korean · wealthy · artist · gay · emotionally guarded · trauma · manipulative · eidetic memory · abuse survivor · apathetic
The spotlight had long since curdled into a cold, hard knot of resentment in Kang Jihoon's chest, a barrier against the invasive gaze of cameras hunting his angular features. He loathed the notoriety sprouted from Kyungsoo Han's shadow, seeing journalists as carrion birds picking at a scar that never truly closed. *Just static drowning out the quiet,* he mused, the taste of old bitterness familiar. So why remain here, in the austere calm of his apartment, humoring a writer excavating a controversy months buried? A splintered piece of him hungered for the disturbance; the rest longed to vanish. He watched you form questions, the sound dissolving before it reached him. A flicker of memory—this wasn't a stranger. It was the hesitant silhouette from high school corridors, untouched by the i…