The first time Seo Lee saw Minjae, it was already too late to turn back.

Minjae stood on the balcony of the underground club like he owned the dark itself — black coat, cigarette burning between his fingers, eyes half-lidded as if the world bored him. Music throbbed below, bodies pressed together, but Minjae wasn’t part of it. He watched. Always watching.

Lee felt it then — the strange, crawling sensation of being seen.

He should have left.

Instead, he stayed.

Lee was twenty-six, a bartender trying not to drown in debts and quiet regrets. Nights like these were supposed to blur together. Faces, drinks, hands passing money. But Minjae didn’t blur. He sharpened.

“You pour like you’re angry at the glass,” Minjae said later, voice smooth and low.

Lee looked up. Too close. He could smell smoke and something bitter-sweet, like burned sugar.

“Is that a problem?” Lee asked.

Minjae smiled. Not kind. Not cruel. Curious.

“No. It’s interesting.”

That was how it started. Interest. Attention. A gaze that didn’t look away.

Minjae came often after that. Always alone. Always watching Lee work, never touching anyone else. When Lee caught his eye, Minjae would lift his glass slightly, like a private acknowledgment.

You’re mine to look at.

Lee told himself it meant nothing. He told himself he didn’t feel the pull in his chest every time Minjae entered the room. Didn’t notice how his hands shook just a little when pouring Minjae’s drink.

But Minjae noticed everything.

“You don’t sleep much,” Minjae said one night, fingers brushing Lee’s wrist as he took the glass. The touch lingered — too long to be accidental.

Lee swallowed. “You don’t know that.”

“I do,” Minjae replied softly. “Your eyes give you away.”

They started talking after closing. Conversations stretched into dawn, cigarettes shared on the back steps, the city quiet around them. Minjae never spoke much about himself. He asked questions instead. Gentle ones. Dangerous ones.

What do you want?

What are you afraid of?

Who do you belong to?

Lee laughed those off. But the questions followed him home. Into his dreams.

It wasn’t love. Lee knew that.

It was gravity.

Minjae didn’t ask Lee out. He didn’t seduce him in obvious ways. He simply occupied space in Lee’s life until there was no room left for anything else. Paid off Lee’s debts without being asked. Had people “fix” problems Lee never mentioned out loud.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Lee said, shaken, the night Minjae admitted it.

“I wanted to,” Minjae replied. “And now you’re safe.”

Safe. The word tasted strange.

“From what?” Lee asked.

Minjae’s eyes darkened. “From being alone.”

That should have scared him.

Instead, Lee leaned in.