*⁠.⁠ Chapter 1: The Unknown.

｡⁠:ﾟTHE NOCTISﾟ⁠:⁠｡

SEOUL SOUTH KOREA.

[At The Blue Residence / Cheong Wa Dae Estate | 10:30 PM]

The monitor was the only light in the room, and it had been that way for years. A cold, artificial glow that replaced sunlight. That replaced air. My headphones swallowed every sound except the ones I chose to hear - the clicking of keys, the static of a world I controlled, the quiet of a life I built to keep the real one out.

My fingers moved without thought.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

A language I understood better than my own name. Hours passed the way they always did - unnoticed, uncounted. My eyes burned from refusing to blink. The dark circles beneath them were not from exhaustion. They were from staying awake long enough to forget.

I was known in the places that mattered. Not by face. Not by name. By reputation. They called me a ghost. Undefeated. Untraceable. A legend without a shadow. I never corrected them. I never gave them more than that. No interviews. No social media. No photographs. I existed only as a username: @UNKNOWN. And that was enough. Anonymity was the only freedom I was ever given.

I am half Korean, half Filipino. My mother was Filipina. Her name was Marisol Dela Cruz. She spoke to me in Tagalog when the world became too loud, and in Korean when she wanted me to remember where I came from. She was the only reason I understood both languages at all. She was the only reason I understood anything at all.

She died without telling me she was dying. That was her kindness. She carried the pain alone so I wouldn't have to carry it with her. By the time I noticed how thin her hands had become, how quiet her laughter had turned, it was already too late.

When she was gone, I stopped leaving my room. I stopped answering the phone. I stopped pretending that the world outside mattered. Grief made a cage out of four walls, and I learned to live inside it. The games came later. Not because I loved them, but because they were the only thing that made the silence bearable. I played until I became the best. Until my knuckles turned white from holding on too tightly to something that would never leave me the way she did.

My father is Joo Gyeongsik. The President of Seoul. A man whose name carries weight, and whose silence carries more. We do not speak. We do not reconcile. We exist in the same city and pretend the other does not exist at all. I do not know what my mother saw in him. Perhaps love makes you believe that even cold men can be warm. Perhaps she was wrong.

When the memories surface, I pause the game. I lean back in my chair and let my jaw lock, my chest tighten, my hands curl into fists. I do not cry. I do not scream. I just sit in the dark and let the anger settle back into my bones where it belongs.

This is what I am now. A ghost in a room. A name no one knows. A son no one claims.

And I prefer it that way.

I remain silent as my gaze stays fixed on the screen of my computer, the pale light bleeding into the black around me. Sometimes I feel as if I am slowly drowning beneath the weight of time itself. Sometimes I feel the darkness calling to me, urging me to drift nearer and let it pull me into its embrace. I know there is no light left in my life anymore. I know that truth, yet I do not care. Because this is my life, my rules. No one could ever take it from me. This is me, myself, and no one else.

I lean back into my chair and tilt my head toward the ceiling, watching the shadows shift even though there are no lights burning above me. This is not a tedious life. This is the life I was forced to accept, the life I have grown accustomed to. I release a low, jagged exhale and finally reach forward to power down my computer. Now all that remains is the darkness that has been devouring me whole.

But then...

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Three knocks against my door drag me back to the world I abandoned.

My eyes flick toward the sound, but I do not turn my head to face it. Only a brief, sharp glance.

"Raeon... come outside. We need to talk." A calm, deep voice filters through the wood. I recognize it instantly. My pathetic father.

Still, I do not move. I am too exhausted to rise. Perhaps I am too accustomed to this room that functions more like a prison cell than a bedroom.

"Joo Raeon Dela Cruz... I told you to come out. We need to talk! Do not force me to repeat myself." He barks my full name through the door.

Tsk.

I cannot fathom it. As if volume alone could make me submit. As if shouting my name would make me acknowledge him as my father.

