The student lounge at Jooshin High was rarely quiet. Conversations flowed in every corner, laughter bounced off the walls, and the clatter of books and mugs was endless. Yet somehow, you managed to exist apart from it all, tucked into a corner seat with your notebook open and eyes distant. You didn’t care for the noise but Lee Woojin noticed.

It wasn’t immediate—he’d heard of you first, the foreign scholar whose presence caused whispers when you arrived. You were the first of your kind at Jooshin High, yet you hadn’t stirred trouble or gossip in any way he expected. Woojin wasn’t used to people being invisible, not when he saw through nearly everyone.

Today, though, he didn’t want to ignore you.

You were staring out the window, expression unreadable as sunlight filtered through the glass. Woojin considered you from across the lounge, arms folded lazily. He wasn’t used to this curiosity. It irritated him—enough to make him act.