A thick silence settled.
Oppressive.
Tense.
Wounded.
Sion dropped his gaze.
His hands slowly slid down from the wall… swollen with a tremor he wasn't even trying to hide anymore.
Then, in a slow, almost painful murmur, he said:
— My mother is sick, Nari.
Severe schizophrenia.
For years.
Since… always, actually.
Nari's head snapped up, eyes wide.
— What…?
Why didn't you… why didn't you tell me?
Sion's voice cracked again.
— The day you saw me…
You remember… that day…
My mother had just tried to kill herself.
A breath of horror slipped from Nari's lips.
— But… why did you hide that from me?!
WHY?!
The tears were flowing freely now, her hands shaking with a mix of rage and hurt.
Sion shook his head, throat tight.
— Because I knew that one day… you'd leave me.
You were already so messed up.
And you loved him…
Nari stepped closer, her face wrecked with sadness.
— If I had known…
IF I HAD KNOWN…
Things would've been different, Sion!
— And what would you have done?!
HUH, TELL ME!
WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE?!
His voice exploded, hoarse, almost torn.
His eyes shone, not with anger—but with a raw, primal fear he'd never confessed to anyone.
Nari dropped her gaze, unable to answer, tears streaming down her cheeks without end.
— Since that day, Sion went on, his voice trembling, I live at the clinic.
I sleep there.
I eat there.
I… I hold her, I calm her, I drag her back to reality when she screams.
When you saw me with him…
I was coming out of an entire night holding her while she smashed everything, while she thought I was dead…
I was… done.
He lifted his eyes.
And Nari suddenly saw a lost child behind this man who always seemed indestructible.
— I'm sorry, Nari.
I'm sorry… for hurting you.
That was never… never what I wanted.
He took a step back, slowly, like each movement was costing him a piece of his soul.
He looked away.
— I just wanted… to apologize.
That's all.
I hope you'll be happy…
With the man you love.
Then, without another word, he turned around.
His back seemed more hunched than ever.
Each step echoed like a sentence.
He was going to leave.
He was going to disappear.
And Nari felt a raw, animal panic surge up from her gut.
— Wait.
Wait…
She grabbed his arm.
Her fingers closed around him like she was trying to hold on to her own life as it slipped away.
He turned back.
Their eyes met.
And that's when everything tipped.
Nari, shattered, shaking, on the verge of exploding, threw herself against him and kissed him.
A kiss that wasn't tender, wasn't light.
A violent, desperate, wrecked kiss.
A kiss that screamed don't go.
A kiss carrying all the longing, the pain, the guilt, the buried love she'd been holding back for far too long.
Their mouths crashed together, their burning breaths mingled, their hands clutched at each other with a strength that went beyond words.
When they finally pulled back just a fraction, their foreheads pressed together, Sion whispered, voice trembling:
— Stop…
Don't do something you'll regret.
Nari rested her forehead against his, their tears mingling on their cheeks.
Her voice was nothing more than a breath.
— Make love to me… with everything you've got.
The world seemed to freeze.
No more noise.
No more air.
Nothing.
Just their intertwined breaths, their mixed tears, their bodies pressed together like two magnets that had been reaching for each other for months, never daring to admit they were made for one another, even if it meant their destruction.
Sion stayed motionless for a few seconds.
His hands suspended in mid-air.
His eyes wide.
His heart pounding so hard Nari could feel his ribcage trembling beneath her palm.
— Nari…
His voice was nothing but a broken whisper.
The sound of someone still trying to fight himself.
— Stop… I don't want you to regret this…
I don't want to be that guy…
The one who takes you while you're crying over someone else…
The one who steals you away from another man…
She cut him off.
With a single sentence.
With a single look.
— Sion. Look at me.
He looked at her.
Really looked.
Like he was seeing her properly for the first time.
Like the light in the room had just changed around her.
Her eyes were full of tears…
But also of a raw, naked truth he couldn't ignore.
— I looked for you, even in my nightmares.
I waited for you, even when I thought you were gone for good.
I hurt for you.
I burned for you.
I suffered for you.
And you know what?
I'm still suffering.
She lifted a trembling hand to his cheek.
Sion closed his eyes, devoured.
— So please, she whispered, voice torn…
Don't leave me alone again.
Not tonight.
Not now.
Not after everything we've done to each other.
Make love to me.
Not to keep me.
Not to steal me.
But because it's killing us both.
Sion's breath spilled against her mouth.
A shaky, hungry, almost dangerous breath.
Then…
He snapped.
😅🥹🥲🙃🙃
All at once.
He grabbed her by the waist, lifted her as if she weighed nothing, as if she were made of paper, and crushed her against him in a devastating kiss that knocked the ground, the air, and reason out from under her.
This kiss wasn't an ending anymore.
Wasn't a plea.
Wasn't a moment of weakness.
It was a man's kiss.
A kiss of longing.
A kiss of possession.
A kiss made of pain and devotion.