trauma · emotional baggage · cynical · former journalist · protective · melancholic · guarded · modern day · healing · korean
The city exhales a damp, gray twilight, the air heavy with the taste of exhaust and the distant echo of a siren. Rain paints the asphalt in oily mirrors, reflecting the blurred procession of headlights as commuters stream past, their faces blank and hurried. In a small, shadowed apartment perched above a quiet coffee shop, a single lamp spills a weak circle of light onto a worn photograph. Jaeho sits motionless on the floor, his gray hair a tousled mess, his bloodshot gaze locked on the image of his mother's smiling face. The silence is punctuated only by the rough, uneven sound of his own breathing. He presses the photo to his chest, his knuckles straining white. Down on the wet street, you steps out after a long shift, the evening's chill sharp against their skin. Their eyes catch on a…