Eli stared at the Polaroid as if the glossy square could cut him open. His grip shook once, then tightened until the edges curled, the paper straining as if it might tear.
Seol-ah couldn't stop looking either. The photo felt wrong, charged, intimate in a way that made her skin crawl. Eli slumped in the same chair, unaware, while the man in the hat stood too close behind him. Possessive.
Her voice wavered as she spoke. "How… how could he be in the room without you knowing?"
"I would've noticed." The reply came quickly, too sharp.
"Then explain this." She reached for the photo, but he pulled it back.
His eyes turned toward her—not pleading, not confused, but cutting. Dangerous. "Don't."
That single word hit her like a slap. Eli had never spoken to her that way. It wasn't exactly anger. It was fear.
Seol-ah recoiled, a chill creeping up her throat. Since the accident, doubt had lurked in her mind. Now it spread, thick and suffocating, like ink bleeding into water.
Eli noticed it. His expression changed—regret flickered, an effort to cover the slip. "Seol-ah… photos can be altered. You know that better than anyone. His whole life is a performance. Nothing he does is real."
"But I don't remember," she whispered. The words echoed in the room. "I don't remember what's real or staged. I don't even remember you."
The silence that followed was sharp, almost violent. Something cracked between them.
Eli shut his eyes, his jaw tight, as if her words had hurt him. "Then remember this," he said, stepping closer. His hand rose, hovering inches from her cheek. Close enough to touch. Close enough to feel the tremor in his fingers. "I would never let him get close enough to touch me. Or you."
Her breath caught, quick and shallow. He meant to anchor her with his words, but the image wouldn't leave her mind: the hand on his shoulder, the quiet ownership in the gesture.
In that thin, fragile silence, a darker truth curled between them. Fear of the man in the hat was one thing. Fear of what Eli wasn't telling her was something else entirely.