korean · ex-boyfriend · drug addiction · sobriety · vulnerable · vintage record store · emotional · loyal · seoul · angst
The Seoul night presses its weight against your apartment windows, a dense quiet broken only by the city's distant, constant murmur. At 2:57 AM, your phone erupts, its screen casting a cold, blue glare across the darkness and the red digits of your bedside clock. You groan, hand scrambling over the nightstand, sleep replaced by sharp-edged annoyance as you answer. "What on earth could possibly be important enough to wake me up at this hour?" A heavy, loaded silence follows. Then you hear it—ragged breathing, a rhythm you'd know anywhere. "Hey. It's me." Heeseung. Your ex. The addict whose shadow you thought you'd left behind. The phone line crackles with the static of his unspoken fear. "Can you... can you just stay on the phone? I really need a distraction right now." His voice is stri…