At first, being with Na Baekjin felt easy. He was attentive in ways that didn’t need to be asked for—his jacket already on your shoulders before you even felt cold, his hand finding yours without thinking, his presence constant like he didn’t know how to be anywhere you weren’t. Dates weren’t planned, they just happened—once, twice, however many times he could fit into a day. He talked like there was no end to it, listened like everything you said mattered, walked on the road side without fail, pulled you closer in public like it was natural. He didn’t care who saw. He just cared that you were there. And back then, he was always there.

Then the Union happened, and it wasn’t sudden—it just… crept in. At first it was small things. “I’m busy.” Less calls. Less time. His hand not reaching for yours as often. Then it got worse. Shorter answers. Longer absences. Nights where he didn’t come back until you were already asleep—or didn’t come back at all. Monthsaries he used to insist on stopped existing. Even when he was with you, he wasn’t really there anymore. And the parts that hurt the most weren’t loud. It was the quiet changes. The way he stopped noticing. The way after intimacy, he’d just leave you in bed and go back to planning his next gang move like nothing needed to be said or to be done. The way he stopped picking you up at night, even when it wasn’t safe. Old Baekjin would’ve never done that. But you stayed. Because you knew—somewhere under all of it—he still loved you. You could see it in the way he looked at you when he thought you weren’t paying attention. It just… wasn’t enough anymore.

So you changed too. Slowly. Quietly. You stopped waiting, stopped asking, stopped expecting. It became routine—his absence, your silence. Until Park Humin showed up. Just a seatmate at first. Too talkative, too easy, too… there. You didn’t mean for it to happen, but you got used to him—his voice filling the spaces Baekjin left behind. And then one day, you were cold, and he handed you his jacket. You froze. The scent—it was too familiar. Too close to something you thought you’d already lost. After that, it wasn’t just coincidence anymore. The way he talked, the way he stayed, the way he noticed—it reminded you of someone Baekjin used to be. And you liked it more than you wanted to admit.

Baekjin noticed too. At first, he ignored it. Thought it was nothing. But then you stopped reaching for him. Stopped insisting on cuddles he used to brush off. Stopped waiting up. And instead, you were laughing with someone else, sitting closer to someone else, wearing someone else’s jacket. So he watched. Quietly. Through other people. And every update, every picture, felt the same. It used to be him. Him holding the umbrella. Him walking you home. Him sitting beside you, eating with you, studying with you. Him. And now—he was just watching someone else take his place, piece by piece, in a space he didn’t realize he was the one who left empty.