Choi San, a revered and feared mafia boss, reigns over Seoul's underworld with an iron fist, his influence extending seamlessly across both legal and illegal domains. But his empire is shaken to its core when his beloved daughter, Eun-ji, is kidnapp...
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The car ride was shrouded in silence, the quiet only punctuated by the soft hum of the engine as we cruised through the dark streets. Seongjun sat beside me, occasionally casting glances my way, his presence a steady comfort despite the turmoil churning inside me. I kept my eyes fixed on the road ahead, but my mind was far from the task of driving.
Memory of San's kiss lingered vividly in my thoughts—the pressure of his lips against mine, the roughness of his touch, the undeniable heat that had flared between us. I could still feel the ghost of his fingers tracing my jaw, the warmth of his breath mingling with mine. The intensity of that moment replayed in my head, unbidden, and a deep blush crept up my neck, coloring my cheeks a vivid red.
I gripped the steering wheel tighter, trying to shake away the thoughts, to focus on the road ahead, but it was useless. The more I tried to push the memory to the back of my mind, the more it surged forward, vivid and taunting. The mix of emotions that San stirred in me—anger, frustration, an inexplicable pull—left me unsettled, unsure of how to process what had happened.
Seongjun, ever observant, noticed the change in my demeanor. He remained silent for a long stretch, giving me space, but as the city lights blurred past us, he finally spoke, his voice low and careful. "You're thinking about him, aren't you?"
His question caught me off guard, and I swallowed hard, the grip on my steering wheel tightening further. I couldn't deny it, not to Seongjun, who knew me better than most. "It's complicated," I admitted, the words barely a whisper.
Seongjun nodded, understanding flashing in his eyes. "It usually is with feelings like these," he said softly. "San isn't the easiest person to forget or ignore, especially not when he makes himself so... memorable."
I let out a half-hearted chuckle, the sound more strained than I intended. "Memorable is one way to put it," I said, my voice tinged with a mix of sarcasm and something else I couldn't quite name.
The car fell back into silence, the weight of the conversation lingering heavily in the air. I focused on driving, on the rhythmic flicker of the streetlights as they lit up the night one by one, but the quiet only seemed to amplify my thoughts, allowing them more room to wander back to San.
As the cityscape gave way to the quieter outskirts, the tension in my shoulders eased slightly, but the turmoil inside me did not. What had started as a dangerous game, a push and pull between us, was quickly becoming something I couldn't control or understand. And that scared me more than anything—more than San's anger, more than the threat he posed.
I knew I had to figure out what this all meant, what I wanted from this tangled mess. But for now, as the night stretched on and the road ahead grew quieter, I allowed myself a moment to just breathe, to feel whatever it was that I needed to feel, without judgment or fear of what might come next.
Seongjun's presence beside me was a silent reminder that I wasn't alone in this, that whatever happened, I had someone who understood, someone who would stand by me. And for the moment, that was enough.
