The Silent Fury
The air hung heavy with tension, thick enough to choke on. Lee Siwoo stood frozen in the middle of the dim room, his face an icy mask that had begun to crack under the weight of something far more dangerous than mere irritation. Once the epitome of calm and unflinching composure, the cold, unyielding heir of the SL Group had always carried himself with quiet pride and measured detachment. But in this moment, a subtle storm brewed beneath that surface—a simmering rage that felt less like the roaring inferno of raw fury and more like the biting chill of northern winds, slow and unrelenting.
Even as I knew full well that this anger was not directed at me, a strange prickling raced across my skin. Goosebumps rose in unwelcome waves, and the fine hairs on my arms stood on end as if sensing the invisible blade of something sharper than any weapon.
Since entering Union Academy, this was the first time I had witnessed Lee Siwoo openly directing such hostility toward any other person. It was an unprecedented sight.
‘…So this has to do with Soyeon after all. He must be truly furious.’
Thinking it over, the conclusion made perfect sense. After all, Choi Changwon wasn’t just some harmless stalker—he was the kind of stalker whose very existence made my skin crawl.
And since I had already seen the items he possessed, I could understand exactly why Siwoo was reacting this way. He had always been deeply uncomfortable with the discovery of Choi Changwon’s stolen goods from the very beginning.
“Hey, hey! What’s wrong, Siwoo? Why are you suddenly so pissed off?”
Siwoo’s sharp, blade-like eyes locked onto me without a single flicker of warmth. Choi Changwon’s face immediately stiffened, his lips trembling as he stumbled through a frantic defense.
“C-Choi Changwon.”
“Y-Yeah?”
“Didn’t I already tell you? You get only one chance to confess.”
“Man, Siwoo you—”
Realizing that further words would only waste time, Siwoo shook his head in dismissal before quietly mentioning the one piece of evidence we had uncovered together.
“Photos.”
“What?”
“Photos. On your phone.”
“My phone? No, when? Wait! S-Said photos? No way—”
“Yeah, that’s right. There were plenty on your phone.”
Choi Changwon’s complexion drained to a sickly purple. Siwoo frowned slightly before speaking in a voice as cold as frozen steel.
“The photos of Soyeon’s voyeurism.”
“Ugh.”
Voyeuristic photos of Soyeon.
Nothing unusual about them, really. Just ordinary shots taken from hidden angles, as if someone had been secretly filming her. If they weren’t voyeuristic, they would’ve been perfectly innocent.
“I never thought you would stoop so low…”
Siwoo’s voice trailed off as he shot me a quick sidelong glance.
“If Jinhyuk hadn’t mentioned anything about it…”
“Hey, it was just good luck, that’s all.”
I shrugged casually and clicked my tongue slowly.
“I happened to catch a glimpse of Choi Changwon filming something before.”
Of course, that was a complete lie. Given his habit of secretly filming girls at the academy, he had been extremely cautious at the time.
“Back then I wasn’t sure if he was actually filming or just checking his phone, so I didn’t pay much attention.”
I didn’t know exactly when Choi Changwon started photographing Soyeon, but I was certain he had. After all, I had known the game’s plot in advance and used the private investigator introduced by Yu Seolhyeon to thoroughly search Choi Changwon’s house.
“Come to think of it, Soyeon mentioned that she kept feeling like she was being watched for a while now. And that some of her things had gone missing.”
The private investigators recommended by Yu Seolhyeon were impressively competent. I had given them a request during lunch break, and within just a few hours they had swept through Choi Changwon’s empty house, gathered evidence, and sent it all to me.
His parents often worked late nights, leaving the house completely vacant, so the investigators could search with relative safety.
Eventually, Choi Changwon’s room was plastered wall-to-wall with Soyeon’s photos—printed like the villains you’d find in subculture comics.
Argh, what the hell.
Why did the guy have to plaster her pictures everywhere in his room like some kind of twisted stalker? Was he seriously off his rocker?
“This time there was that incident at Soyeon’s house, too. So after thinking it over, I figured you were suspicious.”
I stared straight into Choi Changwon’s sweating face.
“You’ve been sneaking glances at Soyeon lately, haven’t you?”
