Countdown to Love

Hoon’s world once revolved around the squeak of sneakers on hardwood and the roar of a crowd. His future was painted in the bright colors of a basketball star, a destiny forged through countless hours of practice. But that future is shattered by a single, misjudged step that leaves his ankle ruined and his dreams in ruin. Desperate and broken, Hoon’s life takes an even stranger turn when he begins to see a numerical timer emblazoned against the sky itself. Believing it to be a merciless countdown to his final day, he resigns himself to a life of quiet despair, waiting for the inevitable moment his numbers reach zero. Haunted by the impossible clock, Hoon drifts through his days, convinced he is the sole soul cursed with this knowledge. The crushing isolation of his countdown defines his existence, making the world feel like a distant and irrelevant stage. That all changes when he discovers that his aloof classmate, Haedam, is staring at the same celestial timer. The realization is both terrifying and exhilarating. No longer alone with his secret, Hoon is thrust into a new, unexplored territory of life and death. What does Haedam's ability mean? Is his own countdown truly a harbinger of death, or could it be a sign of something else entirely? The bond forged in their shared secret forces Hoon to reconsider the nature of his impending deadline, pushing him to ask the question he has been too afraid to voice: are we simply counting down to the end, or are we counting down to the beginning?