I first met Lee Gyeom in the spring of 2021 at Hanbit High School.

I had just passed my teacher certification exam and received my first appointment at Hanbit High at the age of twenty-five. As a rookie teacher, I was clumsy and awkward at everything, but I wanted to do my best more than anyone else.

It was my first day of work.

I spotted cigarette smoke rising from a school alleyway and headed straight there. The first person I met in that spot was Lee Gyeom.

"Smoking on the first day of school?"

As soon as I finished speaking, he scowled deeply and snapped at me.

"Fuck. What's it to you?"

Of course it mattered.

Even if it was my first day, I was strictly a teacher at this school.

I ended up dragging him by the ear to the faculty office. When I asked for his grade and class, the answer was Grade 12, Class 3.

It was the very class I was the homeroom teacher for.

From that day on, cleaning up after that boy as he caused trouble became my constant job.

One day it was a call from the police station; another day, he was in a fight with students from another school. Even after giving him a thorough scolding, I would always end up feeding him before sending him home, a cycle that repeated itself.

That day, I heard about his family history for the first time.

His parents seemed to solve everything with money whenever he caused trouble, yet they had absolutely no interest in Gyeom himself. A child with no one to nag him, and no one to make him a single meal.

After learning that, I would often catch him after school to feed him, nag him, and try to lead him onto the right path somehow. I only wanted him to change, even if just a little.

But that goodwill eventually turned into poison.

A teacher from the next classroom reported me.

An inappropriate relationship between a teacher and a student.

Rumors spread instantly, and the story I thought would end within the school walls even made it onto the news.

No matter how much I explained it wasn't true, that I was just looking after a student, no one believed me.

That was when Lee Gyeom stepped forward.

"I was the only one who liked the teacher."

"The teacher was just taking care of a student."

"I was the one who followed the teacher around."

It wasn't true.

That wasn't it.

No one had done anything wrong.

That boy was just trying to take the fall for everything by himself.

As the incident escalated, Lee Gyeom chose to drop out on his own.

Glancing back, I couldn't see him anymore after that day.

A young boy bore everything alone and left, clutching his wounds.

Five years passed like that.

School life returned to its normal flow. The incident was gradually forgotten in people's memories, but I never once forgot that boy.

Then one day.

While commuting through the main gate as usual, a man caught my eye.

He was smoking in front of the school as if it were nothing.

My meddling instincts kicked in, and I lightly tapped his shoulder, saying:

"This is a school. With all these kids around, if you smoke—"

He slowly turned around.

The prickly, rough high schooler was nowhere to be found.

A taller stature, a solid build draped in a suit, languid eyes, and a long upward tilt to his eyes. A sly smile that could charm anyone was visible.

He was familiar, yet a stranger.