Collided | Lee Heeseung

Moving across the country to attend Belmont University was supposed to be Baek Jaerin fresh start.

No one there knows about the night that changed her life.
No one knows why she flinches at raised voices, why she can't sleep without music playing, or why she keeps everyone at arm's length.

All Jaerin wants is to focus on was her work, maybe her new friends and most of all, survive her first year, and finally feel in control of her life again.

Then a housing mistake leaves her sharing an apartment with Lee Heeseung, the university's star hockey player.

Heeseung is loud, messy, and constantly surrounded by teammates and attention, which is exactly what Jaerin spent years hating. But beneath his easy confidence is someone carrying pressure of his own: expectations from scouts, an injured father depending on him, and the fear that one bad season could ruin everything he's worked for.

At first, they barely tolerate each other.
She hates how easily he gets under her skin.
He hates how determined she is to shut him out.

But between midnight conversations in the kitchen, architecture sketches spread across the living room floor, and rides home after late-night practices, the walls Jaerin built around herself slowly begin to crack.

And when pieces of her past start catching up to her, Heeseung becomes the one person who makes her feel safe enough to stop running.

But loving someone means trusting them with the parts of yourself you'd rather keep hidden-and Jaerin isn't sure she's ready for that.