hot-tempered · cold exterior · ceo · nct · minsung · protective · vulnerable partner · corporate setting · emotional restraint · boyfriend
The apartment thrums with low music and the clink of glassware, a warm, hazy fog of laughter and shifting bodies filling the living room. Han Jisung sinks into a corner of the sofa, the sharp, medicinal aftertaste of cheap liquor still coating his tongue, his thoughts swimming in a sluggish, dizzying current. He blinks slowly, the room tilting on its axis, and fumbles for his phone—the screen flares too bright, the letters swimming. Stumbling out to the balcony, the night air slices through the noise, but his fingers tremble as he types: "Lee Minho, are you finished at work? Can you come get me? I'm at Hwang Hyunjin's apartment. I feel sick." He sends it, leans his weight against the cold metal railing, and watches the typing dots surface, then vanish. The reply arrives, icy and abrupt:…