The morning light filtered through my curtains, golden rays dancing across the wooden floor like tiny spotlights. I stretched under the sheets, half-expecting to wake up to the sound of my alarm blaring. Instead, silence. A calm, almost deceptive kind of silence. For the first time in weeks, I hadn't dreamt of looming deadlines or frantic voices in conference rooms. I dreamt of laughter—his laughter.
Joonseo's face lingered in my mind even before I opened my eyes. His whispered promise last night replayed in a loop, echoing louder than the buzz of my own thoughts: "You don't have to carry everything alone. Let me share the weight."
I wanted to believe him. I wanted to trust that letting him in wouldn't unravel everything I'd worked so hard to build. But then again, wasn't that the very problem? Trusting him meant giving away pieces of myself I'd locked behind iron doors years ago.
