The Long Way Back Home || Heejake

Sim Jaeyun had once been everything warm. Bright laughter, soft smiles, and a heart too kind for the world he was born into. After losing his father, he found a new family when his mother remarried Choi Beomseok, a man who loved him as his own son and became the only father Jaeyun ever needed.

Until one unfortunate night changed everything.

At twenty two, after a tragic car accident took his mother's life, Jaeyun woke up without memories and a heart that no longer felt the same. The boy who once carried light in his eyes was gone. In his place stood someone colder, sharper, someone who no longer wanted to be Jaeyun at all.

Now, at twenty seven, he goes by Jake.

Detached, distant, and impossible to read, Jake keeps the world at arm's length. The only people he allows close are his father and the two friends, Sunoo and Sunghoon. Everyone else? He keeps them away.

Especially Lee Heeseung.

Heeseung doesn't understand it. Five years ago, they were close. Close enough that Heeseung believed nothing could ever break what they had. But after the accident, Jake became someone else entirely. Someone who looked at him like a stranger. Someone who refused every attempt to get near him.

And the more Heeseung tried, the more Jake pushed him away. It hurt. It always hurt.
No matter how much Heeseung searched for answers, Jake gave him none.

In front of everyone else, Jake remains perfectly composed, respectful, untouchable. But when it comes to Heeseung, the tension between them is sharper than hatred and heavier than silence. He calls him by his full name now, or Mr. Lee when business demands it, as if the warmth they once shared had never existed.

But when threats begin circling both the Sim and Lee families, forcing them into dangerous waters, an unexpected solution is needed.

A merger.

A marriage.

And the most shocking part?

Jake himself is the one who suggests marrying Lee Heeseung.