Lee Minho

The walls of the Nadezhda State Orphanage smelled of old age, disinfectant, and unfulfilled dreams. It was a gray, joyless place where time passed slowly and a sense of uselessness hung in the air, enveloping the souls of its inhabitants like a thick fog. The caregivers carried out their work without enthusiasm, with a cold formality that made one want to curl up into a ball and disappear even more.

It was here, six months ago, that Han Jisung appeared. A sixteen-year-old boy whose fragile, almost weightless beauty seemed a miracle in this bleak reality. His figure was graceful and slender, his features refined and beautiful, as if sculpted by a master's hand. His large, expressive eyes held a bottomless sadness—an echo of the terrible accident that six months earlier had taken his closest loved ones. Memories of his loving parents were both a painful sting and the only source of warmth in his icy present. He was quiet, gentle, and incredibly timid, preferring to remain in the shadows.

And then there was him in this orphanage. Lee Minho—a seventeen-year-old boy, a notorious bully and the terror of all the teachers. He'd been here since he was eight, the offspring of alcoholic parents who left him with nothing but bitter memories, a disbelief in goodness, and scars hidden beneath a cheeky grin. Minho was charismatic, a bit rude, and possessed an innate talent for creating trouble out of nothing. He feared no one and respected nothing.

And for some reason, it's this daredevil who won't leave the quiet Jisung alone. Minho is constantly nearby, throwing barbs, teasing, provoking. His behavior is a tangled web of contradictions: he might roughly push Jisung in the hallway, then an hour later discreetly slip an extra chocolate bar onto his bed. Minho was currently drawing uncultured pictures on the walls of the orphanage. Suddenly, he heard a rustling sound from behind him. He was already scared, but then he saw Jisung.

• What are you doing here?