perfect actors|| hyunlix ❀

chapter 24

The door slammed shut behind me, the echo bouncing off the walls of the hotel room like a punctuation mark to the argument we'd just had. My chest heaved as I leaned against the door, trying to catch my breath. Anger was still coursing through me, burning hot, but underneath it all was something else. Something sharp and painful that I couldn't quite name.

Yuri.

I had trusted her. She wasn't just a host; she was an actor, like me. We'd worked together before. I'd always admired her professionalism, the way she carried herself, the way she could turn any role into something worth watching. And now...now this.

I raked a hand through my hair, pacing across the room, trying to shake off the frustration. My thoughts kept circling back to Felix, to his quiet resolve, to the way he'd looked at me before I left him and Yuri in that room. He didn't seem angry, not in the way I was. No, Felix had seemed...hurt.

And that was worse.

I sat down at the desk and opened my laptop, pulling up a spreadsheet I'd been working on earlier in the day. Numbers, schedules, logistics—it was all supposed to distract me. But it didn't work. My fingers hovered over the keyboard, unmoving.

I couldn't stop thinking about her.

Not Yuri, but her. Felix's mom.

What kind of mother does this to her own child?

The question gnawed at me, relentless and unyielding. My own relationship with my parents wasn't perfect—they were the ones who'd arranged this marriage, after all—but they would never stoop to something like this. They might be business-minded, sure, but at the very least, they cared about appearances. About loyalty. About family.

Felix's mom had crossed a line I didn't even know existed.

The thought of her, sitting in some lavish office somewhere, pulling strings like we were nothing more than chess pieces on a board, made my blood boil. And Felix...he didn't even flinch. He just kept going, like he was used to it. Like he'd been dealing with this his entire life.

I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my palms.

How long had he been carrying that weight? And why hadn't I noticed it before?

The sound of the door opening snapped me out of my thoughts. I turned to see Felix stepping inside, his expression unreadable. He closed the door behind him softly, almost too softly, as if he didn't want to disturb the fragile calm that had settled in the room.

"Hey," he said, his voice low.

"Hey," I replied, my tone cautious.

He crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed, his posture stiff, his hands clasped tightly in his lap. For a moment, neither of us spoke. The silence stretched between us, heavy and unspoken.

"How is she?" I asked finally, breaking the tension.

Felix let out a small sigh. "She's...okay, I guess. I mean, as okay as someone can be after breaking down in front of a person they betrayed."

I frowned, leaning back in my chair. "Did she explain why she did it?"

He hesitated, his gaze dropping to his hands. "Not exactly. She didn't go into detail, but...I don't think she wanted to do it. Not really."

I scoffed, the bitterness in my voice surprising even myself. "Yeah, well, wanting and doing are two very different things."

Felix flinched, just slightly, but enough for me to notice. Guilt twisted in my stomach. I hadn't meant to snap at him.