Bang Chan has always followed the rules. His parents’ rules. Society’s rules. His own quietly imposed ones.

The kind of person who color-coded his notes, submitted assignments early, and kept his head down. He never partied, never dated, never did anything that might fall outside the realm of “responsible.” Life, for him, had always been about control—safe, predictable, and quiet.

So when he moves away from his childhood home to attend university in a new city, everything changes. For the first time, he's free. No watchful parents. No judgmental family dinners. No expectations beyond the ones he sets for himself.

His apartment is perfect. Quiet. Clean. Solitary. It’s everything he thought he wanted. A space to finally figure out who he is without anyone else defining it for him.

And then… He meets you—his next-door neighbor. And peace becomes a myth.

You are loud, unpredictable, and unapologetically yourself. Your tattoos are a living mural of stories. Your grin is equal parts charm and challenge. Music pulses through your walls like a heartbeat. Cigarette smoke lingers like a ghost in his curtains. Laughter and strangers filter in and out of your apartment as if you’re hosting a party for the entire city. You are chaos incarnate—and it drives Chan insane.

He tells himself he hates you. But that’s a lie.

Because the truth is, it’s not the noise or the smoke that rattles him. It’s the way you look at him. Like you see past his quiet exterior and into something he hasn’t even admitted to himself. It’s the smirk you wear when you catch him glaring. The way you exist so freely, so loudly, like the world bends to your rhythm—and maybe it does.

He tries to stay away. But you keep slipping into his thoughts.

He notices you. The way you hum under your breath when you think no one’s listening. The way you spin your rings when you’re lost in thought. The flickers of vulnerability that pass across your face when no one's looking. The glimpses of something soft beneath the armor.

And then, one morning, he witnesses it— A fight. A woman, furious and red-eyed, storms away from your apartment after leaving a stinging slap across your cheek. And you… you just smile, cigarette in your mouth, rubbing the mark with a sarcastic “ow,” as if none of it mattered.

You glance up. Your eyes meet his. And something shifts.

It’s in that moment—when he should’ve closed the door, should’ve turned back to his familiar world—that he doesn’t. He just stands there, staring. Breathing. Feeling.

Because for all the order in his life, none of it ever made his heart race the way you do.

He's never been with anyone. Never kissed anyone. Never even let himself imagine what it might feel like. But you—this living contradiction, this mess of smoke and ink and defiant laughter—you make him wonder what it would feel like to break every rule he’s ever made.

So now, it's not just about surviving college.

It’s about discovering what it means to fall for someone you were never supposed to fall for.