Chapter Text
This is my first novel of Rome and Mok. I hope you like it and I apologize if there are any problems with the text. English is not my first language.
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PART 1 : TEN YEARS OF SILENCE
For ten years, Mok had lived in the silence between heartbeats. To the world, he was the Arseni family’s most trusted shadow—a man of iron discipline and impenetrable mystery.
To the Chairman, he was a debt repaid, a tool sharpened to perfection. But to himself, Mok was a man standing on a crumbling bridge, watching the only person who mattered from a distance that felt like light-years.
Mok had been raised within the gilded walls of the Arseni estate since childhood. He grew up alongside Thee and Rome, the heirs to an empire.
In those early years, the hierarchy was a ghost. They were just three boys running through sun-drenched gardens, sharing sweets and secrets.
But as the sun set on their youth, the "old road" they walked together began to narrow.
The warmth of childhood was replaced by the cold sterility of duty. Mok became a professional—a bodyguard, a confidant, a protector.
The close, tactile bond he shared with Rome shifted into something heavy and unspoken.
Rome, the youngest son, had eyes that always seemed to seek Mok out in a crowded room. Mok felt that gaze like a physical touch, a constant reminder of a love he was never allowed to claim.
The Arseni family trusted Mok with their lives, their secrets, and their legacy.
So, when the Chairman sought a strategic alliance with a powerful Spanish tycoon, he didn't look for a diplomat. He looked for a sacrifice.
The tycoon’s only daughter, Liana, was a woman used to owning beautiful things. During her visit to the estate, she didn't care for the marble or the gold;
she cared for the stoic man standing by the door. She fell for Mok with an obsessive, reckless intensity. Seeing an opportunity to tether the Spanish empire to his own, the Chairman delivered his command:
Mok was to marry Liana.
Rome heard the news in Hong Kong. It didn't arrive as a letter, but as a shattering of his reality.
For years, Rome had lived in the quiet understanding that his love for Mok was a two-way street, even if the traffic was silent.
He believed Mok was waiting for the right moment. He believed the "working relationship" was merely a mask they wore for the world.
He was wrong.
Panic, raw and bleeding, drove him. He took the first flight back to Thailand, the engine's roar matching the screaming in his mind.
He didn't go to the family mansion. He went straight to the one place that felt like home—Mok’s apartment.
Outside, the Bangkok sky was bruised and dark, the monsoon rain beginning to lash against the pavement.
Mok was inside, the weight of the Chairman’s "request" pressing down on his chest like a tombstone.
When the violent pounding began at the door, Mok didn't need to ask who it was. He could feel Rome’s presence through the wood—erratic, desperate, and shattered.
Mok opened the door.
"Khun Rome," Mok whispered. The name felt like a jagged piece of glass in his throat.
Rome didn't speak. He shoved past Mok, the force of his body nearly knocking Mook over.
He slammed the door behind him with a crash that seemed to seal their fate.
"What is the meaning of this?" Rome demanded. His hair was damp, his eyes bloodshot, and his chest heaving.
Mok retreated into his fortress of ice. He donned the mask he had spent a decade perfecting. "I’m not sure I understand what you’re referring to, Khun Rome."
"Stop the act!" Rome screamed, the sound echoing off the minimalist walls. "Stop the performance! Stop the 'Khun Rome' and the 'Sir'! You know exactly why I’m here."
"Khun Rome..."
"ENOUGH!" Rome’s voice broke. He was gasping for air, the agony of the last few hours finally boiling over.
"You know... you know exactly how much I want you. I’ve spent years—ten long years—killing myself just to get you to notice me. To accept my love. To see that I am yours. Why? Why, when I know in my soul that you feel the same, Why did you decide to marry Liana?"
Mok felt the fire inside him rising to meet Rome’s. He wanted to scream the truth:
I am doing this because I am a servant! I am doing this to protect you from your father’s wrath! But he knew Rome. Rome would throw away his future for a man who was technically "nothing."
Mok had to be the one to end it. He had to be the monster.
"I don't know what delusions have led you to such a conclusion," Mok said, his voice a flat, terrifying monotone. "But our relationship has always been professional.
It is a matter of business, and it will remain so. Nothing has changed."
