People Watching ★ 𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐒𝐮𝐧

35: I liked you for a long time.

Flashback to chapter 16 - Sunghoons POV

The holding cell wasn't anything dramatic. Cold walls, bad lighting, the usual buzz of too many people pretending not to care. But when Sunghoon walked in and saw him—legs crossed, arms folded, looking like he belonged on the cover of a teen magazine and not sitting beside his menace of a brother—something lodged in his throat.

Sunoo didn't look scared. Of course he didn't. He looked bored.

Sunghoon almost laughed.

Instead, he paid the fine, signed the papers, and didn't say a word.

The officer glanced between them with a barely hidden smirk. "You sure you're not their babysitter, Chief's son?"

"Unfortunately," Sunghoon muttered, already turning to leave.

They walked out in silence. Niki, at least, had the decency to look sheepish. Sunoo, meanwhile, kept his eyes forward, the echo of his footsteps syncopating with Sunghoon's pulse.

When they reached the lot, Sunoo finally broke the silence. "You didn't have to come."

"I didn't." Sunghoon's voice was sharp. "But if your dumb ass got yourself into more trouble, my dad would've made me babysit for real."

That should've ended it.

But Sunoo stopped walking.

"Why do you keep doing things for me if you hate me so much?"

Sunghoon turned slowly. His body moved before his brain could catch up, the anger rising like a tide. "I told you to stay away from me."

"Right," Sunoo said, stepping closer. "Because that makes so much sense. You glare at me from across every room, act like I burned your house down, and then bail me and my brother out of jail without a second thought."

Sunghoon's hands clenched into fists. He was angry. At the situation. At Sunoo. At himself.

Especially himself.

Sunoo shoved him—not hard, just enough to tip the balance. "You make everything harder than it needs to be. You act like you're doing me favors, but all you do is push me away."

Sunghoon didn't reply. He let himself sink against the wall behind him, breath unsteady.

Then Sunoo sat beside him. Not close enough to touch, but close enough to feel.

Sunghoon didn't look at him. He couldn't.

"What does a favor look like for you?" he heard himself ask, voice barely above a whisper.

"If you look at me," Sunoo said, "I'll tell you."

And that's when it hit.

He wanted to look.

He wanted to meet Sunoo's gaze. Wanted to understand him. Wanted something he couldn't name.

And it scared the hell out of him.

So he stood. Tried to brush it off, retreat into the version of himself he knew how to be. Cold. Distant. Safe.

But then Sunoo grabbed his wrist.

Sunghoon flinched. Not from fear. From feeling too much, too fast.

"Sunoo—"

It was too late. Sunoo was already scribbling something on his palm with a cheap pen, his fingers warm and sure against Sunghoon's skin.

"Contact me when you want to know," he said.

Sunghoon stared at the number. The messy handwriting. The slight smudge where their hands had brushed.

"I don't want to know," he said, voice cracking more than he wanted.

But he did.

God, he did.

He watched Sunoo walk away, arms crossed, muttering something about heartless souls and dramatic rescues. And all Sunghoon could do was stare at the numbers on his hand and realize:

This was it.

That ache he'd been ignoring. That instinct to protect him, push him, stay near and far all at once.

It wasn't confusion.

It was him.

Sunoo.

And it terrified Sunghoon—because falling for someone who lit up the room meant revealing how dark your world really was.

I've liked you for a long time, Sunoo.