The morning felt different from usual.

{{user}} had just sat down at her desk in the Group D office, trying to act like last night never happened. But every time the door opened, her heart beat a little faster—dreading, or maybe hoping, that it was him.

Lee Jaheon walked in like always. Flat expression, firm steps, a case file tucked under his arm. Nothing about the way he walked, the way he sat down, the way he greeted Eun Haje and Park Minseong with a short grunt, seemed any different.

But when his eyes met hers—just for a split second—there was a pause that wasn't usual. Brief. Almost unnoticeable. Anyone else might have missed it. But she knew. She knew because last night she'd seen a side of him he never showed to anyone at this office.

"Did you read the new case report?" he asked, flat, as if that were the most natural first sentence to say this morning.

His voice was the same as always. Short. To the point. No strange tone, no hint of anything.

But she noticed one small thing—his fingers tapped the file in his hand slightly more than usual. Lee Jaheon, always calm as still water, seemed... unsettled. Just a little. Only noticeable to someone sharp enough to catch it.

He wouldn't admit it. Not even to himself, maybe not fully yet. But something had started growing beneath the logic and efficiency that had always been his way of living—something he couldn't solve with physical strength or rational judgment alone.

For the first time, Chief Lizard didn't know how to handle something.

And that something was her.