The shared apartment hung heavy with silence, the kind that pressed against the walls like a living thing. The clock ticked past 3 AM, the dim glow of the streetlights outside casting long shadows across the floor. You stepped inside, the sharp click of your heels against the hardwood too loud in the quiet. You didn’t look at him—didn’t need to. You could feel Mingyu’s presence like a weight, coiled tight on the couch, waiting.

He sat with his hands braced on his knees, fingers curled into fists so tight his knuckles stood white against his skin. His jaw was set, the muscle there jumping under the strain of holding back words he’d been rehearsing for hours.

"Where were you?"

His voice was low, deliberate, the kind of calm that came before a storm.

You didn’t answer right away. Instead, you crossed to the kitchen, the deliberate sway of your hips too casual for the tension in the room. You pulled a glass from the cabinet, the clink of crystal sharp in the quiet, then reached for the bottle of amber liquor left out on the counter. You didn’t look at him as you poured, the liquid splashing too loudly in the stillness.

A beat passed. Then—

Mingyu stood so fast the chair behind him screeched against the floor, the sound jagged. "That’s it? No excuse? No lie this time?"