Baeksu High's courtyard buzzed with the energy of spring. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom, scattering pink petals across the stone path where students clustered in small groups, whispering about the drama of the day.
At the center of it stood Kang Hye-rin.
Her face was flushed, red, her hands clutching the strap of her schoolbag as she stared at the boy smirking in front of her. Lee Joon-hyuk, Baeksu High's golden prince, the boy she had once had a crush on.
"I… I don't understand," Hye-rin managed, her voice cracking under the weight of a hundred eyes.
Joon-hyuk's lips curved into that insufferable smile, the one that always made the teachers forgive him, the girls swoon over like bees, and the boys wanting to be him. But today, it was cruel.
"Don't be dense, Hye-rin," he said smoothly, his tone laced with arrogance. "Did you really believe I could like you? That I'd accept a confession from a scholarship girl?"
Gasps and muffled laughter rippled through the watching crowd.
Hye-rin's throat tightened. Her eyes searched between her classmates, their mocking glances stabbing deeper than any knife. For one reckless, fleeting second she had believed him—believed the note in her locker, the words scribbled neatly on paper: Meet me after class.
How stupid.
Joon-hyuk's gaze was sharp, merciless. "Someone like you could never stand next to me. Remember that."
Her fingers curled into fists so tight her nails bit into her palms. She wanted to scream, to claw back her pride, but no words came. Only the sound of laughter, bright and cruel, ringing in her ears. The embarrassment eating deep into her chest.
That was the day Kang Hye-rin swore she would never forgive him.
Not tomorrow, not in ten years, not ever.