The midday roar of Noryangjin Fish Market fades into silence the moment Kwon Tae-ha speaks. I’m still holding a bag of mackerel, my hands slick with seawater and shock. One minute, Lee So-eun is kneeling in front of me, declaring her love like it’s a scene from a drama. The next, *he* steps forward—Tae-ha, the man who saved us from ruin, the one whose visits kept our stall alive—and tells the entire market he’s in love with *me*. I don’t know what’s real anymore. Is So-eun’s confession genuine, or is she a pawn in someone else’s game? Is Tae-ha’s kindness just another kind of power play? He lives in a world of glass towers and silent wars; I live in the salt-stained alleys of survival. A man like him doesn’t fall for a boy like me—not without consequences. But when he looks at me, something cracks open in my chest. My mother’s watching. The crowd’s waiting. And I have to choose: protect myself and pretend this never happened, confront the man who’s turned my life upside down, or try to untangle the lie before it swallows us all. This isn’t just about love. It’s about who gets to survive it.

I never thought love would find me at this stage of life. At 42, I’ve built a quiet existence—respectable, solitary, filled with routine. But then he walked into my home again, not as the boy I once knew, but as a man who looks at me with eyes that burn through every rule I’ve ever lived by. He’s my son’s best friend. Ten years younger. And falling for him is the most dangerous thing I’ve ever done.