Ashin’s POV
Ashin woke up with a gasp.
His body lurched upright before his mind could catch up, breath ragged as sweat clung to his skin. For one horrible moment, he didn’t know where he was. The smell of antiseptic, the familiar hum of the small electric fan, and the sight of his hand-me-down curtains finally grounded him.
He was in his room. On his thin futon. Safe.
But his body didn’t feel safe.
His hands trembled as they touched his own skin — as if confirming something had changed. His lips parted slowly. His breathing wouldn’t calm.
It wasn’t a dream.
It happened.
Last night. The alley. The blood. Him.
That man.
Ashin squeezed his eyes shut, pressing the heels of his palms against them until stars burst in the darkness. His throat tightened. His heart was beating so loudly he wondered if the neighbors could hear it.
Why… why did he do it?
He hadn’t been thinking. He just saw someone dying — stabbed and bleeding — and his body moved before his brain could catch up. He had patched wounds before, helped drunks in alleyways, even fought off street thugs. But last night was different.
It wasn’t just saving a life.
It was giving something he could never take back.
His lips trembled. Shame twisted inside him — but so did something else. Something he couldn’t name.
He remembered hands — large, trembling — gripping him.
A voice — low, broken — whispering something that sounded like “Don’t stop.”
Ashin curled in on himself.
Was it wrong?
He didn’t ask. He didn’t think. He just… acted.
Maybe he crossed a line. Maybe he ruined everything.
But… if he was honest with himself — brutally honest — the worst part wasn’t what happened.
It was that he couldn’t stop thinking about him.
The man’s face — pale, cold, breathtakingly beautiful even in agony.
Who was he?
A criminal? A victim? Someone dangerous?
Ashin stared at the wall. The crack in the paint looked like a question mark.
Would he ever see him again?
He didn’t know.
He also didn’t know if he wanted to.
His chest ached with a strange mix of dread and longing.
Then — his phone buzzed on the floor beside him.
He jumped.
A single message from his boss at the cafe:
> “Ashin\, you’re late for your shift again. If you’re not here in 10\, don’t bother coming.”
Ashin exhaled shakily, grabbed his jacket, and ran.
He didn’t have time to fall apart.
Not when survival didn’t wait.
---
Rion’s POV
Silence.
Too silent.
Rion Sky sat behind his glass desk on the top floor of Sky Corporation Tower, staring at documents he couldn’t read. The skyline stretched endlessly beyond his window, but he saw none of it.
He only saw him.
That nameless stranger with trembling hands and fierce, determined eyes.
Ash-stained hair. Lips parted in fear and defiance. Warm. Too warm.
Rion’s jaw tightened.
Ridiculous.
He never remembered faces. People were background noise. Tools. Obstacles. Assets.
But this one—
This boy—
He invaded Rion’s mind like a virus. Persistent. Unwanted. Uncontrollable.
For the first time in years, Rion felt something he despised.
Vulnerability.
His fingers curled slightly.
He had been dying. He knew it. He had felt the knife. The warmth of blood spilling. His vision fading.
And then — blinding heat.
Hands on him, urgent. A body against his. Desperation. Salvation.
It was madness. He should be disgusted. Enraged.
So why… was he remembering it on purpose?
He wanted to hear that stranger’s voice again.
Rion leaned back in his chair, expression blank yet lethal.
This was unacceptable.
He could not afford distractions. He could not afford weakness.
And yet —
He lifted his hand.
“Reese.”
A voice answered instantly through the desk speaker.
“Yes, sir.”
“Find him.”
There was no need to specify.
His assistant understood. Reese had been trained to decode even his silence.
“Understood,” came the steady reply.
Rion ended the call.
He sat there quietly, fingers steepled before his lips. His reflection stared back at him in the glass.
Cold. Controlled.
But beneath that…
Unease.
What would he do once he found him?
…He didn’t know.
Possibly ruin him.
Possibly protect him.
Possibly both.
Rion wasn’t sure which option terrified him more.
---
End of Chapter 3
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