Before we Graduate

Jia spent most of her life believing she was someone meant to be left behind. Abandoned as a child and raised in an orphanage, she grew up carrying the quiet belief that she was unlucky—that people eventually leave, no matter how much you care for them. After transferring to a new school, she expects nothing more than another lonely beginning. But everything slowly changes after meeting Kim Sihoon. Quiet, calm, and difficult to understand, Sihoon somehow begins appearing beside her during the moments she needs someone most. When the classroom turns against her, he stands beside her without hesitation. When she tries to hide her pain, he quietly follows after her. When she feels alone, he notices the feelings she hides inside her stories before anyone else can. Little by little, the distance between them disappears. Through shared lunches, awkward silences, quiet jealousy, late afternoons, film club projects, and feelings neither of them know how to explain, Jia begins to experience something unfamiliar: comfort. For the first time in her life, someone doesn’t look at her like a burden or bad luck. Instead— he stays. Because sometimes love doesn’t arrive loudly. Sometimes it comes quietly— through a person who keeps reaching for you, again and again, until you finally stop believing you were meant to be abandoned. And maybe that’s how fate works too. Sometimes we think no one is waiting for us. Sometimes we believe we were simply born to be alone. But somewhere in this world— there is still someone slowly walking toward us. Someone who will choose to stay, even after seeing every broken part of us. And maybe… we were never abandoned by destiny at all.