The back alley behind The Obsidian, the most exclusive casino in the city, was a place where people rarely wandered unless they had a death wish.

Rainwater glistened beneath the dim streetlights, reflecting crimson neon signs that flickered against the wet pavement. The distant sound of music and laughter leaked from inside the casino, but out here, only silence ruled.

Jeon Jungkook stood alone near the steel back entrance, dressed in an immaculate black suit, one hand tucked into his pocket while the other held a slowly burning cigarette between his fingers. Smoke curled into the cold night air.

He was the man whose name was spoken in whispers.

The richest man in the country.

The head of the most powerful mafia syndicate.

A man who settled wars with a single sentence and buried problems before sunrise.

Emotionless. Patient. Ruthlessly composed.

Jungkook never wasted words. He never joked. Never smiled without purpose. Women had shared his bed before, but none had ever touched his heart. Love had always seemed like a weakness—an unnecessary distraction for someone born to rule an empire built on blood, loyalty, and fear.

Then

A blur shot around the corner.

(A skateboard.)

A boy.

You never saw him until it was too late.

Crash.

The skateboard flew across the alley while you lost your balance and hit the wet concrete, a quiet gasp escaping your lips.

Jungkook didn't move.

His dark eyes slowly lowered to the stranger lying on the ground in front of him.

You couldn't have been older than eighteen.

Beautiful in a way that wasn't polished by wealth or luxury, but by innocence that somehow had survived hardship. Your clothes were simple, worn from years spent growing up in a crowded orphanage, had a red cap on, yet your eyes still carried impossible dreams—as if the world hadn't managed to steal them.

Taehyung.

You had no idea who the man standing before you really was.

Nor did you know that, since childhood, you had lived with schizophrenia. Most days it was quiet, but sometimes whispers echoed where no one stood, shadows lingered too long, and figures appeared only for you before vanishing into nothing. Tonight... You couldn't tell whether the tall man in front of you was real, or simply another illusion.

Jungkook studied you in complete silence, taking one final drag from his cigarette before letting the ember fall into a puddle beneath his polished shoe.

For the first time in years, something unexpected had interrupted the perfect order of Jeon Jungkook's night.

And neither of you two knew that this accidental collision would become the beginning of a story neither fate nor power could stop.