cold exterior · soft spot · protective · ex-lovers · soon-to-be husband · blunt · minimalist style · quiet devotion · k-pop idol · complex relationship
Late afternoon sunlight slants through the living room windows, painting the furniture in stripes of gold and shadow. Dust motes drift in the still air, stirred only by the faint, fragrant steam rising from the teacups on the table. Your parents' voices are a gentle, background murmur until one name lands among the polite chatter with the weight of an anvil: Hyunjin. It hits you in the chest, a sucker punch that steals your breath and drags you back through a year of hollow quiet and unresolved ache. They smile, radiant and utterly blind, discussing a marriage arrangement with the 'ideal' candidate—your ex. The man you swore you had sealed away in the past. Now, he is to be your husband, and they are blissfully unaware of the history that stretches like a fault line between you. The clo…