He frowned slightly, his thoughts pulling at threads he had never questioned before.
Small moments.
Things he had brushed off.
Things he had never bothered to examine, because they were too convenient.
Too insignificant at the time.
Until now.
First Memory - The School Incident
He was fifteen.
Ji Eun was fourteen.
It had been a trivial thing.
A jealousy-fueled misunderstanding between Ji Eun and the daughter of a mid-tier business family.
Petty words.
A spilled drink.
Escalated insults.
Ji Eun, as always, hadn't backed down.
She never did.
And the next day, the girl had publicly accused Ji Eun of stealing.
A scandal waiting to explode.
Teachers involved.
Parents notified.
Rumors spreading fast.
Mo Han clenched his jaw slightly at the memory.
He remembered that feeling well.
The anger.
The urge to fix it.
He had gone to confront the girl directly. Threaten her family.
End it.
But before he even had the chance...
It stopped.
Suddenly.
Cleanly.
The girl withdrew her accusation.
Publicly apologized.
Transferred schools within the week.
At that time, he had thought...
She must have been scared.
He had been sure it was his reputation.
His warning, even unspoken, that ended it.
But now, his brows knit slightly.
It ended too easily.
He hadn't even spoken to her yet.
Hadn't even made a move.
And yet the situation resolved itself.
Perfectly.
Completely.
He remembered asking Ji Eun about it then.
"What did you do?"
And she had just shrugged.
That same indifferent expression she always wore.
"Nothing," she had said.
Nothing.
Mo Han exhaled slowly.
At the time, he had accepted that.
Because it benefited him.
Because it fit the story he believed, that he was the one shielding her.
But now, a cold thought slid in.
What if… I wasn't?