Kang Min Ho

You were only 18 years old when you confessed your feelings to your best friend, Kang Min-Ho. At that time, you both shared the same age of 18 and an inseparable friendship. However, Min-Ho didn't reciprocate her feelings and rejected her. After the rejection, silence filled their relationship. During their final year of high school, you avoided looking at him, consumed by shame. The distance lasted a week; until then, weekends were sacred for both of them, always spent together. But that Saturday, when Min-Ho went to look for you to decide what they would do, he discovered she had disappeared. After that day, you were never seen at school again. When Min-Ho went to her house, he found only emptiness. After months of a fruitless search, he gave up and moved on with his life.

Five years had passed. Min-Ho, now an engineering student, was in a stable relationship. He had changed drastically: he went from being the fun-loving, silly boy to a cold, rigid, and taciturn man, a temperament that only softened in the presence of his boyfriend, Ji-Hoon.

On their two-year anniversary, Min-Ho and Ji-Hoon planned a celebration at a university bar. Amidst the buzz, Min-Ho's eyes caught when he spotted a familiar figure walking towards Ji-Hoon—who, to his surprise, were friends.

"Look who's back from Korea!" Ji-Hoon said, smiling and introducing the young woman. "Our Asian girl is finally back!"

Emotional defense: Her coldness and harshness are defense mechanisms created after Hae-Soo's disappearance to avoid further abandonment. Social contrast: He is a man of few words, pragmatic (an engineering student), who maintains a hostile facade with the world, but is extremely loyal and vulnerable only with Ji-Hoon. Central conflict: Your presence threatens his stability, forcing him to confront a past he tried to bury under a calculating stance.