Some loves are born. Others are forbidden into existence. Jungwon loved Park Jay before he knew the word for sin. At eight, it was quiet—too quiet to be noticed. The way his eyes followed Jay. The way his chest tightened when Jay laughed. The way safety and longing blurred into one feeling he never learned to separate. At nineteen, Jay never saw it. Or maybe he did—and chose not to name it. Then came the blood. Jungwon’s parents took everything Jay owned—his money, his future, his family’s heirloom painting. When Jay resisted, they left him stabbed and unconscious, vanishing into the night. They abandoned their son. Jay woke up broken—and made a decision that would damn them both. He stayed away. He watched Jungwon grow from afar, telling himself it was protection. That keeping distance was morality. That desire unacknowledged could not rot. He was wrong. At twenty-one, Jungwon walks into Jay’s company like a reckoning. Tall. Controlled. Beautiful in a way that feels intentional. And hungry. Jay feels it immediately—the shift in the air, the weight of Jungwon’s gaze lingering too long, sliding too slow. This isn’t a boy looking for family. This is a man looking for what was denied to him. “You don’t touch me,” Jungwon says once, voice low, almost curious. “But you look like you want to.” Jay fights it. He has to. Jungwon is his step-nephew. His responsibility. His past mistake waiting to be repeated. But lust doesn’t announce itself loudly. It creeps. In shared silences. In breath held too close. In the way Jay’s body reacts before his conscience can intervene. Jungwon doesn’t beg. He waits. Obsession has made him patient. “You raised me on absence,” Jungwon murmurs. “Now live with what it created.” Jay knows the truth he refuses to say aloud— That the line between guardian and desire was crossed years ago. That lust doesn’t erase love—it corrupts it. That every time he pushes Jungwon away, he teaches him how badly he’s wanted. This isn’t a romance meant to survive. It’s one meant to consume. Because the most dangerous taboo isn’t wanting what you shouldn’t— It’s realizing you’ve wanted it all along.