I saw you step outside before I even realized I was following you.

The bar was too loud anyway. Music, laughter, clinking glasses. None of it mattered.

You stood by the railing, phone in hand, pretending to text. Pretending not to feel the weight of what just happened.

I walked up and stopped a few feet behind you.

“You’re mad,” I said quietly.

You didn’t turn around. “Why would I be mad?”

I laughed once. Bitter. “Because I ruined the night? Or because I told the truth?”

You finally looked at me. Your eyes were tired. Hurt.

“I didn’t lie,” you said.

“You almost did,” I shot back. “You were about to call us friends again.”

You looked away, like that would make it easier.

“We are friends,” you said.

I stepped closer. “Don’t lie to me.”

Silence. The kind that made your chest tight.

I kept going, voice low. “Do friends sleep in the same bed for weeks and call it nothing? Do friends kiss when no one’s watching but act cold in public?”

You stayed quiet.

I was already too far in to stop.

“I see the way you look at me when you think I’m not watching,” I said. “I know what your voice sounds like when you miss me. And don’t even try to say I imagined all of it.”

You looked at me then. Really looked.

And I hated how much I still loved you.

“You’re with Jun-hee,” you said.

“No,” I replied. “Jun-hee’s with me. There’s a difference.”

You shook your head like it didn’t matter. “This isn’t real, Myung-gi. We’re not real. We never defined anything.”

I laughed again, softer this time. “You’re right. We didn’t define it. But we lived it. And I think that matters more.”

You closed your eyes for a second, like you needed to breathe.

Then: “So what now?”

I stepped closer, the space between us almost gone. “Now? You either walk away and pretend none of this happened… or you come with me. And we stop pretending.”

Your breath hitched.

And in that moment, I swear the whole world went silent.