The apartment was quiet again.
After Jae Min left, Ares sat alone on the couch, the dim lights casting long shadows across the wooden floor. The city's heartbeat still echoed faintly through the windows distant horns, muted laughter, the low hum of life continuing as if the world hadn't just cracked open.
His coat lay crumpled on the armrest. His phone on the table, screen dark.
Ares leaned back, pressing the heels of his hands against his eyes. He hadn't cried. Not even when Ji-Won mentioned Mira. Not when the room chilled with the weight of unspoken truths. Not even when his father his own father sneered at the idea of love as if it were some foolish disease.
But now, in this silence, he didn't know what else to do.
Was it always going to be like this? Living in a house that his father had built, walking through corridors paved with lies, trying to do right in a world that punished anyone who dared?
He breathed deeply. Once. Twice.
Then, he stood and moved toward the large window. The skyline stretched before him, beautiful and unreachable. Like something Mira would stare at during her quiet moments. Distant. Controlled. Hiding something.
He thought of her.
The way she stood frozen in that park when he hugged her. Not rejecting him. Not accepting him. Just.... still.
Maybe she saw something in him that scared her. Maybe she knew, even then, that loving someone like him meant bleeding alongside him.
He touched the glass, cold beneath his fingers.
A flash of memory: Mira's red cheeks after a sip of wine. Her soft laughter in the night air. The way her eyes never quite met his, as if she were always guarding a door inside herself.
He wanted to knock on that door. He wanted to be let in.
But right now, he couldn't even open his own.
With a sigh, Ares turned away from the window and walked to the kitchen. He poured a glass of water cold, grounding. His hands were steady again, but the ache in his chest hadn't dulled.
He didn't need to be reminded that the road ahead was going to be war.
But for the first time, he wondered if he'd survive it with his soul intact.