Five minutes.

That was what I had promised.

Five minutes more on Cheng’s sofa before I left for work.

By the time I checked my phone again, almost fifteen had passed.

“Shit.”

I pulled my hand from his and stood too quickly. The room tilted just enough to remind me of the wine.

Cheng looked up from the sofa. “You’re leaving?”

“My shift is about to start.”

I crossed to the entrance for my jacket and bag. When I bent to pick them up, my hoodie rode up my back.

“Mae.”

I straightened.

Cheng was no longer looking at my face.

I dragged the fabric down, but he had already seen enough.

Earlier, he had found an old mark near my collarbone. Whatever he had just seen was different, and the change in his expression told me he knew it.

“I’m late.” I reached for the door.

He caught my arm. “Who touched you?”

“Cheng, let me go.”

His gaze moved over me, suddenly searching for what else my clothes might be hiding.

I pulled against him.

“You—!”

Before I understood what he was doing, my feet left the floor.

“Cheng!”

He lifted me and carried me away from the entrance. My bag dropped somewhere behind us as he strode down the short hallway towards the bathroom.

“What the fuck are you doing? Put me down!”

He didn’t answer.

The bathroom door opened hard against the wall.

A second later, we were inside the standing shower.

My back hit the tiles.

Cold shot through me even before Cheng turned on the faucet, then freezing water crashed over both of us.

I gasped.

My hoodie and jeans became heavy almost instantly, clinging to my skin.

“Who the fuck touched you?” His voice echoed off the tiles.

“Just let me go!” I shoved against him, trying to break free.

He pushed me back.

My shoulders hit the wall first. Then my head.

Pain exploded through my skull.

My vision went white for a few seconds. When it returned, I stopped fighting.

Cheng’s breathing was louder than the shower. His fingers passed over every mark he could see.

Then his fist hit my cheek.

The force knocked me to the floor.

I tasted blood.

For a moment I could only stare at the water gathering around my knees.

“Cheng…”

He grabbed my hair and pulled me back up.

My scalp burned. He tugged at my soaked clothes, hurriedly getting them out of the way, looking for whatever else I had hidden from him.

And there was more. Of course there was.

His face changed with every mark he uncovered.

He reached for the body wash.

My stomach twisted.

“Please stop. I can explain—”

He scrubbed soap over my skin as if the marks were dirt, as if whoever had touched me had left something behind that could be washed away.

“Cheng, stop.”

He kept going.

Some places hurt more than others. I flinched whenever his palms passed over them, but that only seemed to make his breathing heavier.

“Cheng!”

I caught his face between my hands and forced him to look at me.

I didn’t know what I expected.

Maybe that he would finally see me instead of the marks.

Maybe that the alcohol would disappear from his eyes.

Maybe that he would realise he was hurting me too.

Instead, another punch struck me.

I fell against him.

He pushed me away almost immediately, as though he couldn’t stand my body touching his unless he was the one deciding when it happened.

Something inside me gave up.

I stopped fighting.

The tears came silently, hidden by the water, until my shoulders began to shake.

Cheng’s hands slowed on my chest.

Stopped.

His palm stayed there for a moment.

Then it travelled upwards, towards the base of my neck, and his fingers curled around it gently.

“Chin Mae.”

My name sounded completely different now.

I turned my face away.

He stared at me for several seconds, then he reached for the controls.

The water gradually warmed. Neither of us mentioned what had just happened.

Cheng washed the soap away again, but this time his hands barely pressed against me. The anger hadn’t disappeared—I could still see it in his jaw and eyes—but something else had pushed through it.

When the last of the soap was gone, he guided me out of the shower.

My legs were unsteady.

He wrapped a towel around me, then took another and carefully rubbed it over my hair.

I let him. I didn’t know what else to do.

Cheng found ointment and treated the marks one by one. Neither of us spoke.

When he reached the one around my neck, he stopped. His fingertips hovered above it.

I watched his lips tremble. Then a tear rolled down his cheek.

“I’m sorry,” I said quickly.

His eyes snapped to mine.

“I don’t want to see you like this,” I continued, my throat tightening. “I shouldn’t have let it happen. I should’ve fought harder.”

“That’s not…” His voice died. He wiped his face with the back of his hand. “Why didn’t you say anything? I could have protected you.” His voice cracked. “I can protect you.”

