Scene — 2։44 a.m. Nut's bedroom.

The world outside was quiet, softened by the hush of night. Inside Nut's room, time seemed to stretch and slow. A warm lamp on the nightstand glowed low, painting the walls in amber light. The bed wasn't made, only rumpled from restless nights and soft dreams. A quiet fan spun in the corner, barely stirring the air.

Nut stood near the edge of the bed, one hand tugging at the hem of his t-shirt absently. His dark hair was still a little damp from a shower, the ends curling just slightly at the nape of his neck. His skin held a natural warmth — deep and golden — and his eyes, dark and steady, always seemed to catch the light, even in the dimmest room. They were the kind of eyes that looked straight into you, not through you.

He didn't say anything in a while. He didn't need to. He was waiting, quietly, letting Hong take the space he needed.

Hong sat cross-legged at the foot of the bed, small and composed, yet unmistakably tense. His gray hair fell softly across his forehead, carefully styled but now just slightly undone. Under the soft room light, the faint gleam of his blue lenses caught a glimmer — a shimmer like glass kissed by moonlight. His figure was delicate but not fragile. His frame, lean and fine, carried a grace that spoke of someone who knew how to hold still even when his heart raced.

He looked up at Nut.

And in that look — there it was.

Not a plea. Not even a question. Just... a truth.

It lived in the quiet tilt of his head, the subtle parting of his lips, the way his fingers stilled on the blanket beside him. A quiet signal. A letting down of walls. He was asking with his eyes, not for touch, but for something deeper — to be held in the kind of closeness that only came when hearts spoke louder than mouths.

Nut's breath slowed down.

He moved without urgency, walking around the bed and sinking down beside him. No words passed between them. They didn't need them. Not here.

Hong watched him, those soft blue lenses slightly fogged with unshed emotion. When Nut reached out, it was only to tuck a lock of Hong's hair behind his ear — slowly, reverently. His fingers brushed the side of Hong's cheek, and the softness there made something inside him ache.

Hong closed his eyes at the touch. Not in fear. In relief.

Nut let his hand fall to rest between them. He didn't push forward. Didn't take more than what was given. His shoulders, broad and quiet beneath his shirt, rose and fell with calm patience. He waited.

And Hong — Hong inched closer. Not all at once. First his knee touched Nut's. Then his arm. Then finally, as if gravity decided for him, his forehead gently pressed to Nut's collarbone.

Everything slowed down. The room quieted further. Their breathing synced.

There, in that small space between longing and permission, something unspoken passed from one to the other.

A question answered.

A gate opened.

And in the dim light, where skin met skin, and silence met trust, they simply stayed like that for a while — wrapped not in desire, but in knowing. In the quiet certainty that when the moment came, it wouldn't be rushed or stolen or burned.

It would be shared. Fully. Freely.

And it would mean everything.

The minutes passed without sound. Outside, the hush of 2:44 a.m. still wrapped the world in velvet. Inside, the only movement came in the rise and fall of Nut's breathing — slow, even, anchored. He didn't speak. He didn't stir. He just sat there with Hong pressed gently to his collarbone, and let time fold around them like soft fabric.

In that silence, Nut became the room's center of gravity.

The low lamplight curled around him, casting warm gold along the edges of his profile. It hit the curve of his jaw, the long line of his neck, the hollow of his throat where his pulse beat slow and steady. He looked like someone drawn in charcoal and sunlight — something soft and smoldering, not because he meant to be, but because he was.

His hair, still damp from his shower, had started to dry in loose, imperfect waves that brushed just past his brow. A few strands had curled behind his ear, but he didn't move to fix them. He was too still — too immersed in the weight of the moment to care about symmetry. Everything about Nut was like that — effortless and lived-in. The kind of beauty that never announced itself, but unfolded the longer you looked.

His hands rested on his thighs, fingers loose, but not careless. There was a quiet readiness to him, like he would reach for Hong in an instant — not to claim, but to be steady. There was always something about his touch that offered before it was ever asked. Even now, he wasn't holding Hong. He was simply there, letting Hong rest against him, letting himself be leaned on. Present. Grounded.

Hong, for all his grace and poise, had always moved like someone guarding something inside him. But Nut — Nut moved like someone who had nothing to hide. Every breath was open. Every silence full. And when Hong looked up, even just slightly, even just to glance at the column of Nut's throat, he saw it all: the quiet strength, the unspoken patience, the still ache waiting beneath his skin.

He was so beautiful, not just in body — but in how he waited.

He didn't ask for more than Hong could give. He didn't reach or chase. He just sat there, shoulders squared, face relaxed, eyes trained gently down, the very picture of someone who had learned how to hold space for someone else's pain without trying to fix it.

And that — that was what made Hong's chest tighten.

