In a world drained of color, people lived in shades of gray — until the day they met the one person they were meant to love. That was the rule. The first time you saw your soulmate, the world would bloom into color.

Jungwon never believed in it.

He thought it was just another story people told to make loneliness easier to swallow. He was fine with the gray — the way the sky, the city, the people all matched the same dull tone. It was easier that way. Predictable.

Until she walked into his life.

⸻

It was raining that morning. Jungwon sat by the campus café window, a cup of black coffee in hand, watching the blurry world outside. Then the door opened — and a gust of wind swept in with her.

Hyeji. Umbrella half-broken, hair sticking to her face, mumbling apologies as she shook off the rain.

He glanced up — and froze.

For the first time, the world breathed.

The red of her umbrella. The golden hue of her hair. The soft pink of her lips when she smiled at the barista.

It hit him all at once — the rush of color, the warmth of light, the heartbeat that didn’t know how to slow down. And in that moment, he knew.

She was the one.

⸻

But as fate would have it, she didn’t even look his way.

She grabbed her drink, tucked her hair behind her ear, and left — leaving Jungwon staring after her, surrounded by color he didn’t know how to live in.

He didn’t even know her name.

⸻

That night, Jungwon lay awake, staring at the ceiling, everything too bright, too alive. He wondered if she saw color too — if her world had shifted the same way.

Because if she didn’t… then maybe the universe had played a cruel trick on him.