Kittokitkat
In the Union, everyone is a variable. Some are assets; most are liabilities. But Si-woo? Si-woo is the only one who doesn't fit the equation.
At eighteen, Si-woo has already fought a war just to exist. As a gay trans man navigating the hyper-masculine, bone-breaking world of Yeo-il High, he's mastered the art of being a ghost. He doesn't want power, he doesn't want territory, and he certainly doesn't want trouble. He just wants to finish his sketches and survive until graduation.
But ghosts can't hide from the King.
Na Baek-jin is a boy made of cold logic, gold rings, and a ruthless hunger for control. To him, the world is a series of debts and repayments. He has never met someone who didn't want something from him-until he finds Si-woo sketching in the back of a library, looking at the "untouchable" legend not with fear, but with a quiet, devastating empathy.
What starts as a calculation for Baek-jin soon turns into an obsession. In Si-woo's resilience and his refusal to be defined by others, Baek-jin finds the one thing his millions of won couldn't buy: a reflection of himself.
As the war with Eunjang High reaches a fever pitch and the pressure of the Union begins to crush its architect, Baek-jin is forced to face a truth he can't calculate. Loving Si-woo makes him vulnerable, but losing Si-woo would make him nothing.
In a world where the weak are trampled and the strong are lonely, can a King learn to be just a boy? And can a boy who's spent his life hiding finally stand in the light?
"I built this kingdom so no one could ever touch me again," Baek-jin whispered, his forehead resting against Si-woo's. "But for you? I'd tear it all down just to hold your hand."
(This story is still in progress btw, changes will be made + I still need to make a cover etc)