As Suho walked out, he paused at the doorway. Hauen stood there, still as a quiet question, her eyes searching his face. His chest tightened. He knew she had heard every word.
He reached for her wrist and gently pulled her with him."Come. Let's go," he said softly.
She didn't ask anything. She simply followed.
In the car, silence settled around them like a blanket no one knew how to fold. Suho didn't speak. He just held her hand, his grip firm, almost desperate, his gaze locked on the passing city lights outside the window.
Mr. Lee glanced at them through the rearview mirror; even he could sense something heavy in the air.
Hauen replayed the entire conversation in her mind, piece by piece. She knew what Yerin meant to him once. She knew how deep those wounds went. She should have felt relieved that he chose her again, affirmed his love again. But she couldn't feel any of that.
Because she had seen the hurt in his eyes.
She had seen him bleed from old scars she hadn't caused but wished she could heal. That broke her heart more than anything Yerin had said.
She looked at him. He was still staring out the window, jaw tight, shoulders stiff. She wanted to hold him, wanted to speak, wanted to gather every shard of pain he carried… but she didn't intrude. She gave him space.
After a long moment, Suho finally shifted toward her. Quietly. His arms slid around her waist, pulling himself into her warmth. His head pressed into her shoulder, breathing her in, grounding himself, letting her presence soften the chaos inside him.
Hauen wrapped her arms around his shoulders immediately, holding him closer. She pressed a soft kiss to the top of his head, a touch both steady and tender.
"I love you," he murmured against her skin, his voice low, fragile at the edges.
She smiled through the ache in her chest. "I love you too, my teddy," she whispered, kissing his hair again.
He tightened his arms around her, a quiet hum escaping him, clinging like she was the only safe place left in the world.
He stayed like that the entire drive home, curled into her side, holding on, letting her hold him back.
By the time they reached home, both of them slipped into the quiet performance of pretending to be fine. They smiled a little too softly, spoke a little too lightly, each trying not to touch the bruise they both carried inside. Hauen tried her best to act normal, bright even, but Suho could see the dimness in her eyes. And she could see how he kept drifting away every other minute, lost somewhere only he could reach.
They changed into their comfortable nightwear without much conversation. A gentle silence filled the room. Soon they lay side by side on the bed, the darkness between them soft but heavy.
After a while, Hauen drifted into sleep, her breathing settling into a slow, steady rhythm. But Suho couldn't follow her into that peace. He lay awake, wide-eyed, his heartbeat refusing to slow. Restlessness crawled through him.
Yerin's sudden return had cracked open the stillness he had worked so hard to rebuild. She wasn't someone he could simply dismiss or push into a dark corner of his mind. She was someone he had loved with everything he had. That truth still hurts. It wasn't a desire anymore. It wasn't longing. It was the lingering sting of what once mattered too much.
He wanted Hauen. Only Hauen. He loved her with every beat of the man he had become.
But it was also true that Yerin still affected him… painfully, inconveniently, unfairly. The echo of old attachments wasn't something he could pretend didn't exist. And he hated that. He feared it. Because any leftover ache for Yerin felt like a potential wound for Hauen, and he would rather break his own heart than hurt hers.
He turned his head and looked at Hauen's sleeping face. Even in sleep, she looked a little weighed down, like her dreams knew what her lips refused to speak. He knew she was affected by Yerin's comeback, too. She just wasn't saying it out loud.
He wanted her to feel safe with him. To trust him. To believe that he wasn't going anywhere. That he chose her not out of comfort, not out of escape, but out of love. True, steady, present love.
His chest tightened. His eyes burned. The tangle of emotions kept twisting sharper inside him. Restlessness returned, pressing against his ribs. Anxiety kicked at his lungs.
Unable to stay still, he sat up on the bed, breathing shallowly. He reached for the water on the nightstand and took a few sips, trying to anchor himself. But his thoughts kept spiraling, chaos crowding out the calm.
No matter how he tried, sleep wouldn't come. Only the storm did.
He looked at her again, the soft rise and fall of her breathing, the peace resting on her face. A part of him wanted to wake her, to spill every restless thought swirling inside him, to let her hold him together. But another part feared it. What if sharing all this hurt her? What if his pain became hers?
He didn't want to steal her sleep. But he wanted her. Wanted to hide in her arms until the storm in his head quieted. Wanted to lose himself in her warmth just enough to find himself again.
After battling his thoughts, fears, and guilt, he finally gave in to the gravity pulling him towards her. He moved closer, inch by inch, and then snuggled into her warmth, so close he could feel her heartbeat through her skin.
She stirred lightly. Her fingers brushed his hair.
"Suho…" she whispered, half-awake, voice soaked in concern and love.
He couldn't answer. The tenderness in her voice burned through his throat, and the emotions he had been holding back trembled free. A warm tear slid onto her skin.
She tensed, then instantly cupped his head with both arms. "Suho, what happened, Teddy…?" she murmured.
He couldn't lift his head. Couldn't let her see him breaking. His breath shuddered, and the tears kept falling, silently but fiercely, as if the ache inside him had finally found a way out.
