Mah-e-Tanha 

Between Two Hearts

Sherri was never meant to be part of the story.

At 31, she leaves behind a life of routines and expectations, boarding a one-way flight to Seoul with nothing but a suitcase and a dream — not of stardom, but of proximity. To the stages, the music, the voices that once lifted her through the darkest seasons of her life. Seoul, she believes, will be her sanctuary. A quiet chapter where she can finally breathe, finally feel, finally live.

But fate, as always, has other plans.

It begins with a chance internship at SKY Entertainment, the powerhouse behind global sensation Slay Kids — eight young idols lighting up the world with synchronized perfection and smiles that hide more than they reveal. Sherri keeps her head down, grateful just to be close to the music. Until a late night in the practice room changes everything.

There, beneath flickering fluorescent lights and trembling breaths, she meets Hyunjin — the group’s most magnetic performer. Beautiful, intense, unknowable. He sees her, really sees her, in a way that startles them both. And behind Hyunjin stands YoungBok, steady and observant. A soft-spoken soul who watches every move Hyunjin makes like it could be their last.

As days turn to weeks, the truth begins to shimmer at the edges of her reality. There’s something between Hyunjin and YoungBok — something old, something sacred, something the world isn’t meant to see. A touch too lingering. A gaze too charged. Sherri feels the weight of it long before she understands it. And when Hyunjin starts looking at her the same way… she knows she's stepped into something dangerous.

She never meant to be the reason Hyunjin hesitates.

She never meant to stir the still waters between two people bound by more than just music.



Between the hearts

Warm sunlight spilled across the bedroom, painting soft golden lines over tangled sheets and smooth skin. The quiet hum of the city barely reached inside, where time seemed to have slowed. 


Hyunjin stirred first, not from noise — but from the gentle tug of fingers tracing idle patterns on his bare arm. 


Sherri lay beside him, head propped on one hand, watching him with that quiet smile that made his heart stutter. 


He grinned sleepily, eyes still heavy. “Good morning, wife.” 


She leaned down, brushing her lips over his jaw, then the corner of his mouth. He hummed, tilting his face toward her and catching her lips in a slow kiss that deepened lazily, sweet and unhurried. 


His hand slipped under her shirt — his shirt oversized on her, hanging halfway off one shoulder — and caressed the bare skin of her waist. 


“Mmm, I like seeing you like this,” he murmured. 


Chapter 29: Waking to You