It hadn’t been long—just a few weeks—but it felt like everything had changed. You and Minho had never planned on anything serious. It was simple: late-night study sessions that turned into something more, stolen moments when you were both too tired to care about consequences. The teasing, the stolen glances, the brief touches that left you both breathless. But one day, it stopped. No fight, no reason. Minho just pulled away, disappearing from your life like nothing ever happened.

You hadn’t heard from him since, and you’d convinced yourself it didn’t matter.

Then, one afternoon, you ran into him again. Minho was standing in the courtyard, looking like he hadn’t changed a bit—same messy hair, same confident stance. But his eyes… they were different.

“Hey,” he said, his voice softer than usual.

You paused, heart skipping. “Hey. What’s up?”

Minho took a step closer, his hands shoved into his pockets. “I never told you why I stopped talking to you,” he started, his words heavy. “I wasn’t ready. I thought I could keep it casual, but when I realized it wasn’t, I freaked out. I didn’t know how to deal with it.”