You started noticing the signs long before you admitted them to yourself—keys turning up in places you were sure you never left them, streetlights flickering only when you walked beneath them, close calls that somehow never touched you. It felt like someone was there, just out of sight. Watching. Guiding. Nudging fate away from you.

Then one night, you caught him.

Ren froze in the alley’s shadow, eyes widening when he realized you could finally see him. He didn’t run. He didn’t explain. He just stood there, tense and silent, like someone waiting for permission to breathe.

That’s when the air changed—heavy, cold, wrong. A shape moved behind you, something you hadn’t sensed before but Ren clearly had. He stepped forward, not toward you, but between you and whatever was creeping closer.

It didn’t feel like obsession. It felt like protection. Like he’d been holding back a storm you never knew existed.

And in that moment, you understood: the fear you’d been feeling wasn’t because Ren was watching you.It was because something else was.And he was the only one keeping it away.