Chapter 1

CHAPTER - 1

The vibrant, neon lights of the signboards buzzed overhead as the clock neared 9:00 p.m., casting long, bleeding streaks of magenta and electric blue across the damp pavement.

Just an hour earlier, she had been inside the loud, chaotic game center with her younger brother,

Doyun,

watching him happily smash buttons on an arcade machine.

However, she had a sudden, urgent errand to run nearby.

Trusting him to stay put, she had left him alone for just a short while, telling him to wait near the alleyway of that street until she got back.

Now, rushing back down the pavement with two cold, sweating sodas in her hands, she regretted leaving him for even a second.

The night air was turning chilly, and the side streets were growing quiet, swallowd by shifting patterns of dark and amber.

She rounded the sharp corner of the alley, fully expecting to see Doyun playing on his phone, only to freeze instantly.

A tall guy wearing a black baggy hoodie was towering menacingly over her brother, his silhouette cutting a sharp, intimidating wedge through the dim light.

Doyun was flat on the rough concrete ground, looking pale, shaken, and completely trapped.

The stranger's large hand was gripped tightly around the collar of Doyun’s school shirt.

Her eyes widened with terror as she took in the sight of her brother in danger.

The crushing guilt of leaving him alone in the dark shattered her final thread of restraint, and she muttered his name like a broken prayer:

“Do... Yun...”

Her brain went completely red. She dropped the sodas without a second thought.

They hit the pavement with a loud, hollow splash, liquid rushing over the concrete and mirroring the fractured neon above.

But she was already moving.

Three rapid strides were all it took to close the distance.

The guy in the hoodie didn't even have time to turn his head fully toward her.

She pivoted hard on her heel, channeled every ounce of her body weight into her right fist, and let it fly.

Crack.

Her knuckles connected squarely with his jaw.

The sheer force of the impact sent him stumbling backward into the deep shadows, his hand violently releasing Doyun’s collar.

He groaned in pain, clutching the side of his face.

As the boy in the hoodie shifted his gaze toward the girl who had just struck him, a sudden, dark smirk spread across his lips.

Fuck, he thought,

A twisted amusement sparking through the pain, this is the first time someone has actually hit me in the face.

And a girl, no less...

Wow,

What absolute luck I have today.

Before he could even finish the thought, her fierce momentum carried her forward.

Driven by pure adrenaline, she threw a sudden, vicious second punch straight at his face.

This time, his reflexes kicked in.

He moved like lightning, his large hand snapping up to instantly grab her wrist mid-air, halting her fist mere inches from his nose.

"Oh, miss, wait..."

He rasped, his voice deep and rough.

In that fraction of a second, his chest tightened and his heart fluttered erratically—badum, badum—completely skipping a beat.

The sheer intensity of her gaze caught him completely off guard, rooting him to the spot.

And here, the boy's gaze locked totally on the face of the girl who had punched him.

As he stared at her, thinking about her face, he thought, wow.

For one strange second, the world seemed to quiet, the buzzing neon hum fading into absolute silence.

A stray beam of amber streetlamp filtered through the narrow gap between the buildings, catching the edge of her profile and painting her in a halo of golden warmth.

He noticed her hair first—

long, straight, black as the space between stars, catching glints of the midnight city lights.

Then her face.

Beautiful didn't seem like the right word; it was too soft for the sheer electricity radiating from her.

Her eyes were darker than he expected, fierce beneath beautifully arched brows, burning with a dangerous fire that made her entire face unforgettable.

He had the ridiculous thought that

she looked like an angel descending directly into his dark, chaotic world.

Then she looked directly at him, the neon magenta bleeding across her features.

And he realized

angels probably weren't supposed to look at people like that.

"Get away from him!"

She yelled, breaking the spell as she tried to wrench her wrist free, ready for round two.

"Touch my brother again and I swear to god I will break more than just your jaw!

"No, wait! Nuna, stop!"

(¹ Nuna (누나): A term used by a boy for his older sister or an older girl/woman he is close to.)

Doyun scrambled to his feet behind her, frantically grabbing her arm to pull her back.

"He didn't do it!

He was helping me!"

Her right fist hovered rigidly in the air as the guy slowly let go of her wrist.

The adrenaline rushing through her veins suddenly turned ice-cold.

"What?"

Those guys from school cornered me right after you left," Doyun squeaked, pointing down the empty street where the city lights flickered blindly.

"They tried to jump me.

This hyung showed up and scared them off!

