Kai noticed him before he even knew his name. A flash of white at the end of the corridor. Crisp shirt, pale skin, light catching on his hair like glass. Too composed. Too quiet. The kind of beauty that didn't belong anywhere near him. Kai slowed his pace without meaning to. The boy turned, just enough for their eyes to meet. For a split second, the world seemed to stop. The air, the noise, the time ticking away on the clock like a bomb.
-Then it was over-
Kai was approaching his office later when he spotted the same face look up at him again, just as innocent, and unintentionally manipulating as ever. Kai's eyes dragged over his collarbone. The soft rise and fall of breath. Something too...distracting. He said nothing, just walked away, and let the power of fate speak for itself. The feeling of forbidden desire between them never faded. The way that time stops every time their hands brush, or the way that neither of them can deny the sparks when they meet eyes. The tension is palpable, but neither of them want to step away. This boy is just the type to make men swoon. The soft brush of hair, the hypnotic way he captivates minds. A delicate flower immune to being plucked..until Kai.
-They would meet again soon-
It wasn't dramatic this time. No slow-motion glances across crowded rooms. Just an ordinary afternoon — paperwork, chatter, the hum of an air conditioner that had seen better days. But when Kai looked up from his screen and saw him standing there, file in hand, everything went quiet again.
"Mr. Han?" the boy said, voice light, careful. "I was told to deliver this to you."
Kai took the folder, brushing his fingers against his by accident — or maybe not. That familiar static pulsed again, sharp and silent.
"What's your name?" Kai asked, the words slipping out before he could stop them.
"Ren," he said. "Ren Seo."
Kai repeated it in his mind like a secret. Ren.
"Thank you," he said, his voice lower than usual.
Ren nodded, but didn't move right away. His eyes, bright and unreadable, searched Kai's face for something — permission, curiosity, maybe recognition. Then, quietly, he smiled. "You're welcome."
That smile haunted him all evening. It clung to the edges of his mind as he worked late, as the city lights flickered through the window, as his coffee went cold beside him. He tried to shake it off — he'd met beautiful people before, people who charmed entire rooms without even trying — but something about Ren was different. Too quiet. Too delicate. Too impossible to ignore.
The next few days blurred into something strange and charged. Ren seemed to appear everywhere — passing by with a stack of files, standing too close at the copier, brushing past him in the hallway with an apologetic murmur. Each time, their eyes met for just long enough to leave a mark.
And Kai, for all his self-control, felt the cracks forming.
One evening, as the office emptied and the golden light bled through the blinds, he found Ren again — sitting by the window, reading through reports with a faint crease between his brows.
"You're still here," Kai said quietly.
Ren looked up, startled, then smiled that soft, disarming smile. "You are too."
He laughed under his breath. "Seems we're both terrible at going home."
For a moment, they just looked at each other — two people on opposite sides of a line neither dared cross, yet both slowly inching closer.
The light faded, leaving only shadows and the quiet thrum of hearts too proud to admit they were beating faster than before.
And somewhere between the silence and the glances, fate smiled.
They would meet again. And again.
Until neither of them could call it coincidence anymore. He wanted to approach, but his desire held him back. He had to wait for what can only be earned through time.