“I wanted to sort it out myself.”

“Why?”

“Because I felt dirty.” Saying it aloud made the feeling worse. “I thought if I told you, I’d feel even more disgusting. And I thought maybe you would…” I swallowed. “Maybe you’d push me away.”

Cheng stared at me.

“Because you’d be disgusted too.”

“How did it happen?”

I bit my lip. I didn’t know where to begin.

The office came back first.

The smell. The door closing.

His voice. I pushed it away.

Cheng seemed to understand from my face alone.

“If you want to talk about it,” he added more quietly.

“I thought I could bear it and move on. But now you found out.” I forced myself to breathe. “I’m sorry I’m this disgusting. But I’m searching for another job, so it won’t be a problem anymore—”

“I’m sorry.”

I looked at him. His eyes were red.

He pulled me against him.

His arms closed tightly around my body, and his lips brushed the line around my neck before touching the places on my face where he had hit me.

“You’re not disgusting. Stop saying that.”

I shut my eyes.

“The person who did this to you is disgusting.”

I nodded because speaking had become too difficult.

“You should have told me anyway.” His hands moved slowly over my back. “Can you tell me who it was?”

My body went rigid. “I-I think it’s better if you don’t know.”

“Mae—”

“Please.”

His breath grew heavier. I pushed him back before the anger could return, tightened the towel around myself and reached for another one.

Only then did I properly notice him.

He was still soaked.

His clothes clung to him, dripping all over the floor.

I began drying him too, mostly because doing something with my hands was easier than looking at his face.

A few minutes later, his wet clothes landed on the bathroom floor.

We moved into the bedroom, where I put dry clothes beside him before getting dressed myself.

Cheng remained unusually quiet until I was almost finished.

“Stay here tonight.”

I looked over my shoulder.

He stood from the bed. “Call your workplace and tell them you quit. I’ll look after you so something like this doesn’t happen again.”

“What?”

“You’re not going back.”

“Cheng, I can’t just quit my job.”

His eyes narrowed. “IF this is the first time something like this has happened.”

My entire body went cold.

I nodded.

Too quickly.

If only he knew.

“I can’t quit until I find another job. How am I supposed to pay for the hostel? Or anything else?”

“I’ll take care of it.”

“No.”

He stepped closer.

“I’ll be careful,” I insisted. “I promise.”

Cheng planted his forearm against the wardrobe beside me and leaned closer.

“You’ll work for me.”

I stared at him.

“What?”

“You’ll be my butler.”

A laugh escaped me despite everything.

“Your butler?”

He nodded as if he had solved every problem in my life.

“You’re drunk.”

He leaned towards me and kissed my cheek.

I hissed when his lips touched the swollen skin.

His expression faltered.

“Please move away, Cheng.” I slipped past him and walked out of the bedroom.

I needed to leave. Now.

I crossed the living room towards my bag.

“Quit your job and stay here with me.” It was an order.

I stopped.

Cheng had followed me out of the bedroom, but he remained several steps behind me.

“Enough, Cheng.”

For a moment, he looked at the floor. Then his eyes lifted to mine. “Or whatever is between us is over.”

I stared at him.

The alcohol had made him stupid before but this didn’t sound like a joke.

“How dare you—”

He turned away before I could finish and disappeared into the bedroom.

I stood there, furious.

How dare he—

“Fuck!” I grabbed my phone.

My shift was about to start. Or better, I should have been already there.

My fingers shook as I found my boss’s number.

The call connected.

“Hi. It’s Chin Mae.” My throat tightened. “I’m giving you my resignation. Effective today.”

My boss’s voice changed immediately.

The insults came immediately—slut, ungrateful, worthless—until something in me snapped.

“Good luck finding another member of staff who likes being raped at the end of their shift.”

Silence.

“Consider yourself lucky I’m not going to the police and shutting that damn place down.”

I hung up before he could recover.

Adrenaline flooded through me. My hands shook, so I went to the kitchen and attacked the dishes from dinner, scrubbing until there was nothing left to clean.

Then I stood with the last plate beneath the running tap.

Water streamed over my fingers.

I stared at it.

I didn’t know how long I stayed like that.

“Hey…” Cheng’s voice came from behind me.

His arm appeared beside mine. He turned off the tap.

With his other hand, he carefully removed the plate from my grip and placed it back in the sink.

