SERGIO RIJO
Can a place of healing exist on a foundation of lies?Chef Kang Ji-woo fled the corporate chill of Seoul for the quiet, salt-air sanctuary of Busan, pouring her wounded heart into a struggling cafe. She believes her new life is simple, built on the clean flavors of her dalgona coffee and the rhythm of the waves. But her hard-won peace is shattered by the arrival of the cafe’s silent, intensely private caretaker, Han Tae-joon.He is reserved, wounded, and handsome in a way that suggests a deep, hidden pain. Ji-woo mistakes his sadness for loneliness, insisting on feeding him her comforting dishes. Their relationship grows over shared meals and quiet talks, blurring the line between landlord/tenant and something much deeper. Tae-joon, the disgraced heir to a powerful Seoul architecture firm, desperately clings to his simple alias, knowing the truth about his past-a catastrophic building collapse and a family legacy of guilt-would shatter her trust.As the autumn leaves fall, bringing nostalgia and the certainty of change, their fragile, slow-burn connection is threatened by the sudden appearance of his corporate rival. When Tae-joon is forced to run from his past, Ji-woo makes a devastating discovery: his family’s architectural failure is directly tied to the tragedy that scarred her own life.Suddenly, their small cafe doesn’t feel like a sanctuary; it feels like ground zero. Ji-woo must decide if she can forgive the betrayal of his secret, or if the love she found is too deeply flawed by the lies and the cruel demands of fate. Can two broken people heal each other when their foundation is built on the ruins of a shared, tragic past?
