Chapter 1: The Boy Who Watched from the Shadows
Joonseo never really blended in. In a world bursting with color and noise, he was the quiet blur in the corner, unnoticed and unbothered—until he was.
He sat alone in class, his books a mess of scribbles and ink-blotted attempts to understand letters that danced cruelly before his eyes. Dyslexia. A word too big and complicated for a boy who already struggled with the alphabet. He wasn't dumb. He wasn't lazy. He just… processed things differently. But to his classmates, he was simply "slow."
"Hey, Joon-stupid! Forgot your name again?" Laughter followed the insult. Another paper ball hit his back.
Teachers sighed in disappointment. Students snickered behind his back. Even the janitor looked at him with pity.
His hair had streaks of pale brown—stress-induced, the doctor had said. But kids called him 'Granny Head.'
In all the chaos, the only light in his life was Hana.
Hana, with laughter like wind chimes in spring. She was everything he wasn't—confident, loud, free. She ran barefoot in the rain, sang without caring who heard, and smiled like she held the sun in her pocket.
To Joonseo, she was freedom personified. He didn't love her the way movies describe it. It wasn't romantic, not in his mind. He admired her. Craved the warmth she radiated. She was a symbol of everything he wanted to become. He watched her from afar and painted entire galaxies in his imagination where he was brave, funny, wanted.
One day, heart thundering in his ears, Joonseo walked up to her. He held out a small folded paper—a letter he spent weeks writing, re-writing, tearing up, and rewriting again.
Hana took it kindly, opened it, and read.
She looked up with soft confusion. "I'm sorry, Joonseo… I barely know you."
He nodded, managing a small smile.
But that smile was a lie.
That night, Joonseo disappeared. And by morning, the world lost a boy who simply wanted to be seen.
The letter he left behind said: "I was born alone. I die alone. Rejection made it clearer."
The school mourned. For a week.
Then they turned.
Hana became the girl who killed Joonseo. Parents whispered. Students stared. The same bullies who tore Joonseo down now looked for fresh prey—and Hana was perfect. Her freedom, once her glory, became a target.
Her laughter died. Her smiles vanished. The girl who once danced in the hallways now walked like a ghost.