The rain poured down as if it had no intention of stopping. Large drops broke the city into blurry silhouettes, ran down car roofs, and left muddy rivers on the asphalt. Do-yoon walked quickly, almost running. His soaked shirt clung to his body, his hair stuck to his temples, but he didn't stop. Streetlights flashed and disappeared in his eyes like film frames. Behind him remained the office, the silence in which their words had turned into knives. Seungho remained—and that short, painful kiss, which felt more like a goodbye. He knew: Seungho was not the enemy. But to trust him completely meant putting his life on the line. And perhaps not only his own. Seungho didn't lie. But he didn't tell the whole truth either. And that was the worst part.
***
He turned into an alley, his steps splashing in puddles. A cigarette flared in his fingers, the red dot momentarily catching his own face in the reflection of a shop window: tired, wet, with a bitten lip. "I'm not walking away from an Alpha criminal," he thought. "I'm walking away from a person I can't trust. And that hurts more."
***
At the same time, Seungho sat alone in the office. The rain outside the windows was his only companion. He stared into the darkness of the city and, for the first time, allowed his shoulders to slump. He took off his coat, slowly, as if shedding armor. He rubbed his face with his palm and held it over his eyes. No anger. No words. Only exhaustion, hidden behind a thousand masks, and a pain that couldn't be shown to anyone. He leaned back in the chair, looking at the rain. Outside the glass, the city lived, but here, in this office, it was quiet. Too quiet. He left. And Seungho felt, for the first time, that the power with which he held the world meant nothing if he didn't have the one person for whom he was willing to break the rules.
***
Do-yoon stepped out onto an empty road. Cars sped past, headlights catching the wet asphalt, illuminating the rain streaks, turning the night into broken lines of light. He stopped beneath a sign, breathing heavily. Everything around him was empty. And that emptiness now lived within him. He took a step forward. Ahead was the unknown. But there was no turning back. This was the end. And the crack that divided them became an abyss.