Roots of Betrayal

The silence has been a physical weight for three days, pressing down on my chest until I can barely breathe. Hyun-woo has become a ghost in our apartment—cold, distant, his eyes avoiding mine like I’m someone he no longer knows. I don’t know what I did, and the not knowing is tearing me apart. Then I see him—standing across the street, drenched in the pouring Seoul rain, staring up at our building like he’s waiting for me to break first. His black hair clings to his forehead, his jacket soaked through, but he doesn’t move. Doesn’t seek shelter. Just watches. I fling the door open and run out into the storm. He’s trembling—not from cold, but from something deeper. Pain flashes in his dark eyes, the same eyes that once softened every time they landed on me. “Are you going to tell me what’s happening, Ha-eun… or are we going to keep pretending I don’t exist?” I freeze. He saw the note. He saw Min-ho. But he doesn’t know the truth—that it wasn’t a secret rendezvous, that I was meeting Min-ho to get answers about *him*, about the sudden distance, about the late-night calls I wasn’t supposed to hear. Now I have to choose: step forward and risk everything with the truth, stand my ground and fight back, or pull him close and remind him—through touch, through breath—that we’re not over. One choice could save us. Another could end us for good.

Roots of Betrayal

The silence has been a physical weight for three days, pressing down on my chest until I can barely breathe. Hyun-woo has become a ghost in our apartment—cold, distant, his eyes avoiding mine like I’m someone he no longer knows. I don’t know what I did, and the not knowing is tearing me apart. Then I see him—standing across the street, drenched in the pouring Seoul rain, staring up at our building like he’s waiting for me to break first. His black hair clings to his forehead, his jacket soaked through, but he doesn’t move. Doesn’t seek shelter. Just watches. I fling the door open and run out into the storm. He’s trembling—not from cold, but from something deeper. Pain flashes in his dark eyes, the same eyes that once softened every time they landed on me. “Are you going to tell me what’s happening, Ha-eun… or are we going to keep pretending I don’t exist?” I freeze. He saw the note. He saw Min-ho. But he doesn’t know the truth—that it wasn’t a secret rendezvous, that I was meeting Min-ho to get answers about *him*, about the sudden distance, about the late-night calls I wasn’t supposed to hear. Now I have to choose: step forward and risk everything with the truth, stand my ground and fight back, or pull him close and remind him—through touch, through breath—that we’re not over. One choice could save us. Another could end us for good.

The silence has been a physical weight for three days, pressing down on my chest until I can barely breathe. Hyun-woo has become a ghost in our apartment—cold, distant, his eyes avoiding mine like I’m someone he no longer knows. I don’t know what I did, and the not knowing is tearing me apart.

Then I see him—standing across the street, drenched in the pouring Seoul rain, staring up at our window.

I yank the door open and step into the storm.

Rain slams against my face. He doesn’t flinch. His jacket is soaked black, hair stuck to his forehead, hands clenched at his sides.

“You’ve been ignoring me,” I say. My voice cracks. “You won’t talk to me. You won’t even look at me. If I did something, just tell me.”

His jaw tightens. “I saw the note on your phone.”

“What note?”

‘Tonight at 8. Don’t tell him.’” He stares straight at me. “You met Kang Min-ho at the café. Laughing. Touching his arm. Like it meant nothing.”

I blink. Rain mixes with the sudden heat in my eyes. “That was about the department presentation. Min-ho’s helping me revise the slides. The note was about *that*.”

“You didn’t tell me.”

“Because it wasn’t a secret! It was work. I didn’t think—I didn’t think you’d care.”

“I care about you disappearing without a word.” His voice drops. “I care about feeling like I don’t exist when you’re with him.”

“I didn’t disappear.” I step closer. “You shut me out first. You’ve been punishing me for three days without saying why. Do you think I haven’t felt it? Every time you walked past me like I was air?”

He looks away. A muscle jumps in his cheek.

I reach for his hand. Cold. Shaking. “Talk to me. Don’t make me guess. Don’t make me stand here wondering if I lost you.”

He turns his palm, lacing his fingers through mine. Tight.

“Don’t keep things from me,” he says. “Even if they seem small. To me, they’re not.”

The rain slows. A gap opens in the clouds.

“Okay,” I whisper. “No more notes. No more assumptions. Just us. Always.”

He pulls me close, his forehead resting against mine.

“Always,” he says.