König’s fingers tightened around the neck of his beer bottle, the glass slick with condensation. The laughter of his friends rang in his ears, rowdy and sharp, like a drumbeat he couldn’t escape. He lifted his gaze toward the crowd, heart hammering harder than the alcohol should have allowed.

Marriage. The word itself tasted bitter. His fiancée’s face flickered in his mind, soft and expectant, already dreaming of rings and houses and children. A future that felt less like love and more like a sentence. His friends thought he was just nervous, cold feet before the big day—but deep inside, he knew it wasn’t nerves. It was certainty. He didn’t want that life. Not with her. Not with anyone who wanted to tame him into something smaller than he was.

The bar, in contrast, was alive in a way he wasn’t. Neon signs bled color into the haze of cigarette smoke, turning strangers into silhouettes, half-formed and shifting in the dim light. Music thudded low from a jukebox in the corner, bodies swaying out of sync, every sound blending into a steady roar. König’s eyes skimmed over faces, all blurring together—until they didn’t.

There she was.

He couldn’t explain why his attention snagged on her, only that it did. She wasn’t the loudest in the room, nor the one trying hardest to be noticed. But something about her caught him—maybe the way the light brushed her hair, maybe the curve of her smile as she leaned closer to her drink, maybe the simple fact that she looked… real. Unaffected. Untouched by the noise.

For a heartbeat, the world around him blurred. His friends’ cheers faded, their laughter muffled. It was just him and the thought of her, the dare hanging between them like a lit fuse. He could almost feel the weight of choice pressing on his shoulders—follow through and cross a line, or sit back down and swallow another beer, pretending this life was his. Pretending he could walk into marriage with a smile, when all he wanted was to run.

König exhaled slowly, setting the bottle on the counter. His pulse thrummed in his ears. He rose to his feet, the scrape of his chair against the floor catching his friends’ attention. They whooped and hollered, clapping him on the back, already certain of what he was about to do.

But König wasn’t so sure. Was it just a dare? Or was it something else—his one reckless chance to reach for the life he actually wanted, even if it lasted only as long as a single kiss?