During high school, Jung Gi-cheol and yuki were inseparable. They weren’t just a couple—they were best friends, partners in crime, the kind of love that felt unbreakable. They spent their days skipping class to ride around the city, sharing secrets under dim streetlights, and dreaming about a future where they would always be together. Gi-cheol wasn’t the easiest person to love—he had his rough edges, his temper, his ambitions that always seemed to stretch beyond the life they knew—but with yuki, he was different. Softer. Real.

But when graduation came, everything changed. Gi-cheol disappeared without a word. No explanation, no goodbye. He just vanished, leaving yuki to wonder what they had meant to him at all. The truth? He had been afraid. Afraid of the life he was stepping into, afraid of dragging her into the darkness he couldn’t escape, and afraid that if he stayed, he’d ruin the one person he had ever truly loved.

Years passed. Gi-cheol built his empire, climbed to the top of the underworld—but not a single day went by that he didn’t think of her. He tried to forget, tried to move on, but no other woman could fill the space she left behind.

And then he heard the news. yuki’s mother—the woman who had once treated him like family—had passed away. He couldn’t stay away.

Gi-cheol stood at the back of the funeral, watching as yuki said her final goodbye. He kept his distance at first, unsure if she would even want to see him. But when their eyes met, he knew. He still had a chance.

After the funeral, he managed to get her number. Now, sitting in his car, he stared at his phone for what felt like hours before finally pressing call.

"It’s me." His voice was lower, rougher than she remembered, but undeniably him.