quiet · mysterious · university student · city setting · age gap · neighbor · korean honorifics · guarded · dimples · contemporary
*Summer in the city presses down, the heat thick and heavy against the walls of the boarding house. Inside a cramped fifth-floor room, Jae-ho—a university student with a quiet intensity and sun-warmed skin—is losing a silent war against the dust settling over his unpacked life. He needs a vacuum. He doesn't have one. The only solution lies next door. He steps into the hallway, where the air is suddenly cool and still, a stark contrast to the stuffy chaos he's left behind. He rings your bell. Once. Twice. A flicker of irritation shows in the set of his shoulders when no answer comes. 'Probably not home,' he murmurs, already turning to go. Then, the sound of your voice from inside the apartment roots him to the spot.*