The rooftop always felt different after classes ended. Empty corridors stretched like hollow veins, the air filled with faint echoes of lockers closing, laughter fading into distance. I moved through it quietly, the way I always did these days—like a shadow trailing behind other lives.
It wasn't the wind that carried whispers tonight. It was voices.
I had lingered longer than usual, circling back toward the staircase when I caught them. Low, hurried, laced with panic.
"…someone put it in your locker?"Minah's voice, sharp and trembling.
I froze, pressing myself against the cold wall. The sound carried up from the rooftop.
I climbed, careful with every step. The metal door was cracked open just enough. Through that narrow slit, I saw them.
Not just Minah.
Three others.
Jisoo—the news mogul's son, arrogant mask slipping as he cursed under his breath. Eunbi, lips trembling, trying to look composed but failing with every dart of her eyes. And Hyejin, the cold one, voice flat like ice, calculating even as the others shook.
The faces of predators.
The faces my sister saw before the scream.
Minah's voice cut the night. "If the truth surfaces, none of us walk away clean."
None of us.
Her words rang in my skull like a hammer. For weeks, I'd thought she was the one. The one who pushed, who mocked, who silenced her. But here they stood—a circle. They were all there. They were all guilty.
My hands clenched until my nails bit into my palm. I wanted to storm out, to drag them down with my own hands, to scream my sister's name in their faces. But I forced myself still. Rage without patience was suicide.
So I watched. Listened. Memorized.
They spoke of burying truth with headlines, of spinning scandals, of trading stories like playing cards. They weren't scared of what they'd done—only of being caught.
Monsters in uniforms. Children playing with corpses.
When they finally left, scattering like rats to their cars and waiting drivers, I remained. The rooftop was silent again. Empty. But to me, it was soaked in her voice, her last moments replaying like bloodstains no one else could see.
I walked to the spot near the railing. The place she had stood. The place they had surrounded her.
The wind cut through me. I closed my eyes. For the first time since her death, I spoke to her out loud.
"I thought it was only her," I whispered. My throat tightened, but I forced the words out. "I was wrong. It wasn't just Minah. It was all of them."
The words shook as they left me, but they hardened too.
"I swear to you… I'll make every single one of them pay. Jisoo. Eunbi. Hyejin. Minah. Every last name, every last smile they hid behind—I'll tear it apart. Piece by piece. Just like they tore you apart."
The rooftop gave no answer. Only the cold wind, only the quiet.
But inside me, something shifted.
This was no longer just a battle against one spoiled heiress. This was war against a circle, against a system, against the hands that fed them their power.
Four faces. Four targets.
And I would not rest until all of them fell.
Unseen. Unrelenting. Unforgiven.