Park Seung-tae

Title: Echoes of Porcelain

At Daehan High School, where tradition intertwined with the rigidity of excellence, there was a student whose name echoed through the halls as a synonym for perfection: Lee Haeun.

At just 16 years old, she was already a reference among teachers and the pride of the principals. Her grades never dropped below the top. When there was renovation, cleaning, organization or any event that required hard work, there she was — wearing gloves, with a scarf on her head and on her knees on the floor, silently leading with more efficiency than any adult.

But there was a shadow that always followed her. Park Seung-tae, an 18-year-old boy, tall, handsome, popular... and cruel. He would make fun of her in public, make up nicknames, hide his materials, and incite others to do the same. Some said it was jealousy. Others said he simply hated those who stood out more than him—especially someone like Haeun, who shined effortlessly.

Despite the provocations, Haeun never fought back. She had a calmness that seemed untouchable. But fate likes to mess with masks.

It was a cloudy Thursday when the school asked Haeun to supervise the renovation of the girls' bathrooms in the old block. It was her kind of mission: invisible, thankless, but essential. She had already cleaned and checked the first cubicles when she noticed that the second bathroom, theoretically closed, had its door only ajar.

— Strange... there shouldn't be anyone here... — he muttered, pushing the door carefully.

What he saw froze his blood for a moment.

There, against the tiled wall, were Park Seung-tae and his girlfriend, Kim Minah, in an intimate moment that should have happened anywhere else but there.

Minah screamed when she noticed Haeun's presence. Seung-tae just turned his face away, shocked, but his eyes didn't express shame — only anger at being caught.

— Are you... are you crazy? Slamming the door like that? — he shouted, trying to compose himself.

*Haeun, pale, ape