The dressing room door slammed shut behind him, echoing louder than it should have in the silence. The moment it clicked, Kai dropped the bottled-up façade and stumbled to the couch, hands trembling as he raked them through his hair.
Noah.
It wasn't a hallucination. Not a memory. Not a ghost.
It was him—alive, real, standing just feet away, looking exactly how Kai remembered and nothing like he remembered.
"Goddamn it!" he yelled, hurling a water bottle across the room. It hit the wall with a dull thud and burst, water spraying across the hardwood floor like silent tears.
Ash knocked once before sneaking in quietly, East close behind.
"Kai, what the hell was that?" Ash asked, voice careful but firm.
Kai walked away from them, wiping his face despite not having cried. "It was him, Ash. He just stood there like nothing ever happened."
East folded his arms. "You called security on him. You think that's gonna be the end of it?"