She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him tight, grounding him. One hand on his back, one in his hair. She didn't ask anything, did not push anything. Just holding.
She let him cry, all the tangled threads of guilt, confusion, fear, and emotional wounds that still stung. She let him empty it without shame, without words.
Eventually, his breath began to steady. His shoulders softened. The storm quieted.
She brushed his hair back gently. "You okay now?" she whispered.
He didn't answer.
"Teddy?" she tried again, softer.
He sniffed, wiping his nose with the back of his hand like a child. Slowly, he lifted his head. His eyes were red, lashes wet, his nose pink. He looked heartbreakingly vulnerable.
She cupped his cheeks, the warmth of her palms steadying him. "Suho…"
"Teddy, look at me," she said, "If you're feeling low, share it with me. Tell me what's hurting you."
He blinked, and then the words he had been afraid of finally escaped.
"I'm not able to stop getting affected by Yerin," he whispered, voice trembling. "I want to let her go completely. I thought I did. But today I realised I didn't. And I'm scared… I'm scared I'll hurt you because of it."
His breath hitched as he continued.
"I love you, Hauena. You're the one I want. But something inside me still hurts when it comes to her, and it scares me. It scares me because I don't want to ruin us. And I don't want you to think I'll ever… ever leave you."
His honesty sat heavy in the air, pure and trembling.
She didn't flinch. She didn't panic. She didn't let doubt even graze her. She stared at him for a moment, not with doubt, not with jealousy, but with a kind of searching tenderness, as if she was looking straight through the pain to the man behind it.
Then she said nothing.
She simply leaned in and kissed him, not moving her lips, just pressing against his lips, warm, gentle, like she was reminding his heart where home was.
He stilled at first, breath caught. Then he closed his eyes, letting her warmth draw him in, letting her lips coax him out of the chaos. Just breathed her in.
When she pulled back, her forehead rested against his. Her breath was trembling slightly.
"Suho," she whispered, "I will never leave you alone. Not for this. Not for anything."
His eyes fluttered open, searching hers.
"I know what Yerin meant to you. I know how deeply you loved her. I know it's not easy to cut off a part of your past just because your present is different." Her thumb brushed his cheek. "But if you think I would walk away because of this? No. I won't. Unless you ask me to."
He swallowed hard, listening like every word was saving him.
"I dared to love you even when I had no chance of having you." She continued, voice steady. "And now that I finally have you…, you think I'll let something like this take you from me?"
His lips parted, eyes glassy. Her words wrapped around him like a vow he never asked for but always needed.
"Take your time," she whispered. "Detangle your heart at your pace. I'm not going anywhere."
For a moment, he looked at her with the softest, saddest puppy eyes she had ever seen.
She leaned in and pecked his lips. "I love you everywhere, every time, with everything I am, Teddy."
He still stared at her.
"Still sad?" she asked.
He just snipped and looked down.
She smirked, knowing where to hit, "My teddy was so flirty and romantic at the party… now look at him, acting like a lost puppy."
He didn't react much, just avoiding her gaze.
"If you don't smile now, I'll make you run a marathon tomorrow morning, for real, and you might regret confessing to me." She threatened dramatically.
That finally cracked him. His lips curled downward and then up in a shy, reluctant smile, and he leaned into her, arms circling her waist as his nose brushed her cheek.
"You always know how to cheer me up," he murmured.
"Maybe," she teased.
He kissed her cheek softly. "Sometimes I feel like I don't deserve you."
She slapped his back. He didn't even flinch.
"Let me finish before you hit me," he complained, making her giggle.
"Sometimes I feel like I don't deserve you… But I'm selfish enough not to let you go," he finished quietly.
Her smile softened. He kissed her cheek once again. Fingertips idly toying with the hem of her top, wide awake.
"Sleep, Teddy. You have to go office tomorrow."
"I'm not sleepy," he grumbled.
She smirked at him. "Do you want to get… recharged? For a goodnight sleep? I can cooperate." She asked, deliberately teasing.
He smiled into her neck, voice low. "I won't reject that offer though… But if you want it, I can cooperate, too." He teased her back, confidently.
She chuckled, "Ohh, really? Exactly how? Just staying buried in my neck?" she teased again.
He answered her by giving a playful bite at one sensitive spot. She gasped, and he chuckled.
"If you want it, get on the job already," she teased, nudging his shoulder.
He paused, then looked up at her.
"I admit that I want you really bad right now... But it's late… And you are tired. I don't want to stress you," he said, brushing a soft kiss to her lips.
Her heart eased at that quiet, thoughtful side of him. And he had always been like this for his loved ones. It was the very thing that had pulled her toward him in the first place. And it was the version of him she'd fallen in love with first.
He pecked her again. "Good night."
She smiled. "Good night."
He flashed his charming, sleepy smile, kissed her one last time, sealing his heart again with her warmth, then pulled her tight against his chest, warm, protective, finally at peace.
Within minutes, he drifted into sleep, wrapped around the woman he loved.