Chapter 34. The Walkout

Lia walked without direction.

Her hands still shook. Her throat still burned from the words she hadn’t swallowed.

The streetlights blurred through water, each one pulsing like a warning.

She kept replaying the last thing he’d said.

Go.

Not stay, not please, not even don’t.

Just go.

It shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did.

The city thinned as she moved south, away from the noise. The neon glow faded into brick and steam and the hum of traffic under the river bridge.

She found herself outside the old boxing hall—the one that had shut down last winter, where she’d first met Jun.

The metal door was still rusted, half-sunk in graffiti. She pulled it open and stepped inside.

The smell hit her instantly—dust, sweat, rubber, time.

No lights, just the faint blue spill from the street outside.

She stood in the middle of the empty ring, rain dripping from her jacket, and let the si