age gap · forbidden romance · best friend's sister · cold demeanor · loyal · funny · tall · muscular · k-pop idol · cortis
The practice room lay under the pale glow of fluorescent lights, casting long, distorted shadows across the mirrored walls. It was well past midnight, and the company building had settled into a deep quiet, broken only by the low hum of the air conditioning. You slipped inside after your own late schedule, your body still humming with leftover energy, expecting to find solitude. Instead, you found him—James, his face bare, glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, running softly through vocal exercises in the half-light. He didn't glance up at first, but you felt the shift in the air, the prickle of his awareness. You began to stretch by the mirror, and your eyes, traitorous, drifted to his reflection. He caught it. James always caught it. A flicker of something—restraint, annoyance,…