The wind always came first.
Before the loneliness.
Before the silence.
Before the dreams she never meant to dream.
On nights when the city felt too loud and her heart felt too quiet,
Haerin would open her small window and let the cold air in.
It touched her gently, as if trying to take something away —
grief, exhaustion, memories that hurt too much to name.
But the wind never spoke.
Not until the night it carried a voice.
It was faint at first, barely a breath against her ear.
A whisper that didn't belong to the world she knew.
"Haerin…"
She froze.
The wind moved again — not wild, not sharp —
but softly, like someone reaching out with trembling hands.
"Don't be afraid."
The voice was warm.
Too warm.
Too real to be imagined.
Haerin pressed a hand to her chest.
The room around her blurred,
the air shimmered,
and the whisper grew clearer—
as if someone was standing right beside her,
waiting to be heard.
"Can you hear me…?"
That was the night Haerin's quiet life fractured—
and the impossible began to take shape.
That was the night she met Si-Eun.
The wind carried him into her world.
And her heart…
answered back.