INTRODUCTION — WHEN SPRING RETURNS

In the heart of Seoul, where city lights blur into the soft pastel glow of youth, two lives grow side by side — one blooming loudly, the other quietly loving from the shadows.

Haeyoung Hong shines the way spring sunlight does. Bold, spirited, endlessly social, she laughs without hesitation and speaks without fear. She trips over her own feet, teases the people she loves, and lives as if the world has never once hurt her. To her classmates, she is warmth. To her teachers, she is trouble.
To Kim Junghan, she is home.

Junghan has been beside her since childhood — a quiet, gentle boy who hides more behind his smile than anyone knows. While Haeyoung faces the world with open arms, he survives it with silent endurance. A toxic mother, a broken past, and the heavy expectation of a family legacy sit on his shoulders long before he understands the word burden.
But none of it can stop the way he looks at Haeyoung: like she is the only safe thing in his world.

She never notices.
He never confesses.
And their high school years pass in stolen glances, playful arguments, sarcasm, and the kind of closeness that hurts simply because it means more to one than the other.

But life separates even the closest of childhood hearts.

When Haeyoung leaves Korea to chase her dreams abroad, she carries excitement.
Junghan carries ache.

As distance grows, their messages fade.
As years pass, their worlds change.
And when tragedy steals his father and guilt tightens his mother’s grip, Junghan falls into a loneliness deep enough to swallow him whole.

Yet he keeps moving.
Keeps enduring.
Keeps loving her in silence.

Seven years later, fate finally returns Haeyoung to Seoul — older, stronger, and unaware of the storm she is walking back into.
And she doesn’t know that the company she’s joining as an Art Director belongs to the boy she once left behind…

The boy who has spent half his life loving her.
The boy who has learned how to live without her.
The boy who still breaks at the sight of her name.

This is his story — a tale of longing that never faded, wounds that never healed, and a love that was never meant to disappear.

when spring returns
— a story of yearning, loss, sacrifice, and the quiet devotion of a boy who loved first… and waited longest.

I stayed seated after the bell rang today.


Everyone else left like the sound was freedom.


For me, it felt like something falling.


I don't remember the last time that word was true.


She always waits like she's angry at the world,


but the moment she sees me, her face changes.


I wanted to say everything hurts, all the time.


She told me not to hide things from her.


I didn't know how to explain that I'm not hiding.


I'm just… holding things together with both hands,


and if I open my mouth, something might fall apart.


So I told her I didn't want to talk there.


But close enough that I could feel her there.


The principal called me today about the trip.


She smiled when I said we're going together.


I never know how to respond without wanting too much.


That small shift in the air when he looked at her.


On the quiet street, she stopped me again.


She asked me to promise not to decide alone that she doesn't deserve to know.


I don't know how to tell her that the reason I stay silent


is because I don't want to deserve her.


She said it feels like I'm pushing her away.


I'm standing still and hoping she doesn't notice how tired I am.


She said she's been dragged into my life since she was five.


He said I don't have to be strong all the time.


I didn't tell him that if I stop being strong,


He left his hand on my shoulder longer than usual.


She said tomorrow. Canteen. No excuses.


I stared at my phone for a long time before replying.


1 -Junghan's diary (unread pages)