Kai Ryou.
A presence.
A shadow.
A cold.
A burn.
He cut through the entrance like a blade.
Black suit perfectly tailored, falling over his broad shoulders with almost clinical precision.
His posture straight, restrained, dangerously calm.
An aura so heavy people instinctively shifted aside, moved out of his way—without him lifting a hand, without a single word.
His black hair was slicked back, impeccable, except for one rebellious strand falling over his forehead—too perfect a flaw to be accidental.
His face was closed, unreadable, too calm—the kind of calm that makes people hesitate, the calm right before a storm.
He was immediately seized by the important men of the evening.
Firm handshakes.
Tight smiles.
Greetings that sounded almost like apologies.
He answered with precise nods.
Polite.
Distant.
Unreachable.
But his gaze…
His gaze searched for only one person.
He swept the room in a single motion.
Then he found her.
Nari.
A stillness.
A micro-second of something—very faint, almost invisible—passed through his eyes.
And he walked toward her.
Slowly.
Certainly.
As if the floor opened to guide him.
As if the entire room shifted to give him a path.
With each step, the air around Nari grew heavier.
Thicker.
More intimate.
The scent of his perfume reached her before he did—burnt wood, black leather, dry spices.
A scent that clung to the skin like a promise or a threat.
She inhaled despite herself, and the heat shot up her throat so fast she nearly lost her breath.
She stiffened.
A brutal shiver ran up her thigh, to her hip, to her neck.
A shiver she could neither hide nor control.
Kai stopped a few centimeters from the counter.
Close enough for his presence to pass through her.
Not close enough for her to accuse him.
He looked at her.
From bottom to top.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
His eyes slid over the slit of her dress.
Over the curve of her hip.
Over her tight waist.
Over her neck where warmth was rising.
Then over her mouth, where a trapped breath lingered.
Finally—his eyes locked onto hers.
A silent jolt.
A stare burning, intrusive, dominant.
A stare that said without speaking:
I see you.
I devour you.
You're sexy.
He said nothing.
Not a word.
Then he looked away, walked to a corner of the bar…
as if she had been the one to approach him.
Nari felt her breath hitch.
She had forgotten how much this man… distorted the air around him.
The evening was in full swing.
Not just a party — a furnace.
A whirlwind of heavy bass that made the floor vibrate straight into the bones, a blazing chaos where bodies tangled, chased each other, devoured each other with their eyes.
The strobe lights carved the room into brutal flashes: red, blue, gold, then black.
At each flash, the silhouettes turned back into hungry shadows.
Nari stood in the middle of it, as if planted inside a storm.
The air reeked of that addictive mix of alcohol, sweat, sugary perfume and raw desire.
Glasses clinked, laughter burst, voices overlapped — but it was the music that dominated, an animalistic, heavy, almost sexual beat that gripped the throat.
Around her, people danced pressed against one another, bodies sliding, hands gripping hips, necks, searching for heat, for skin, for a mouth — anything to burn a little faster.
Alcohol spilled, overflowed from cups, dripped down bare chests, gleamed on collarbones like drops of liquid light.
Nari felt her stomach tighten.
Her desire rose like a slow wave, dangerous, impossible to contain.
A heavy heat shot through her belly, then climbed up her throat. She had to swallow a trembling breath.
She would never have believed her body could react this fast, this hard — to a simple sight, to this atmosphere saturated with raw sensuality.
She inhaled deeply, but it only made it worse.
The mood of the bar had shifted without anyone noticing.
A kind of electrical tension, heavy and almost animal, vibrated in the air like a storm ready to break.
The bass shook the glasses, the violet lighting slid along the bottles, and in the middle of this controlled chaos… Kai Ryou had settled in the shadows.
Not just any corner: his corner.
The one nobody dared sit in.
The one from which he watched everything without ever truly being seen.
He was accompanied by a man in a suit — tall, rigid, the kind of man accustomed to restrained violence — but Kai paid him almost no attention.
His glass between his fingers, he spoke little, almost not at all, except to murmur a few low words, barely audible.
Because the only thing he was watching…
The only thing that still existed in his field of vision…
was Nari.
Every movement she made pulled his gaze like a magnet.
Her fingers gliding along the whisky bottle.
Her hair falling over her shoulder when she bent down.
The tension in her jaw when she concentrated.
The way her dress hugged her waist.
His black eyes kept returning to her.
Again.
Again.
Obsessively.
And Nari felt it.
A heat at her back, as if someone was placing an invisible hand on her bare skin.
But she forced herself to keep serving customers, breathing slowly so she wouldn't lose control.
That's when two drunk men approached the bar, staggering, their breath thick with cheap alcohol.
— We'll take two whiskies, babe.
The tone already sticky.
The stare already filthy.
— Right away, Nari answered, voice calm, professional, though a cold annoyance settled between her shoulder blades.
She grabbed the bottle, the amber liquid sliding into the glass with elegant precision.
But behind her…
— Whoa, look at that bombshell, croaked the first one.
— And check out that ass… added the other.
A greasy laugh.
A clicking tongue.
A disgusting breath.
— I'd love to fuck that slut.
The word cut through her like a blade.
A burning current climbed her belly, but she kept her face still.
Professional.
Unbothered.
As if none of it reached her.
— Here are your whiskies, gentlemen.
She set the glasses down without trembling, even though her fingers tightened slightly on the counter.
But one of them leaned in — too close, way too close.
— You wanna come home with me later, sweetheart? he murmured, licking his lips, a drop of alcohol glistening at the corner of his mouth.
Nari chose not to answer.
It was that, or plant the glass in his eye.
— Hey, answer me, slut!
The shout erupted, violent, offended at not being desired.
— I'm gonna take you home and you're gonna beg me to fuck you, slut!
The words cracked through the air like a slap.
Even the music seemed to pull back.
And in that instant, something happened.
Someone had stood up.
Not in her field of vision.
Not in front of her.
Behind her.
Where the shadows keep the most dangerous watchers.
Kai.
The glass in his hand, until now perfectly still…
shattered.
Not slipped.
Not cracked.
Shattered.
The pressure of his fingers had been strong enough to crush the glass into fragments.
The liquid ran between his knuckles.
The blood too.
A slow smile stretched across his lips.
A strangely quiet smile, almost gentle.
A smile of a man who has just found an excuse to let his demons out.
A smile that didn't belong to a human.
But to a predator.
Nari looked away, as if ignoring him could erase the threat.
Then she clenched her fists.
Searched for calm.
For oxygen.
When she turned back…
The two men were gone.
No sound.
No scream.
Just…
gone.
As if swallowed by the shadow.
She blinked.