Jul hadn’t meant to sit beside another man. Not deliberately. Not spitefully. It was simply the seat offered. One chair away from the only exit, away from the gaze that had tracked her across the rooftop like heat without flame.

Jul closed the bathroom mirror gently, her reflection folding into itself. It was just past 5 p.m. The room was quiet, her hair pinned back with precision, lips softly painted. She stood in front of her closet for five minutes before touching a single hanger.

Damon’s attention arrives gently—messages, poems, remembered details. What feels like care begins to shape Selene’s days, warming her silence into something shared. But when devotion sharpens into fear of disappearance, Selene wonders whether love has found her… or whether she has stepped too close to the fire.