Because Nut could've been anything. He could've been cool, or charming, or loud. He could've let the world revolve around his charisma, like so many people in their orbit did. But Nut chose instead to be soft where it mattered most — to be calm when the world spun too fast, to be quiet when others broke.

Even now, with the dim light casting slow shadows on the walls, with Hong curled against him like a breath trying not to tremble — Nut didn't need to be more than this. He was more than this. And yet, he didn't ask to be noticed.

But Hong noticed.

He noticed the way the fabric of Nut's shirt clung gently to his chest, the faint outline of a heartbeat underneath. He noticed the slight callus on Nut's thumb, the result of endless rehearsals and hours on a guitar. He noticed the slope of his nose, the delicate dip above his upper lip, the lashes that fell dark and low over his eyes when he blinked slowly.

And he noticed — most of all — that Nut was holding himself back.

Not in fear.

In care.

Holding back not to protect himself, but to protect Hong. To give him space to breathe. To feel. To decide. It was the kind of restraint that most people never even learned. But Nut had always been different. Always been deeper than the surface. Quieter than the noise.

And maybe it was that quiet that Hong had fallen in love with first — the way Nut could say everything in a look, in a breath, in the way he stayed when others would have left.

Hong shifted slightly, his temple brushing against Nut's neck now. And Nut — just barely — turned his head, pressing his lips to Hong's hair.

A small touch. A gentle one.

A kiss not born of heat or need, but something more sacred: confirmation.

"I see you," he said. "And I'm still here."

And Hong — breathing in the scent of clean cotton and warmth and something distinctly him — felt the knot in his chest loosen, just slightly.

Because Nut didn't have to speak to be understood.

He only had to exist.

And Hong, at that moment, knew with the deepest certainty that being close to Nut meant being safe — even when everything else in the world felt uncertain.

They stayed like that for a long time.

Not counting minutes. Not asking what came next.

Just... staying.

In the hush of Nut's room.

In the golden stillness.

In the beauty of a boy who didn't try to shine — and somehow, because of that, lit up everything anyway.

Hong’s POV

There was a stillness in Nut that unsettled me — not in a bad way, but in the kind that made me feel too much at once. Like standing in front of something vast and unmoving: a lake at dawn, a sky before the storm. That kind of stillness. The kind that made you aware of your heartbeat.

He didn’t say anything. He never needed to.

And somehow that was always what undid me.

I kept my forehead pressed lightly to his collarbone, pretending I couldn’t feel the heat radiating off his skin, the soft thump of his heart beneath it. I told myself I was here to breathe — just breathe — but all I could do was feel. Every part of him was quiet, and yet he took up so much space inside me.

I tilted my head, just enough to glance up at him.

The light caught his profile, soft and golden — like something half-dreamed, half-real. I tried not to stare, but how could I not? There was something about the way Nut sat there, completely unguarded, completely him, that made my chest ache. Like I was watching someone exist in a language I hadn't yet learned to speak.

His hair curled a little around his ears, still damp. I wanted to reach out and touch it. Just to see if it felt the way it looked — soft and warm and familiar. But I didn’t move. Not yet. I was still trying to recover from how gently he’d touched my cheek just moments ago. From how he looked at me like I was something fragile, but not breakable.

No one had ever looked at me like that before.

Not like I was small, but like I was held.

Nut's eyes were focused on the middle of the room, but I knew he felt me watching him. He always did. There was this strange, almost telepathic line between us — invisible, but undeniable — and it pulled taut every time we shared a silence. His hands were resting on his lap, fingers loose, thighs slightly parted, shoulders calm under the worn stretch of his shirt. I’d seen him like this a thousand times, in dressing rooms and dorms, in stolen greenroom moments and backstage shadows.

But here, in the amber light of his bedroom, he looked like something I hadn’t allowed myself to want.

And maybe it was the lateness of the hour. Or maybe it was the way my own hands had finally stopped trembling. But I let myself see him now. All of him.

The strong, clean lines of his body. The gentle curve of his mouth when he thought too long. The way his brows relaxed, ever so slightly, when I leaned into him — like he was relieved, like he was breathing easier now too.

He was so quiet.

Not empty. Not silent.

Just… steady.

And that steadiness? It was undoing me.

I swallowed. My throat was tight. My fingers curled into the blanket beneath me because I didn’t trust myself not to reach out and bury them in his shirt. Or his hair. Or his hands.

My whole body was tense with the restraint of wanting.

But Nut — he waited.

That was what got me the most. That he could just wait. That he was content to hold space like this, beside me, not asking for anything more than what I could give. He made no move to close the distance. He didn’t press, didn’t prompt.

He just was.

And God, he was beautiful in it. In that restraint. In that patience. In the way he was willing to stay soft even when I hadn’t yet said the things I needed to say.

