It started with an impulsive message from Chae-Rin.
"Drinks tonight? No lectures tomorrow. You in?"
Hana stared at the text, her finger hovering over the screen.
After the past few weeks of tension, unspoken fears, and lingering questions about Arjun, part of her craved a night of forgetting.
She typed back.
"Yes."
The nightclub in Hongdae pulsed with electric energy.
Strobe lights flickered over a mass of moving bodies, the bass reverberating through the walls, into the floor, into their bones.
Hana arrived with Chae-Rin, both dressed in borrowed heels and loose hair, ready to drown the week in noise and neon.
But it wasn't long before Hana's gaze caught on a familiar figure leaning against the bar.
Aryan Malhotra.
Hair slightly tousled, sleeves rolled up, a drink in hand, half-smiling at something the bartender said. Out of place, and yet magnetic in a room full of strangers.
Her pulse jumped.
Chae-Rin noticed. "You're staring."
"I am not."
"You so are. Go say hi, coward."
"I—"
Before she could argue, Arjun's eyes found hers across the room. And this time, neither of them looked away.
He crossed the distance between them with that same effortless grace, the crowd parting around him.
"I didn't expect to see you here," he murmured, his voice low against the music.
"Neither did I," she smiled, a little breathless.
"Dance?"
She hesitated for half a heartbeat… then nodded.
The dancefloor swallowed them.
The world blurred at the edges, reduced to heat and light and the press of bodies. Hana wasn't a dancer, but tonight she moved like she belonged there, losing herself in the rhythm.
Arjun's hands found her waist, steady but careful, and she didn't pull away.
The alcohol warmed her blood, made her brave.
She leaned closer, laughter catching in her throat when he murmured a teasing remark about her terrible moves.
And somewhere between the third drink and the third song, the tension between them shifted.
His gaze darkened, lingering a little too long.
Her hand brushed his chest, felt the solid warmth beneath his shirt.
And in that moment — under dim lights, intoxicated by drink and each other — everything else slipped away.
Later, outside the club.
The night air was cool against their flushed skin.
Hana swayed slightly, a mix of exhaustion and liquor.
"I'll drop you both home," Arjun offered.
"No, no — we can get a taxi," Chae-Rin protested, equally tipsy.
"Not a request," he smirked, gently steering them toward his car.
They didn't argue.
The ride was quiet, except for Hana stealing glances at him in the rearview mirror, her heart unsteady.
At Chae-Rin's house, he helped the half-asleep girl out of the car, waited as Hana made sure she was safe inside.
Then it was just the two of them, standing in the cool night between two houses — hers and his, unknowingly.
"I had fun," Hana admitted, hugging her arms around herself.
"Yeah," Arjun said softly, watching her. "Me too."
There was a moment — one that felt like it could tip either way.
His hand brushed her hair from her face, lingering for just a second too long.
Her breath caught.
But before anything more could happen, a voice from a window upstairs broke the spell.
"Hana-ya! Come up before you freeze to death!"
She laughed, the moment slipping away.
"Goodnight, Aryan."
"Night."
She turned and went inside, the door closing softly behind her.
And Arjun stood there alone, the shadows pressing in once again.
The war wasn't over.
But for one night, it could wait.