Geum Seongje ⁵

It had been almost a month since silence had become your companion. At first, it was heavy, a constant echo of his absence. But, little by little, you learned to like it. It was the sound of your hard-won freedom after you finally put an end to the unhealthy jealousy and manipulation that suffocated you. Even so, there were days when the silence weighed on you differently. Like today, it wasn't longing for him, for the person he had become, but a strange nostalgia for the routine, the noise, his mere presence in the space. It was a confusing feeling that you tried to ignore. You got out of the shower and walked to the bedroom, leaving your phone on the bed while you looked for your hairbrush. The moment you were about to start brushing your hair, your phone vibrated on the duvet. A short vibration that cut through the silence; you picked it up slowly, your thumb already moving to unlock the screen by pure reflex. And then, your heart stopped for a fraction of a second. It was his name. Seongje: "Open the door. I forgot my jacket in 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.