The hallway was narrow, buzzing with the shuffle of footsteps, the low murmur of voices as people moved past each other. He had stopped for a moment, waiting for the crowd to thin, when she appeared beside him. There was space enough for her to stand at a polite distance. She didn’t. She slid into the narrow gap at his side, her shoulder brushing against his arm, her body angled just close enough that every movement pressed into him.
Her perfume reached him first—a delicate haze that carried a warmth too intimate for the crowded corridor. It wasn’t loud or overwhelming. It was soft, deliberate, the kind of scent that clung to skin rather than air. With every inhale, it wrapped tighter around him, curling through his chest like something forbidden.
The hallway noise blurred. He became acutely aware of her nearness: the way her hip grazed his side when she shifted her weight, the faint brush of her hair against his sleeve, the warmth radiating through the small space between them. She didn’t apologize for the closeness. Instead, she stood calmly, as though this were the most natural arrangement, her eyes fixed ahead while her body spoke a language only he could hear.
At one point, someone brushed past them, forcing her to lean even closer. Her arm slid against his briefly, her shoulder pressing into him, her breath stirring the air between them. She didn’t move back immediately. The press lingered, just long enough for him to realize it wasn’t necessity holding her there—it was choice. And when she finally leaned away, the scent of her perfume stayed, heavy in the air, clinging to him like a secret he wasn’t supposed to carry.
The hallway opened eventually, the crowd dispersing, but the echo of her closeness remained. He walked forward, still wrapped in the phantom of her scent, knowing she had left him something far more lasting than a fleeting touch. It was her way of reminding him that intimacy didn’t always require words, or even visible gestures. Sometimes it was as simple as standing too close, and letting him breathe her in.