*Bael's POV*
He had planned to stay home today.
Not for any reason he could have named. Just the awareness, somewhere around last night, that leaving this morning would be wrong. He'd sent Shen Rui a message before six, rescheduled what needed rescheduling, and left it at that.
He hadn't thought past the decision.
That was the first mistake.
He's still in the bedroom. Moved to the chair by the window at some point after the door closed, and hasn't gotten up since. His phone is face down on the side table. His laptop is on the desk where he set it earlier, screen gone dark.
The door at the end of the hall had closed hard.
He'd sat very still when it did, and he's still sitting still now. Stillness has always come easily to him. But the quality of it this morning is different. Less controlled. More like the stillness of someone who hasn't yet decided what to do next.
He'd said the wrong thing.
