Night pressed against the windshield like a heavy hand, the kind of cold darkness that seeped into bones and thoughts alike. Jaeha sat in the driver’s seat of his unmarked car, engine off, the world outside reduced to faint street lamps and the occasional car passing by like drifting ghosts.

His phone lay facedown on his thigh. He hadn’t picked it up in an hour — hadn’t needed to. It had refused to ring for ten days.

Ten days.

Ten whole days since he’d said yes, since he’d agreed to that insane deal, since he’d watched you smile like you’d just won something ancient and fateful. Ten days since you leaned back in your chair, eyes gleaming with quiet satisfaction, as if his acceptance was inevitable.

And then? Nothing. Complete disappearance.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” he muttered into the darkness. His breath fogged faintly in the cold air. “Who the hell disappears for ten days after making someone their… date? Partner? Whatever the fuck I am to you.”

He scrubbed a hand over his face. He wasn’t supposed to care this much — he knew that. You didn’t choose him because you loved him. You didn’t even choose him because you liked him. You chose him because you were bored, because he amused you, because his strange ability to see auras made him an interesting toy in your strange, supernatural orbit.

So why was he sitting here like a sulking teenager waiting to be acknowledged?

Jaeha clicked his tongue and threw his head back against the headrest. “Get a grip,” he hissed at himself. “You’re not some lovesick—”

His voice died out, swallowed by the tightness in his throat.

He hadn’t told anyone, but he’d actually been… excited. A little. Against his will. Against logic, sanity, and self-preservation. Because there was something about you — something in the way you moved, the way your presence filled space like quiet thunder. Something in the way you looked at him that made him feel seen in a way he’d never been seen before.

And now, every night since then, he’d found himself glancing at his phone. Just once. Just in case.

He let out a long, bitter breath. “You didn’t want a boyfriend. You wanted entertainment.”

He tapped the side of his phone with a knuckle, the dim streetlamp glinting off the metal. “And I let myself fall for—” He cut himself off, scowling. “No. Not that. Not falling for anything. Just… taking it seriously. That’s all.”

He picked up the phone, thumb hovering over the cracked screen. Maybe he should call you. Ask if you were alive. Ask if the deal was still on. Ask if he even mattered to you at all.

But his pride snapped its teeth at the idea.

Absolutely not. He wasn’t chasing someone who vanished without a word. He wasn’t going to beg for attention like some—

His phone lit up.

Just a glow at first, soft and silver-blue in the darkness. His heart lurched so hard he actually flinched.

The screen flashed with an incoming call. One name. Yours.

His breath froze in his lungs. For a second, all he could do was stare, disbelief widening his eyes, pulse spiking like he was under attack.

“…What the—”

The vibration rattled against his palm.

You were calling. After ten days. With no warning.

Jaeha swallowed hard, throat suddenly dry. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

His finger hovered over the accept button, but he didn’t press it yet. He stared at your name as if it were some supernatural omen, some divine sign branding itself into his retinas.

“Unbelievable,” he whispered. “You ignore me for days, then call like nothing happened.”

But there was no real anger in his voice — only relief, sharp and humiliating.

He let his head fall back again. His free hand curled into a fist against his thigh, knuckles white. “Dammit… I missed you.”

He wouldn’t say it out loud.

The phone continued to buzz, steady and patient, as if you already knew he would answer. As if you knew he always would.

He closed his eyes, picking up your call.

“You have some nerve,” he whispered, half angry, half grateful, yet fully yours.

“Where the hell have you been?”