BOUND BY A LOVE WE FORGOT

Some encounters feel ordinary.

Others feel like accidents.

And then there are meetings that feel like mistakes made by fate because once they happen, there is no going back.

You were late.

Again.

The college gates loomed ahead as you ran across the courtyard, bag slung over one shoulder, breath uneven. Morning lectures were already in session, and the campus buzzed with students moving in clusters—laughing, arguing, living lives that felt painfully normal.

Nothing about today felt special.

At least, not yet.

You slowed near the humanities block, fingers tightening around your notebook as a sudden, unexplainable heaviness settled in your chest.

It felt… strange.

Like the air had thickened.

You shook it off, telling yourself it was just anxiety. New semester. New people. New expectations. You took a step forward and collided into someone.

Hard.

Your notebook slipped from your hand, papers scattering across the floor.

“I— I’m so sorry!” you blurted out instantly, crouching down to gather the pages.

Silence answered you.

Not the awkward kind.

The unsettling kind.

You froze when a pair of hands reached down, helping you pick up the scattered sheets. Long fingers. Steady movements. There was something oddly familiar about the way he moved—like you had seen it before in a dream you couldn’t remember.

When you finally looked up, your breath caught.

He was staring at you.

Kim Taehyung.

The name alone carried weight in the college corridors. Everyone knew him the quiet rebel, the one who skipped classes yet topped exams, the boy who smiled rarely but, when he did, left chaos behind. Leather jacket. Dark eyes. An unreadable expression that made people curious and cautious all at once.

Bad boy, they called him.

But standing this close, the rumors felt… wrong.

His gaze wasn’t cold.

It was shaken.

For a split second, neither of you moved.

The world around you blurred, the noise of the campus fading into nothing but a dull hum. His eyes searched your face as if looking for something—something he had lost and wasn’t sure existed.

And then it happened.

A sharp ache bloomed in your chest.

You gasped softly, one hand instinctively pressing over your heart. Images flashed behind your eyes—firelight, stone walls, a crown gleaming under candlelight, a voice calling your name with desperation.

You staggered back.

“I—” Taehyung spoke at the same time, his voice low, rough, unfamiliar to his own ears.

His hand went to his temple, jaw tightening as if he, too, were fighting something unseen. A memory. A pain. A presence that made no sense.

For one terrifying moment, you thought you might collapse.

“I’m fine,” you lied quickly, grabbing your notebook from his hands. Your fingers brushed and electricity surged.

You both pulled back instantly.

Taehyung frowned, eyes darkening. “Do I… know you?”

The question hit harder than it should have.

“No,” you answered too fast. “We’ve never met.”

It was the truth.

And yet, it felt like a lie you had been telling for lifetimes.

He studied you, head tilted slightly, as if trying to place you in a memory that refused to surface. “That’s weird,” he muttered more to himself than to you.

“What is?”

“I feel like I’ve lost something,” he said quietly. “And you just reminded me of it.”

Your throat tightened.

“I should go,” you said, stepping back. “I’m late.”

Before he could reply, you turned and walked away, heart pounding violently against your ribs. You didn’t dare look back.

You didn’t see the way Taehyung stood frozen, eyes following you until you disappeared into the building. You didn’t hear him whisper your name—

a name he didn’t know how he knew.

And you didn’t realize this was the moment fate had been waiting for.

Because forgetting was never permanent.

And love

no matter how deeply buried

always finds its way back.

💌 If you want to see what happens next… follow me on Wattpad to join this journey with Kim Taehyung and me. You won’t want to miss Chapter 2.