The autumn sun hung low over Seoul, casting long, slanting rays through the narrow streets of Sinchon. The leaves, crisp and gold, scattered in lazy circles as the wind stirred them.
Arjun Mehra, or Aryan Malhotra as the world knew him here, moved through the crowds outside campus with the quiet, practiced ease of a man who had made a life of disappearing in plain sight.
He wasn't meant to be here today.
His mission was elsewhere — names to track, leads to follow, a silent war to wage. But something pulled him back.
Her.
He told himself it was caution.
That she was a potential liability.
An unexpected variable in a game that allowed no mistakes.
But as his gaze found her from across the quad, laughing with Chae-Rin beneath a sycamore tree, he knew it was more than that.
It was weakness.
And it unsettled him.
That's when he noticed it.
Men.
Not students.
Not professors.
Not locals.
Three of them.
Positioned with deliberate care — one near the dorm entrance, another pretending to read a newspaper on a bench, a third leaning against a tree at the far end of the courtyard.
Clean-shaven. Earpieces barely visible beneath their collars. They blended well enough to fool civilians, but not someone like him.
Not a predator.
And none of them were campus security.
Arjun's eyes narrowed.
He shifted position casually, leaning against a lamppost as if checking his phone, his gaze never leaving the perimeter.
They weren't watching the college.
They were watching Hana.
A cold unease settled in his gut.
Why her?
His mind raced through possibilities. Was she bait? An informant? Or worse — part of Ji-Yeon's circle? The thought twisted in his stomach.
No… she couldn't be.
Her innocence, her laughter — it wasn't the practiced charm of gang daughters or streetwise decoys. She wasn't like them.
And yet… these men wouldn't be here for nothing.
His sharp eyes tracked their movements — the way they subtly rotated positions, keeping her in their line of sight without drawing attention.
Protecting her. Not surveilling.
That made it worse.
Who sends protection details like this? And why now?
Arjun's jaw tightened.
Something had changed.
He didn't know yet what thread connected Hana to the bloodstained ledger he was erasing, but he knew one thing:
If these men were here, danger was circling closer than she could ever guess.
And whether he liked it or not…
he couldn't let it reach her.
Not until he knew why.