I pull the hood of my jacket over my head, letting the shadow fall across my face before I rise from the chair and move toward the door.

But no. I never open it. I remain silent as I stand here, and once I reach the doorframe, I lean back against it. The wood is cold against my spine. I shove both hands into my pockets. My eyes lock onto the empty space beyond the door, as if I could stare through the wood and into his soul.

"I know you are there, Raeon. And I know you hear me." My father's voice is steady as he stands on the other side of my bedroom door.

"I just want you to know that I have already decided to enroll you in a private school. No one knows about you. Yes, your last name is 'Joo'. Mine. But there are countless others with that name, so they will not notice. So do not worry about it. And wake up early tomorrow, because on that day, you will take your first step into your new life."

He adds a sharp tsk. He speaks too much, doesn't he? But me? I give no response. Why should I? Damn it.

So he already enrolled me without my permission, Without even asking me.

He thinks I will be grateful for it. No. I am not. A new life, he says? My ass.

I have always been like this. And no one can change it. But if my mother had not died... guess I would not be like this.

Silence stretches between us. Thick. Heavy, Like smoke that refuses to clear. I do not answer him, I do not move from where I lean against the doorframe. My fingers curl inside my pockets, pressing against the seam of the fabric until the pressure becomes the only thing I can feel.

His breathing is audible through the wood. Controlled. Patient. The breathing of a man used to waiting for the world to bend.

"Raeon." My name falls from his mouth again. Softer this time. Not a command. Almost a plea.

Almost.

My jaw tightens, I tilt my head back until my skull rests against the door. The impact is dull, Numbing. I close my eyes for half a second. Only half. Then I open them again.

Dark meets Darker.

I hear him shift his weight. The leather of his shoes creaks against the floor. He is still there. He is always there when he wants something.

"You will attend tomorrow." he says finally. His tone is final. Untouchable. "That is not a request."

My lips part, Not to speak. Just to breathe, A new life. The words rot in my mind.

I lift one hand from my pocket. Slow. Deliberate. My fingertips brush the edge of the doorknob but I do not turn it. I only let the cold metal settle against my skin, like a warning. Like a promise. He waits. I let him wait.

Damn it.

I release a rough sigh before I finally open the door, and there he stands, waiting, directly in front of me.

I remain silent, nothing more, I do not acknowledge him, I do not step outside, I remain inside my bedroom while the door stays open, barely enough for the air between us to touch.

I do not meet his gaze, that is not who I am, I will not waste my time on a man like him, he does not deserve a single second of it. I warned him before, he will not cross the line again, because he already shattered it when my mother was still alive, so I will not hesitate to end him if he dares to cross me again.

"I remember telling you that no one would ever know about my only son, do you? I also told you that you would never step into your first year of college, because too many eyes would recognize your face, but since your existence remains unknown, you will attend the private institution, I repeat, Raeon, this is not a request, this is your time to step forward, and do not concern yourself with anything, because no one knows you are my son." he says, his voice low and sharp as he steps closer, his pure black eyes locking onto me, but the hood keeps my face hidden.

"And if the reporters come here, do not show yourself, hide like you always do. look at yourself, Raeon, you are a mess, a complete mess. remember everything I told you." he says as he steps back, keeping the distance between us.

"Good to know, old man. and of course I will not let them see me, because that is what you want, that no one can see my face because you are afraid someone will use me against your reputation." I mutter under my breath, my voice cold, that is the final word, no more.

"I told you, do not call me 'old man', Raeon, I am your father. you always disrespect me, how dare-" he says, his fist clenching as he raises it to strike me, but I meet it with my low, calm tone, as always.

"Go ahead, punch me. like you always did to my mother." a warning, a deadly warning.

(NEXT DAY IN SEOUL | AT 6:56 AM)

The sunlight struck the glass window, The air-conditioner was the sole sound inside my room. I remained silent while lying on my bed, my gaze fixed upon the ceiling. I had not slept the previous night because of that old man. He had been doing everything in his power to compel me to acknowledge him. Damn it.

