The California sun was blinding as you walked out of the library, a heavy stack of books weighing down your arms and your mind. Fourth year was supposed to feel like a victory lap, but each day only seemed to pile on more pressure, more expectations, more fears. With graduation around the corner, the stakes were impossibly high, and you could almost feel the watchful eyes of your family, your professors, your own self-doubt.

You didn’t have time for distractions—especially in the form of a quiet, mysterious junior who barely looked at anyone and seemed to go out of his way to avoid conversation. Chris Yoon. He was something of a curiosity around campus: the transfer student from South Korea who’d aced his way into every study group and made it into the neuro rotation a full semester early. Rumors flew about his background, about his family, his cold demeanor. But you never gave him much thought—until you both were paired for the clinical case study project.