SHADOWS OF DECEIT

Chapter 12

The morning sun filtered softly through the curtains as Joshua stirred, the quiet warmth wrapping around him. It was a rare feeling of peace, one that he hadn't felt in some time, especially since that night on the cliff with Seokmin.

He'd replayed their conversation over and over, tracing each word in his mind like a path to something he couldn't quite grasp. It was grounding and unnerving all at once.

Just as he sank into the morning's calm, his door burst open, and Samuel strode in, his face set in a determined pout. Joshua looked up from the mirror with a raised brow as he continued adjusting his collar.

"Hyung, have you come across Seokmin again?" Samuel asked, dropping onto Joshua's couch and crossing his arms.

Joshua rolled his eyes, stifling a smirk. "You've been asking the same question for two weeks straight, Samuel. You can stop. And no, I haven't."

Samuel huffed, still not satisfied, and slouched back into the cushions. "Come on, hyung, you practically had a date with the guy on a cliff, and from what I'm hearing, it was a night of deep, philosophical conversations. It's almost like you're lying about not seeing him since. Or—" he paused, looking at Joshua with wide eyes, "or he's a hallucination."

Joshua burst out laughing, adjusting the cuffs on his shirt. "Trust me, if he were a hallucination, I'd be the first to know."

"Come on, hyung," Samuel persisted with a smirk, "it's not like I'm going to steal him away."

Joshua just snickered, shaking his head. "He's all yours if you're that interested, Samuel-ah," he replied lightly. "I don't exactly see myself sticking around much longer anyway. Two weeks, tops."

Samuel sighed, fidgeting as he watched Joshua come out of his room, casual but sharp in his attire, ready for his shift at the Black Swan. "I know you'd said a couple of months, but honestly, hyung, you could stay. I mean, we'd barely started enjoying the good parts of this."

Joshua let out a long sigh and sat down beside him, slinging an arm around Samuel's shoulders. "I know, Samuel-ah. But the truth is, I've been here long enough, and as comfortable as this has been, I feel... incomplete. There's a part of me I'm only going to find if I go back to doing what I'm really good at."

Samuel bit his lip, dropping his gaze to the floor. "And what about what you actually wanted?" he asked softly. "You wanted to know more about him, right? And now you're talking about leaving."

Joshua stood up, pocketing his wallet and glancing around his place one last time before heading toward the door with Samuel by his side. "Exactly. That's why I'm still here, and it's why I came to Japan in the first place. If not, I wouldn't have moved countries."

Samuel nodded, pulling his keys from his pocket. "Come on. I'll drop you off at the Black Swan. At least give me one more day of dragging you around," he said, a glimmer of humor lighting up his expression.

The Black Swan had, over the past few weeks, woven itself into the rhythm of Joshua's life. He moved through the dimly lit, smoky bar with a practiced ease, the allure and grit of the place now almost second nature to him.

The place was a heady mix of neon lights and deep shadows, filled with a constant hum of clinking glasses, murmurs, and bursts of laughter, laced with a hint of mystery he'd grown to know too well.

Joshua had learned to sidestep the lewd remarks and to shrug off the occasional flirtations without batting an eye, rolling his responses with a calm, effortless confidence. Some days, if he was feeling bold, he'd throw back a flirt of his own, letting his voice drop just enough to catch them off guard.