Chapter 1
It was May. The cloudy sky promised imminent rain, yet for some reason it refused to relieve Yangon’s oppressive heat – a personal grudge, Kaung Htet thought, against his already exhausted mind. As he walked, he looked up at the sky. The sun was nowhere to be seen.
The fuck? The fucking sun isn’t even visible. Why is it so freaking hot?
He suddenly slowed his pace when he heard someone crying.
Before turning onto the next street, he stopped at the corner and cautiously peeked around it.
A sports car and a black SUV were parked across the narrow road, blocking almost the entire street. Several young men stood around them, smoking. One young man was lying on the ground while another knelt beside him, crying.
“Hand.”
The tallest one, who seemed to be the leader, barked the order.
He wore a plain white T-shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his shoulders, revealing a sharp tan line against his unusually pale skin. Loose-fitting jeans hung low on his hips, draping casually over his long legs.
The young man, still crying, hesitantly raised his hand. Without a trace of hesitation, the leader stubbed out his cigarette on the boy’s palm.
Kaung Htet clenched his fists and stepped into the street. He cursed his own impulsiveness. He knew this was a stupid thing to do.
The gang immediately turned toward him. A few of them smirked at his sudden appearance. The leader narrowed his eyes, his brows drawing together.
Kaung Htet quickly counted them. Five, not including the two people on the ground. His gaze returned to the leader. The man had a lean, athletic build and was taller than Kaung Htet. Fighting him alone would already be difficult, let alone taking on all five.
This was indeed stupid.
“Let them go,” Kaung Htet said.
He knew he was digging his own grave. But now that he’d stepped in, there was no turning back.
“Do you know them?” the leader asked.
“I don’t. But you guys should leave. I already called the police.”
It was a complete bluff.
A few members of the gang chuckled, and two of them started walking toward Kaung Htet.
Kaung Htet stood his ground without moving. His heart pounded against his chest, but his face remained calm.
Just as the tension reached its peak, the rain began to fall.
Everyone instinctively looked up as heavy raindrops pelted their faces.
“Let’s just go,” the leader said.
The gang stopped halfway. They exchanged confused looks before quickly backing off.
“It’s your lucky day,” one of them said before turning away.
Moments later, the engines roared to life, and both vehicles drove off.
Once they were gone, Kaung Htet took out his rain jacket, wrapped it around his backpack, and walked over to the two men.
By then, they had already gotten to their feet.
Neither of them said a word. They simply walked away.
Kaung Htet didn’t go after them. Instead, he left the street, thinking about what one of the gang members had said.
It was indeed his lucky day.
The next day, Kaung Htet felt as though it had all been nothing more than a bad dream. Even so, he promised himself he would never do something like that again. He had no desire to test his luck.
He knew the consequences of provoking rich people. The leader had been driving a sports car. He had to be the son of one of the country’s elites – someone Kaung Htet knew better than to mess with.
He had heard countless rumors of people ending up badly injured or disappearing without a trace.
After reassuring himself, Kaung Htet put on his school uniform and headed to school.
The campus was quiet in early May as it was still technically the summer holiday. But it was the first day of enrollment week for the new school year, and classes had yet to begin. After checking the notice board for his name, he made his way to the assigned registration desk. A line had already formed, so he took his place at the end of the queue.
With his registration complete, Kaung Htet turned his thoughts to the demanding months ahead.
His father, the more lenient of his parents, had sat him down the day he turned seventeen and talked to him about his future. Kaung Htet hadn’t known what he wanted exactly back then, and he didn’t know now, almost a year later. Regardless, his father had told him to study hard and figure things out before he turned eighteen.
He still had a few months left.
Before leaving, he decided to stop by his mother’s office. She was the school’s vice principal.
On his way there, someone stepped out of the principal’s office.
The sight of him nearly made Kaung Htet’s heart stop.
Why is he here?
Kaung Htet wasn’t sure whether the gang leader was the same person he had confronted the day before – not because he had forgotten his face, but because the chances of running into him at his own school less than a day later seemed impossibly small.
He didn’t want to jump to the conclusion that the leader had followed him to school to take revenge on him. That sounded like something straight out of a Korean drama. Even so, he couldn’t help wondering if it was the case.
As the gang leader walked past, he gave Kaung Htet nothing more than a brief sideways glance. There wasn’t the slightest sign of recognition.
He can’t be a student here. Then why is he here?
He was dressed in a plain black T-shirt and the same loose-fitting jeans as the day before, not a school uniform.
Seeing that the leader didn’t seem to recognize him, Kaung Htet told himself it had probably all been a coincidence.
