The sea had long gone silver.
Every lantern in the villa had burned low, but Yoon Ha-rin and Kang Jae-hyun still hadn't moved inside.
They sat on the veranda steps wrapped in one blanket, watching the faint shimmer of the horizon.
The rest of the house was silent — four parents asleep upstairs, leaving the night for them alone.
Ha-rin drew her knees up under the blanket.
"Do you think they'll ever stop teasing us?"
Jae-hyun smiled. "Not a chance. But at least they're teasing us together now."
"True." She glanced sideways. "Your mother winked at me before going to bed. I'm terrified."
He laughed quietly. "That means she's already planning the guest list."
Ha-rin groaned. "Why does love come with so much paperwork?"
"Because fate's an accountant," he said, and she burst out laughing again — the kind of laughter that slid easily into warmth.
---
Hours blurred.
They talked about everything — the river, the university fights, the years they'd lost, and the silly things they'd both done just to feel busy while pretending not to miss anyone.
Jae-hyun listened like each word was a treasure.
When she paused, he reached over, tracing her knuckles lightly.
"Sometimes," he said, "I still can't believe you're real."
"I was real even when you didn't remember me," she murmured.
"That's what makes it worse — all the time I wasted forgetting."
She shook her head. "If you'd remembered sooner, maybe we wouldn't have been ready. We had to grow into the people who could find each other again."
He smiled. "You always win the philosophical debates."
"Because I'm right," she said, grinning.
---
The wind picked up.
He pulled the blanket tighter around them until she was resting against his chest.
"Comfy?"
"Warm," she whispered.
"Stay like this."
"I wasn't planning to move."
"Good."
Silence again — but the kind that feels full, not empty.
After a while she said, "Tomorrow they'll all go back to their worlds."
He nodded. "And we'll go back to ours."
"Back to deadlines, meetings, trains…"
"…and the same arguments," he added.
Ha-rin smiled against his shoulder. "Promise you won't become Director Kang the moment we reach the city?"
He tilted her chin up gently. "Only if you promise not to hide behind Miss Yoon."
"Deal."
They sealed it with a quick kiss — soft, familiar, like punctuation at the end of a long sentence neither wanted to finish.
---
When the first light touched the water, Ha-rin blinked sleepily.
"We actually stayed up all night," she whispered.
Jae-hyun nodded. "Good. If we slept, we'd have missed this."
The sky over Aureum-ri was streaked with gold, the hills shimmering as if painted anew.
He looked at her, eyes full of something steady.
"This place gave me back everything I didn't know I'd lost," he said. "Including you."
She reached for his hand, threading her fingers through his.
"Then let's keep it — not the place, but the feeling."
"Every day?"
"Every tomorrow."
---
From upstairs came the faint sound of a kettle, followed by the cheerful voices of parents waking.
Ha-rin smiled. "They'll catch us out here again."
Jae-hyun squeezed her hand. "Then they'll know their plan worked."
And as the first morning rays broke across the veranda, the two of them sat quietly —
a pair of silhouettes wrapped in one blanket, still talking, still laughing,
as the world around them finally decided to start moving again.