FATE'S GAME | | BTS FF (18+)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

KIM TAEHYUNG

I used to think silence was power. Control. If you didn't speak, no one could use your words against you. If you didn't feel, no one could rip it from your hands.

But lately... silence has felt more like surrender.

And Ishita... she doesn't know how to surrender.

Not even to this cold house. Not to me. Especially not to the distance I've tried to keep between us like a moat around a castle I no longer believe in.

She walked out without slamming the door. That made it worse.

Because slamming the door would've meant she was angry.

Instead, she left like someone who'd accepted something quietly. Like someone who wasn't expecting anything back.

That kind of kindness? That kind of patience?

It terrified me more than any bullet ever had.

I've stared down enemies with guns in their hands and revenge in their eyes. I've walked into rooms knowing I might not walk back out.

But nothing....nothing .....makes my chest tighten like the way she looks at me when I push her away... and she stays anyway.

Like she sees something in me I've buried so deep even I don't look at it anymore.

I told her not to get attached.

That this was a transaction, not a love story.

One year. Divorce. Clean break.

She nodded like she understood. Smiled like it didn't bother her. Then asked if I wanted sugar in my tea.

Like she wasn't the one I just tried to hurt.

Like I hadn't just drawn a line in the sand and watched her step over it with quiet grace.

God, it's infuriating.

She never fights back the way I expect. Never raises her voice, never throws the sharp words I deserve. Just... meets my cold with warmth, like she's too stubborn to let me freeze alone.

That sweater she wears , the one with sleeves too long for her wrists — it's mine. I noticed the first time she curled into it on the couch, knees tucked up, face hidden.

She never said anything. Just wore it like she belonged.

And I let her.

I let her in, inch by inch, without meaning to.

That's the real problem.

Because I can't afford for her to stay. Not when I know how this ends. Not when the sins of her father are still bleeding into the corners of our deal.

Not when I might have to choose between vengeance and her.

I shouldn't want her to care. I shouldn't care that she does.

But last night, when I heard her humming — that same tune she always hums when she thinks she's alone — I stopped outside her door and listened.

And for the first time in years, I didn't feel like silence was power.

I felt like it was cowardice.

Like I was hiding from something that wanted to love me anyway.

And I didn't know what to do with that.

.............

By evening , I was already dressed. Suit sharp. Mask in place.

There was a charity gala tonight. One of those high-society events where people wear smiles like armor and drink wine paid for in blood money.