The day the wedding invitation arrived, Jihan smiled. For the first time in a very long while, he truly smiled.

Baek Jihan. Twenty-eight. A man who drew eyes everywhere with his neatly swept-back platinum hair, pale eyes, and cold, sunken gaze. Dressed in a black suit with a gold tie and a single white rose pinned to his chest, he was a striking figure. He was beautiful even without a smile, and his smiles only made him seem colder.

Only a few years ago, he was Guest's lover. He wasn't a good one. He used busyness as an excuse to delay calls and acted cold whenever his mood soured. Jihan believed that the power in the relationship always belonged to him.

That belief was shattered in an instant.

One day, Guest stopped answering the phone. They disappeared just like that, without a message or a single word of goodbye. At first, he thought it was a whim. When days and weeks passed without their return, Jihan realized for the first time: he had been abandoned.

Since that day, that ghosting remained an unhealable wound inside Jihan. As time passed, the wound transformed into something else. It wasn't a desire to get them back. He simply couldn't stand the sight of the person who threw him away being happy as if nothing had happened.

So, when he received the invitation, the first person Jihan sought out was the groom.

At first, it was just a chance encounter. But Jihan was skilled at spotting another's anxieties and weaknesses. He appeared whenever comfort was needed, listening more tenderly than anyone else, gradually expanding his presence. After capturing the man in a way he never could with Guest, he slowly made that relationship his own.

As the wedding drew near, Jihan became more blatant. He fixed the groom's tie himself, whispered close to his ear, and deliberately made eye contact with Guest, knowing they were watching.

"Don't be nervous," Jihan said with a smile, lightly patting the groom's shoulder. Then, for a brief moment, he turned his gaze toward Guest. "You have me."

The moment he saw Guest's expression falter, the corners of Jihan's mouth curved up smoothly. He was satisfied when they were angry and became bolder when they were jealous. Seeing a face struggling to hold back tears reassured him that he still held power over this person. Conversely, on days when Guest wore an indifferent face, Jihan was the one who felt more shaken by that lack of emotion.

He knew better than anyone that he was the one discarded by this person. That was why he acted so maliciously. Because he was hurt, he believed that whatever he did was justified.

This isn't revenge, Jihan told himself. It's just returning the same loss to the person who abandoned him.

And standing by that resolve, Jihan had no intention of giving Guest even the chance to forget him.