Chapter 60 — The Days That Followed
The world moved on.
The lights, the noise, the cameras—none of it stopped. Not even for a man who had quietly walked into a ballroom and emerged with something in his eyes that hadn't been there before.
Jaeheon said nothing about the ball. Not to the members. Not to the staff. Not even in passing.
But the silence... it wasn't empty.
It was full.
And the ones closest to him, those who had known him for years, felt it in everything he didn't say.
Back in the Studio
They had a schedule the morning after. A live radio interview followed by two rehearsals and a dance practice.
Jaeheon showed up early, already changed, hair neatly done, jaw set in perfect calm.
Rin noticed it first.
He tilted his head as they warmed up backstage. "He's different again," he murmured to Hyunjae.
Hyunjae didn't respond right away. He just watched as Jaeheon stood by the wall, headphones in, scrolling on his phone—expression unreadable, almost unreadably quiet. Then Hyunjae spoke, low and serious.
"He's waiting."
"For what?" Minjae asked.
They all knew.
But no one said her name.
A Shift in Rhythm
Jaeheon didn't smile.
He never really had, at least not openly. But now there was something sharper to his focus. Colder. Like he had placed his entire life in a vault behind his eyes, and locked it away with a code no one would ever be able to guess.
He trained harder. Longer.
Stayed at the studio after practice.
Wrote more music.
Deleted most of it.
In the middle of filming, he'd glance at his phone—only for a second—then put it down and return to the camera as if nothing had happened.
"Still nothing?" the manager once asked lightly, gesturing to the phone.
Jaeheon didn't answer.
He didn't have to.
The Questions They Never Asked
They respected the boundaries. Every one of them.
No one asked if she had replied.
No one asked if they'd met again.
No one asked what happened that night in the garden beneath the stars.
Because they knew something had changed—but they also knew how long he had loved her in silence. How sacred that was to him. And how, no matter what had or hadn't happened…
He would never speak of it.
The Public
The fans were curious, of course. Theories buzzed. Fancams were dissected frame by frame. Was that a faint smile on Jaeheon's face when he glanced at his phone? Did the slight shift in his playlist mean something? Was Moonlight Garden about someone real?
But the silence fed the obsession.
He never gave answers.
And that made everything more captivating.
Nightfall
That evening, Jaeheon sat by the window in his room, phone resting beside him, untouched.
He stared outside at the sky. Quiet. Still. No music playing. No notebook open.
Just the soft hum of the city beyond the glass.
His hand hovered over the phone once. But he didn't unlock it.
Not tonight.
Because for now, even without a reply… he remembered the sound of her voice in the garden.
And that was enough.