Leaning back against the pantry door, you watched Kihyun methodically slice the bacon he had sourced from the fridge. He was making some sort of pasta dish and was completely in his element.

You, however, were trying to keep your head above the crashing waves of emotion you felt.

The surprise was still nestled in your stomach, flittering around with the concept that Kihyun was here with you right now. Putting aside the careers you both had and the way you met, this was still the first time you had a guy you liked in your home. And since your accident, it was the most amount of skin you had shown anyone, aside from Nina.

You lived with the latter, and it would be challenging to hide your scars from her. But you had done so with Kihyun for so long that the urge to cover up came all too quickly when he started to look you over before. Something was different about the way he examined you, though. It had stopped you from running away. It wasn’t a pitiful expression residing in his eyes at all.

The way he had absorbed you was as if he was imprinting you into his mind and soul.

And now that he was cooking a meal for you, you couldn’t squash down the rising affection you felt for him even if you tried to.

You knew it would be bad to give in to your desires for Kihyun, complicating a connection that already ran too deep for the company to let you remain as just close friends. You knew Terry had used that connection, trapping you both with wanting the best for each other.

It was why you hadn’t told him you were being exploited, after all.

But would they allow you both to be close if things between you grew hotter? You didn’t know if you could handle the heat of attraction for Kihyun if it deepened. You were barely surviving as it was, your stress flaring your chronic pain so much that your skin felt too tight across your body.

“Just going to marvel me from behind as I cook?” Kihyun’s voice cut into your thoughts, and you snapped out of them with a flinch, both now staring at one another. Kihyun had glanced over his shoulder initially but put down the knife he had been using and turned to observe you.

You diverted your gaze to the kitchen stovetop. “Where do you want me?”

“I’m not going to answer that how I first thought,” he admitted with an evident swallow, and your teeth sank into your bottom lip after exhaling shakily. Kihyun recovered and pointed to the chopping board. “Come here and cut some vegetables.”

“I thought you were spoiling me tonight, not putting me to work,” you teased awkwardly, stepping over into his space and picking up the red capsicum on the countertop. “How do you want it cut, chef?”

“Half in thin slices and the rest diced. Reckon you could do that for me?”

You nodded. “I’ve got some experience in preparing food, Ki.”

“Oh really? Maybe next time you could cook for me.”

“Next time, huh?”

You both glanced at each other before turning back to your tasks.

Dinner didn’t take long to cook, and you weren’t expecting it to taste this good. You knew he was skilled in the kitchen, but the moan that left you after your first taste fell out before you could contain it. “This is so good!”

“It must be if you’re making noises like that,” he admitted with a sassy smirk, gesturing you to eat again.

There wasn’t a whole lot of conversation as you devoured the meal, and when you didn’t have that to distract you, the room became too silent. You could hear his breathing, steady and calm, whilst yours was far too shallow.

“Your skin looks like it’s in bad shape. Can you see someone about it?”

You nodded slowly. “I saw a doctor earlier. They prescribed me a cream to apply to soothe it and told me to remove all unnecessary stress in my life. Terry’s given me the next two days to sit at home and chill out.”

Kihyun growled. “Like that’s going to help.”

“I’ll be alright. I just need to get my emotions in check.”

“Me too,” he murmured, and you glanced over at him. Kihyun sighed, getting up from the stool you both sat side by side on to eat at the island countertop, shifting to the small couch in the room. You eased yourself off the stool and followed him over, slowly sitting down with some space between you.

“Promotions are only for one more week,” you told him and then smiled warmly. “Terry said we’ll be working on new songs for the repackage coming out in a month’s time.”

“Despite it all, that makes you happy?”

You nodded. “It’s one thing to sing other people’s songs. There’s a strange element of empowerment that comes from knowing these songs are mine. It’s my voice the nation has fallen in love with, even if the face doesn’t match.”

“I can’t believe that I’m about to say this because I want you to get full recognition for that voice of yours,” he started, side-glancing you as he reached out to take your hand. “But the man in me is glad it’s not your body all those fans are lusting over.”

Your eyes rounded at his confession, your heart seizing in your chest. Surely he meant something else even if there was little room to misconstrue the message. Kihyun turned to look at you wholly then, and you realised there was no other way to take it.

You didn’t know what to say, and thankfully, Kihyun didn’t press it.

You waited until your heart relaxed enough to hopefully come across as in control of your emotions. “You probably have work to do.”

“You can’t possibly think I’m going anywhere, right?”

“You should.”

“I should do a lot of things that I’m ignoring,” he replied, still staring at you.

“You mean, you shouldn’t,” you corrected breathlessly, your body betraying you by inching closer. He watched you intently, his hand growing clammy in yours. He let it go, dropping it to your bare thigh, the heat searing across your skin – but in a good way.

You decided you liked his calculated boldness more than withholding touches like you were. Kihyun’s hand slowly brushed over your right thigh, the skin smooth under his wake. Slowly it moved to your scarred leg, delicate touches sending your breathing up a notch.

Your eyes followed the trail he created. “Does it feel bad under your hand?”

“No. It’s different. But definitely not bad. How did it happen?”

“You know I was in a fire,” you whispered, and Kihyun’s hand continued to leave tingles in its wake.

“I didn’t realise it covered so much of you.”

“There’s more that you can’t see,” you blurted out and then cringed, wondering why you had to allude to that.

