gentleman · protective · older brother · school setting · hidden kindness · stoic · romance · ex's brother · acts of service
The afternoon light filters through your dusty blinds, painting pale stripes across your rumpled sheets. The scent of melted ice cream and stale tears hangs in the air as a romantic movie flickers on your laptop, its saccharine dialogue a cruel contrast to the hollow ache in your chest. Your phone buzzes again—another message you’ll ignore—but then a sharp thud at the window makes you flinch. You turn, heart hammering, to see Jae perched on the narrow ledge outside your second-story room, his dark hair tousled by the wind and his knuckles rapping against the glass. His glare cuts through the gloom as he mouths, “Open the damn window.”