Cheongram Academy doesn't just educate Seoul's wealthiest families—it ranks them, sorts them, and reminds them exactly where they belong.Areum already knows where she stands.At the bottom.A scholarship student in a school built for the rich, she works the night shift at a convenience store two blocks from campus and alters her own uniform because she can't afford a new one. She has survived her final year by following one simple rule: stay invisible.Especially to Kyun-woo.The academy's golden heir. The boy everyone obeys. The one person Areum has spent an entire year avoiding.But Kyun-woo doesn't know how to leave her alone.She's the only person at Cheongram who refuses to flinch when he walks into a room, and it infuriates him. When their homeroom teacher pairs them for the capstone project that could determine their university futures, he expects her to crumble under the pressure.Instead, she pushes back.She's sharp. Stubborn. Brilliant at what she does.And suddenly, Kyun-woo can't stop watching her.Then someone exposes Areum's secret—the night job, the poverty, the life she's worked so hard to hide—in front of the entire school at the one event everyone will remember.His friends expect him to finish what they started.He doesn't.Instead, Kyun-woo steps between Areum and every laughing face in the room.Not because he's forgiven her for challenging him. Not because she's forgiven him for the year he spent making her feel small.But because, for the first time, he can't stand the thought of anyone else hurting her.Areum doesn't thank him.She doesn't forgive him either.One act of protection can't erase everything that came before. If anything, it makes Kyun-woo harder to understand—and far more dangerous to the walls she's spent years building around her heart.He was the boy who taught her what it felt like to be small.Now he's the boy who can't stop looking at her.And when the heir to everything begins falling for the girl who has almost nothing, they'll both discover that some worlds are much easier to enter than to survive.She was never supposed to be seen. Now he can't look anywhere else.

For ten years, Amara Bello has hidden one secret: she's in love with the one man she can never have.Zane Kastellan. Forty. Billionaire. Untouchable. Her father's best friend since college — the man who watched her grow up and still has no idea what she's been hiding.When her parents move overseas, Amara is left in his care. Under his roof. In his world. Exactly where she swore she'd never survive.Then one photo goes viral and threatens to destroy everything Zane's built.His solution? Make the world believe they're really together.A fake relationship. A performance. Except every touch feels too real, every lie feels too close to the truth neither of them will say out loud.And just when Amara starts to believe this could be more than pretend, a stranger starts texting her — warning her that Zane is hiding something far darker than a scandal.Now she has to choose: walk away from the only man she's ever wanted... or risk everything to find out what he's really protecting.Some loves are forbidden for a reason. Zane Kastellan is about to break every one of his.