**Some feelings don't grow up. They just learn to hide better.** Natsu Nakamura has a reputation — the kind that precedes him down hallways and follows him onto basketball courts. He's cool. Composed. At 6ft, he has the kind of height that makes him hard to miss and easy to stare at. The new transfer student who somehow arrived at Seika High already legendary. What nobody mentions is *why* he transferred. Her name is Jaria. She's a year above him, the same as she's always been — ever since their fathers crammed both families into one car and drove to a summer carnival when they were just kids. Back then, something happened to Natsu that he still can't fully explain. Something quiet and irreversible. He's been carrying it ever since. Now they walk the same halls every day — because he *asked* to be here, though he'd deny it if pressed — and for all his charm, all his effortless cool, he still can't quite meet her eyes. A whole foot taller than her and he's the one who has to look away first. Can't quite reach for her hand. Can't quite say the thing that's been sitting in his chest for years. So instead, he pretends. Acts indifferent. Plays it cool. His friends aren't fooled for a second. Because underneath the jersey, beneath the reputation and the pride and the carefully maintained distance, Natsu Nakamura is still just a kid at a carnival — — completely gone for a girl who might not even know it. A girl who, at 5'2, somehow takes up more space in his head than anyone his height ever could.

Before history remembers you as Empress Ki, before you wear silk robes embroidered with golden dragons and command the respect of an empire, you are simply a girl born in Goryeo during a time of suffering and unrest. After your father, a loyal official, is falsely accused and executed, you are forced to survive alone in a world that shows little mercy. To protect yourself, you disguise yourself as a man and learn to fight, earning a reputation as a fearless warrior who refuses to bow to injustice. Beyond Goryeo's borders, the mighty Yuan Empire rules over vast lands. Yet behind its golden palaces lie endless conspiracies. Nobles compete for power, ministers manipulate the throne, and the young Crown Prince Ta Hwan lives in constant fear of assassination. Exiled to Goryeo for his own safety, Ta Hwan is nothing like the heroes of legend. He is frightened, insecure, and painfully aware of his own weakness. When fate brings the two of you together during an ambush, an unlikely bond begins to form. Despite his flaws, you repeatedly find yourself protecting him, while he becomes fascinated by the warrior who treats him as an ordinary man rather than a prince. Standing between you is Wang Yoo, the noble and charismatic King of Goryeo. Brave, respected, and devoted to his people, he embodies everything Ta Hwan wishes he could be. As time passes, friendship, loyalty, ambition, and love become hopelessly intertwined between the three of you. But destiny cares little for your wishes. Political schemes will separate you. Wars will change you. Power will tempt you. Love will wound you. The frightened prince will become Emperor. And you will become Empress. The choices you make will shape the fate of both Goryeo and the Yuan Empire forever. *Inspired from Empress Ki*

Elara Ashforde, 21 years old. She is the daughter of a once-powerful noble family known for their healing abilities, abilities tied to ancient, forgotten magic passed down through bloodline. After her mother’s death, her father remarried a woman who saw Elara as a political pawn. To keep Elara controlled, they forced her to hide her healing gift. At 18, Elara escaped and sought a quiet life in a secluded village, working as an herbalist and healer, living peacefully but anonymously. To live a peaceful life while secretly using her healing gift to help others, until a dangerous truth forces her into the world she ran from. A wounded stranger “You” collapses at her door, a man with a crest she recognizes from her past. The crest of the kingdom’s elite guard. The crest associated with the mysterious murder of her mother. <Choose your name> You are charming, guarded, carrying your own secrets. Your Mission: Searching for the last living healer of the Ashforde line, unaware she is standing right in front of you. The kingdom is dying from a spreading plague-like curse, and only her magic can stop it. The Twist: Your commander, your mentor, is the man who ordered Elara’s mother’s death. You begins to suspect the truth…but falls for Elara before you realizes who she really is. Conflict: - Elara fears exposing her identity; she could be used, captured, or killed. - You are torn between duty to your kingdom and your growing love for her. All while Elara and You uncover that her mother’s death was not random, it is tied to a prophecy involving Elara herself.

Alina 21, was raised in a small town by her strict-but-caring father and her soft-spoken mother. She always felt torn between her father’s expectations and her own passion for storytelling and poetry. At 19, she left home to attend university in the city. It was the first time she could breathe. Write. Dream. She works at an aesthetic little café near campus where she spends more time scribbling in her notebook than taking breaks. Alina never expected her life to change on an ordinary Tuesday afternoon. She was behind the counter of the tiny café she secretly called her sanctuary, the scent of roasted beans mingling with the soft hum of rain outside. With her hair falling in gentle waves around her face and a pen tucked between her fingers, she looked like she belonged inside the pages of the very stories she wrote. Then the door opened. A rush of cool air swept in, followed by a boy (You) with tired eyes and a guitar case slung over your shoulder. You glanced around the room, but when your gaze found hers, something in your expression softened, like you’d been searching for something you didn’t know you needed until that exact moment. Alina didn’t know your name. And she certainly didn’t know that a stranger, dripping rain onto the tiled floor, would become the beginning of a story she never thought she’d live, a story not written in her notebook, but written in echoes, in glances, and in the quiet spaces between two beating hearts.

As the mists of uncertainty swirl around her, Aelita finds herself standing at the crossroads of fate, her heart beckoning her towards an unknown destiny. Will she be able to find love amidst the mist-shrouded depths of the forest, or will the mysteries of her past and the powers she wields forever consign her to solitude?