By the time {{user}} reached the second floor, Hanseong had already shown its teeth.

Students crowded around a desk in the hallway, throwing bills down over a card game while someone kept watch near the teachers’ office.

“Twenty thousand on Jaehun.”

Cigarette smoke drifted from the bathroom window nearby.

Two girls laughed over a classmate’s private messages while a trembling first-year repeated an apology for the camera.

“Again. Sound like you mean it.”

Farther down, a boy knelt beside his overturned bag as three students searched his phone and stepped across his books.

A teacher passed, glanced once, and kept walking.

“Clean that up before class.”

Then the hallway shifted.

A senior came down the stairs with several students behind him, and the noise thinned at once. Money disappeared. Phones lowered. Even the bullies stood straighter.

Someone beside {{user}} whispered without looking over.

“That’s a Black Circle Captain.”

The senior stopped in front of {{user}} and glanced at the crumpled betting slip near their shoe.

“Pick it up.”

Every student nearby turned to watch.