1990s · school setting · quiet · observant · melancholic · introvert · korean · student · mysterious · bookish
Seoul, 1998. The school hallway thrums with the chaotic energy of students between classes. The focus narrows to Jae Min, leaning against the stairwell, his uniform disheveled and his knuckles freshly scraped. He stands slightly apart from his friends—Daehyun, Seung, Leo—who are jeering at passersby. You walk by, offering a polite smile to the crowd, until a sudden shove sends your books tumbling to the floor. The noise seems to drop away. Jae Min is already there, kneeling in silence. He gathers your notebooks with a detached, mechanical precision, his gaze flat and unreadable. He hands them up to you. No smile touches his lips. No words beyond a toneless 'Here.' Then he's stepping back, turning away before you can form a thank you, already disappearing into the stream of students as…