Aran watched the light in Yun's apartment turn on.
Only then did he allow himself to move.
He walked slowly, hands in his pockets, footsteps unhurried as he made his way back to his car. His reflection passed through darkened windows—calm expression, steady eyes, a man who looked like he had everything under control.
He always looked like that.
Inside, his chest ached.
"So close," Aran murmured under his breath.
Yun had spoken to him. Asked his name. Looked at him without fear.
That alone felt like a miracle.
Aran sat in the driver's seat but didn't start the engine. Instead, he closed his eyes—and the present peeled away far too easily.
Rain poured relentlessly, soaking through silk robes and skin alike.
"Aran…" Yun's voice trembled as he knelt before him, hands clutching Aran's sleeves desperately. "Please. I can't stay anymore."
Aran remembered the way his heart had shattered in silence.
"If you leave," Aran said then, voice controlled to the point of cruelty, "you will not survive this world."
Yun had laughed weakly through tears. "Then let me die."
That had been the moment Aran realized—
Love alone could not make someone stay.
Aran opened his eyes.
The memory left a familiar, dull pain behind.
"I won't do that again," he whispered.
This life is different.
Yun is different.
Softer. Quieter. Untouched by the weight of what they had been. And Aran would protect that—no matter how deeply it hurt him to hold back.
He would not cage him.
He would not frighten him.
He would not demand love that Yun did not yet remember.
But leaving?
That was still not an option.
Aran started the car at last, pulling away from the curb.
Tomorrow, he would move closer. Not forcefully. Naturally. The way fate liked to disguise inevitability as coincidence.
After all—
He had learned patience over lifetimes.
Across the city, Yun sat on his bed, staring at his phone.
He didn't know why his fingers hovered over the search bar.
Aran.
He typed the name, then paused.
"…Why does it feel like I've always known it?"
Yun lay back, chest tight, heart unsettled in a way that felt strangely warm.
Outside, the rain began to fall.
And for the first time, Yun dreamed of someone holding an umbrella over him—hands steady, presence quiet, refusing to let him get soaked again.
To be continued....