Inside, the light was dim, warm, clashing with the cold outside.
A faint steam still floated in the air, as if someone had just drunk a scalding coffee seconds earlier.
She moved forward.
Her eyes took a second to adjust.
Then she saw him.
Sion.
Standing.
Still.
Perfect.
Magnificent.
Terrifying.
A black suit, cut with almost military precision.
A dark shirt slightly unbuttoned, revealing a glimpse of skin.
His hair styled carefully.
His jaw clenched.
He was… so beautiful it hurt.
But it wasn't his beauty that struck her.
It was his aura.
A cold aura.
Smooth.
Implacable.
The aura of a man ready to burn the world down if he had to.
He held a tablet in one hand, a folder in the other, talking to his assistant as if everything were normal — but his eyes… his eyes when he turned his head toward her…
That look wasn't human.
Not controlled.
Not rehearsed.
There was a tiny movement, an almost imperceptible flinch in his pupils, a slight twitch of his lip, a tension running through his shoulders.
He stiffened.
For real.
As if his spine had just been caught in a steel vice.
As if his heart had just skipped a beat.
As if his soul had just violently cracked.
Nari's jaw tensed.
She felt her knees loosen, nearly give out, her body reacting to his body all on its own.
Daewon, the assistant, turned, politely broke off the conversation and bowed to her, speaking.
Nari didn't really hear a word.
She was… absorbed.
Absorbed by the man staring at her as if his insides had just been ripped out.
Daewon left.
Sion closed the door behind him.
The click of the lock was so sharp, so precise, so cold that it sent a shiver through her.
Like a sentence.
Like a beginning.
They were alone, facing each other.
The air grew heavy.
So heavy she had to inhale twice before she could get any oxygen in.
He didn't say anything.
He looked at her.
For one second,
one second only,
the silence became a living thing in the room —
thick, sticky, almost burning —
a silence vibrating between them like a wire stretched to the breaking point.
Sion didn't move.
Nari either.
He had looked at her before.
He had owned her with his eyes, desired her with his eyes, burned her with his eyes.
But never…
never like this.
His gaze devoured her with such intensity she felt her stomach knot, a heavy heat climb along her spine, a dizzy spell knock her knees loose.
He didn't even blink.
— Aren't you supposed to be at your wedding, Nari? he repeated, his voice even lower now, almost a rumble, a mix of mockery and… something else, something more fragile, more dangerous.
She clenched her teeth, arms crossed over her chest to hide the way her hands were shaking.
— And you… are you getting ready to attend it? she shot back, a nervous smile tugging at the corner of her lips, even though her heart was pounding so hard she was afraid he could see it through her ribs.
Sion's lips curved very slightly, a smile that wasn't really a smile.
A smile that said "I'm in pain", "I'm holding back", "I want to scream at you", "I want to kiss you", "I want to destroy everything."
But his mouth stayed shut.
The tension between them was so dense Nari had to inhale.
She took one step toward him.
Just one.
But that step made the whole room tremble.
— Sion… I came to talk to you, she said, her voice shaking despite her efforts to steady it.
He listened, head slightly tilted, like a predator watching the slightest movement.
— Then talk, he answered.
That voice.
That deep, low, rough voice, loaded with restrained tension…
She felt her stomach flip, a dull heat rising into her throat.
She inhaled.
Her hands turned clammy.
— I… I'm not going to get married.
Sion's breath stopped dead.
Literally.
He stopped breathing for a moment, as if his body no longer remembered how to function.
His eyes widened slightly.
Not much.
Just enough for her to see the crack.
The breach.
Hope.
Despair.
Love.
All at once.
He took half a step toward her.
As if he were being pulled.
As if something inside him had just woken up.
As if he were fighting not to touch her.
— I want you… Nari whispered.
Her voice wasn't a voice anymore.
It was a torn-out breath, a strangled confession, an admission vibrating in the air like a wire about to snap.
Sion closed his eyes for half a second.
Half a second where he seemed to waver.
A violent shiver ran down his back, climbing all the way up to his neck.
When he opened his eyes again, they were darker, warmer, hungrier.
He moved closer.
Very slowly.
She felt his heat before he even touched her.
She felt his breath brush her cheek, a warm breath that made her dizzy,
and when his mouth neared her ear,
she almost collapsed.
— Say it again… he growled, his voice hoarse, shaking, almost pleading.
I… didn't hear you right.
His hand brushed her waist — not quite a touch, just the promise of one — but that almost-caress burned her skin.
Nari lifted her eyes to his.
And everything exploded.
Tears spilled instantly.
Her heart burst in her chest.
She felt everything rise all at once:
the guilt,
the pain,
the longing,
the fear,
the desire,
the nights without him,
the agony in the hotel,
the abandoned ring,
the torn photo.
Everything.
She screamed.
— I WANT TO BE WITH YOU!!!
The scream ripped out of her before she could stop it, an animal cry, visceral, full of tears, truth, and accumulated pain, a cry that seemed to shatter the air itself, a cry that pushed the rest of the world back behind them.