SEDUCTIVE EMBER'S || HEESUN 𝟏𝟖+ ||

Recede - Chapter 25

The snowflakes fluttered down, swirling in the wind before settling into thick, soft blankets that coated the ground in white. They danced like tiny, weightless feathers, slow and delicate before disappearing into the endless piles that stretched over the streets and rooftops.

The world outside was quiet, muffled by the thick snow except for the occasional crunch of footsteps from couples walking outside, bundled in thick coats, their breaths mingling in the cold air as they exchanged small laughs and whispers, their hands tightly clasped tugging each other's scarves closer as if they could ward off the biting chill together.

Sunoo watched from inside the warmth of the library window, heard the laughter carried faintly through the glass while his heart felt as distant and cold as the icy world outside.

His gaze lingered on them with a pang in his chest that echoed louder than the laughter drifting in. Could Heeseung ever held him like that? A soft tug on his coat, a quiet laugh shared beneath a streetlamp, a simple moment of warmth in the middle of a frozen world.

He blinked slowly trying to push away the images but they clung to him stubbornly wrapping around his heart like a frost he couldn’t shake.

The library was warm—comforting, with it's scent of old paper and wood, the kind that felt like home to him now—but no amount of heat could thaw the iciness that gripped his chest.

He should have felt safe here, surrounded by the scent of old books and the comforting hum of silence, yet everything seemed detached.

Every book he shelved, every page he flipped felt like a futile attempt to escape the truth. He was cold. Not from the winter outside but from the emptiness Heeseung had left behind.

His thought would constantly drift to his boyfriend without his permission—the man he once thought would be his forever. Or should he call him his ex now? That word still didn’t fit right in his mind. His heart refused to accept it but the truth lingered like a wound that wouldn’t heal.

Sunoo sighed, his breath fogging up the window. How had things come to this? Heeseung had promised they would face everything together.

“I'll be back in a month. It'll be quick, kitten.” Those were his words whispered softly against his skin on the night he left but that promise had withered with each passing day.

The thought brought an all-too-familiar sting to his eyes and Sunoo quickly blinked it away, swallowing the lump forming in his throat.

He had learned the truth. Heeseung wasn’t coming back to him—not to him but to her. He had heard every bits of conversations in the hallways, pieces of truth slipping through cracks.

Heeseung was working on fixing things with his fiancée. His fiancée. Sunoo let out a shaky breathe, leaning his forehead resting against the cool glass. How stupid had he been? He felt a sharp pain in his chest at the memory and at the knowledge that he had been left.

And so he decided to leave the house, his parents were against it. “You can't just leave like this, Son.” they had pleaded. “You need time to think.” but deep down Sunoo knew.

He needed to be far away, unreachable where Heeseung couldn’t touch him, where the memories of their love couldn’t haunt him. His parents finally relented seeing the torment in his eyes, the raw pain that wouldn’t ease unless he left. He needed to leave, to disappear.

And so he had.

Under the alias “Kim Seonwoo.” he rented a modest Airbnb house, erasing any sign that Sunoo had ever existed. He had made sure there would be no traces left behind—no clues for Heeseung to follow. The ring Heeseung had given him lay abandoned on his bedside table at home, he knew there was a tracking device in it, so he left it behind.