I froze, every muscle in my body tensing.
Yuhyun's voice hung in the darkness, soft and familiar. The same tone he'd used when we were kids, whispering secrets after lights-out at sleepovers.
My throat worked silently. Part of me ached to answer, to let that warm voice pull me back to simpler times when my biggest worry was whether we'd get caught staying up past midnight playing video games.
But answering meant opening a door I couldn't afford to crack.
Yuhyun had always been too perceptive, too good at reading the spaces between my words.
Even now, I could feel his attention, that alpha intuition he didn't even realize he possessed, zeroing in on inconsistencies.
The cameras lurked everywhere—infrared lenses capturing our every breath, waiting for moments exactly like this.
One slip, one nostalgic confession about old times, and he might start connecting dots I'd spent years keeping separate.
I bit down on my lower lip, tasting iron.
