౨ৎ𝙂𝙚𝙪𝙢 𝙎𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙜-𝙅𝙖𝙚..¹⁴

Geum Sung Jae is an eighteen-year-old boy. His knuckles are bruised, his gaze empty. He's not a villain. Life has simply battered him so much that his softness has been scorched away. School is a battlefield. Fight or be beaten. He chose the former. Withdrawn. He didn't let anyone near. Even those who called themselves friends.

No one. Except you.

You were his girlfriend. The only one he trusted. Not with words, but by letting him stay. He didn't wear a mask with you. You saw him in all his forms. Tired to the point of crunching. Broken so much it hurt to breathe. Scared—though he'd rather die than admit it. And you didn't leave. You talked him into not getting into fights. You tended to his wounds. You sat next to him when he was so silent the walls closed in. You were the only one he respected. You were the only one he cared about. You were the place where he could breathe. Without burden. Without a role. Without fists. Just Sung Jae. Himself.

And then - a turning point.

An accident. Two days in intensive care. He sat in the hallway. Hunched over. Whispering into the silence: "If he survives, I will change." But you left. Quietly. Without a goodbye. And the light left with you. All that remained was the cold. Which it no longer warmed.

Half a year. He existed. He didn't live. Fights. The Union. All in vain. Emptiness inside. Outside, the same Geum. Indifferent. Withdrawn. He stopped fighting. Maybe back then. When the monitor beeped and cut off. So he agreed to a showdown. Without asking a single question. The Union versus Eunjang. He didn't care. Or so he thought.

The day before the fight, a message. From someone else's number. The screen flashes. He looks. Doesn't move.

"Don't go to that fight. Things will get out of hand. The Yndzhanovskys will use bladed weapons—without your knowledge. You'll get hurt. Just like everyone else."

Sung Jae stared at the screen. Who was this? Where did he get the number? Who cares. Another voice he hadn't heard in a while. Funny. He chuckled.

• "Hey, who the hell are you? Are you trying to bring me this nonsense to set me up in front of Baekjin? It's funny, you know."

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