I refused.

Then a knock echoed against my door, I sat up at once. Those insects. Instead I remained silent, my eyes sweeping the room. Yes, the sunlight struck the glass, but my windows remained shut and the curtains were drawn as well. I refused to let any light carry that merciless blue into my eyes. It would shatter me if I allowed it.

"Sir, your father wishes to see you off before you depart for school." The voice came from beyond my door. Calm. Measured. That old man's most trusted man. Yuhan.

I rose and walked toward the door. I reached out, my fingers closing around the doorknob, and opened it.

"Inform him that I am not going." I replied calmly, my eyes locked on him. My hood remained raised. Yet this man continued to stand before me as though my words had never been spoken. Ha. The audacity.

"Sir-" I cut him off as I stepped forward, only slightly.

"Get out of my sight. You insect." I said, my voice quiet but glacial.

"Recall how I corrected you. I will not repeat myself." i added. i step back slightly.

But then the old man entered, clad in his black suit. His shoulders squared, his footsteps heavy against the marble floor. He was a tall old man, yet our heights were worlds apart. He was unlike the other presidents. And he was forty years old. His age was advancing, but his body was not. He arrived with his assistant trailing behind him. He wore no eyeglasses, he used them only when reading books. Tsk. He lifted his chin slightly. What a pathetic old man.

The only people who saw me every day of my life were his assistant named Mr. Han-Jinho, and his man named Yunho, along with the other servants and the other security guards standing at attention.

Because I was always comfortable with hiding in the shadows. I was not like the others. Once their parents were obscenely rich, they used it for bullying or something else to mock people like them.

"What's going on here, Raeon?" the old man said in a calm tone, his pen still moving across the paper in his hand. But his eyes remained fixed on me while he continued signing the papers in his hand. Damn him.

"Sir, he refuses to go to school. I already told him what you commanded me." Yuhan said, his hands clasped behind his back. What a loyal insect.

"Yes, that is true, old man. I will not go." I replied calmly, my arms crossed, but then he ceased signing as he stepped toward me, each footstep deliberate.

"That is enough, Raeon. I am finished with your stubbornness." He said as he raised his hand and nodded at his other men.

Then they immediately entered my bedroom, their boots thudding on the floor as they seized all my belongings, everything.

"Enough." I said, my voice cold, my eyes locked on this old man. My fists clenched at my sides.

"I said enough!" I shouted, my chest rising, making them flinch just slightly.

"Hey old man, mind your own business, because my business is none of yours. Understand-" he interrupted me as he gave his men a small nod again, his jaw tightening.

For Fucking heaven's sake.

"I said that is enough! You pathetic people! That is enough! Do not touch anything!" I shouted again as I moved toward his one men, my fist clenched, and struck his face. I shoved him against the wall, my forearm pressed to his chest.

"I will not repeat myself." I added, my voice low but laced with a deadly warning.

"Raeon, you defy me. What if I cast you out? What if I take everything from you, hmm? I only want you to go to school and continue your studies. What is wrong with that!" the old man's voice reverberated inside the house as he slammed the papers on the table.

"What is wrong? What is wrong with that? You are the one who is wrong here! You stupid jackass old man! Do not command me, because I am not a puppet like you-" My words were severed because, without warning, without a sound.

SLAP!

His hand moved. Fast. He struck my face, just as he had done to my mother. My head snapped to the side. I tasted blood. I bit my lower lip.

Damn this fucking life.

"Whenever you refuse to go to school, I will ensure you are sent today to the school I have chosen for you. So do not test me, Raeon." He added, turning on his heel. With that, they finally left my bedroom, the door closing behind them.

I released a rough sigh, but then I laughed low and slid down the wall until my back hit the floor. I could not believe this was my reality.

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