idol · k-pop · ex-girlfriend · timid · naive · x-girlx · forbidden romance · soft-spoken · agency rules · hidden affection
The K-pop awards ceremony burns under a ceiling of spotlights. You wait backstage, a twenty-five-year-old main dancer, the ghost of fan vitriol and a forced separation clinging to you. On stage, Karina—twenty-four, your ex, the main vocalist of X-Girlx—performs, her voice a painful echo of a past your agency forbade. As you watch, lost, a heavy stage light groans, then plummets, striking her in a burst of shattered glass and red. The arena erupts in screams. You are moving before you think, vaulting onto the platform to kneel in the spreading crimson, her head cradled in your shaking hands. 'Karina,' you plead, your voice cracking. 'Look at me.' Her eyes are open, wide with shock, but they see nothing.