Anya had only been strolling around the area, enjoying the cold Berlin afternoon, when a familiar figure caught her eye.
The green parka. The way he stood. The shape of his shoulders.
Luca.
She smiled instinctively, expecting to see Seo-in beside him.
But her smile slowly faded.
Luca wasn't with Seo-in.
He was with another woman—someone Anya had never seen before. Tall, slim, effortlessly elegant, the kind of beauty that made people stare. The woman leaned a little too close as she talked to him, and even from a distance, Anya could feel something unsettling in the scene. Luca looked tense, yes, but to a passerby it still resembled an intimate, familiar conversation.
Anya stopped walking.
Who is she?
She pulled out her phone, her fingertips suddenly cold. At first, she only wanted to confirm that the woman wasn't Seo-in. She snapped a quick photo and messaged her best friend.
[Anya] to [Seo-in] : Are you with Luca right now?
Seo-in replied almost immediately:
[Seo-in] : No … I'm at home. Why?
Anya's pulse quickened.
She looked again—Luca and the woman still standing too close, too comfortable, too wrong.
Without writing another word, Anya sent the photo to Seo-in.
Her chest tightened with dread as she hit send.
***
Seo-in's heart dropped the moment the photo appeared on her screen.
Luca and a beautiful, unfamiliar woman—standing far too close, talking, even laughing. Like old friends.
Like something worse.
Her stomach twisted painfully.
The woman was stunning—tall, slim, graceful in a way that made Seo-in instinctively curl inward. Next to someone like her, Seo-in's shorter, curvier frame felt unbearably small. The insecurity hit her fast and unexpectedly, sharp as a thorn.
Her fingers tightened around her phone until the edges dug into her palm.
She couldn't breathe for a second.
Why … why is he with her?
***
The next day, Luca's phone buzzed.
Felix.
Luca stared at the name for a long moment, thumb hovering over the screen.
Of course Felix would call. Of course he'd be angry.
He swallowed hard, forcing air into his lungs before he finally answered.
"...Hey."
"Hey?"
Felix's voice cracked through the speaker, sharp and frustrated.
"That's all you have to say? Luca, where the hell have you been? It's been three days. Seo-in is losing her mind."
Luca's eyelids fluttered shut, throat tightening.
Hearing her name punched straight into his chest.
"I know," he murmured. "I'm … sorry."
On the other end, Felix let out a disbelieving snort.
"Sorry? That's it? You vanish for three days and that's all you've got?"
Luca pinched the bridge of his nose.
The headache had been there for hours—days, maybe—he wasn't sure anymore.
He'd been drifting through Berlin like a ghost, walking aimlessly, barely sleeping, barely eating.
"I know. I'm an idiot," he said softly. He tried to keep his voice steady, almost conversational. "I just … needed some space. To think."
"Space to think?" Felix's voice went razor-sharp.
"You could've at least told Seo-in. I've been answering her calls, trying to convince her you're not—"
He cut himself off, anger thinning into something more brittle.
"Luca, what are you doing?"
Luca stared down at the river beneath the bridge.
His reflection blurred against the dark water, distorted by the current.
"I'm sorry for putting that on you," he said quietly.
Then, without meaning to, without even realizing it until it slipped out—
"Sometimes I think … if I just died, maybe everything would be easier."
Silence.
A long, cold silence.
"What did you just say?"
Luca blinked.
…He said that out loud?
He felt his stomach drop.
"Oh," he breathed, voice barely a whisper. "Didn't mean to—uh—say that. Sorry."
"Jesus, man. Luca. Are you okay?"
Luca let out a soft huff—half a laugh, half a sigh—as he turned his face away from the phone.
Jesus … sure. Where is he now?
He bit the inside of his cheek, rubbing a trembling hand through his hair.
"You won't understand," he said with a small, shaky chuckle that didn't sound like him.
"…Hey, don't worry. I think I've finally … succeeded."
His lips curved into a smile that felt wrong, hollow.
"Just tell Seo-in I'm not coming back."
"…Hä?"
Felix's voice dropped to a fearful whisper.
Luca winced again.
He kept messing this up.
He kept hurting people.
"Look," Luca murmured, gripping the cold metal railing of the bridge, "it's better this way. Okay? Trust me."
"Luca, tell me where you are. Right now."
There was a pause.
Long.
Dragging.
Then Luca whispered:
"…Spielt das eine Rolle?"
He ended the call before Felix could reply.
The dial tone hummed into the empty air beside him.
---
Felix stared at his phone, horrified.
This wasn't just heartbreak.
Luca sounded … wrong.
Too calm. Too steady.
Like someone trying to hold his mind together with shaking hands.
A sick fear twisted his gut as he immediately dialed Seo-in.
The phone rang.
Once.
Twice.
A third time.
Then—
"Hallo?"
Her voice was nervous, gentle.
Like she already knew this wasn't a normal call.
"Seo-in," Felix said, breath tight. "Where are you?"
"At home … why? What's wrong?"
He exhaled shakily.
His voice dropped.
"It's about Luca."
Silence.
Then her voice trembled, softer than a breath:
"What happened?"
Felix closed his eyes, pressing his fist to his forehead.
"I need you to sit down," he said quietly. "Please."
He told her everything.
Luca's strange tone, the things he said—how too-casual his laughter sounded.
How his voice was steady, but not the right kind of steady.
How he kept speaking like a man who had already made a decision.
Felix couldn't make sense of all of it, but his instincts screamed that something was very, very wrong.
"He's a BPD sufferer," Felix said, voice trembling with urgency. "You know how impulsive he gets—he could … he could do something without even realizing it."
Seo-in's breath hitched.
"Then let me help you look for him—"
"Nein," Felix cut in gently but firmly.
"Not yet. We don't even know where he is. It's too dangerous for you."
He hated saying it.
Hated leaving her behind.
But the thought of dragging her into whatever dark place Luca had sunk into—
He couldn't risk that.
"Stay by your phone," he said, voice firm but soft.
"I'll call you the moment I find him."