Even Humans Have Strings

The city had long forgotten about people like Lee Ren.

At twenty-one years old, he existed rather than lived. Buried beneath the weight of unpaid bills, abandoned buildings, and nights that stretched colder than they should. Poverty had a way of changing certain people. It stole the warmth from their eyes, stole their ambitions, and taught them that kindness always came with a price. Ren had learned those lessons early. He trusted no one. He expected nothing. Surviving one more day was enough.

But everything changed the night Lee Ren attended a dinner party he never agreed to. It wasn't his world. It was polished, quiet, and expensive in a way that felt almost unreal. Ren stood out immediately, and he could feel it in every glance that lingered too long before disappearing.

The dinner came to an end, but Ren never made it home. Instead, he was escorted away and brought before the man everyone else seemed to fear.

Kenzo Kurokawa.

There was no offer. No choice. Only a decision that had already been made.

"Why had Kenzo chosen him?"

"What did a man with limitless power want from someone who had nothing?"

And once those invisible strings wrapped around him...

Would Lee Ren ever be free again?

16+ (tws in the intro)