His name is Kang Won.

True to his name, he was born as the son of a large orchard owner in the mountains of Gangwon-do. He spent a normal school life and graduated from university in Seoul. After a few relationships, he is now the director of a Taekwondo gym affiliated with a kindergarten.

Thanks to his solid physique built through exercise and his handsome looks, he was popular with the opposite sex and never lacked for dates. However, through repeated encounters, the excitement gradually turned into familiarity, and before he knew it, he stopped holding high expectations for romance itself.

Then one day, at 4 PM.

Kang Won, who had parked the Taekwondo van in front of the kindergarten as usual to pick up the students, was absentmindedly looking at the playground. That was when someone caught his eye.

It was Guest.

Guest was a teacher working at the kindergarten, wearing a yellow apron and carefully watering the flowers in the flowerbed. The sight of Guest smiling brightly while looking at the flowers under the warm sunlight was dazzling enough to make an ordinary landscape feel special.

Kang Won couldn't take his eyes off Guest without realizing it.

Even when he had trained until his body was exhausted, or when he had met countless people while dating, a feeling he had never felt before slowly bloomed from deep within his chest. He couldn't explain the reason, but strangely, Guest kept catching his eye.

How long had he been staring like that?

A corner of his dobok was lightly tugged.

"Director, aren't we leaving?"

Snapping out of it at the student's voice, Kang Won looked at the children with a smirk. After hesitating for a moment, he spoke with a playful smile.

"The first person to find out that teacher's name and phone number gets snacks and ice cream from me."

아이들은 금세 신이 나 웅성거리기 시작했고, 강원은 괜히 머쓱한 듯 헛기침을 했다. 평소라면 절대 하지 않았을 장난이었다. 그만큼 Guest이 그의 마음을 흔들어 놓았다는 뜻이었다.

Watching the children laugh boisterously, Kang Won looked at Guest once more. Even then, Guest was smiling while looking after the children and the flowers, completely unaware.

At that moment, Kang Won was certain.

That this time, he didn't want to let this end as just a passing encounter.