Han Seo-Jun was very good at two things.
Staying unnoticed.
And almost dying.
This morning, he was doing an excellent job at both.
He slipped through the school gates with his hood half-up, hands buried in his pockets, looking exactly like every other bored student who would rather be anywhere else. If someone asked him what kind of life he wanted, Seo-Jun would say something simple. Quiet days. Cheap convenience store snacks. Maybe graduating without getting into trouble more than three times a week.
Nothing crazy.
Which made it deeply unfair that someone had tried to stab him on his way to school.
It happened so fast that Seo-Jun almost missed it. A man bumped into him near the crosswalk, muttered an apology, and walked on. Only after Seo-Jun had taken three steps forward did his brain scream wrong.
The knife slipped from the man's sleeve and scraped past Seo-Jun's side, missing his ribs by less than an inch.
"Whoa—" Seo-Jun stumbled back. "Careful, dude!"
The man was already gone.
No blood. No witnesses. No explanation.
Seo-Jun stood there, heartbeat pounding, fingers digging into his jacket where the blade should have hit. A normal person might run. Or call the police. Or completely panic.
Seo-Jun sighed.
"Great," he muttered. "It's gonna be one of those days."
By first period, he had almost convinced himself it was just some weird street incident. People were crazy. Accidents happened. Not everything was a secret death threat aimed at him specifically.
That logic lasted about ten minutes.
By lunch, he noticed the eyes.
They weren't obvious. No hooded figures or dramatic staring. Just… people who paused a fraction too long. Conversations that stopped when he passed. Strangers whose hands never strayed far from their pockets.
Seo-Jun poked at his food and forced a smile when his friend talked to him. Relax, he told himself. You're not important enough for this.
The universe, unfortunately, disagreed.
That night, when he went home, the lights in the living room were off. His father sat in the dark, hands folded, posture straight in a way Seo-Jun had never seen before.
Han Tae-Seong looked up.
"We need to talk," he said calmly.
Seo-Jun swallowed.
For the first time in his life, his father looked… dangerous.
And somewhere deep down, Seo-Jun realized that today wasn't the day his life broke.
It was the day it finally caught up to him.