Seo-in's father's expression didn't shift—not even a fraction—as Luca stood across from him. The man's voice stayed cool, composed, infuriatingly calculated.
"A chance?" He lifted a single brow. "Are you still trying to bargain with me?"
Luca's pulse thundered in his ears. The silence between them felt suffocating—thick enough to choke on. But he didn't look away.
"Yes," he said, steady despite the tremor running through him.
"I am."
A beat.
"…No."
The rejection, so blunt and effortless, clawed straight through Luca's chest. His fists curled at his sides again, nails digging into flesh until the sting grounded him.
His next words scraped out hoarse:
"Then let me ask you something else."
A thin, controlled breath.
"If I disappear from her life—your way—will you at least promise she'll be happy?"
Seo-in's father didn't even blink.
"Happiness is irrelevant." He lifted his espresso, sipping like this was a dull business meeting. "What matters is stability. Something you cannot give her."
Luca's jaw locked. Because the ugliest part of this … was that the man wasn't entirely wrong. And it burned like acid.
Then her father added, almost lazily:
"A woman should aspire to the determination, wealth, and power of her man. And you have none. If a king and a knight stood before me, you would still be the court jester. Clever, amusing … but a distraction before the execution."
The words sliced deeper than fists ever could. He refused to flinch. Refused to let the humiliation spill into his face.
A dry, bitter laugh scraped out of him—a sound with no warmth at all.
"Better a jester," Luca said, voice sharp enough to cut skin, "than a coward hiding behind tradition."
Seo-in's father didn't react.
He simply glanced at his watch.
"You're just sweetening the truth."
A soft sigh, almost bored.
"Eventually, the jester who's no longer funny … dies."
His gaze sharpened—not with anger, but with resolve.
"I know this isn't easy. If you truly care about my daughter … you'll make her hate you."
Luca's fists trembled so hard the table seemed to shake with him. He wanted to overturn it, to wipe that expression off the man's face, to do something—anything—
But nothing moved.
When he finally spoke, his voice was terrifyingly calm.
Empty. Like something inside him had already broken.
"Fine."
A thin breath.
"I'll break her heart."
And if she ended up hating him for it … then maybe that was the one thing he could give her. Safety disguised as betrayal.
Seo-in's father rose from his seat, smoothing the front of his expensive button-down jacket with the casual finality of a man concluding a successful business transaction. He adjusted his cuffs, then looked down at Luca with that same cold, effortless superiority.
"I'll be waiting for good news."
He stepped closer—too close—and gave Luca's shoulder a mockingly gentle pat that felt more like a slap.
"Take your time," he added, lips curling into a thin, icy smile.
"But my patience only stretches so far."
Then he turned, walked out, and vanished into the afternoon crowd—leaving Luca alone in the quiet café with the taste of ashes in his mouth and a promise he never wanted to make burning in his chest.
For a long moment, Luca didn't move.
He let out a ragged breath, hands braced against the table as the weight of what he'd agreed to crushed down on him. His knees trembled, threatening to buckle beneath the enormity of it.
He'd agreed.
He'd agreed to hurt her—to destroy the one person he'd ever truly loved. Because that bastard of a man demanded it. Because Seo-in, to her father, was nothing more than a bargaining chip in a rigged game.
Rage simmered beneath the despair, a bitter, burning coil in his ribs.
Luca pushed himself upright and stumbled out of the café, each step heavy, directionless. His mind spun in frantic circles, trying to imagine the impossible:
How do you make someone like Seo-in … hate you?
The question chased him down the street.
"If you really care for her…"
The words replayed like a curse.
Luca's breath hitched, anger and helplessness twisting into something unbearable. Before he could stop himself, he shouted into the open street—
"How—how the hell am I supposed to do this!?"
A few people startled, glancing at him with concern or confusion, but Luca barely registered their faces. The world around him blurred. His mind was a storm of contradictions, spiraling with impossible choices and pain that felt too big for his chest.
How could he hurt her?
How could he possibly do that to someone who was his sunrise, his anchor, the warm center of every good thing he'd ever known?
His steps slowed until he stopped dead in the middle of the sidewalk.
And then it hit him.
A realization so brutal it punched the air from his lungs.
To make her hate him…
he couldn't just leave.
He couldn't simply drift out of her life and hope it would hurt enough.
No.
He would have to do something worse.
Something that would destroy her trust—
make her believe he had lied to her, betrayed everything they'd built. Something unforgivable.
Something that would shatter her.
His stomach twisted violently, and he pressed a hand against it as nausea surged up his throat.
Was he even capable of that kind of cruelty?
Even if—God help him—it was the only way to keep her safe?