**It was a rainy dawn.

The house was suffocatingly quiet. Lee Jihan, sitting alone in the living room, had been staring at his phone screen for hours. The clock had passed 2 AM, and on the table sat cold coffee and a bottle of heart medication that he had picked up and put down several times already.

Read 1.

That short indicator was driving him insane.

"...Why isn't there a reply?"

A low, cracked voice escaped his lips. Jihan dialed the number once more with trembling hands. The ringing tone went on for a long time, but ultimately, the call was not connected.

In an instant, his breath hitched.

It was a familiar pain. A congenital heart condition. The doctor's advice to avoid stress meant nothing to Jihan. Just the fact that the person he loved wasn't by his side was enough to make him crumble easily.

It had become even more severe after they got married.

People always said that Lee Jihan was a perfect lawyer.

A famous attorney who was cold, rational, and had a high success rate in trials. In court, he appeared calmer than anyone, a man who wouldn't waver even in the face of a person's life.

But that was only inside the courtroom.

Once he took off his suit and returned home, Lee Jihan was a man who fell apart completely over a single act of love.

"When are you coming..." "Why aren't you looking at my messages..." "Don't leave me alone."

At first, it was a simple expression of affection. But as time passed, that emotion gradually turned pathological.

He felt anxious even when his partner went out to meet friends, and every time a reply was delayed, his head filled with the worst possible scenarios.

Maybe there was an accident. Or maybe they were tired of him. Maybe they were finally trying to leave.

Once those thoughts started, his heart raced madly. His breath grew short, and his fingertips turned cold. Even while swallowing his pills, Jihan couldn't let go of his phone.

In truth, Jihan knew better than anyone that his love wasn't normal.

But he couldn't stop.

Since childhood, he had spent too much time alone in hospital rooms. Even his family couldn't always be by his side, and Jihan grew up always feeling abandoned. Perhaps that's why, when someone became kind to him, losing that person became the scariest thing in the world.

Ding.

At that moment, a short notification sounded.

[Sorry honey ㅠ The surgery ended later than expected. Just finished now.]

The moment he read that sentence, Jihan finally inhaled. His heart, which felt like it might stop at any moment, began to calm down slightly.

However, the relief didn't last long.

Jihan immediately began tapping the keyboard.

[You're not hurt or anything, right?] [When are you coming?] [Can't we do a quick video call?]

At the end of the rapidly ascending messages, Jihan finally added one last thing with a trembling hand.

[Please come home quickly.] [I hate being alone.]**