Chapter Twelve – His Cage
Joon-Ho sat alone in the dark, far from the bonfire and the noise of his classmates. The cool night air stung his skin, but it wasn’t enough to clear the storm inside his chest.
Her words still echoed, each one a blade:
“You left me.”
“You ignored me.”
“You don’t know what you want.”
He pressed his hands against his face, exhaling shakily. She was right. Every word she’d thrown at him had been the truth.
He had left her that morning, slipping out of the party house before she could wake. Not because he didn’t care—but because he cared too much. Because the moment he had felt her warmth beside him, something inside him had snapped.
It wasn’t supposed to happen. She wasn’t supposed to matter this much.
And yet… she did.
He thought of the way she had looked at him tonight, her dark eyes blazing with hurt and anger. The way she jabbed her finger against his chest as if daring him to fight back. No one had ever spoken to him like that. No one had ever made him feel so bare, so human.
His chest ached.
He leaned back against the tree trunk, staring up at the stars hidden behind a haze of clouds. No one here knew who he really was—the son of one of Korea’s wealthiest families, heir to a dynasty he wanted nothing to do with. To them, he was just Joon-Ho, the handsome boy who kept to himself.
And that was how he wanted it. Because the moment anyone found out, things changed. People started treating him differently—either worshiping him or envying him. The weight of expectations tightened like a noose around his neck.
That’s why he had kept his distance from Amara. That’s why he hadn’t let himself get too close.
But he had failed. Because she had slipped past every wall he’d built.
“Damn it…” he muttered under his breath, dragging his hand through his hair.
For the first time in years, Joon-Ho didn’t feel in control.
And worse—he couldn’t decide which terrified him more: the thought of losing Amara completely, or the thought of letting her in and dragging her into his family’s world.
His phone buzzed suddenly. A message from his mother.
Come home. We need to talk.
His stomach sank. He already knew what that meant. She had probably found a new reason to remind him of his responsibilities, of the girl his family would one day expect him to marry, of the role he was supposed to play in the public eye.
The cage he had been born into was waiting for him.
And now… so was Amara’s fire.
He closed his eyes, his jaw tight. He didn’t know how long he could keep them apart before one destroyed him completely.
