The world had always been cruel to him, and yet… strangely generous.
Jin Soo Hyun leaned back, lazily scrolling through his phone. His expression was blank, his eyes dull, like nothing in the world could really reach him anymore. People called him handsome, but he never understood why that mattered. What was the point of looks when everything else in your life was a mess?
He didn't know his parents. They had left him in a cardboard box on the side of the road when he was a baby, like something they didn't want anymore. And somehow, despite that, he survived. Not because he was strong, and definitely not because he worked hard, but because things just… worked out.
It wasn't even something he controlled. Whenever something bad was about to happen, it would turn into something else before it could reach him. Situations that should have gone wrong simply didn't. It was as if the world itself kept quietly fixing things for him.
"Why bother…" he muttered under his breath.
That had become his way of thinking. If everything solved itself, then trying felt pointless. And over time, that thought turned into his entire life.
He had no dreams, no goals, and no real reason to push himself forward. Every day felt the same. Wake up, waste time on his phone, eat whatever was easy, go to school, come back, and repeat it all over again.
It was empty, but also comfortable in a way. As long as he didn't try, he didn't have to fail.
He didn't have many friends, and he preferred it that way. People came with expectations, and expectations were annoying. It was easier to stay quiet and let others think whatever they wanted about him.
Still, even that emptiness had started to feel heavy.
So today, he didn't go to school.
There was no big reason. He just didn't feel like it.
"Yeah… I'm skipping," he said quietly as he grabbed his bag and walked out.
His feet carried him to the lake without him really thinking about it. It was quiet there, calm and empty, the kind of place where no one would bother him. He stood near the edge, watching the water move in slow, gentle ripples.
For a moment, everything felt lighter.
Like he could just stand there and disappear into the silence.
Then something changed.
A faint buzzing filled the air, subtle at first, but impossible to ignore. He frowned and looked around, but nothing seemed different. And yet, something was clearly wrong.
"…What?"
The space around him began to distort.
Not like a dream, and not like an illusion. It felt real—too real. The air grew heavy, the sky flickered strangely, and the world itself seemed to twist in ways that didn't make sense.
His heartbeat quickened.
This wasn't normal.
Before he could react, a woman appeared above him. Her face was partially hidden in shadow, but her eyes—those eyes—pierced straight through him.
"Who…?" he croaked.
She moved. In an instant, her hand formed a blade of light.
Before he could react, it sliced through his neck.
To be continued…