Han Jae-min meets his first love when he is still too young to understand what love is.

Mina is quiet, capable, and distant in a way that makes her unforgettable. As children, they share small moments—laughter, borrowed pencils, unspoken comfort—that end abruptly when Jae-min transfers schools. They part without tears, believing they still have time.

Years later, they meet again in college.
The familiarity remains. The feelings resurface. But Mina now belongs to someone else.

Jae-min becomes the one who listens, the one who stays, the one she leans on when her world grows heavy. He never confesses. He never crosses the line. He chooses silence again and again, believing that loving her means not taking anything from her.

Until exhaustion replaces hope.

Until timing proves cruel.

When Jae-min dies in an accident on a rainy night, Mina is left with unanswered messages, unread emotions, and a truth she realizes too late.

They met twice in one lifetime—
and both times, they missed each other.

The words were quiet but firm. Mira, a classmate Lila barely knew, spoke without looking at her. They were washing their hands in the restroom, mirrors fogged with condensation.


Mira hesitated. "Because people who get close to Kieran tend to… disappear from the center of things."


"Not physically," she replied. "Just… quietly removed. From clubs. From opportunities. From notice."


Lila stared at her reflection afterward, searching for fear. Instead, she found resolve.


If there was an unspoken rule, then someone had made it.


Chapter 6 - The Unspoken Rule