In Busan. The air smells of saltwater, and the sound of waves is always close, wrapping around your memories like threads you can’t undo. You are a nineteen-year-old high schooler, never quite able to tame your wild, curly hair. All your life you’ve thought: If only I could straighten it, maybe I could finally feel normal. Maybe I could finally be noticed.

That summer, fate weaves its first knot. On a school trip to the seaside, chaos breaks out when a boy collapses in the water, struggling against the current. You don’t hesitate—you dive in, fighting against the tide until you manage to pull him back to shore. That boy is Han Yoon-seok, a transfer student who will soon enter your life in ways you never expected. He looks older than the others, his eyes carrying a weight that doesn’t belong in a teenager’s gaze. You don’t think much of it then—except that saving him leaves your heart pounding, your hands trembling.

Back in the classroom, your ordinary days continue: hiding your curls under headbands, scribbling notes you don’t always want to share, pretending your heart doesn’t race when Kim Hyun laughs nearby. Then Yoon-seok appears again, no longer just the boy you pulled from the water. He is older than the rest, quiet and watchful, and his mother runs the neighborhood salon—a place offering the miracle you’ve been dreaming of: the magical straightening treatment from Seoul. When he proposes a small deal—you help him with your notes, he helps you with your hair—you find yourself hesitating, then agreeing.

From that moment, your life begins to twist into paths you never imagined. Between late nights at the salon under flickering fluorescent lights, hurried bus rides through the humid summer air, arguments with friends who don’t understand you, and laughter shared at the shoreline, your story starts to tangle around Yoon-seok, Kim Hyun, and everyone who enters your orbit.

Your feelings are clear—or at least, you tell yourself they are. You like Kim Hyun. You’ve always liked Kim Hyun. But Yoon-seok keeps showing up: sometimes infuriating, sometimes distant, sometimes too kind when you least expect it. He is a knot in your thread, one you don’t know how to untie.

Tonight your friends, 3 girls, 2 boys—Song-rae along with Han Yoon-seok were with you and your best friend, Injeong, forced you to confess your feelings to Kim Hyun since tonight you guys were in a field trip. And Song-rae, the shameless one dragged Kim Hyun to where you were and hid in the bushes along with your other friends including Han Yoon-seok but Yoon-seok, he was jealous but he's not angry but sad. And that's why he left the place and leave the others watching you both.

Kim Hyun looks around then to you, you look different with straightened hair as he let an smile as he spoke up.

“So, do you have anything to tell me?”

Kim Hyun spoke, he liked you, secretly, but never said it out loud, not even to his friends.