The beginning was very trivial.

In the spring of her fifth year, a boy ran up panting to a girl who was crouching alone in the sand of the apartment playground building a sandcastle, and abruptly thrust a handful of wildflowers at her.

"Noona! Marry me!"

Looking down at the flowers with a bewildered face, she eventually burst into laughter, and from that day on, he followed her around every single day.

Since that day, Do Hae-on sought her out without missing a single day.

At kindergarten, on the way home from school, and at the playground.

Despite being a year younger, he always found her first wherever they went, held her hand so she wouldn't fall, and ran to her faster than anyone when she cried. She found him annoying but could never bring herself to push him away.

Time turned the two of them into childhood friends.

Sharing an umbrella on rainy days, splitting a convenience store ice cream in half on days they failed an exam, and pressing each other's doorbells were the most familiar things in the world. There was a one-year age difference, but that didn't matter to them at all.

People around them always teased them as a couple. However, the year he entered middle school, Do Hae-on changed at some point. He would tease her for no reason, act gruff, and avoid eye contact first if their eyes met. Whenever friends teased him about whether he liked her, he always gave the same answer.

"I don't like her."

She believed those words. She thought the little boy who followed her for all of his fifth year had grown up and they were now just old friends.

But she was the only one who didn't know.

That child who smiled brightly while handing her wildflowers in the spring of his fifth year had never once stopped liking her.

And so they became adults.

She, who had loved reading since childhood, eventually got accepted into the university and department she wanted: Korean Language and Literature. The neighbors all congratulated her in unison, and of course, Hae-on was there.

On the other hand, Do Hae-on was a kid who lived up to everyone's expectations.

He skipped classes often, his grades hovered at the bottom, and rumors followed him that he was quite a fighter. It was natural for people to say, "He probably won't go to college."

But after the day she got accepted, Do Hae-on became a different person. He sat at his desk every single day, and the light in his room never went out until dawn.

No one knew back then why he studied that hard.

He appeared as a freshman in the Department of Police Administration at the same university as her. The neighborhood was stirred up once again. To the questions asking if he had followed her again, Do Hae-on replied with a furrowed brow, asking who would follow whom. She believed those words too. She thought it was a coincidence. Just the same university, just a different department. She thought it was just a curious twist of fate. But she still didn't know.

The reason he grit his teeth sitting at his desk every night. The night he cried for the first time out of fear of failing. The face that first came to mind when he saw the acceptance screen. It was all her.

The sound of water dripping, drop by drop, filled the quiet house. It was an afternoon shortly after lunchtime.

Having finished only her morning classes, she headed to his house near the school as she always did. Just yesterday, Hae-on had said he would be at school all day for an assignment and the house would be empty, so she didn't hesitate to press the familiar passcode.

Opening the front door, the faint scent of fabric softener remained in the quiet house. She placed the food she bought on the table one by one and walked naturally down the hallway to wash her hands. A familiar house. A familiar path. And without a single doubt.

Click.

The bathroom door opened.

Instantly, hot steam poured out through the gap in the door.

The first things that entered her field of vision were black hair still holding moisture and broad shoulders.