📖 Chapter 8: Your Past Is Bleeding Into Mine
620 Words
Two hours later
The safe room door unlatched with a hiss.
Jae-min stepped out slowly, body still tense, heart still stuck somewhere between the taste of Joon-ho’s mouth and the crack of the sniper shot.
“Is it over?” he asked softly.
Joon-ho stood by the shattered window, one hand pressed to the wall, the other still holding his gun. His knuckles were white. His breathing sharp.
He didn’t answer.
Not at first.
“Gone. Professional. Vanished before the cops even made it upstairs,” he finally muttered.
Jae-min moved closer. “Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Liar.”
Joon-ho’s shirt was stained at the shoulder—dark red, spreading slowly.
“It’s nothing,” he said. “Grazed me.”
“Let me see.”
“Jae-min—”
“Let me see.”
Jae-min’s fingers were already at the hem of the torn shirt, pushing it up gently. The wound wasn’t deep, but it was raw and angry. Too close to the heart.
“You were shot because of me,” Jae-min whispered.
“I’ve been shot for less.”
“That’s not comforting.”
Jae-min grabbed a cloth and the emergency kit from the kitchen drawer. He cleaned the blood slowly, carefully, his hand trembling.
“You didn’t even flinch,” he muttered.
“I’m used to pain.”
“That’s not normal.”
“It is for people like me.”
“Then maybe I don’t want you to be ‘people like you’.”
Joon-ho looked at him. Sharp. Still. Too quiet.
“What does that mean?”
Jae-min swallowed, tightening the cloth over the wound.
“It means I don’t care if you’re broken or trained to kill. I kissed you, and I meant it. I don’t regret it. And if you do—”
“I don’t.”
That stopped Jae-min cold.
Joon-ho’s voice was low. Honest.
“I regret pulling away. I regret not kissing you sooner. But I also regret putting you in danger.”
“You didn’t,” Jae-min said. “Whoever did this—whoever’s targeting me—wants me to be afraid. And I’m not. Not with you.”
“You should be.”
“Why? Because you have a past?”
Silence.
Jae-min met his eyes. “Tell me. What did you do before this? Why do you keep looking at me like you want to hold me but don’t deserve to?”
Joon-ho clenched his jaw. “Because I don’t.”
“Let me decide that.”
Another silence stretched between them.
And then—
“There’s a reason I left the military. I was dishonorably discharged. I made a mistake during a mission. Civilians died. One of them was a kid.”
Jae-min’s breath caught.
“I lost control,” Joon-ho whispered. “And now I control everything. Including how close I let people get.”
Jae-min stepped forward and touched his chest — right beside the wound.
“Then lose control with me. Just a little.”
Their faces were inches apart again. Joon-ho’s breathing hitched.
But before he could answer—
The security phone buzzed.
Joon-ho moved fast, picking it up.
“Yes?”
Pause.
His face darkened.
“You sure?”
Another pause. A nod.
He hung up.
“What is it?” Jae-min asked.
“The sniper wasn’t aiming for you,” Joon-ho said slowly.
“What?! Then—”
“He was aiming for me.”
[End of Chapter 8]
📌 Next Chapter Tease (Chapter 9):
Joon-ho’s past enemies resurface
Jae-min demands to stay by his side — no more hiding
The s****l tension explodes again in a moment of panic and raw honesty
- Writer
