— E L L A —
Two glasses sat on the counter, chilled, quiet, easy to miss if you weren't looking for details like that. But once you noticed, you couldn't stop. The light coming through the window was pure, almost-evening gold. Not quite day anymore, not really night yet either. One of those hours that makes everything look warmer than it actually feels, and makes you want to stay in it as long as you can.
I'd curled up in the corner of my couch, smoothie glass pressed between both hands, legs tucked under me. I was still wearing the oversized shirt I'd thrown on in the morning, except it didn't feel like just mine anymore. I didn't look too hard at that thought. The TV was on, but no one was watching. Sylus sat next to me. He wasn't touching, just there, in that way his presence takes up space differently, heavier, more intent.
I sat there, half-lost in thought, drifting between everything and nothing at all. That weird space where your mind isn't really thinking it's just floating. Warm, shapeless, almost hopeful... but I didn't dare look too closely at it. I was afraid that if I poked at it, it might vanish.
"Love. A real job, some door finally opening. Maybe things are actually getting better. Maybe a life outside the hell zone. Was this it?"
Was everything finally coming together after I'd been quietly piecing myself back together for so long? But does it ever go this easily? That doubt slid in like it always did.
Slipping in sideways, sneaky, while I was distracted. You don't learn to trust the smooth and easy way. You learn it the hard way, because smooth hides claws, and it likes to flip over just when you start to relax. I pushed it down.
He never even bothered pretending."You're thinking too loud," he said, eyes on the screen.
"I'm not thinking anything." "You are." He said it like a fact.
I lifted the glass, sipped, and didn't answer, and then he looked at me the way he does, that slow turn, his eyes settling on my face with all the patience in the world, willing to wait me out.
"Mm." Sylus turned the glass in his fingers, satisfaction flickering across his face. "This tastes amazing." I looked at him. My triple oversized hoodie fitted him in that way fit clothes do, totally effortless, totally wrong in the most right way. He looked ridiculous and incredible, his hair falling softly over his forehead. The tiny piercing in his left ear caught the last bit of sunlight, and there was this half-grin at the edge of his mouth, like some stray smile wandered in and just sat there. He looked like a kid. A happy, untouched, soft kid life had never been properly protected.
Cruel fate, I thought, and I meant it in ways words couldn't reach. His eyes locked on mine. And I couldn't break away. Wouldn't. He had that pull gravity with a face like that, changing the whole room just by walking into it. Like if I reached out too fast, tried to grab hold, he'd vanish and leave nothing but light in my hands. Ever since Sylus showed up, it'd been nothing but wild ups and downs. But maybe that's the point. Maybe chaos is what happens when a missing piece finally finds its spot.
I took a sip. His grin stretched wider. He leaned in, slow, deliberate, like someone who had already made up his mind. He brushed his lips against the corner of mine so soft it almost wasn't there. His voice hummed with content. "Mm. Delicious." My heart jolted. "Ya! Sylus!"
I smacked his arm. He laughed that real, low, surprising even to himself, the kind of laugh that wasn't for show, just real. He pulled me close without thinking, as if I'd always belonged tucked into his side and he was just reminding me of it.
"Mm." That hum. Deep and satisfied, like a guy who'd found the only spot in the world that wanted nothing from him and wasn't planning to leave it. I let myself just stay. Then my phone buzzed. Reflexively, I grabbed it, barely glancing, expecting it to be nothing.
RE: Contract Termination [ Fourth Shoot Cancellation.]
My heart dropped. The whole room tilted, just a bit, but enough. My eyes read over the words creative realignment. Contract concluded. Fourth shoot cancelled and each one hit, sharp and separate, knocking into something I'd spent forever building.
The debut... My debut.
The door I'd been pressing my whole heart against. Gone. I flipped the phone face down, quick, my hands weirdly steady. Breathe. I looked at the TV. Tried to mask my face. Picked up my glass. Fine. It's fine. You're fine.
"Ella." His voice was quiet and easy. It settled right in the air. I didn't look at him. "Mmm?" Silence the kind when someone already knows what you're hiding and is just waiting for you to give up the act. "Ella."
"Mm?" My voice came bright, light as air, clearly fake.
"What was that?"
"Nothing," I waved it off. "Work stuff. It's-"
"If you say fine," he said, perfectly quiet, "I'll wait right here until you tell me what's actually going on. We both know who cracks first." I looked over. He didn't flinch. Unbothered, immovable, and completely right.
I let out a breath. "They canceled my shoot," I said. My voice sounded too small, smaller than it was supposed to be, and hearing it made it worse. "The fourth one...the debut. 'Creative realignment.' That's what they said. Three words."
He didn't say a thing. That silence landed harder than anything else could have. "This one actually mattered," I admitted. I hated how true that sounded. "The others were work, but this one was it was a way in. The other models actually knew each other, had history, connections. I was finally about to be part of it. And now... I have to see them again after getting pulled. They'll look at me and wonder what I did wrong, and I don't even—" I stopped. "I don't know what I did wrong."
My hands wouldn't stay still. "How am I supposed to face them again?"
Just silence, for a moment. Then his hands. Slow, steady, both of them, lifting my face as he'd already decided it was worth it. He tipped my chin up until I had to look at him. And whatever was on his face, I didn't know the word for it, not really.
Definitely not pity. He never did pity. If anything, it felt like he was somehow helping to carry it. Like I didn't have to hold it alone.
"Be the CEO of your own life." His voice was calm and firm
I stared at him.
"Put people where they belong. Not where they think they belong, not where they try to go. You set the pace, Ella. You decide who gets to stay in your life and who doesn't."