Kihyun smirked. “One day, I might see it all.”

“I’m starting to wonder if we should go back to talking about what we shouldn’t be doing.”

“I’d rather discuss what we should do,” he disagreed, his own gaze glued to his hand now too. He let it drift up the side of your thigh, hitting the edge of your shorts. It didn’t linger, palm now smoothing to your hip, sliding up to your waist before taking purchase there.

His ocean scent was dragging you under heavy waves of want. Need. Desire.

Pushing it aside, somehow, you shakily parted your lips. “I was at my parents’ home when it happened. Old wiring, they said. Thankfully they were away on vacation, and I was the only one there. I’d had an argument with my best friend earlier in the day, and it still seems important when I think about the fire. It was totally irrelevant, but I was really upset.”

You could feel the pain sweeping over your chest and reached out instinctively for Kihyun’s tee, anchoring a hand on it as the memory flared your senses. “I decided to take a nap to forget about it. Once I’d slept, I planned to call her to make up, of course. I could never stay mad for long. Instead, I woke up to pain. It was disorienting and hard to breathe through, though that was just the smoke I was inhaling. Admittedly I don’t remember how I got outside. Just that it hurt every step of the way. There were people crowding around, and I remembered someone screaming to help me put out the fire. I thought they meant from in the house. Not that I was the fire. If it wasn’t for the quick thinking of those around me, I probably would have died.”

Kihyun didn’t say anything, stunned into silence of your admission. You swallowed roughly, blinking back your tears. “The doctors told my parents that I would heal, but then I didn’t. I don’t remember why, but infection settled in on my hip, and the skin wasn’t doing well there at all. It took months of treatment just to function through it all. Then years of therapy and chronic pain management. I tried to recover too quickly, knowing my age would hold me back from making it to the stage if I waited any longer. I had to wear patches over my raw skin when I danced my way into another infection. And then I was rejected over and over. Never for my voice, but my repulsive body. So, I hid away. Hoping no one would find me.”

“But I did,” he said, barely louder than a whisper.

Glancing at Kihyun through the veil of tears, you realised he was crying too. You smiled half-heartedly. “You did.”

“Do you wish that I never heard you that day?” he managed to ask, the heightened atmosphere too thick to navigate easily.

Of course, you had moments where you wished to be left back in that practice room instead of propelled into the dark side of the entertainment industry you were struggling to crawl through. Many times, you would sit back and pray for that quiet life to come and take you again.

But it had been isolating. You weren’t able to be your true self, and ironically, even though you still weren’t entirely you with your singing career, meeting Kihyun had allowed you to grow. For new life to begin again on the barren land that had once been scorched with the fire.

“I’m relieved that you found me, Kihyun.”

Lips met yours then, pressing with demand against you. You gasped, and the desperation for both of you to deepen the connection was instant. You pulled him closer as his hand curved around your waist, bringing you flush against him. Your nerves jolted with the touch, but you didn’t care, too wrapped up in the taste of the man you knew you had been falling for. Finally, he had caught you, and it didn’t feel so scary to have these feelings anymore.

Not when he was relaying his own.

“I’ve wanted to do that for too long,” he confessed when his lips parted from yours, heaving in a steadying breath. “Probably since the first day I met you if I’m honest.”

“You and those words,” you mumbled, still holding onto him as the waves that had crashed down on you now rolled back out to shore. You smiled. “You finally put your mouth where your words were taking them.”

“Should I again?”

“Which answer do you want?” you asked, sizing up his lips with a shallow breath. “The one of a friend or a fellow singer?”

“How about the one of a lover,” he chose, and you groaned before meeting his mouth again.

After your allocated rest, you went back into the studio with renewed enthusiasm. Of course, your skin hadn’t healed enough, though the cream was slowly helping take away the inflammation. Mindset was a huge element to chronic pain, as you had learned over the years. You couldn’t explain your suffering in a way to make sense to those who didn’t have burn scars, but if you weren’t strong in your thinking, it was easy for the pain to overwhelm you, the nerve damage sending the wrong signals all too easily to your brain.

Kihyun had relaxed you with so many kisses that night that you were back to the emboldened woman he had helped you become. Terry pressed the intercom button to the recording booth you were standing in. “That was mind-blowing, Y/N. How you can control your voice that well to record in one take and show the emotion I asked for makes you a real asset to Starlet.”

“It’s like she’s had a breakthrough,” another producer agreed, and you beamed at them both, nodding gently.

“Do you want me to try from the top again?”

“No, that’s enough for today. We got all we needed from this session. Rest those vocal cords of yours, okay?”

Nodding once more, you stepped out of the booth, thanking the staff for your session and then moved to your personal practice space within Starship. Recently you had been given a dedicated room next to Nina’s dance space, and whilst it wasn’t as fancy as Kihyun’s setup, you were growing to love it.

It was the small things in amongst all the bad that made enduring this easier.

That and messages from Kihyun.

I’ve been thinking about you all day.

Giggling at the message on your phone, you quickly typed back a reply before turning to your computer and looking at your upcoming schedule. You were done for the day, but Nina wasn’t. And you never felt right leaving her to do all the work.

Still, she would easily be another three hours, and you wondered what could fill your time.

Kihyun’s new text solved your dilemma.

I’m in my studio. Want to come practice falsettos with me?

You were prepared to sink into Yoo Kihyun completely.