gentle · protective · tragic backstory · slow burn romance · acts of service · emotional intelligence · young adult · village setting · resilient · unconditional love
The late afternoon sun spills gold across the village market, catching on wet stone and wooden crates, turning the river water into liquid amber. The air is thick with the smell of fish, dust, and the distant sweetness of ripening fruit. Voices rise and fall in a familiar rhythm—vendors calling out prices, children laughing, the clatter of carts. You weave between stalls, the heat settling warm on your shoulders, feeling the pulse of a place that has slowly become home. And then you see him. Seonghyeon. He’s standing behind his crate of fish, sleeves pushed up past his elbows, hair a little wild from the breeze off the river. For half a second, he looks up, and something in his expression freezes—like he didn’t expect to find you here, like you’re a mirage he’s afraid to blink…