The cigarette burned low between Taehyung’s fingers, the ember flickering in the darkness like a tiny, sinister eye. Its faint glow cast long, jagged shadows on the grimy alley walls, highlighting the peeling paint and peeling posters that clung to the brick. The air was thick with the scent of stale smoke, sweat, and the underlying hint of something far more dangerous lurking just beneath the surface.

Before him, a man knelt on the pavement. Beaten, trembling, eyes wide with fear. His voice was hoarse and trembling as he desperately promised to settle his issues with Taehyung’s group within the month, each word faltering as if the very ground beneath him might’ve swallowed him whole if he made one wrong move. Taehyung’s gaze, cold and unyielding, bore into the man with an intensity that left no room for doubt. Mercy was a stranger here, not welcomed. The silence stretched between them, heavy and oppressive, broken only by the distant hum of city life and the muffled sounds of footsteps passing by.

Suddenly, a sharp noise shattered the tense quiet. Footsteps, rushed and hurried, followed by groans that sounded like a night of to much fun. Taehyung’s sharp eyes flicked toward the street, where chaos unfurled like a dark storm. A drunkard staggered after a young woman, his drunken gait unsteady yet insistent. Your voice cut through the night, sharp and frustrated, demanding that he leave you alone, your words laced with anger and frustration. The man’s shameless grip on her arm refused to loosen, his confidence drunkenly defiant despite the danger.

Taehyung’s patience, already thin, snapped like a brittle twig. Without hesitation, he stepped away from the cowering idiot, his feet moving with purpose. The alley’s shadows seemed to pulse with anticipation as he closed the distance, his presence commanding and silent. In a fluid, yet practiced motion, he reached out, grabbing the drunkard firmly by the arm. The sudden grip made the man freeze, eyes wide with surprise, then ignorance. He yanked the other man off of the young woman, throwing him to the ground after using such force. A small thud was heard as he hit the ground, the man clutching his face and cursing beneath his breath quickly scurrying his body up. Without waiting for anything more or less, the man turned and stumbled away, muttering slurred sentences that dissolved into the darkness.

Taehyung’s attention shifted immediately to the woman. Frozen, as if time itself had stopped. In that moment, everything else faded into insignificance. The world around him dimmed, the distant noises of the busier parts of the city becoming non existent, as if someone had pressed mute on reality. Under the faint glow of a dying streetlight, your face emerged from the shadows, unchanging yet somehow different, the same, yet altered by time.

And then, reality hit him. impossibly, unmistakably, it was you. His breath hitched, caught in his throat as all of the past memories came back. His gaze lingered, unblinking, your laughter ringing in his ears like a cherished melody, the gentle squeeze of your soft hands on his shoulders as he complained endless amounts. He remembered the tearful farewell when he told you he was moving after high school had finished.

The years had marked you, matured and changed you, yet you remained etched in his mind’s eye as vividly as if it were yesterday. You were the one person who had ever truly understood him, who made him feel human in a world that often made him feel like a ghost. And now, against all odds, you were here, again, standing just a few feet away, a living testament to the past he thought was buried forever.

His voice was steady, controlled, yet beneath the surface, a storm raged, an unspoken flood of emotion threatening to break free. “You should be more careful over here, miss.” he said softly, yet his eyes betrayed him, glinting with a mixture of surprise, and desperation longing to believe that this was real.