He was SM Entertainment's newest star. An 18-year-old Japanese rookie known for his incredible dance skills, cold visuals, and calm personality on stage. She was already one of K-pop's biggest idols. Kim Minjeong. Winter of aespa. At first, they were nothing more than senior and junior artists sharing the same company. A greeting in the hallway. A conversation after practice. A dance challenge. A friendship. But in an industry where every camera is watching and every rumor spreads like wildfire, getting close to someone can be dangerous. Especially when that someone slowly becomes the most important person in your life. A semi-realistic idol romance featuring multiple POVs, SM family interactions, secret relationships, career growth, friendship, and the journey from strangers to something much more. ❄ Slow Burn ❄ Friends to Lovers ❄ Secret Relationship ❄ Multiple POVs ❄ Idol Life ❄ Winter x Male Reader

Eight years ago, two children made a promise on the rooftop of a quiet apartment building. If we ever get separated... we'll become friends again. Life had other plans. After moving overseas as a child, Y/N returns to Seoul with a university degree, empty savings, and no luck finding work. Every rejection makes him wonder if coming back was the right decision. One evening, while walking home beneath the city lights, he glances up at a massive billboard featuring aespa's leader, Karina. For just a moment... Her face feels familiar. A forgotten rooftop. A child's laughter. A promise he can't remember making. He dismisses it as déjà vu. Karina never forgot him. The only problem is... He no longer remembers her. As fate slowly brings their lives together again, long-buried memories begin to surface, revealing a childhood neither of them truly left behind. Sometimes the heart remembers long before the mind does.

Every morning for eleven years, Ninomae Y/N waited outside the same house. Every morning, Aeri was late. They walked to school together, shared dreams about the future, and promised that no matter where life took them, they would never forget each other. Then she left Japan to become a trainee in Korea. Seven years later, Aeri is known around the world as Giselle, a member of aespa. Y/N has built a completely different life of his own. By day, he is an automotive engineer. By night, he is Phantom-the undefeated driver behind Japan's most legendary white Mazda RX-7. During aespa's world tour, an unexpected stop at one of Japan's largest car meets brings their worlds crashing together. She recognizes him immediately. He only sees one of the world's biggest idols. After all... How could Giselle possibly be the same girl who used to walk beside him every morning? Some promises don't fade with time. They simply wait for the right road to bring two people home.

When South Korea's most acclaimed young actor, Y/N, and the nation's top idol, aespa's Karina, are cast as co-leads in a massive tvN prestige romance drama, the internet collectively loses its mind. To the public, it's a brilliant crossover pairing guaranteed to sweep the ratings. To the production crew, their on-screen chemistry is so intense and visceral that it feels entirely unscripted. But when the cameras stop rolling, the temperature on set drops to absolute zero. What the public, the paparazzi, and their own friends don't know is that Y/N and Yoo Jimin share a deeply buried history. Eight years ago, they were inseparable best friends in the quiet suburbs of Bundang-until a single, panicked phone call on the eve of her SM Entertainment audition destroyed everything. He said something unforgivable. She built an empire out of spite. They haven't spoken a single word to each other since. Now, trapped in a relentless filming schedule that demands whispered confessions, longing gazes, and romantic blocking, they are forced to confront the wreckage of their past. As the undeniable tension between them begins to blur the line between performance and reality, Y/N must figure out how to apologize to a woman who refuses to look at him, and Karina must decide if her eight-year grudge is a shield protecting her heart-or the only thing keeping her from the one person who truly knows her. They say they have no chemistry. But lying to the cameras is easy; lying to themselves might be impossible.

College was meant for people who weren't sure what they wanted to do in the future but had an idea of what they wanted, but for Park Y/N, college was just something to keep himself busy and away from his parents and overly happy sisters who spoil you more than you would like. He didn't care much about going to school or doing anything afterward. He was just going to produce and write music. But it was a good distraction and a way for him to be alone with his friends. Yu Jimin, also known as Karina, was known to be the kindest person on campus, always the first to help. When she noticed someone in need or when she noticed someone being picked on, she was quick to come to that person's aid. It also didn't help that she was so gorgeous, she was practically perfect, and everyone loved her. Everyone but Y/N; it was not that he hated her or anything. He just found her annoying. He always thought that her kindness was just some fake facade, and she wasn't really like that. At least, that is what he wanted to believe, but when they were assigned to work together as partners on a project in culinary arts, his perspective on her was quick to change. book 1 of caramel series

