Chapter Text
The game ended.
So suddenly.
So emptily.
The whole class slipped back into their ordinary lives as if nothing had ever happened.
But everyone
Seo Do-ah had planned to study abroad, a decision dictated by her powerful father, the man who forced her to live within the lines he drew. Yet with a single plea—or rather, a gaze from Seong Soo-ji so intense and impossibl
She had stood in her living room, facing her father’s authority head-on:
“Didn
“You had an af
The next day, Seo Do-ah appeared at school as if she had never intended to leave. Still the class president. Still calm. Still collected.
But now, in her
Baek Ha-rin was different. She needed no persuasion. The Baek family did not discard their trump card so easily. Her grandmother—the matriarch with absolute power—granted forgiveness, on one condition: Ha-rin would inherit everything. That meant she had to surpass two direct rivals: Seo D
To Ha-rin, Da-yeon was no real problem. A loyal dog remains a dog. All she had to do was snap her fingers, and it would come running.
Do-ah was the chal
She returned to school like an exiled queen reclaiming her throne—silent, regal, her gaze enough to hush an entire classroom into silence.
And Seong Soo-ji—the one who had turned everything upside down—sat quietly in the corner, her eyes heavy and sharp as blades. She felt no regret. But she was far from fine.
Rumors of Kim Da-yeon’s family began to spread. Whispers among neighbors, murmurs among students. Domestic violence. Beatings. A golf club. Words that stained the white page like ink spilled—impossible to erase.
Soo-ji didn’t know why she cared. Perhaps because she still remembered Da-yeon’s kicks and slaps when she had been ranked F. Or perhaps it was because of Da-yeon’s eyes back then—the eyes of someone so broken, they only knew how to break others.
That afternoon, Soo-ji quietly followed Da-yeon home, ignoring the flood of messages from her friends begging her to hang out.
A silent mansion. But suffocating.
And then she saw it.
Through the brightly lit window: Mr. Kim, raising a golf club high, his voice sharp with fury—though Soo-ji couldn’t catch the words. His family stood frozen, arms folded, too afraid to defy him as he raged.
She did not hesitate.
She ran forward, pounding the door.
The noise made him falter, his hand pausing mid-swing.
The door flew open. And there stood Kim Da-yeon, eyes wet but spiked with thorns.
She saw Soo-ji.
Soo-ji said nothing. Only looked at her. And smiled faintly.
Da-yeon glanced behind her, then back at Soo-ji. This time, her eyes no longer wild.
Only carrying one unspoken question:
“Why are you here?”
Author’s Note: um, :3 just for fun~ I’ve tried to stay as close to the original as