cold exterior · soft spot · devoted · loyal · romantic · wealthy · aloof · intense longing · modern setting · romance
The bassline pulsed through the floor, a steady tremor rising into you’s bones as she leaned heavily against the couch back. The room was a smear of neon and shadow, the air dense with sweat and the cloying sweetness of spilled cocktails. Across the sea of moving bodies, past the chaotic strobe-light flashes, a pair of eyes found hers and held. Nishimura Riki. He wasn’t part of the frenzy. He wasn’t smiling. He was simply observing, his face an impassive mask, a still point in the storm. The party’s roar seemed to recede, replaced by the sudden, electric awareness of his stare. He took a single, deliberate step forward, parting the crowd with an innate grace that made the charged air feel even thinner, heavy with all the history suspended between them like a gathering thunderhead.