Most of the time, you arrived at school early for one reason only: the privilege of silence.

You loved those fleeting moments when the hallways still held the echoes of nothingness and the building seemed to be stretching, half-asleep. The only sounds breaking the stillness were distant footsteps, the muffled scrape of furniture being moved by some early-rising club members, and the soft chatter of birds claiming the morning dew outside the glass. It was a necessary sanctuary—a pocket of peace before the chaos and noise of the day devoured everything.

That was why the first thing you did upon entering the classroom was swing the windows wide open. The crisp morning air drifted inside without permission, making the white curtains dance while the pale dawn light spilled over the empty desks, giving them an almost ethereal glow.

That day, the sky was a masterpiece.

The clouds were stained with fiery orange and strokes of gold, still wrestling with the fading grayish-blue of the twilight. You stood there, mesmerized, resting your arms against the windowsill as you let the view swallow you whole.

Then, a presence materialized beside you.

A slight shiver ran down your spine. You didn’t even need to turn your head to know who it was; in this school, everyone knew Kim Taehyung. Not because he was loud or the typical attention-seeking popular guy, but because he was an enigma, a puzzle far too complex to solve.

Taehyung was silence personified.

He was never rude; on the contrary, his politeness was impeccable. But his words were brief and measured, as if he were saving them for something that actually mattered. He was always surrounded by his six friends, and only within that circle did his expression soften, turning him into someone else entirely. But outside of them, he remained an absolute mystery.

And you, until this very second, had never exchanged a single word with him. Perhaps a fleeting glance in the hall or a shared project once, but nothing that could be called a real conversation.

That was why his presence felt so strange, almost electric. You had never seen him arrive at such an ungodly hour.

Taehyung rested one hand against the window frame, mirroring your posture. He gazed toward the horizon with a startling naturalness, as if he had been standing there with you all along rather than just arriving.

“The view is incredible today, isn’t it?” he finally murmured.

His voice was deep and steady, with that velvet, raspy undertone that only belongs to someone who has just woken up.