Lines We Cross ||Front Man x Reader||

The room had gone quiet again, like the air itself was afraid to move. Jun-ho was still breathing hard from where the guards restrained him, fury etched into every vein of his face. But all I could hear was In-ho's voice, still echoing inside my head.

"If you fall in love with me again... without the games, without the island, without the fear—I'll put an end to this. All of it."

It didn't sound like a trap. That was the fucked-up part. It didn't even sound like a lie. It sounded like hope.

I didn't respond right away. I couldn't.
Instead, I stared at the floor. The way the light from the overhead lamp barely touched the edges. My thoughts were spiraling. Colliding.

One second, I wanted to scream. The next, I wanted to cry.

But mostly, I just wanted to breathe. To think.

And In-ho waited.

Of course he did.

He always waited at the perfect moments—patient and calculated, like a man who had all the time in the world. And maybe he did.

"I..." My voice caught in my throat.
I was so fucking tired of fighting him. Of this place. Of all of it. My body ached from being tied up for so long, but nothing compared to the weight sitting on my chest.

Because this was more than a deal. This was him, saying: Trust me. One last time.

I looked at Jun-ho. His eyes met mine instantly. He shook his head—just barely—but enough that I noticed. Enough to say: Don't do this.

I turned to In-ho next.

He was standing a few feet away now, hands clasped behind his back, the cold, eerie calm of a man who'd already decided how this would go.

Was it real?

Could it even matter?

"Why?" I asked softly. My voice was raw. Honest. "Why now?"

He stepped forward slowly, not like a predator this time, but like someone trying. Trying to be seen as something more than the man who'd chained me to a chair. Trying to be seen as a man at all.

"Because I never stopped loving you," he said. "And if I'm being honest—I hate who I've become. I hate that I almost became the kind of man who can't live without you. So I have to face it. I want to redeem that part of me, and I know the only way to do that is if you fall in love with me again—without force, without fear."

I felt my throat tighten. The tears were right there, but I blinked them back. Barely. It was tempting. Dangerous. And almost impossible.

Could I love him again? Could I even trust him long enough to try?

I bit down on my bottom lip, hard. My chest rose and fell, uneven and sharp.
"Say I do this," I said. "Say I stay for... whatever the hell this is. And say I don't fall back in love with you. Then what?"
In-ho looked down. And for once, he didn't have a clever answer.

"You walk," he said. "You walk away, and I won't stop you."

Silence.

It felt unreal—like someone had paused the world. Even the guards shifted uncomfortably. Jun-ho was still watching me, jaw clenched so tightly it looked like it might snap.

I looked at the ground again. Then the door. Then the faint red glow of the emergency exit behind the stage. Freedom was right there.

But what if I left... and regretted it forever?

What if I stayed... and let him ruin me for good?

My heart was pounding so loud it hurt.
This wasn't a choice between two men.
It was a choice between two versions of myself—the one who had already endured too much, and the one who still wanted to believe.