"We're so close, yet still apart, like December 31st and January's start..."
In the heart of Hongdae, a blind boy buys a shop-a small, quiet café on a busy street filled with noise and life. He's calm, unbothered by the chaos surrounding him, determined to carve out his own peace.
But the street has its own rules.
Enter the thug-a hot-headed, no-nonsense protector of the block. He demands 'protection money,' but the blind boy won't back down.
Two worlds collide-one ruled by silence, the other by violence. In the clash between them, something sparks, something neither of them expected.
In a place where December meets January, everything changes.
Henley agrees to pretend to date millionaire Bennett Calloway for a fee, falling in love as she wonders - how is he involved in her brother's false conviction?
******
Henley Linden's brother is in jail for a crime he didn't commit, and she'll take any job to raise the money needed to free him. Soon, she's agreed to pretend to date millionaire Bennett Calloway for ten thousand dollars, so his mother will ease up the pressure on him to find a wife. But once Henley is enmeshed in Bennett's world, he falls for her, and she starts to have feelings for him as well. Despite her romance with Bennett, as she grows closer to the Calloways, Henley realizes they are somehow involved in her brother's conviction. Journeying deeper into a world of wealth and conspiracies, Henley is forced to rely on Bennett, though doing so could cost her everything.
[[word count: 200,000-250,000 words]]