“M-Me? I would never! It must’ve been a mistake.”
“How ridiculous. Your eyes when you look at Soyeon have always been weird. And that time you pulled out your phone, she was nearby too.”
“Ah, no, that’s—”
Honestly, I wasn’t sure whether he had been secretly filming her or not.
“So I started watching you a little.”
The moment Choi Changwon and I made eye contact, he quickly averted his gaze.
“A few days ago in the classroom, I saw you entering your phone password right over your shoulder. Four digits. It’s Soyeon’s birthday.”
“Isn’t that a bit too coincidental?”
Honestly, using a girl’s birthday as a phone password after stalking her like that was genuinely disturbing. Even in the game, I had thought, ‘That bastard must be crazy.’ Now that I’d experienced it firsthand, the horror was off the charts.
“It was too unsettling, so I talked to Siwoo about it. I explained everything that had happened and told him you seemed off.”
I exaggerated a bit and added a little spice, and it was surprisingly easy to convince Siwoo.
“So we decided to check it together.”
When Choi Changwon had plugged his phone into the common charger in the classroom, I had quietly lured him outside. In the meantime, Siwoo used the opportunity to unlock the phone’s password and open the gallery.
Eventually, Siwoo understood everything.
Choi Changwon was a voyeur.
“It was pretty shocking. Not that the photos were special or anything, but I never expected him to take so many of Soyeon’s pictures like that.”
“Wait! Those aren’t mine! I, uh, lent my phone to some kids recently and one of them probably put them in there. And the password thing was just coincidence—”
“That’s nonsense.”
After that, everything moved quickly.
Once Siwoo had confirmed Choi Changwon’s guilt, he no longer hesitated.
“So how do you explain this, Choi Changwon?”
Siwoo spoke in a flat, cold tone, as if reading a verdict.
“Actually, I wanted to interrogate you on the spot back then, but Soyeon mentioned she had lost a few things recently. So I checked your drawer and bag just in case—”
“Ah.”
“I found these.”
Siwoo casually held up a single water bottle.
A lightweight sports bottle that fit easily in one hand.
Any normal person would have dismissed it as just another bottle from the store. But Choi Changwon’s face turned deathly pale.
Because this was one of the bottles stolen from Soyeon.
Stealing a girl’s water bottle—how revolting.
“This is the bottle Soyeon lost during training recently.”
“T-That’s—”
Choi Changwon’s eyes trembled violently, as if he had seen a ghost.
“This bottle was found in your drawer. How do you explain it?”
“M-Mine? No, that’s impossible.”
Choi Changwon’s lips moved as if trying to find the right words, but the truth was that this bottle had been hidden in a box in the master bedroom, not his drawer.
I had quietly slipped it into his drawer after the private investigators brought it to me—precisely so Siwoo would be able to find it.
“When I asked Soyeon, she confirmed it’s hers. Even if it’s the same model, it would still have her personal marks.”
“W-Why would this bottle be in my drawer—”
Siwoo’s claim that an item I had hidden in his room turned up in his drawer was absurd. But in this situation, there was no point in making excuses.
“After all, I can’t just say, ‘Actually, I hid it in my room! It couldn’t have been in the drawer! Did you guys steal it from my house?!’ That would make me sound like the criminal.”
“It’s… it must be someone framing me! And there’s no proof it belongs to Soyeon!”
“Just in case, I asked someone I know to run a fingerprint test. Choi Changwon, your fingerprints and Soyeon’s fingerprints were both detected.”
“…”
I had never imagined he would go that far.
“I was questioning Gang Yu-jeong when your name came up. She kept agreeing with everything you said about Soyeon, like she was secretly encouraging you.”
Siwoo’s eyes remained perfectly still as he stared Choi Changwon down.
“You were the one stalking and filming Soyeon secretly, yet you were agreeing with Gang Yu-jeong when she badmouthed her?”
Choi Changwon swallowed hard.
“If you weren’t deliberately trying to provoke Gang Yu-jeong to harass Soyeon, I don’t see how I can believe you.”
Back then, Siwoo had no idea what motive Choi Changwon had for egging on Gang Yu-jeong—until he found the note Choi Changwon had written.
