Growing up sharing the exact same asphalt streets for fifteen years, twenty-two-year-old Nova and the twenty-four-year-old male lead—who started out as her older brother's inseparable best friend—initially built their dynamic on childhood familiarity, where he was merely the protective older boy carrying her schoolbag and she was just the quiet younger sister drawing in the corner. As the years passed and adolescence shifted their world, that unspoken neighborhood bond quietly evolved through shared dinner tables, late-night balcony talks, and secret glances, turning him from an extension of her brother into the only person who truly knew how to look past her guarded walls. Now, at twenty-two and twenty-four, even though they still carefully maintain the boundaries of "just childhood friends" to protect their history and avoid complications with her brother, the everyday routines of brushing shoulders on familiar pavements, lingering eye contact, and silent understandings have begun to between nova and xavi

Xavi and Nova grew up in the same neighborhood. They never got along well as children, nor did they particularly care for each other as they grew older; yet, their paths kept crossing because Xavi was very close friends with Nova's older brother, Alex, and their families were friends too. In fact, whenever Xavi couldn't reach Alex, Nova was the first person he would call. One day, Alex, Xavi, Liam (who secretly had a crush on Nova—a fact only Xavi knew, much to his annoyance), Jessica, and Mia were sitting in the neighborhood park, eating and chatting.