At seventeen, the system decided he wasn't good enough. After three brutal years as a trainee at JYP Entertainment, Y/N packed his bags, flew back to Chicago, and spent the next decade pretending Seoul never happened. He rebuilt his life from the ground up, becoming one of the industry's most respected vocal producers. He made his peace with the past. He just never went back to the company that broke his heart. Until now. Hired as a vocal consultant for TWICE's highly anticipated new album, Y/N returns to a brand-new JYP headquarters. He prepares himself for the ghosts of his past, only to find the old building where he suffered has been demolished. The cramped hallways, the terrifying evaluations, the midnight piano sessions-all gone. The only thing that remains from his trainee days is the woman standing on the other side of the vocal booth glass: Park Jihyo. For ten years, they have lived on opposite sides of an ocean. She is the titan who survived the machine to lead the nation's biggest girl group; he is the boy who left without saying goodbye. But as professional boundaries begin to blur in the quiet intimacy of the recording studio, Y/N is forced to confront the gap between the girl he left behind and the woman she has become. Refrain is a slow-burn story about the weight of lost time, the silence we leave behind, and what happens when two people who survived the exact same system finally stop running.

A misunderstanding born of silence turns into a bridge of unexpected friendship when the members of IVE discover that their "rude" neighbor isn't ignoring them-he simply can't hear them.

Every time I pull away, I can't seem to avoid getting closer to you. Lee Y/N is a mystery-even to his own team. A relief pitcher who rarely practices, rarely plays, and never stays. He hides everything inside: his past, his limits, his wanting. Especially his wanting. Karina is known by the world. The face, the voice, the performance perfected. But behind the idol, there's someone who recognizes a mask when she sees one-because she wears one too. How would their orbits collide? One ceremonial pitch. One perfect throw hidden behind a careless one. One man who leaves before he can be left. She should forget him. He makes sure of it. She doesn't. And Y/N, who spent years learning how to disappear, finally meets someone who refuses to let him. A story about: the courage to stay and accept, even when you know the cost. Content Warning: Medical condition, anxiety, childhood trauma, discussions of mortality

Y/N never expected becoming friends with Giselle would eventually lead to him becoming a familiar face around aespa. At first, Karina barely thinks anything of him. He's just Giselle's friend-the guy who somehow fits into their chaotic group without trying too hard. But somewhere between late-night conversations, convenience-store runs, shared meals, and countless hours spent together, something begins to change. Karina starts looking forward to seeing him. She smiles a little more when he's around. She remembers the smallest things he tells her. Somehow, she always ends up sitting beside him, and somehow, the other members always seem to notice. Everyone notices. Everyone except Y/N. While Giselle, Winter, and Ningning slowly become convinced that their leader has developed a serious crush, Karina does everything she can to deny it. But beneath the teasing and comedy is something more complicated: Y/N has become one of the few people who makes her feel like she doesn't have to be Karina all the time. She can simply be Jimin. And as their friendship grows into something neither of them expected, Y/N eventually has to confront a possibility he never considered-that the person he's been slowly falling for may have been falling for him all along. But realizing they love each other is only the beginning. Because loving someone is simple. Building a life around that love, especially when one of you belongs to the public, is much harder.

Y/N had once been the kind of person who filled every room he walked into. Energetic, competitive, loud when he was comfortable, and always moving, he seemed almost impossible to slow down. But life in the entertainment industry changed him. After years of criticism, hate, and having every little part of his personality judged, Y/N learned to become quieter. More careful. More mature than anyone his age expected him to be. Now, at twenty-one, he is one of the newest members of SM Entertainment's rising boy group, NOVA9. On camera, he's confident, handsome, and effortlessly charismatic. Off camera, he keeps most of himself behind a carefully built wall. Then there's Giselle. To the world, she's the charismatic member of aespa. To the people closest to her, she's Aeri. When aespa and NOVA9 begin crossing paths, Aeri finds herself drawn to the quiet rookie who seems completely different from the person his members describe from years ago. She doesn't try to change him. She doesn't try to bring back who he used to be. But somehow, every once in a while, she makes him laugh a little harder, smile a little more genuinely, or forget for a moment that he's supposed to be guarded. As their friendship grows through late-night conversations, shared meals, rehearsals, music, and the chaos of idol life, Y/N and Aeri slowly become the people each other can be when the cameras finally turn away. Because everyone knows Giselle. Everyone knows Y/N. But only a few people ever get to know Aeri and the person behind his smile.