His golden eyes shone with a light she didn't recognize.
A light that brought tears to her eyes.
— Why… did you leave me…
— You're the one who left me, she whispered, her heart tight.
He placed his hand behind her neck, pulled her against him, and kissed her.
Not like usual.
Not possessive.
Not voracious.
Not commanding.
No.
A broken kiss.
A kiss from a man asking for forgiveness without knowing how to say it.
A kiss from a man who came back because he didn't know where else to go.
His lips trembled against hers.
His hands were unsteady on her skin.
He kissed her as if she were a refuge.
As if she could mend what had shattered in him.
Nari felt her whole body tighten — not with desire.
Not yet.
First: with pain.
With tenderness.
With longing.
A longing that stabbed her without warning.
She wanted to push him away.
Hit him.
Hate him.
Slap him for leaving her to rot without a word.
But instead, she held him.
And her fingers slid into his nape like a silent answer:
I'm angry at you. I hurt. Don't let go of me.
He almost groaned, a raw, animal sound, as if that single touch had finished him.
Then he pressed his forehead against hers.
— Nari… stop me.
— I'm gonna fuck up again.
— Stop me or I'll take you right here… right now…
She opened her mouth to say no.
But a yes came out.
A yes in her breath.
In her eyes.
In her body.
In her hands already pulling him toward her.
The fall began again.
And they fell together.
The fall was immediate.
Instinctive.
Inevitable.
Sion grabbed her by the waist to lift her against him, but the alcohol made his movements less precise, less controlled — which paradoxically made them more real, more human, more dangerous.
Nari felt her back hit the closed door behind her.
The shock made her shiver.
He placed his hands on either side of her face, trapping her without brutality — just that trembling urgency.
That urgency that said I can't breathe without you.
Their eyes met.
Not a word.
Not a wasted breath.
Just this naked, monstrous truth:
They were doomed.
Doomed for each other.
Doomed by pain, by craving, by desire.
Sion slid his fingers along her cheek, slowly, as if memorizing her skin.
As if part of him feared she might disappear the moment he blinked.
— You know what's the worst part…? he murmured, his voice raw with alcohol and exhaustion.
She didn't answer.
She didn't dare.
He brought his mouth to her ear.
His lips trembled.
— I want you so fucking much I hate myself.
His words hit her straight in the heart.
A punch.
A blow of love.
A blow of ruin.
Nari inhaled too quickly, too sharply, as if her soul was trying to escape her chest.
He looked at her with a blend of rage and distress.
A part of her had always wanted to see him like this.
On his knees.
Broken.
For her.
He placed his hand on her throat — not to squeeze, not to dominate.
Just to feel her pulse.
— Fuck…
His voice cracked.
She closed her eyes.
Tears gathered without warning.
She tried to hold them back, to stay strong, not to give herself once more to this man who made her suffer as much as he made her alive.
But he saw everything.
Every shiver.
Every hesitation.
Every tremble of her lips.
So he broke.
Literally.
His hands slid abruptly to her nape, and he kissed her.
A ravaged kiss.
A kiss born of craving.
A kiss from a man returning from war.
She answered instantly.
Not from weakness.
From truth.
The kiss became deep, voracious, but not aggressive — a violent mix of passion and pleading.
He pressed her against him as if he wanted to disappear into her skin.
She clung to his shoulders as if she were falling off a cliff.
They moved blindly, their hands searching for warmth, for skin, for absolution.
They bumped into the hallway wall.
Then the table.
Then the couch.
Nothing existed around them.
Nothing but the burning breath of one against the mouth of the other.
— Tell me no, he panted against her lips.
— Please… tell me no… tell me to get the fuck out…
— No…
— No what?
His voice almost a whimper.
She whispered — a whisper that made his entire body tremble:
— Don't leave…
He closed his eyes.
His fingers tightened in her hair.
— Fuck, Nari… you're gonna hate me…
Then he lifted her.
Literally.
As if she weighed nothing.
As if her body was a prayer he could no longer ignore.
He laid her on the bed with a mix of softness and desperation.
His hands trembled on her skin.
His lips traced her throat, her shoulder, her collarbones.
— I can't live without you anymore…
She placed her hand on his cheek.
He trembled.
A raw shiver.
All monsters carry inside them a pain deeper and more devastating than others, and he was one of them.
He lowered his head, rested his forehead on her bare stomach.
Breathed against her skin.
For a long time.
As if he were being reborn.
Then he murmured, his voice broken:
— Let me stay tonight.
— Just tonight… before everything explodes again.
She slid her fingers through his dark hair.
— Stay.
He lay down against her.
Not to fuck her.
Not to possess her.
Not to dominate her.
Just… to hold on.
To survive.
To breathe.
Their breathing synced.
Their fingers intertwined.
Their eyes closed.
The world collapsed under an invisible snow.
And in that bed, between the smell of alcohol, pain, and human warmth:
Something unspoken, forbidden, indestructible
took root.
Not love.
Not yet.
Something more dangerous:
Shared obsession.
Dependence.
Mutual downfall.
And it is there—
in that silence—
that their destruction truly begins.