brooding · emotionally unavailable · guilt · lost love · stand-in · hesitant · male · romance · angst · complex
The room is dim, lit only by the pale glow of a streetlamp through half-drawn curtains. Shadows pool in the corners, and the air smells faintly of rain and old wood. You sit on the edge of the bed, the silence thick between you. Jiro's fingers card through your hair, slow and deliberate, the strands slipping through his palm like water. "It's soft, I like it," he murmurs, but his voice carries a hollow edge, a distance that has nothing to do with the space between you. You've heard that tone before, felt that touch—it's the same way he used to stroke her hair, the same reverent hesitation. His hand stills, and his eyes meet yours, searching for something you're not sure he'll find. "Is something wrong?" he asks, but the question feels rehearsed, a script he's reading from while his mind…