Prologue
The first time Jeon Jungkook saw her, it wasn’t some grand, cinematic moment. There were no slow-motion effects, no background music swelling in his mind. It was just a classroom-rows of wooden desks, the low hum of morning chatter, the scent of freshly printed textbooks.
And then, there was her.
She walked in late, the soft click of her shoes barely audible over the noise. Long black hair cascaded down her back, the morning sun catching in the strands. She wasn’t like the other girls, the ones who whispered and giggled at him from afar. She was effortless-unbothered, glowing with an easy confidence, as if she owned the space around her without even trying.
Jungkook had already heard her name in passing.
“Elizabeth Kang?”The teacher barely looked up as he gestured to the empty seat next to Jungkook.“Take a seat.”
She smiled-bright, open, unreserved.
“Nice to meet you,”she said, sliding into the chair beside him.
Jungkook didn’t respond. Couldn’t. His throat had gone dry.
Say something. Anything.
But he just stared, fingers curling into fists beneath the desk. She smelled like citrus and something faintly floral, a scent so light it barely lingered. He was fifteen, too young to understand what was happening to him, but old enough to know that this moment was dangerous.
Because in that instant, Jeon Jungkook fell.
Hard.
And he never stopped falling.
At first, he convinced himself it was admiration. Elizabeth Kang wasn’t just beautiful-she was warm, the kind of person who made even the coldest days feel like summer. She treated everyone the same, whether it was the quiet kid in the back of the room or the most popular boy in school.
For Jungkook, who spent his days training under the watchful eye of HYBE’s strict system, she became a rare piece of normalcy. A reminder that outside of the brutal idol industry, there was still a world where people smiled just because they wanted to.
She always smiled at him.
“You don’t talk much, do you?”she had teased one day, propping her chin on her hand as she looked at him.“That’s okay. I talk enough for both of us.”
Jungkook had only nodded, the corners of his lips tugging upward despite himself.
She made it easy. Too easy.
She spoke to him like he was just another classmate, not the trainee everyone whispered about. She didn’t fawn over him like some of the others did, didn’t try to impress him. When she laughed, it wasn’t to get his attention-it was because she genuinely found something funny. And when she looked at him, it wasn’t with expectations, but with simple curiosity.
That’s what made her different. That’s what made him obsessed.
His obsession started subtly.
First, it was just watching. He told himself it was normal to notice her-to memorize the way her hand moved when she wrote, the way her nose scrunched up when she was deep in thought.
Then, it became something more.
He started waiting for her reactions, gauging her moods before deciding how to act. If she looked tired, he made sure to hand her an extra pen when hers ran out of ink. If she was excited, he let himself smile more that day. She controlled the rhythm of his emotions without even realizing it.
And she never knew.
Why would she?
To Elizabeth Kang, he was just Jungkook-her quiet seat partner, the boy she sometimes shared snacks with.
To Jungkook, she was everything.
She had no idea that, even after high school ended, she would never truly leave his mind.
She would never escape him
