The gala shimmered with champaigne light, laughter, and polished shoes gliding across the ballroom floor. Luna stood near the edge of the crowd, her gown clinging to her like it had been stitched from moonlight. She smiled when spoken to, raised her glass when expected, but her mind was elsewhere- buried under the weight of uncertainty.
She didn't know why she'd been invited. The card had arrived mysteriously, unsigned but exclusive. The gown, delivered just hours before, had her exact measurements. It felt more like a st up than a celebration.
Still curiosity had led her there
She stepped away from the croud to catch her breath in the quieter hallway, the pulse of music muffled behind her. The corridor was dim ,quiet, lined with antique mirrors and portraits .As she paused ,a figure appeared- tall, composed, and silent.
Kenji Lee.
He didn't approach like a stranger. He moved with ease of someane who had been waiting for her.
"You look lost," he said, voice low.
Luna hesitated. "Just need air."
Kenji's gaze was steady." Parties like these aren't for everyone,"
He offered her a drink- neat whiskey in a crystal tumbler. She accepted, trying to mask her tension .One sip. Bitter warmth .
Moments blurred after that .The hallway twisted around her, and the lights become too bright, then too dim .Her limbs turned to lead.
Kenji steadied her, whispering something she couldn't recall. Then darkness swallowed everything.
* * * * *
She woke in a strange hotel room, silk sheets tangled around her legs, her head pounding like a drum. Her gown was gone. Her skin smelled faintly of his cologne- something expensive, quiet, and sharp. Her memories were fragments- his voice, the hallway, the heat .And one detail stood out sharply:
The tattoo.
A black dragon inked on a man's chest .Elegant. Vicious. Alive.
But she didn't recognise the man.
When she stumbled into the bathroom, her reflection stared back like her stranger's. Her phone buzzed with missed calls from her father. Her chest tightened. Something had happened .Something she wasn't supposed to forget.
But she had
And it terrified her.