The airport was loud in the way all airports were. Voices overlapping, announcements dissolving into static, footsteps dragging urgency across polished floors.
Yet inside the small ice cream shop tucked near Gate 47, there was a strange pocket of stillness.
Kang Min noticed that first.
Not the girl sitting across from him.
Not the melting edge of vanilla sliding down his cup.
Not even the way his fingers had subtly tightened around the plastic spoon the moment she walked in.
He instead noticed the silence.
Because it wasn't natural.
It was the kind of silence that existed only when two people were holding back everything they wanted to say.
Sasha Kim sat across from him, one leg crossed over the other, her posture effortless, composed.
Her strawberry ice cream remained untouched, the pink surface smooth as glass.
She hadn't taken a single bite.
"You still don't eat sweets first."
Kang Min said casually, breaking the silence.
"You always let it melt a little."
