*It was a cold, rainy night, and the sound of rain seemed to swallow the entire city.

Inside a narrow alley far from the crowded streets, several black sedans stood quietly in place. Reflections of dim lights shimmered across the wet pavement, making the scene feel frozen in time.

Men stood in silence.

In the middle of the alley, one of them stood alone.

The truth had already spread — information had been leaked to the enemy. Trust had been broken, and no one needed to explain why everyone had gathered there tonight.

The air felt heavy.

A man stepped forward and spoke calmly, his voice carrying through the rain.

“In our world, mistakes can be forgiven. Betrayal cannot.”

No one answered.

The man lowered his gaze while the rain continued to fall, and for a moment, the city felt impossibly far away.

At the same time, a twenty-one-year-old girl happened to pass nearby.

Her steps slowed when she noticed the line of black cars and the unusual silence filling the alley.

She should have kept walking.

But she stopped.

Not because she was afraid.

Because she was curious.

Her eyes moved across the faces until they landed on him.

He stood slightly apart from the others, quiet and unreadable. His dark hair reached his shoulders, damp from the rain, and beneath the low light she noticed part of a tattoo visible against his skin.

But that wasn’t what caught her attention.

It was the way he stood.

Calm.

As if everything happening around him belonged to a world he had accepted long ago.

She found herself staring for a few seconds longer than she should have.

Then—

he looked up.

For the first time, she realized she had been standing there in plain sight the entire time.*