It made me want to cry. And not because I was sad. But because he didn’t demand I explain myself to be held like this.

Nut shifted slightly — the smallest movement — and his hand grazed mine where it rested between us. He didn’t take it. Just touched it. Lightly. Like a promise with no expiration.

I looked at our hands. Then back at him.

“Nut,” I whispered, so soft I wasn’t even sure he heard me.

He turned. And those eyes — dark and still and so, so full — met mine like they’d been waiting for me all night.

I wanted to tell him everything in that moment. I wanted to say how scared I was. How I didn’t know how to be this close to someone and not shatter. How sometimes, when he looked at me the way he was looking at me now, I didn’t know where to put all my feelings.

But none of that came out.

Instead, I said the only thing I could manage.

“You feel like home.”

Nut didn’t blink. He didn’t smile.

He just leaned forward and touched his forehead to mine. His breath was warm, his voice lower than I’d ever heard it when he finally replied.

“So do you.”

And I didn’t move.

I didn’t have to.

Because this — this quiet, sacred space — it was everything I’d been afraid to ask for. And now that I had it, now that I had him…

I never wanted to leave it.

Nut’s POV

He was so close I could feel the shape of his breath against my skin. Light, barely there, but unmistakable.

Hong.

There were a thousand things I could’ve said, but none of them would’ve fit in this silence — not without tearing it. So I stayed still. I let him rest his forehead against my collarbone and kept my body steady, anchored, quiet. Like I’d become a part of the room itself.

He needed this.

He needed me, like this.

And God — if I could’ve given him more stillness, more space, more time — I would have.

I could feel his shoulder pressing into my side now, warm through the thin cotton of our shirts. I didn’t look down at him right away. I didn’t need to. I knew the shape of him — not just his body, but his presence. The way he entered a space, and then filled it like a held breath. Quiet. Measured. But always full of something just beneath the surface.

I could feel the tension still sitting in his body. Subtle, but there. The way he was holding himself just a little too carefully. Like he wasn’t sure yet if he was allowed to fall apart.

I wouldn’t make him.

I wouldn’t ask him to.

He could take his time. I’d be here.

Always.

I let my eyes drift to the far side of the room, but it was his weight leaning against me that kept pulling my attention back. Even in stillness, he drew me in. He always had. From the very beginning, when he walked into the practice room with that unreadable face and that stupidly oversized hoodie — I'd known. I couldn’t explain what it was, not then. But it had been like gravity. Quiet. Constant. Undeniable.

I looked down.

He wasn’t looking at me — not exactly — but his gaze had tilted up, just enough to catch the line of my jaw. And in his eyes, there was something so open it made my chest ache. Like I was seeing the version of him he didn’t show the rest of the world.

And it broke me, gently.

Because he was beautiful. Not in the way people always said he was — not the stage beauty, not the polish or the poise. No. He was beautiful in this moment, in the way he was trying to stay composed even though I could feel the tremble in his breath. In the way his voice had just barely made it out when he said, “You feel like home.”

I don’t think he knew what that did to me.

How long I’d been holding back. How long I’d been holding him, even without touching.

And I had to. Because this — what we had, what we were — it wasn’t about claiming or crossing lines. It wasn’t about the ache in my chest every time he looked away. It was about this: being here when he let himself lean.

I shifted, gently, pressing my forehead to his. Not pushing. Just... meeting.

“So do you,” I whispered.

His eyes closed, and in that moment, something in him exhaled. I felt it. Like a tide pulling back. Like tension finally releasing from somewhere deep.

And I thought:

If this is all we ever get — this silence, this closeness, this pause in the middle of everything — I’ll take it.

I didn’t need fireworks. I didn’t need the grand confession.

I just needed this. Him. Here. Pressed to me like the world outside had gone quiet for our sake alone.

My hand hovered near his. I let my pinky brush against his first — barely a touch, just a whisper of contact. If he took it, he took it. If not... I’d still be here.

Always.

That’s the thing about loving someone like him — someone full of quiet storms and hidden bruises. You learn to wait. You learn not to reach too fast. You learn that patience is sometimes the purest kind of devotion.

He shifted, almost imperceptibly, and our fingers found each other. No grip. No clasp.

Just that point of contact.

That was all.

And it was everything.

I stared at him — this boy I’d loved without even realizing it at first, this boy who guarded his heart like it was a thing made of glass. And all I could think was:

He’s letting me see him.

Not the polished version. Not the performer. Not the perfect. Just... him.

And I swore, silently, as I watched the light dance across his lashes, that I’d protect that version with everything I had. Whether he ever said the words back or not. Whether we ever spoke this out loud or not.

I didn’t need to own him.

I just needed to be the place he could fall.

And I would be.

God, I would be.