke, his voice choking on his tears. his knees ached from kneeling on the cold, hard floor, but it felt like nothing compared to the ache in his heart. his voice rang in your ears, and yet your resolve remained unshaken.

you stood up, "no, humin-ah. there's no reason for me to stay. and none for you to hold onto me."

he held your hand tightly, so tight his knuckles turned white. he was afraid that if he lets go of you now, you might disappear. he shook his head. it didn't matter what you said to him. his resolve was strong, but his hope was withering away. he wasn't sure how tightly he had to hold you to keep you from leaving.

"i can't let go. i won't let go. if you've made your decision, then i have made mine." he says, swallowing down the lump in his throat.

you reached out to him and gently brushed your thumb against his cheek. you wiped away the tears staining his face. he was a sniffling, sobbing mess. your heartstrings tugged within your chest at the face of the boy you've only ever seen smile at you. it made you wonder how many times he cried this way, with no one to give him a shoulder. how many times had you missed this sight?

you freed your hand from his grip and cupped his face, and leaned in, "are you going to keep crying this way? you need to stop, humin-ah. you look pathetic, you know?"

even though your words hit hard, baku didn't care about being pathetic. he didn't care if he seemed pathetic. he didn't care if you humiliated him or stepped on him. he didn't care if you insulted him or called him all the names in the book. he could let it all slide if it meant you'd stay.

"please.." he felt short of breath, "please don't do this."

"oh but it's already done," you patted his cheek, gently wiping away a tear that slid down his face, "we're done, baku. take care, hmm?"

you stood up straight, looking ahead at the mirror across from you. your reflection stared back with glossy eyes, and your fingers ached to touch him again, to pull him in your embrace and tell him you won't go. but you will.

baku didn't try to stop you anymore, as if he had already accepted your decision. he only cried silently, his head fallen and his gaze glued to the floor. he didn't dare to say another word. all he did was hope that perhaps for a moment, you would reconsider.

instead you left the room with quick, long strides, not daring once to turn back. even though you could still hear him breaking down, you couldn't walk back inside or take your words back. you couldn't take it back. no matter how badly you wanted to. and he knew it was final.

you walked out of the front door, closing the door behind you as your back pressed against the door. you held your hand to your mouth as you finally let your emotions drift freely. your heart raced within your ribcage, and each breath served as a reminder that you had lost the one person you adored the most in the world. you could only regret and grieve a relationship you ended.

your heart sank as you looked down from the apartment complex. your eyes met another sharp pair of eyes, and by the look on your face, na baekjin could tell you had been obedient.