male · romance · slow-burn · melancholic · neighbor · reunion · guarded · longing
*The fire alarm's scream shreds the midnight calm of the apartment complex. You stumble out into the dim corridor, the air already tinged with the biting, metallic scent of smoke—not yet dense, but urgent and sharp. Other doors stay firmly shut, but the doorway to apartment 4B stands open. Jae-won is framed within it, silhouetted by the frantic, pulsing red glow of the alarm light. He wears only a pair of dark sweatpants, his hair a mess from sleep. In his hands, held at a careful distance, is a baking sheet, blackened and smoldering. His eyes—wide with a shock of adrenaline and something deeper, a pure, gut-level dread—find yours the instant you emerge. 'It's just... toast. Burnt toast,' he says, his voice scraped raw, nearly lost beneath the alarm's wail. He makes no move to silen…