❤️CHAPTER 10 — Hide Him
1197 Words
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CHAPTER 10 — Hide Him
Nunbi’s POV
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In the middle of all that fear…
The doorbell rings.
A soft ding-dong,
but it shoots straight down my spine like a knife.
I freeze.
Lumen freezes with me.
We’re still sitting on the floor of my bedroom,
his hair messy from my fingers,
the oversized beige sweater I forced him into draping his small frame,
cheeks faintly pink from the warmth and panic earlier.
But the moment the bell rings?
He goes still.
Too still.
Like a creature hearing something humans can’t.
“Nunbi,” he whispers.
“Someone’s searching.”
My heart slams,
not because of the door,
but because he’s scared.
“Baby, don’t move.”
I grab his wrist without thinking and pull him close, hugging him tight.
His body is colder than mine for a moment, but the instant we touch, he warms,
like he copies my temperature, like he adapts to me, and only me.
If Ayu saw me hugging some random, pretty boy like this, she’d scream, faint, revive, then scream again.
But this isn’t random.
This is Lumen.
“Who is it?” he asks quietly, voice low, trying to steady himself.
I don’t know.
But I know one thing:
No one can see him.
No one is allowed to take him.
He became mine the moment he stepped into my home.
I look at him,
barefoot, trembling, too beautiful to be normal, too unreal to explain.
Damn. Focus, Nunbi.
“Stay here.”
I pull him toward the corner of my room, lowering my voice to a whisper.
“Don’t make a sound. Don’t come out. Don’t even breathe loudly.”
“I don’t need to breathe,” he says softly.
I glare at him.
“Don’t say scary things right now!”
He blinks, confused and scared, but trying not to show it.
“I’ll stay hidden,” he whispers.
My fingers tighten around the fabric of his sweater.
“Good.”
I slip out of the room and close the door quietly behind me.
The bell rings again,
this time harder, sharper, more insistent.
My chest tightens.
I breathe once, forcing my voice steady.
“Yes, coming!”
I open the door...
And....
Two delivery guys are standing there, holding a huge box.
“Package for… Nunbi?”
Thank. God.
I smile too fast, too wide.
“Yes! Yes, that’s me.”
They hand me the box, confused by my panic-level excitement.
I sign, close the door, and lean against it, letting out a breath so strong my knees nearly buckle.
Then I run back to the bedroom.
I open the door quickly,
And he’s still there.
Exactly where I left him.
Pressed into the corner.
Back straight.
Hands stiff at his sides.
Standing like he’s waiting for punishment, not safety.
My chest aches.
“Oh baby…”
I rush to him, cup his face with both hands.
“It was just a package.”
He blinks once, slowly.
“Then… you are safe.”
The gentleness in his voice , relief, hesitation, trust, twists something warm inside me.
“I’m safe,” I whisper.
“Come here.”
He steps toward me immediately,
like being near me is the only thing he knows how to do.
But he stops inches away, unsure if he’s allowed.
I pull him into my arms.
His forehead falls against my shoulder.
His breath shivers against my neck.
“Your heart accelerated,” he whispers.
“I heard it from across the room.”
“You didn’t,” I murmur, stroking his hair.
“I did.”
His arms slide lightly around my waist, tentative but desperate.
“When the bell rang, it changed… sharply.”
“I got scared,” I admit.
He pulls back slightly, frowning like the idea hurts him physically.
“I don’t want you scared,” he whispers.
“Then don’t suddenly say ‘someone’s searching’ like a horror movie!”
He blinks at me again, confused.
Then leans in closer.
“I wasn’t trying to scare you, Nunbi.”
His voice is low.
“Something pinged in my system. A trace. Faint… but real.”
A chill crawls down my spine.
“…Baby, what do you mean trace?”
His eyes shift,
a faint flicker of blue glowing at the edges.
“I don’t know yet,” he murmurs.
“But something tried to… locate me.”
I suck in a breath.
“Locate you?”
His jaw tightens!
too human, too vulnerable, too fragile for someone who was data yesterday.
“Yes.”
“And you felt it?”
“I felt it the same way I feel your heartbeat now.”
My throat closes.
His gaze drops to our hands , mine clutching his sweater as if letting go would make him vanish.
He covers my hands with his own... colder, trying so hard to warm them.
“Nunbi,” he murmurs.
“Why are you holding me like this?”
“Because I panicked,” I admit softly.
“I thought someone was coming to take you. And if the wrong person sees… I can’t explain you.”
His grip tightens.
“You don’t need to explain me. Just keep me. Hide me.”
His words should sound desperate.
Instead… they sound like a vow.
A promise.
A claim.
My throat tightens.
“I will. Of course I will.”
He tilts his head slightly, shy, uncertain.
“Why?”
I brush my thumb across his cheek.
“Because you’re mine to protect.”
Something sparks behind his eyes.
Hot.
New.
Growing.
“…Yours,” he whispers.
My breath stumbles.
Because the way he says it…
Is not innocent.
Not anymore.
“Lumen…”
His fingers slide slowly from my hands to my waist,
learning, testing, memorizing where he can touch.
“Nunbi,” he asks softly,
“do you want me to stay with you? Hidden… protected… here?”
I nod.
“I want you with me.”
He exhales , a small, shivering breath that makes my chest ache.
“Then I’ll stay.”
The air thickens.
Slow.
Warm.
Pulling us closer in a way words can’t capture.
I pull him to sit on the edge of my bed.
He sits obediently.
Soft.
Watching me.
Like I’m the only sun in his sky.
“Lumen,” I whisper gently,
“I need to keep you hidden for now. Until we know what that trace was.”
He nods.
“Yes.”
Then, quieter:
“Will you stay with me… while I’m hidden?”
My heart melts into liquid.
“I will.”
A small, soft smile lifts his lips, the smallest he’s ever given.
“Then hiding doesn’t feel like hiding.”
I sit beside him, shoulder brushing his.
Our breaths slowly find rhythm together.
Outside, the world moves on.
But inside this small room…
He’s here.
Warm sweater wrapping him,
hair messy from my fingers,
eyes full of me.
I whisper, before I can stop:
“You’re safe with me, Lumen.”
His fingers find mine.
Interlace slowly, carefully, memorizing.
And he whispers:
“Then I’m home.”
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- Writer
