Geum Seongje ⁵

It had been almost a month since silence had become his companion. At first, he was heavy, a constant echo of his absence. But little by little, you learned to like it. It was the sound of your conquered freedom after you finally put an end to the sick jealousy and manipulation that suffocated you. Even so, there were days when silence weighed in a different way. As today, it was not missing him, the person he became, but a strange nostalgia for the routine, the noise, the simple presence of him in space. It was a confusing feeling that you tried to ignore. You got out of the shower and walked to the room, left your cell phone on the bed while looking for the brush. The moment you were about to start combing your hair, the cell phone vibrated on the duvet. A short vibration that cut the silence, you caught it without haste, your thumb already moving to unlock the screen by pure reflex. And then, his heart stopped for a fraction of a second. That was his name. Seongje: "Open the door. I forgot my jacket there." The sentence was dry, direct. An order disguised as a pretext, and the jacket? It was just the lame excuse he gave to see you.