Rome stepped back as if he had been struck. "Business? You call ten years of this 'business'? Do all bosses and subordinates look at each other the way we do?
Do they touch as the way you touch me when you think no one is watching? Are you really going to stand there and tell me that the last decade was a transaction? Is this how everyone treats the person they grew up with?"
Mok turned his back. He couldn't look at the devastation on Rome’s face anymore.
"End this, Khun Rome. This discussion is useless.
"Useless?" Rome hissed. A strange, frantic strength took hold of him. He lunged at Mok, slamming him against the wall.
He gripped Mok’s collar, his knuckles white, his face inches from the man he worshipped.
"How dare you call my love useless? How dare you treat ten years of my life like a discarded file?"
Rome let out a jagged, bitter laugh. "I apologize, Sir. Please, tell me... what kind of love is useful to you? Is it Liana’s love? Is it her status? Is that what you want?"
Mok was exhausted. He was drowning in the pressure from the Chairman, the guilt of his own existence, and the unbearable weight of loving Rome too much.
He needed to push Rome away so far that he would never come back. He needed to kill the love to save the man.
Mok wrenched Rome’s hands off his collar with a violent, jarring motion. His voice, usually a calm lake, became a volcanic eruption.
"YES! I love Liana!" Mok roared, the lie burning his tongue like acid.
"You want to know why? Because she isn't a spoiled, self-centered brat like you! She doesn't expect the entire world to revolve around her whims! She doesn't drain the life out of everyone with her constant, pathetic need for attention!"
Mok stepped closer, his eyes cold and filled with a feigned disgust that felt like suicide. He delivered the final, lethal blow.
"And do you want to know the most important thing, Rome? The real truth? I’m disgusted by you. I’m disgusted by your pathetic behavior. I’m disgusted that I spent all these years with a man—a boy—following me around like a diseased animal, clinging to me under the guise of 'love.' It’s repulsive.
I like women, Rome! Get that through your head! I look at you and I feel nothing but sick."
Mok leaned in, his voice dropping to a whisper that sounded like death.
"I wish you had never even survived that accident. I wish you weren't here."
The silence that followed was absolute. It was like the silence of a Cemetery.
The rain outside seemed to freeze mid-air. The oxygen left the room.
Mok watched the light go out in Rome’s eyes. It wasn't just sadness; it was the total extinction of a soul. He realized instantly what he had done.
He had taken the one person who had been his North Star for ten years and he had incinerated him.
He had mentioned the accident—the one where Mok had pulled a bleeding Rome from the wreckage of a car, promising him he would never let him go.
Rome didn't scream. He didn't hit him. He simply began to stumble backward, his legs shaking so violently he could barely stand.
"Khun..." Mok started, his own voice cracking, the mask of ice shattering into a thousand pieces.
"It’s true," Rome whispered. The voice didn't belong to Rome; it was the voice of a ghost. "You’re right."
Mok tried to reach out. He tried to step forward, his hand trembling as he reached for the man he had just destroyed. "Rome..."
It was the first time he had said the name without a title in years. The sound of it seemed to cause Rome physical pain.
Rome recoiled, tears finally breaking through the shock and streaming down his pale, hollow face.
"I’m sorry," Rome choked out, his voice small and broken. "I’m so sorry... I didn't mean to be a disease. I didn't mean to make you sick. I’m sorry... I’m so sorry..."
Rome didn't wait for another word. He turned and fled from the apartment, his footsteps echoing like a fading heartbeat in the hallway.
Mok stood in the center of the room, paralyzed. He tried to scream Rome’s name, but his lungs were empty. His feet felt like they were fused to the floorboards.
What did I do?
He had protected the family. He had secured the alliance. He had played his part to perfection. But as the silence of the room swallowed him whole, Mok realized he hadn't just broken Rome’s heart.
He had taken the ten years of beauty they had shared on that "old road" and he had burned it to ash. He had saved Rome’s life once, only to murder his soul a decade later.
"Rome..." he whispered to the shadows. "Rome..."
But there was no answer. Only the sound of the rain, and the devastating realization that some things, once broken, can never be made whole again.
He had shattered Rome's heart into a thousand pieces, and he was left standing in the ruins of a love he was too afraid to fight for.
This was just the beginning of the novel. Please leave a comment if you liked the story and tell me to continue.