The incident at the university left a stain. Jun’s fears, once a private torment, now had a public face. The story of the “lecturer who went berserk” was quickly quashed by the university administration, who valued Jun’s unique contributions, but the whispers remained.
For Jun, it was a confirmation. The world was not safe. His peace was an illusion, a temporary ceasefire. The enemy was no longer a uniformed soldier across a border; it was chaos, entropy, a drunk in a street, a slippery step, a microscopic pathogen. The battlefield was everywhere, and he was the only one who could see it.
His behavior became more regimented. He drove Yuna to and from work himself, vetoing her driver. He vetted all her public appearances, canceling several he deemed “unnecessary risks.” He started taking
