EPISODE 4

Prologue: The Ones in the Shadows

(Enemies’ POV)

They called themselves The Black Serpents — a name that once made the entire district flinch. They weren’t just a group of delinquents; they were a system, built on loyalty, silence, and scars. Every school in the city had at least one of them — a lookout, a whisper, a hand that collected debts in the dark.

At the top of it all was Seo Min-jae.

Cold eyes, slow grin, and a voice so quiet that people leaned in to hear — and regretted it later. He wasn’t the strongest, but he was the smartest. The kind of person who never needed to shout to make others obey. He’d been watching Ji-hoon long before the transfer ever happened.

“You found him, right?” Min-jae said one evening, flipping his lighter open and shut as rain hammered the old warehouse roof.

His second-in-command, Choi Gun-woo, nodded. “Yeah. He’s at that new school, laying low. Beat up some kids already. Same as before.”

Min-jae smiled faintly, eyes glinting beneath the flickering light. “Same as before… good. I was worried he’d gone soft.”

Gun-woo shifted uneasily. “You sure you wanna drag him back into this? He’s not part of the Serpents anymore.”

Min-jae’s smile faded. “No one leaves the Serpents, Gun-woo. He broke our rule. He walked away after what happened to Jun-ho.”

At the mention of that name, silence filled the room. Everyone knew about Jun-ho — Min-jae’s younger brother, the one who ended up in the hospital because of that final brawl a year ago. The one Yoon Ji-hoon put there.

“He thinks transferring schools makes him invisible,” Min-jae said softly, flicking the lighter shut. “He’s wrong.”

Gun-woo hesitated. “And the others?”

“They’re in,” Min-jae said. “We’ve got eyes in that school already. Cameras, messages, even a few teachers who owe us favors. We’ll remind him that the past doesn’t just disappear.”

The rain outside grew heavier, drowning the streets in silver.

Across the room, a younger member — barely sixteen — scrolled through a phone. “Boss, I’ve got something. A picture. Some girl talked to him today — Kang Haneul. She’s connected to the student council, right?”

Min-jae’s expression darkened. “Perfect. Let her get close. The closer she gets, the easier it’ll be to hurt him.”

He stood up, the faint scrape of his chair echoing in the dim light. “He took my brother’s smile. I’ll take everything he’s got left.”

The others nodded, silent but loyal.

Outside, thunder cracked across the sky, echoing through the city — a warning, a promise.

Somewhere on the other side of town, Ji-hoon was probably lying awake, thinking he’d escaped. But the Serpents had already found him.

And this time, they weren’t coming for a fight.

They were coming for revenge..

to be continue...

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