(² Hyung (형): A term used by a boy or man to address an older male he is close to, such as an older brother or older male friend.)

I tripped when they ran, and he was just helping me up!"

She slowly lowered her hands, a sickening wave of embarrassment washing over her.

She looked at Doyun’s terrified, honest eyes, then slowly turned her gaze back to the guy in the black baggy hoodie.

He was standing straight now, stepping out of the darkness so the dim light revealed the sharp lines of his face.

He was massaging his bruised jaw, glaring down at her with a look of pure, unadulterated hatred—though beneath it, his heart was still recovering from that sudden, chaotic rhythm.

"Fascinating definition of 'thank you,'"

he spat, his voice dripping with venom.

"Look, I'm really sorry,"

She blurted out, her fierce pride completely overridden by guilt.

Knowing that he hadn't touched a hair on her brother's head—that he had actually saved him—made her feel utterly ridiculous under the unforgiving glow of the streetlamp.

"I completely misjudged the situation, and I apologize for how violently I reacted."

A slow, mocking smirk touched his lips again, though his eyes remained frozen like winter ice.

"You already gave me an unexpected apology gift,"

He murmured, his tone dripping with dark irony as his fingers lightly brushed the bruised skin on his jaw where her first punch had struck him, the pale light accentuating the mark.

Her cheeks burned a bright, furious crimson under the dim streetlights.

"I'm serious,"

She insisted, trying to block out the memory of her knuckles connecting with his face.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she looked him dead in the eye, their shadows stretching and mingling on the concrete.

"What's your name, anyway?""

Kang Nim,"

He replied smoothly, watching her every micro-movement as the neon signs blinked above, casting alternating flashes of shadow and light across his gaze.

Eager to clear her heavy conscience and fix the damage she had caused, she quickly reached into her bag, pulled out a thick handful of cash she had been saving, and thrust it toward his chest.

"Here. Take this. It’s for the medicine... to treat the wound."

Kang Nim looked down at the bills in her hand, then slowly looked back up at her face. His expression instantly hardened into stone.

The playful smirk vanished, replaced by a cold, sharp glare that made the night air feel suffocatingly heavy, choking out the warmth of the streetlamps.

"Ha," he let out a dry, humorless laugh.

He took a slow, predatory step forward, completely crowding her personal space until she was forced to tilt her head back just to look at him.

"You're throwing cash at me to fix a scrape?

Tell me... do I look that cheap, or do I look that poor to you?"

For a solid second, the sheer intensity of his gaze rooted her to the spot, their faces inches apart in the twilight.

Her heart hammered wildly against her ribs, a volatile mix of embarrassment and sudden irritation flaring up inside her.

She had tried to do the right thing, to swallow her pride and apologize, and he was turning her genuine mistake into a twisted power play.

She wasn't going to stand there and let a stranger humiliate her in a dark alley.

Without giving him the satisfaction of another word, she shoved the money back into her bag and zipped it shut with a sharp snap.

She reached out and tightly grabbed her brother’s arm.

"We're leaving," she muttered to Doyun, her voice sharp as glass.

Before she could take another step, Kang Nim lunged forward out of the shadows.

Driven by a surge of adrenaline from their brief, heated argument, he reached out without even thinking.

His fingers clamped around her wrist, halting her retreat.

"Wait a minute,"

he rasped, his voice low and dangerous as he forced her to look at him.

"I am not done with you—"

Before he could finish his threat, heavy footsteps echoed down the damp alleyway.

"Hey, Kang Nim! Everyone is waiting for you!" a loud voice called out.

The sudden intrusion broke Kang Nim's focus.

His grip on her wrist loosened just enough.

Seizing the fraction of a second, she yanked her hand free with violent determination, spun sharply on her heel, and practically dragged her bewildered brother along.

They sprinted away into the night, their silhouettes shrinking rapidly beneath the towering city lights.

Kang Nim snapped his head toward the voice, thoroughly annoyed.

"Wait a minute, I have something to deal with," he hissed at his friend.

But when he turned back toward the alley, his eyes scanned the empty space.

They were gone.

They had fled the absolute second his grip relaxed.

A slow, unexpected smile crept onto his lips.

He let out a long, heavy breath, his fingers tracing the sharp ache in his jaw where her knuckles had connected so beautifully.

Forget about it, Kang Nim, he thought to himself, watching the spot where she had vanished under the neon sky.

It's nothing. And it's not like our paths will ever cross again. So just forget it.

He let out a quiet sigh, dropping his hand, and turned to his waiting friend.

"Okay, let's go."