“You’ve been staring at the water for a while.”

I blinked.

My fingers were numb.

“Let’s go to bed.” He dried my hands.

He didn’t ask about the call. He didn’t need to. The tension in his face told me he had heard enough, and I knew him well enough to recognise restraint when I saw it.

He stayed silent.

I followed him into the bedroom.

I lay on my side near the edge of the bed, leaving as much distance between us as I could.

I was still angry. I understood why he had done it. That didn’t mean I liked it.

The mattress shifted.

Cheng moved closer and gently pulled me towards him until the back of my head rested against his chest.

I almost moved away.

Instead, I stayed.

His fingers slid slowly through my hair. “Can you talk to me honestly now, please?” He kissed my forehead. “I won’t get angry.”

I nearly laughed at that.

“And I won’t be disgusted.” His lips touched my forehead again.

I stared at his chest.

He had kissed me so many times tonight that another problem had started forming in my head.

Was he this affectionate with everyone?

Why was he kissing me, hugging me, holding me like this?

I swallowed.

“Some customers were drunk a few nights ago.” His hand stopped in my hair. “They surrounded me behind the pub after my shift. They started hitting me and tried to…”

I couldn’t finish.

I cleared my throat. “I fought back. But I was outnumbered.”

Cheng said nothing.

“My boss eventually came outside and threatened to call the police. They left.”

I could feel my heartbeat against Cheng’s chest.

“He brought me back inside. Into his office. He said he was going to take care of my wounds.”

The memory tightened around my throat.

“When I was about to leave, he told me he liked me.”

Cheng’s body went rigid beneath mine.

“He said he would protect me, looked after me from then on if I was… his.”

I hated that word.

“I didn’t answer straight away. I was shocked. He took that as consent.”

My fingers curled into Cheng’s shirt. “But I wasn’t agreeing.”

I shut my eyes.

“He took advantage of me even though I told him to stop. He thought I liked being submissive. He thought my complaints meant I wanted him to keep going.”

My voice broke.

“I tried to fight him, but I was already hurt. I was tired, and I didn’t know what else to do to get away—”

“It’s normal that you couldn’t.” Cheng’s voice was cold.

Not gentle.

Not angry with me.

Just cold.

“I’m sorry you had to experience that.” He rested his cheek against my forehead and held me closer.

I laughed weakly, embarrassed by how easily I let myself fit against him.

“I don’t understand why people think I’m a sub. Or why they think they need to protect me.” I wiped my face. “Is it how I look? The way I talk?”

“I don’t know…” Cheng shifted beneath me.

“But I can understand your boss’s feelings and intentions. I have—”

He stopped.

I lifted my head slightly.

His eyes avoided mine.

“I mean…” He cleared his throat. “That doesn’t excuse what he did.”

I kept looking at him.

Something had been there.

Something he had almost said.

But I was too tired to pull it out of him.

“I’m going to be strong.” I tried to smile.

It turned into a quiet cry instead.

I covered my face.

I hated crying in front of people.

I hated how often I seemed to do it around him.

“I have to be,” I whispered. “I’m tired of ending up in situations like this.”

Cheng tightened his arms around me. “Then do what you need to do.” His voice softened. “But let me stay beside you.”

I lowered my hand.

“Even the strongest people have moments when they fall. They need someone there when that happens.”

His fingers returned to my hair. “I want to be that person.”

Something tightened painfully inside my chest.

“Deal?”

I raised my head just enough to meet his eyes.

Then I nodded.

“Deal.”

A small smile appeared on his lips.

His eyes closed, and only then did I realise how tense he had been.

My tears still wouldn’t stop.

Cheng brushed them away, then took the hand I had used to cover my face and placed it over his chest.

His fingers intertwined with mine. “You have me now.” He kissed my forehead again.

He was really drunk.

“It’s okay,” he mumbled, his voice becoming heavier with sleep. “I’ve got you, Chin Mae. You don’t have to worry anymore.”

His breathing slowly evened out.

I stayed awake against him for a while, listening to his heartbeat beneath my palm.

My cheek hurt. My body hurt. I had no job anymore, and Cheng now knew something I had desperately wanted to keep hidden.

There were still things he didn’t know.

Things I wasn’t ready to tell him.

But his fingers remained tangled with mine even after he fell asleep.

Eventually, my eyes closed too.

It was going to be okay.