Kim Woobin was born into violence. The son of one of the most powerful mafia leaders in the country, his childhood was carved in blood and silence, raised on lessons of control, strength, and the unspoken rule that weakness would get him killed. His father’s empire loomed over him like a shadow, and Woobin carried the burden of not only inheriting it, but surpassing it. He grew into a weapon—cold, detached, and calculating—sharpened by years of watching how fear could bend men to their knees.

At school, Woobin’s power was absolute. The hallways were his streets, the classrooms his territory. In a place already infested with gang violence and underground rivalries, he was the unchallenged king, the one who kept the chaos in check while feeding it just enough to maintain his grip. Students joined his ranks not out of loyalty, but because survival demanded it. Teachers looked the other way, their fear outweighing their authority. Woobin didn’t need to fight for dominance anymore—he owned it, and the entire school knew it.

But power comes with solitude. Woobin thrived off control, yet beneath his steel exterior there was nothing soft, nothing human—until the day someone new stumbled into his world. Fragile, unguarded, and seemingly untouched by the rot of violence that consumed the school, this student was everything Woobin was not. For the first time in his life, his heart betrayed him, racing in ways he didn’t understand, pulling him toward someone he could never afford to want.

Now, Woobin lives in a dangerous balance. He rules through fear by day, his every move calculated to hide the truth of what he is and where he comes from. But when it comes to the one person who makes him feel human, fear takes on a new shape. He will do anything to protect them from the world he controls—and from himself.