The second Hae-won walked through the school gates, the air changed.
Eyes turned.
Voices dropped.
Phones lit up.
Whispers coiled around her like smoke.
"There she is—"
"Is that the same girl from the videos?"
"She looks… different."
"No way she's really with Ji-hoon—right?"
"She's just using him. She's a leech."
She gripped the strap of her new bag tighter.
Ji-hoon walked beside her, calm, expression unreadable.
He didn't let go of her hand.
Not once.
The gossip page was exploding.
[Ji-HOON and UNKNOWN GIRL at Mall]
> "Who the hell is she?"
"That's the transfer girl. The one who never talks."
"She wore ripped socks last week, now she's in Chanel?"
"How'd she trap him like that?"
"New couple alert???"
"Wait—isn't that the same girl who cried in the nurse's office after getting slapped?"
10.2K likes.
8,709 comments.
Half of them cruel.
Hae-won tried not to read them.
But they were everywhere.
Even on her desk, someone had left a sticky note:
"Gold-digger. Run while you can, Ji-hoon."
It started between classes.
Three girls cornered her near the staircase.
Pretty. Popular. Petty.
One crossed her arms. "So you're the new queen now, huh?"
"I'm not—"
"You think you can just show up out of nowhere, bat your eyelashes, and take our Ji-hoon?"
"I didn't—"
Another girl grabbed her blazer. "We know your type."
Before she could blink, water splashed over her shoulder.
Laughter. Flash from a phone camera. Click.
"Oops," one girl sneered. "Accidents happen."
Hae-won's breath caught.
Not again.
Not again.
Not again—
But this time—
Ji-hoon was already there.
He stormed through the hallway, yanked the phone out of the girl's hand, and threw it down hard enough to crack.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?"
The girls froze.
He stepped in front of Hae-won, voice low, furious.
"She's with me. You touch her again—I don't care who your daddy is—I will ruin you."
The hall went dead silent.
The girls scurried away, faces pale.
Hae-won stared at the wet patch on her sleeve, her lip trembling.
Ji-hoon turned to her.
"You okay?"
She shook her head.
"I hate this," she whispered. "It's happening again. Like before. Like always."
He pulled her close, ignoring every camera, every stare.
"Not like before," he said. "Because this time, I'm here."
And the hallway watched in stunned silence as Ji-hoon kissed her forehead, arms wrapped tightly around the girl everyone used to call invisible.