His thumb moved over my cheekbone, barely a touch, but it settled me. He held my gaze, not blinking. Steady as ever.
"This doesn't get to define you. They don't define you." There was a tight feeling in my throat.
"It's your life, Ella," He went on, even softer now, just for me, just for this corner of the world where nobody else was listening.
"Your pace. Your terms." He waited. "Okay, my love?" I looked at him, really looked. Sitting here in my small apartment, with evening gold light slipping across his face, hands on mine as he'd always known where they belonged, and words that dropped straight into the hollow space in my chest and fit like they were designed for it.
"You say that like it's simple," I said, voice barely above a whisper.
"It is simple. "Sylus.-"
"The hard part," he said, "is deciding to believe it."
Something deep inside me cracked. Not loud, just quietly giving way after holding for too long. I felt tears sting in my eyes. Hated that I always do.
"I'm really trying," I admitted, voice rough and shaky, "not to cry in front of you."
"I know," he said. "It's not working." He just nodded. "Yeah. I know."
He closed the distance. Holding me close, hugging me as if he held me tightly, I would crumble as he'd already made up his mind and everything else was just following through. He stroked my hair softly. "I am here, Ella." His voice echoed in my mind as if he would embrace me whole, that utter soft tone, "Look at me."
He kissed me gently, deeply. No pressure, no asking, just pure warmth and presence. Suddenly, everything else went quiet. The TV, the phone, the stinging words from that email. All quiet.
I kissed him back. Because, honestly… I couldn't not. Because he held me like I was someone you should hold, and kissed me like I was someone worth kissing. And that part of me that had been holding itself together since the email finally, finally let go.
"Mm-Sylus-"
"Shh." His hand soothed along my jaw, slow, unfussy. Like he had all the time in the world.
"Let me make you forget everything."
He pulled back, nice and slow.
I let him. I didn't move. The warmth of his chest still lingered against my cheek, and that familiar heaviness just sat there, quiet in my heart. My eyes were full of something I hadn't sorted out yet.
The question pops up in my head the way things sometimes, no drama. Just there. Plain and obvious, as I'd always known it but forgot to bring it up until now. I spoke before I'd made up my mind to.
"You're going to get tired of me eventually."
Not a question. Not even fear, really just one of those truths you've already swallowed. Something you lay out on the table so nobody has to pretend otherwise. Sylus stilled. That exact sort of stillness that was his alone, he paused, like he'd hit the mute button inside himself so he could process what I'd said.
He eased back and looked at me. "Ella." His voice was soft. "Why would you think that?"
I said nothing. He didn't wait. His hands slid to my waist, slow and intentional, and drew me in until there was barely any space left. Just enough to say it was there, He watched me, and so close I couldn't look away. Not sure I wanted to.
A breath apart.
"You don't even have any idea,"he murmured, "How deep on my knees I am for you."
Something loosened in my chest. I held his eyes, quiet. Sometimes with Sylus, the best answer was silence, the kind that gave his words room to settle, nothing crowding them out.
"You are worth every Sin, Ella."
He said it low, his deep voice felt like a magnetic charm pulling me in , His grip on my waist tightened, just a bit enough to notice.
"And I'd commit every single one," his gaze pierces my soul, letting the weight of his words settle, "If it means making you happy."
I looked at him. This man. Here. Wearing my hoodie. Standing in this tiny apartment, hands on my waist, golden evening light everywhere. Looking at me like I was his only point on the map.
"I have never knelt before anyone." He expressed it plainly, without drama or emphasis, just the honest weight of his words. He kept his gaze fixed on mine.
"Not once. Not for anything."His hands gripped my waist, pulling me closer at a deliberate pace that felt like a choice unfolding in real time.
"But being in front of you," he paused, and something shifted in his expression. His expression was unreadable, as if he was struggling to find words that captured what stirred inside him.
"It drives me crazy, Ella. With feelings I can't name. Feelings I have never-" He stopped, jaw tightening. He started again.
"You are worthy of everything."Each word felt carefully placed, like he was constructing something meant to endure.
"And I will never."He paused for a breath. "Ever." His grip changed. Both arms enveloped me completely, erasing any space between us. "Leave you."His voice lowered. "Gotit?" I remained silent.
"Even if you push me away."The words landed somewhere I hadn't meant to leave open. They settled in a way that felt uninvited, more frightening than cold ever was. A shift. Subtle. Like the temperature in a room changing before you realize why. His arms remained around me, tightened slightly, feeling less like comfort and more like a claim of truth that couldn't be denied.
When his voice replaced, it was lower, colder around the edges, and deeper. The one that lurked beneath the warm facade. The one I sometimes glimpsed in how he surveyed a room, how people behaved differently when he entered, and how his eyes became flat and certain when something threatened what belonged to him.
"If it gets hard to breathe." His warm fingers brushed against my chin,, lifting to meet the gaze I couldn't deny. "Open a window."
"But if your mind wants to leave-" His arms tightened in a way that made escape impossible. " You can'tgo." His words settled inside me with a reassurance, with a certainty he was utterly convinced by. His warm embrace me whole, that feeling of being at ease, at peace, was with Sylusthe way his face was buried in my crook, all I could hear was his lips whispering my name like a prayer, like he would fall apart if he stopped, his fingers tangled in my hair caressing my nape so gently it made my mind go blank.
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— K A N G Y U L —
" Ella. Seeing you slipping that mask off will be quite an amusing sight to see, isn't it so?"
"Let's see how long it takes for you to find me. "