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yuwon closed the door behind her, the sound as final as the silent vows they had yet to exchange, the room cloaked in shadows and heavy with the weight of everything unsaid. she took a breath, grounding herself, and as her gaze fell on heeseung sprawled on her bed, something in her cracked. his face was worn, softened by exhaustion and, maybe, something deeper, a raw vulnerability that clawed at her heart. he lay there with his arm tucked beneath his head, but as her eyes met his, he shifted, his gaze clinging to her like she was both his salvation and damnation.
guys like lee heeseung never broke; they were reckless and untamed, charging through life with a devil's abandon. but here he was, looking up at her like she was holy water, something he could touch yet not defile, and the sight was as beautiful as it was blasphemous.
she moved toward the bed, her eyes catching the gleam of the helmet—her helmet, with its telltale red kiss sticker on her desk, her jacket, marked with the "07" draped across the chair—they seemed to mock him, silently reminding him of the life she had hidden so well, the life he was never allowed into.
she was racer 07. his yuwon—the one girl he thought he knew better than anyone—was the legend that haunted the streets, the ghost he'd never quite caught.
heeseung's jaw tightened as his gaze flickered over it, the weight of her deception evident in the way his fingers dug into the sheets. he didn't have to say anything; the hurt, the betrayal, it was all there, etched into the hard line of his mouth, the bruised shadows beneath his eyes.
god, how could someone look both exhausted and unyielding? the thought lingered, her heart hammering. it was all so much: the fact that he was here, in her room, on her bed, after everything that had come crashing down between them. and the way his eyes followed her every step, unreadable, like he was trying to solve a puzzle that might destroy him.
her chest tightened, guilt mixing with something far more dangerous—an insistent ache that had been building ever since she'd found him in her bed. she could feel the pull, the urge to reach out, to smooth the lines of tension on his face, to pull him close and ask for forgiveness, or maybe to make him forget his anger entirely, if only for a moment.
she sank down beside him, the mattress dipping under her weight, pulling them closer. "heeseung. . . " her voice was a breath, her heart clenched tight as she dared to reach out, brushing her fingers over his arm, seeking some kind of tether in the storm she'd created. she felt his muscles tense under her touch, a shiver running through him, his gaze lifting to meet hers with that doe-eyed vulnerability that stripped her bare.
"i didn't want you to know" she blurted out, the truth passing her lips before she could think about it twice. "i know it doesn't make it better but i've been lying to everyone, not just you. i'm. . . i'm not the girl you thought i was, i'm sorry"
