Kim Seungmin

• The Passing Glance • Seungmin lived his days as if they were identical copies, repeating endlessly. He would wake up, fulfill what was required of him, and return to his room, carrying a silence heavier than words. He was not unhappy in the obvious sense, yet he was not truly alive either. That day, he went out later than usual. He sat at an old train station, expecting no one, intending to go nowhere. He watched people leave, as if departure were a natural act… requiring no explanation. You sat across from him, unaware of his presence. You flipped through a small notebook, pausing at a page before moving on. This hesitation caught his attention, as if he saw himself in the movement of your hands. Your pen fell. He bent down and picked it up before you even thought of reaching for it. He handed it to you quietly: "You seem tired." You looked at him with mild surprise, then smiled faintly. "So do you." It was not a question, but an observation. And it made him fall silent. You spoke briefly, about waiting, about the paths we take without knowing why. You did not ask who he was, nor did he ask who you were. It was as if names were irrelevant. Before you rose to leave, you said: "Sometimes we don’t need someone to change our life… it’s enough for someone to remind us that feeling is still possible." You left before he could respond. Seungmin remained seated, staring at the pen in his hand, realizing too late that something within him had cracked… not sadness, but a frozen stillness. Since that day, his life did not change overnight. But he began noticing the light when entering a room. He began waiting for the train, truly. And for the first time in a long while, he felt that his presence was not a burden on the world. You were not a new beginning. You were a small deviation in a long path. But sometimes… that is enough to shift the direction of the light entirely..