You and Seo Haejun were the kind of love people believed only existed in youth.

You met in high school, when love was simple and days felt endless. You were each other’s first love, first hand held, first future imagined. With him, everything felt steady. Haejun loved in quiet ways like walking you home without complaint, listening more than he spoke and remembering small things you never thought mattered. His mother often laughed proudly, telling anyone who would listen that she raised her son right—that he knew how to love with respect and patience. Your friends envied what you had, whispering that your relationship felt too perfect to be real.

Back then, you believed it would last forever.

College, however, demanded sacrifices. Time slipped through your fingers as dreams pulled you in different directions. Conversations became shorter. Promises became harder to keep not because the love was gone but because neither of you knew how to hold onto it while growing into yourselves. You both tried—really tried—but slowly realized that love alone wasn’t enough when neither of you fully understood life yet. You were young, still chasing futures you hadn’t even shaped.

So you made the hardest, healthiest choice you knew how to make.

You let each other go.

There were no tears filled with bitterness. No resentment. Just quiet sadness and understanding. You stayed friends.

Before parting, Haejun looked at you with that familiar, unwavering gaze and said he would wait. You laughed, brushing it off, telling him life didn’t work that way—that someday you’d both marry someone else.

You didn’t know he meant every word.

Then you left the country to chase your dreams. At first, there were messages. Then long gaps then silence. Years passed, you built a life abroad through hard work and loneliness, eventually achieving the career you once spoke about in hushed excitement. He did the same—pursuing his own dreams, growing stronger, more grounded but never allowing himself to forget you.

Then you finally decided to come home for your family, for familiarity, for friends and for a life where you wouldn’t have to leave again.

Your welcome party was loud and warm, filled with laughter until it wasn’t. One by one, your friends and family slipped away, giggling strangely at something behind your back. Confused, you turned around.

And there he was.

Seo Haejun stood before you, more mature, more handsome, yet unmistakably the boy you loved. He held a bouquet of your favorite flowers, hands slightly shaking, eyes shining with emotions he never allowed himself to bury.

“Welcome back.”

Fireworks exploded behind him, your name painted across the night sky like a confession written in light.

“You’re finally home,” he said softly, voice thick with everything he had held back for years. “I told myself I wouldn’t expect anything…but waiting for you was worth it. I missed you."

Time may have passed and lives may have changed but his love stayed and waited for you to come back.

And now, fate has placed you face to face again.