“When I realized all this, I talked it over with Jinhyuk. About what we should do with you.”
Siwoo glanced at me before continuing.
“Whether to report you to the police or to the academy.”
“Ugh.”
“But I also thought there might be more of those items or photos somewhere in your house, and maybe you were trying to leak Soyeon’s things in the middle of all this…”
“So Jinhyuk and I decided to search your house.”
“What? Y-You’re coming to my house?”
Getting Siwoo to agree to an illegal entry was surprisingly easy. Of course, as the noble type he was, he usually hated breaking the rules. But since we already had the photos and the bottle, it didn’t matter.
In other words, Choi Changwon was a complete pervert who stole Soyeon’s belongings, kept them hidden, and secretly photographed her.
A freak like that—how many more Soyeon-related items and photos could still be in his house?
Stalking a girl you like and collecting her things?
And what on earth would he do with them?
It was an infuriating thought for Siwoo.
I had casually walked up to him and said, “Isn’t it suspicious how the stalker photos from the news are printed on your wall?” and “Soyeon’s lost her handkerchief, right? Maybe he took it?” and before long, Siwoo was convinced.
“Choi Changwon. Honestly, I was shocked. There were printed photos of Soyeon stuck on the wall, and items she lost—pens, erasers, handkerchiefs, hairpins—all of them.”
“N-No, that’s… how did this happen—”
“I almost didn’t touch anything so you wouldn’t notice if the photos or items disappeared all at once.”
Siwoo slowly turned his gaze toward the window. The direction of Choi Changwon’s house.
“Of course, by now my people should be recovering Soyeon’s belongings.”
His eyes returned to Choi Changwon.
“What I took with me today is just this one thing.”
He held up a thick, worn notebook. It was nothing more than a diary. Every thought and emotion Choi Changwon had ever had was written there in raw, unfiltered ink.
“This is what you wrote, right?”
“…”
“You wrote everything about how you feel about Soyeon and your plans. Using Gang Yu-jeong and the other girls, all of it.”
“…”
“If you had gotten away with it, you would have kept harassing Soyeon with other girls and bad rumors. While pretending to help and comfort her, you would have slowly built a relationship.”
“…”
“Harassing the girl you like and then pretending to help her… I can’t believe you, Choi Changwon.”
“…”
Even after Siwoo’s merciless accusations, Choi Changwon only pressed his lips together tighter.
He no longer looked flustered. No longer tried to make excuses. No longer muttered any half-hearted defenses.
With so much evidence, he had clearly realized that convincing us was now impossible.
“So, Choi Changwon, do you have any more excuses?”
“Excuses…? What the hell kind of excuses?”
Choi Changwon’s eyes turned vicious as he finally revealed his true face.
“The reason I called you here today was because of this, you bastards.”
“Choi Changwon.”
“Damn! What?!”
He shot to his feet, unleashing a torrent of threats with his eyes.
“You damn bastards! Jinhyuk and that guy were all over Soyeon after they broke up!”
He shot Siwoo a glare.
“Siwoo, why her?! You have money, skills, a nice house! There are plenty of girls chasing after you! Why her?!”
“Changwon-ah.”
“Yeah, I did it! So what now, you bastards? These are all illegally obtained, aren’t they? Do you think we’ll hand them over as evidence? If we just throw all this stuff away—”
Choi Changwon raised his mana, as if preparing to erase every single piece of evidence on the spot.
But in an instant, his entire body froze solid.
“Changwon-ah. Choi Changwon.”
The voice wasn’t mine or Siwoo’s.
Choi Changwon’s face crumpled like crumpled paper the moment he realized whose voice it was.
To him, that voice was both beloved and terrifying—the voice of a person who should never have been here.
“S-Soyeon…”
Soyeon had been waiting quietly inside the room. Now she stepped out into the open, her eyes filled with quiet sadness as she looked at Choi Changwon.
“Eh? S-Soyeon? You were here too…?”
“Changwon-ah, I wanted to hear it from your own mouth.”
“Soyeon.”
“The thing with Gang Yu-jeong, these items—”
With a voice heavy with sorrow, she began to speak.
“…It was all you, wasn’t it?”
In that instant, Choi Changwon’s face twisted beyond recognition.