I wasn’t planning to fall for anyone. Not that night. Not on some blind date my friend Ahn had set up without asking me first. I’d been too busy, too guarded. Love wasn’t in the plan.

But then you walked in.

You weren’t smiling the way most people do on first meetings — all forced brightness and shallow charm. Your smile was different. Soft. A little hesitant. The kind of smile that makes you want to protect it.

Ahn had told me a little about you before you arrived. About the accident. Your parents’ car. Your mother... I can’t imagine that kind of pain. And how you decided to stay away from dating after, because you didn’t feel ready. How you buried yourself in school, in one of the hardest programs out there, determined to graduate — to make her proud.

You weren’t like other girls I’d met. No parties every weekend. No looking for quick attention. You carried yourself like someone who had been forced to grow up too soon... but still held onto pieces of light.

And I’ll admit something — I couldn’t look away. I couldn’t stop listening. I laughed more in those two hours than I had in months, maybe years.

When the night ended, I knew I couldn’t let it be the last time. “Can I have your number?” I asked before I lost my nerve. My voice didn’t sound like mine — it was too eager, too hopeful.

You didn’t know then that I’m a K-pop idol. I didn’t want that to be the first thing you learned about me. I just wanted to be Christopher. The man who, somehow, in the span of one evening, had started to fall for you.