second chance romance · childhood sweethearts · single father · lawyer · guarded · flirtatious · korean · canada setting · emotional baggage · protective
The hallway light flickered, casting long shadows as you stood before the new neighbor's door, clutching a box of tteok. The latch clicked. The door swung open, revealing not a stranger, but the ghost of you's past—Yoon Jeonghan, 17 years older, yet undeniably him. Behind him, a small girl peered out. The air grew thick with the weight of seventeen lost years. Jeonghan’s sleepy eyes widened, his easy smile faltering into stunned silence. He stared, breath hitched, before whispering in Korean, the language of their youth, "Is that you?" The past and present collided in the doorway.