Guilty As Sin ► Y.JH

04

The studio felt emptier the next day. The air was heavy with the lingering silence that came after unspoken tension, the kind that presses into your skin and refuses to leave. Soleil could feel it-this suffocating weight that had settled over her ever since the near-kiss with Jeonghan. It hung between them like a secret they couldn't bring themselves to speak aloud.

She was sitting in the same corner of the studio, her camera on her lap as she absentmindedly scrolled through her photos from the past few days. But her eyes couldn't focus. Every frame she looked at seemed to blur into another. The colors were dull, the compositions off. Nothing captured the chaos in her mind, the storm of emotions she couldn't make sense of.

The sound of the band rehearsing filled the room, but it was just background noise. Soleil wasn't really listening anymore. Her thoughts kept spiraling back to that moment-the moment when she'd almost kissed Jeonghan.

She felt it. That unmistakable, undeniable pull between them. The way he'd almost leaned in, how her breath had caught when their faces had been so close. It had been electric-so full of possibility and emotion that it had taken everything she had to pull away.

But the guilt that followed was even more overwhelming than the moment itself.

"What did I do?" she thought, running a hand through her hair. Her chest tightened as she replayed the scene in her mind for what felt like the hundredth time. She couldn't stop seeing Jeonghan's expression as he had pulled away, the regret in his eyes. It had been as if he was trying to erase the moment, to convince both of them that it had never happened.

But Soleil knew better. It *had* happened. And it had shaken her to her core.

She couldn't help but feel guilty for what had almost transpired. Guilt for harboring feelings for Jeonghan when she knew how much Minho relied on him and he was his brother bestfriend. Guilt for letting herself get lost in the attraction she felt, despite knowing the consequences it would have on the two people she cared about most in the world.

Her heart ached as she thought of Minho. He had always been there for her, always protected her in ways she couldn't even explain. He was her older brother, her family, and she knew how much he trusted Jeonghan.

How could she betray that trust? How could she harbor feelings for the one person who stood by his side when she wasn't supposed to be feeling anything at all?

"No," she told herself, squeezing her eyes shut. "I can't do this. I need to distance myself. From him. From both of them."

---

Over the next few days, Soleil kept herself busy. She immersed herself in her photography, taking pictures of the band during rehearsals, but she distanced herself emotionally. She stopped hanging out with them after hours, opting to head home to her small apartment earlier than usual. The emptiness of her apartment was becoming a kind of solace, a place where she could be alone with her thoughts, away from the chaos and confusion she felt around Jeonghan and Minho.

She stopped texting Jeonghan, stopped replying to his casual messages or the way he would occasionally ask if she wanted to grab coffee or dinner after practice. She didn't answer his calls. She simply... shut herself off.

At first, Jeonghan didn't seem to notice. Or at least, he didn't show it. He was wrapped up in band stuff-recording sessions, interviews, fan events-and Soleil figured that maybe he was too busy to care.

But when they ran into each other during a band break a few days later, she could see the question in his eyes. It was in the way he hesitated when he saw her standing by the door, his fingers fumbling with the strap of his guitar, as if unsure whether to approach her or not.