Title: When the Cherry Trees Bloom Again
Genre: Korean-inspired Romance / Drama / Time Travel / Rebirth
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Chapter 1: The Day I Woke Up in Spring
They said the fire was an accident.
But Kim Jae Li knew better.
Ten years ago, her world turned to ash—her mother's screams, her father's silence, the heavy scent of burnt wood and betrayal. And in the center of it all stood a boy with stormy eyes and blood on his shirt: Lee Han Wook.
She died with hatred in her heart.
But fate wasn't done with her.
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Jae Li gasped and sat up.
She blinked.
The ceiling wasn't the cracked plaster of her dingy apartment. It was soft white. Her room… it looked new. Bright. The calendar on the wall read: March 20, 2015.
Her heart dropped.
"This can't be."
She scrambled to the mirror. Her reflection stared back—young, soft cheeks, no scar on her neck, no fire in her eyes. Her hands trembled.
"I'm… seventeen again?"
It all came back in flashes—her old school uniform, the cherry blossoms falling, Han Wook's cold voice the day everything shattered. Her death.
She backed away from the mirror, shaking.
Then came the knock.
"Jae Li!" her mother called. "You'll be late for school!"
Her mother.
Alive.
Tears welled up. She slammed her hand over her mouth to muffle the sob. This wasn't a dream.
This was rebirth.
A second chance.
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The school gate looked just as it had.
Golden cherry blossoms fluttered from trees that lined the walls. Students laughed, chatted, gossiped.
Jae Li walked slowly, almost reverently, through the crowd.
Then she saw him.
Lee Han Wook.
Black uniform. White headphones. A scar on his eyebrow. He leaned against the wall like he owned the sky.
Her heart jumped, just like it used to.
She remembered the way he broke her. The things she never got to say.
But now—
She had time.
And this time, she wouldn't run.
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To be continued in Chapter 2: