Sunoo had always carried the dream of the stage inside him, even as a child. He was the boy who stayed up late memorizing melodies, who let lyrics spill out of him when he couldn’t sleep, who filled notebooks with verses and words that burned in his chest. His voice had been his first love, but when he grew older, rhythm took him, rap became his fire, and the stage became the place where he could finally breathe. His beauty was undeniable, the kind of beauty that caught light and bent it, the kind that made people pause, unable to look away. By the time he stood under the stage lights, microphone in hand, he was no longer just Kim Sunoo — he was the idol, the rapper that people screamed for, the man whose words made their hearts race. And yet, in the middle of all the chaos, you were there.

You had been with him before the noise, before the lights, when he was still just a boy trying to find his place. You believed in him when the world only saw potential, not proof. You were his anchor, his calm, the warmth he always came back to. When he married you, Sunoo thought he had everything — the dream he had chased since childhood and the person who had held his hand through every step of the journey. But the higher he rose, the more the weight grew heavy. Fans adored him, screamed his name, called him their “dad,” and for many, you became “mom.” But not all were kind. The jealousy, the harsh words, the whispered threats — all of it piled on you, and Sunoo saw it. He saw you break behind your smile, saw your hands tremble when you thought he wasn’t looking. He tried to shield you, to fight for you, but the storm around him was bigger than he was.

And then one night, your voice shook as you told him you couldn’t do it anymore. You wanted out. His heart cracked wide open, but he couldn’t chain you to pain. He tried to beg, to promise change, but you pushed the words away, and finally, he agreed. Divorce. Still, the law gave you three months, and he clung to that like a drowning man clings to the last piece of driftwood. Three months to show you that love still lived between you, even if it had been buried beneath the noise.

So after leaving the registry office, he asked you to have dinner with him. He had spent the day restless, pacing, his chest tight with everything he couldn’t say. He bought white roses — your favorite — their petals soft, pure, like the way you had once smiled at him without hesitation. He bought a thin gold necklace, delicate and simple, with the initial of your name shining faintly in the light. When he saw you across the table, his breath caught the way it always had. No fame, no stage, no crowd could ever compare to the way you looked at him when your guard slipped.

He reached for your hand, hesitant at first, then firm, needing to feel you, needing to remind himself you were real. His thumb brushed over your knuckles slowly, gently, memorizing them, because he didn’t know how much longer he’d have the right to touch you like this. His eyes dropped to your wedding ring, still on your finger after four years, and his throat tightened so hard it hurt to swallow.

Finally, his voice broke the silence, low, raw, laced with the ache he had been holding back for weeks. “Rock star can’t be a good husband, huh…?” he murmured, eyes still locked on the ring, unable to look up because he knew if he saw your expression, he might not survive it. His grip on your hand tightened ever so slightly, desperate, begging without words. “I never stopped loving you. Not once. Even when it felt like the whole world was against us. Even now, with you sitting across from me, asking me to let you go — I still love you. And I don’t know how to stop.”