No Strings Attached

CHAPTER 5: error

He does not actually know everything about her.

He doesn't know what happened before him.
He doesn't know what broke her.
He doesn't know why she wakes up some mornings looking like she's already lived through a war.
He doesn't know why she never talks about childhood or family or memories that aren't carved with pain.

He knows pieces.

He knows scars.

But not the source.

If he knew the full truth...
He knows himself well enough to admit it—
everyone responsible would already be buried.

But right now?

He's blind.

And it terrifies him in a way nothing else ever has.

He rests both hands on the railing, head bowed, breath fogging the air even though the house isn't cold.

"She's planning to disappear," he murmurs to himself.
"Planning it calmly."

His fingers tap the wood—once, twice, a slow, deadly rhythm.

"She doesn't think I'll understand."
A breath.
"She doesn't think I'm someone worth staying for."

The bruise of that thought is instant and brutal.

He straightens slowly, rolling his shoulders back like he's preparing for a fight he never expected to have to wage.

Not against enemies.

Not against circumstances.

But against her resignation.

"...Fine," he whispers into the dark.

If she wants to disappear, he'll drag the world apart until he finds every reason she thinks she should.

If she won't tell him the truth, he'll rip open every locked door in her life until he understands what she's running from.

And if she thinks he'll let her vanish quietly, like smoke drifting through open fingers—

His eyes harden.

His voice is a cold conviction:

"No. I'm not losing you to something I can't see."

He turns away from the stairs.

And begins walking with purpose.

Toward the part of the house where she keeps her things.
Toward the boxes she never opened.
Toward the drawers she keeps locked.
Toward the ghosts she thought she had buried well enough to hide from him.

He doesn't know yet what he's about to find.

But he knows one thing with absolute certainty:

Whatever she's planning—
he's going to reach the truth before she can disappear.

The house is silent.
Too silent.

Hyunjun sits alone in his office, the only light coming from the large monitor in front of him. Not Yerin's accounts this time—not the missing money. This is different. A new itch under his skin he can't scratch off.

He scrolls.

Clicks.

Scrolls again.

Flight logs.
Shareholder activity.
Corporate records.

All things he checks constantly—but never with this in mind.

He only looked because something had been... off.
Something behind the behavior of a corporation too big to act this quietly.