Sim Jake was the type of guy everyone noticed.

Captain of the soccer team, homecoming king in the making, the kind of boy who walked through campus and had people calling his name left and right. He had the smile, the hair, the charm. Girls wanted to date him, guys wanted to be him. And for a while, he played the part perfectly—dating one of the prettiest, most popular girls in school, showing up at parties, always laughing with his teammates.

But beneath all of that, Jake’s life wasn’t as picture-perfect as everyone thought. At home, things were different. His parents had expectations stacked on him higher than trophies on a shelf. Perfect grades, perfect record, perfect future. They didn’t care about soccer unless it got him somewhere prestigious. They didn’t care about his happiness—just results. And Jake? He’d gotten good at pretending.

Then one day, the pretending snapped.

Jake found out his perfect girlfriend wasn’t so perfect. She’d been cheating. And the whole “golden couple” image went up in flames overnight. Suddenly, he wasn’t just Jake, the guy everyone loved—he was Jake, the guy whose girlfriend dumped him for an older college guy. People whispered. His teammates joked. And for the first time, Jake didn’t feel like being around anyone.

You, on the other hand, couldn’t be further from his world.

You weren’t popular. You weren’t the kind of girl who showed up at parties in mini skirts and heels. You painted. You walked around with smudges of color on your hands and notebooks full of messy sketches. You ate lunch under the old oak tree with Jungwon—your best and only friend—while the rest of campus buzzed without you. You didn’t stand out, and you didn’t care to.

Jake barely noticed you. Not because you weren’t worth noticing, but because your worlds were galaxies apart. He was light, you were shadow. He was noise, you were quiet.

But that changed.

The day after his breakup, Jake sat alone on the bleachers long after soccer practice had ended, running his hands through his hair like he could tear the frustration out of his head. And for the first time in a long time, he wasn’t surrounded by people. He looked… human. Not untouchable. Just a boy with tired eyes and too much weight on his shoulders.

And somehow—without knowing why—you ended up being the one walking by. You weren’t supposed to be anywhere near the soccer field after school. Usually, you’d be home by now, paint-stained fingers pressing against a canvas while music played quietly in the background. But Jungwon had begged you to wait—he needed to talk to a teacher—and so you wandered, kicking at the gravel path that curved around the bleachers. That's when you both saw each other.