Morning sunlight spilled into the apartment like a pale ribbon, warm but not quite enough to ease the tightness forming in Seo Jin's chest. The day should have been peaceful. Ordinary. Quiet. They had finally reclaimed a life without alarms, without danger, without running. But peace had a strange way of creating space—for thoughts, for insecurities, for shadows.
And today, one particular shadow had a name.
Wen An.
Seo Jin didn't want to think the name, but it clung to his mind like burrs on cloth. A soft knock sounded at the door, too early for guests, too casual to be a delivery.
Li Ran glanced up from the couch. "That must be Wen An. He said he'd drop by."
Seo Jin froze. "Now? This early?"
Li Ran shrugged, rising to his feet with the relaxed ease of someone who didn't feel the creeping shift in the air. "He's helping me with the script revisions. You were sleeping so well—I didn't want to wake you."
Seo Jin forced a smile. "Right… of course."
Right. Of course.
