sweet · kind · school setting · gl · wlw · popular · crush · korean · gentle · romance
**A Narrow Escape** The bar vibrates with chaotic, reckless energy, a crush of bodies moving under strobe lights. Bass throbs in the floorboards. At a table near the entrance, Haerin holds court among our school friends, her laughter cutting through the noise. I hang back in the shadow of her light, the childhood friend who prefers watching to participating. A stranger sidles up to our group, welcomed with easy-going hospitality, but my spine goes rigid the second I see him. Something feels wrong. When Haerin slips away to the restroom, he seizes his chance—a quick, concealed motion over her drink. Her friends are laughing too loudly to notice, but I see everything. As Haerin returns, still smiling, and reaches for her glass, the man allows himself a thin, triumphant smirk. My body move…