Seojoon had already packed his bag.
It sat by the door, half-zipped, with his uniform folded inside and his charger tossed carelessly on top. He had spent nearly an hour staring at it, convincing himself that leaving Eden Studio was the smartest thing to do.
Nothing about that building felt right.
The residents were strange. The hallways were too quiet at night. And the dentist downstairs, Seo Moon-jo watched everything with that unreadable smile that made Seojoon's skin crawl.
He should have left that morning.
But when he reached for the bag, his mind wandered to Jongwoo.
The bruise on his knuckles from slamming the rooftop door. The cold look in his eyes when he stopped Seojoon from opening the stairwell. The way he lost his temper so quickly, then looked away like he regretted showing that side of himself.
Jongwoo was not harmless.
Seojoon knew that now.
There was something wrong with him too, something sharp and unpredictable hidden beneath that tired expression. At times, he looked even more dangerous than Moonjo.
And still, Seojoon couldn't stop thinking about him.
It was ridiculous.
He had never looked at another man that way before. Never wanted to stay because of someone he had just met. Yet every time Jongwoo looked exhausted or irritated or strangely quiet, Seojoon felt this stupid urge to stand between him and the rest of Eden.
As if Jongwoo needed someone on his side.
As if Moonjo had somehow twisted him into someone he wasn't.
That thought alone made Seojoon unzip his bag and unpack everything.
He wasn't leaving.
Not yet.
He told himself it was because something suspicious was happening in Eden. Because his instincts as a trainee officer were warning him that this place hid things it shouldn't.
But that wasn't the only reason.
The truth was much harder to admit.
He was staying because he had started falling for Jongwoo.
And that terrified him more than anything in that building.
Downstairs, long after midnight, the kitchen light was still on. Lady Eom stood alone at the sink, washing the same bowl over and over. Her hands trembled so badly that the porcelain kept slipping against the metal basin.
She knew he would come.
The silence behind her stretched until she could no longer breathe properly.
Then footsteps. Slow. Measured.
Her body stiffened.
She turned and immediately fell to her knees.
Moonjo stood in the doorway, sleeves rolled neatly to his elbows, his face calm as always. There was no anger in his expression. No sign that anything was wrong.
That made Lady Eom shake harder.
"I'm sorry," she whispered before he could speak. "I didn't mean for the officer boy to hear. I thought he had gone back to his room."
Moonjo closed the kitchen door behind him.
The soft click sounded louder than a scream.
He walked to the kitchen counter and picked up one of the knives, turning it in his hand as if inspecting the blade.
YOU ARE READING
Stranger From Hell
Non-Fiction"Why do you keep calling me jagiya, huh? you have a crush on me or something?" I shouted, still pointing my finger at him. Everyone was silent and shocked, no one dares to speak anything as Moon-Joo was standing right infront of me. "You have no ide...
