writtenbytide
In a near-future Thailand devastated by a mysterious global cataclysm, the skies have turned a permanent shade of ash and the land is fractured into lawless zones ruled by roaming militias and ancient beliefs reborn. Amidst the chaos, two very different young women are drawn together by fate, secrets, and a single strand of white jasmine.
Sonya, a former medical student hardened by grief and survival, roams the ruined countryside searching for her missing sister. Haunted by guilt and carrying a faded photograph of better days, her only solace is the memory of soft laughter under a jasmine tree in their childhood garden.
Once a street-smart girl scraping by in the back alleys of a Bangkok slum, Lookmhee grew up knowing the cruelty of power, privilege, and empty promises. When the disaster struck, Lookmhee didn't cry. She just kept walking. With no one left to hurt her, the end of the world felt like a kind of peace. Lookmhee believes she has no room for love, until Sonya crashes into her life.
As trust grows between them in the scorched remnants of the world, the pair uncovers a conspiracy tied to the origins of the disaster-one that links their families in ways they never imagined. Together, they must navigate deadly terrain and their own blooming feelings in a world where tenderness seems like a dangerous luxury.
But hope-like jasmine-blooms even in ashes.