Chapter 5: Cereal, Secrets, and Towels

Mornings in the flat had become their own little ritual.

Min was already a creature of routine; he liked his fruit sliced a certain way, liked the blinds open exactly halfway, liked blasting soft K-pop on the speaker while he moved around the kitchen like it was a dance floor. Yuki showed up most days unannounced, barefoot in someone else’s hoodie, carrying iced coffee and stories from her dorm that made Min roll his eyes and me laugh half-asleep. And me? I floated. Still figuring out how to belong in this new place, still nursing the dull ache of everything I had left behind.

We were comfortable. In sync. We had become a strange little trio, but it worked.

That morning, I was perched on the kitchen counter in my usual half-awake fog, wearing just boxers and an old T-shirt. Yuki was spinning a dramatic tale about her flatmate getting caught sneaking in a Tinder date at 3AM, her voice bouncing off the walls with the kind of casual chaos only she could bring. Min stood by the kitchen sink, humming to himself as he poured oat milk into his cereal, hair still wet from his own shower. Everything felt familiar.

Until the bathroom door creaked open.

A soft sound. Innocent. But something in the air changed.

Then I saw him.

Theo stepped out in nothing but a towel slung dangerously low around his hips. It wasn’t just low; it was indecent. You could see the carved V of his hips, the smooth line trailing down from his abs, disappearing beneath the fabric. His skin glistened slightly, still damp, the morning light catching on the curve of his chest and the slope of his shoulder. His hair was messy, pushed back like he’d run a hand through it while toweling off.

He looked like he belonged in an ad. No; he looked like he’d stepped out of one.