The sound of rolling luggage echoed softly across the hotel corridor. Hye-rin zipped up her suitcase, glancing around one last time to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything. The London morning was pale and gray outside the window — quiet, almost reluctant to let them go.
"Ready?" Joon-hyuk's voice came from the doorway. He was already dressed neatly in his usual style — black coat, crisp shirt, that calm, unreadable expression she'd grown used to.
She nodded. "Yeah. All packed."
He took her suitcase from her hand before she could protest and wheeled it toward the door. "The car's waiting downstairs."
She followed him silently through the hallway, her footsteps soft behind his. Something about him felt… different. Not cold, exactly — but distant. The Joon-hyuk who'd joked with her at the London Bridge, who'd teased her until she laughed without realizing it, seemed to have vanished overnight.
