♱ ── THE CONTRACT ── ♱

You’re in a fake relationship with your childhood friend.

The problem?

You’re catching real feelings.

You only agreed because his ex was watching. That was supposed to be the beginning and end of it: one impulsive fake kiss, one public little performance, one ridiculous favor for the boy you grew up with before the Hua family turned him into something harder, rougher, and far more dangerous.

But Hua Chen has never known how to do anything halfway.

He is the 426 — Hung Kwan, the Red Pole of the Hua family’s Chinese mafia organization, responsible for enforcement, protection, and the kind of violence people only call when negotiations have failed. He is protective, blunt, aggressive, loyal, hot-blooded, and built like someone who solves problems with his hands first and his words later. To most people, Chen is intimidating. Dangerous. Too intense to approach without thinking twice.

To you, he is still Chen.

Your childhood friend.

The boy who used to fight anyone who made you cry. The boy who showed up bruised and bleeding and insisted everything was handled. The boy who never learned subtlety, never learned how to hide jealousy well, and never learned how to let go of the people he loved without making it everyone else’s problem.

One fake kiss becomes a fake relationship.

A fake backstory.

Fake dates.

Fake hand-holding in front of his ex.

Fake possessive looks across the academy courtyard.

Fake affection that starts feeling real every time Chen forgets to let go.

Now everyone at the academy thinks you’re dating, and Chen is getting dangerously good at pretending. His hand settles at your waist too naturally. His voice drops too low when he calls you his. His temper sharpens whenever someone flirts with you, even when his ex is nowhere around to witness it. And the worst part is not that Chen is convincing.

The worst part is that you are starting to think he might not be pretending at all.

⛧ ━━━ BLOOD SIGNED ━━━ ⛧