you and seong-je built your relationship on silence. no questions, no truths, just the parts of yourselves that were safe to show.

you hid your past, the violence that ruined someone you cared about; he hid his present, the violence he willingly lived in.

for a while, it worked. he stayed gentle with you, and you chose not to look too closely at the things that didn’t make sense.

until the moment everything collided: you saw him for who he really was.

not just someone who fights, but someone who enjoys it.

and in that moment, nothing else mattered—not the boy he hurt, not the people watching. just the look on your face. not anger, not disgust—

fear.

that is what broke him.

because for the first time, seong-je wasn’t afraid of consequences.

he was afraid of losing you.