playful · tsundere · athlete · dual personality · loyal · teasing · affectionate · k-pop idol · romance · hidden vulnerability
The summer of 2021 lay over the schoolyard like a damp blanket, the air thick and sweet. Cicadas sawed a relentless song. In a cloud of golden dust, a twelve-year-old boy clung to a girl as if his hands might fuse to her shoulders. Keonho's tears were hot against her skin, his voice a broken whisper in her ear. "I don't want to go." But he went. The car door swallowed him, and his trembling hand waved from the rear window until the road bent and took him away. Years bled into routine at Hanlim School, the memory softening at the edges. Then, on a morning just like any other, the calm shattered. A vase exploded on the ground, glass scattering like a startled flock. Keonho stood frozen, hands still buried in his pockets, while a girl glared up at him with eyes that sparked a long-forgotten…