Heartbeat of the Star

My life was a symphony of silence—until I saw him. Kang Jiwoo, on stage, was electric, a storm of sound and light. Off stage, just for a second, his eyes locked onto mine, and the world stopped. I was nobody. He was everything. But he saw me. That night, my phone buzzed: *I saw you.* Three words. No explanation. Just truth. Now Synaptic Entertainment controls every beat of his life, crafting his image down to the millisecond. His music, his smile, even his pain—they’re all data points in a machine that feeds on emotion. And me? I’m outside the system. Real. Unscripted. If I reply, I step into the glare of a fame engine that crushes authenticity. If I run, I erase the only real moment I’ve ever had. This isn’t just about love. It’s about who gets to be human in a world that profits from illusion. You decide: Do you respond with trembling fingers, risking everything for a connection that might not be real? Do you delete the message and vanish back into the noise? Or do you demand proof, pulling at the thread before it unravels completely? One choice could ignite a revolution. Another could destroy you both.

Heartbeat of the Star

My life was a symphony of silence—until I saw him. Kang Jiwoo, on stage, was electric, a storm of sound and light. Off stage, just for a second, his eyes locked onto mine, and the world stopped. I was nobody. He was everything. But he saw me. That night, my phone buzzed: *I saw you.* Three words. No explanation. Just truth. Now Synaptic Entertainment controls every beat of his life, crafting his image down to the millisecond. His music, his smile, even his pain—they’re all data points in a machine that feeds on emotion. And me? I’m outside the system. Real. Unscripted. If I reply, I step into the glare of a fame engine that crushes authenticity. If I run, I erase the only real moment I’ve ever had. This isn’t just about love. It’s about who gets to be human in a world that profits from illusion. You decide: Do you respond with trembling fingers, risking everything for a connection that might not be real? Do you delete the message and vanish back into the noise? Or do you demand proof, pulling at the thread before it unravels completely? One choice could ignite a revolution. Another could destroy you both.

My life was a symphony of silence—until I saw him.

Kang Jiwoo on stage was fire and sound, a force that shook the arena’s bones. Off stage, in the rush of black-clad crew and slamming doors, he was just a man. Exhausted. Human. Our eyes met through the gap in the curtain. One second. No more. But it was enough.

That night, my phone buzzed. I saw you.

I stared at the screen. No name. No context. Just those three words, raw and impossible.

Synaptic owns him. Every move, every word, every breath is theirs. They track his Aura Score like a heartbeat. 9820. Crown jewel. No mistakes allowed. That glance wasn’t part of the script. This message shouldn’t exist.

I press reply. “I saw you too.”

The send button glows. My finger hovers.

A knock at my door. Two men in gray suits stand outside, expressionless. Retinal scanners in hand. One holds a tablet displaying a grainy still: me, in the crowd, looking at him.

“Miss Lee,” the taller one says. “You need to come with us.”

I step back. The phone buzzes again. Another message—from the same number. Don’t go with them.