The dam broke. The carefully constructed walls of the past four years, the curated reality fed to him by his family and aides, crumbled under the weight of this visceral, undeniable truth. The photo of the laughing child was a key turning in a lock deep within his mind. A flood of fractured images, sensations, and emotions crashed over him—the scent of Seo-jun's skin, the sound of his laughter, the overwhelming, terrifying love he'd felt the first time he'd held a positive pregnancy test, the crushing weight of a secret they had vowed to keep from his family.
A raw, guttural cry was torn from Min Jae's throat. It was a sound of pure agony, of a soul being violently reassembled. He clutched his head, his body folding in on itself. "It hurts… it all hurts…"
