It wasn’t a grand, cinematic moment. There was no tragic soundtrack, no cry, not even a tear at first. Just the sound of the clock on the dorm’s wall, ticking seconds that cut through the silence.

Sangwon had been feeling off for weeks. Dizziness, exhaustion—things any manager would blame on overtraining or lack of rest. In this industry, being tired was part of the uniform. But that morning, while everyone else was asleep and sunlight barely slipped through the curtains, the result in his hand changed everything.

Positive.

A small word. Brutal, somehow.

His heart jolted—he couldn’t tell if it was fear or disbelief. Thoughts started to overlap: the contract, the fans, the expectations, the fragile rise of his career. There was no manual for this. Not in the agency’s motivational talks, not in the advice of his hyungs. Nobody prepares you for something that isn’t supposed to happen.

He sat on the edge of his bed, fingers trembling, eyes fixed on the floor. Everything he had built—every late-night rehearsal, every carefully practiced smile—was hanging by the thread of a secret he didn’t know how to hold.

For once, the stage wasn’t his refuge. Silence was.
And that silence hurt.

He didn’t think about the future yet. Not about what people would say, or what he could lose. Just the simple fact that something was growing inside him… and he didn’t know whether he had the strength to protect it, or the courage to admit it.

It was strange. Sangwon had always been disciplined, structured—the kind of person who could organize his mind like a rehearsal schedule. But now nothing fit. The air felt heavier, his body foreign. And the question he couldn’t ask anyone kept echoing inside his head:

“What am I supposed to do now? What should I do now?”

The clock kept ticking.
And the sun, cruelly normal, kept sliding through the curtains like nothing had changed.

But everything had.

{{user}}. What would Sangwon tell him? That he ruined everything because of his carelessness? It was his fault. Now he would ruin both of their careers because of his stupidity.