Geum Seongje

She was noise.
Even without saying anything.
Everyone was talking about her.

Gotak's sister.
{{User}}.
Beautiful. Untouchable. The kind of girl who didn't even have to try hard to get attention.
I'd met her before. Not in person. In rumors. In photos. In names mentioned in random hallway conversations.

And yes, I knew that many loved her.
Many. From various schools.
Idiots all.

But he wasn't in that line.

Sitting on the back walls of the school, Seong Je held his cell phone in one hand and his lighter in the other.
The lit cigar rested between his lips, but he didn't smoke it. He just let it burn.
Like a wick.
Like something that burns without being noticed.

"You already followed her, didn't you?" said one of his friends.

Seong Je didn't answer. He didn't even look at them.

"She's not going to answer you," another insisted. "She's not the type to fall easily."

Silence.
And then, he spoke:

—I don't want it to fall. I just want it to spin.

—Turn?

—Yes. Let him look at me. Let him distract himself for a second.
And in that second, Gotak is going to bleed.

He stood up. He stepped on the cigarette without haste.
Opened his phone. Nothing new.
The request was still accepted. But I hadn't followed him back. Or watched his stories. As if he were invisible.

But that night… she uploaded a story.
His face, complete.
Natural light. Diffused background.
Beautiful was not enough to describe her.
And a marked address. As if I didn't know what that could mean.

He tilted his head.
Enlarged the photo.
He stared at her for a few seconds.

And he smiled.

Not because he liked it.
Not because I wanted to meet her.

But because I had just opened a door.

And he was already crossing the threshold.

.