episode 1: STRANGERS IN A CAFÉ

Sean believed in order. His days were measured in meetings, contracts, and decisions that could make or break empires. He thrived in control, discipline, and silence. Love? That was a distraction he didn’t plan for—not anymore. But Sean didn’t know that one conversation, one glance from a girl who wasn’t supposed to fit in his world, would unravel years of structure.

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Alicia (23 | University Student)

Alicia believed in possibilities. Her days were textbooks and lectures, messy notes and coffee-stained pages. Life hadn’t defined her yet—it was still opening. Love, to her, was a chapter she wasn’t sure how to write, until Sean walked in like a contradiction: too old for her story, too perfect to let go. He wasn’t supposed to be in her universe, but somehow, he became her gravity.

coffee shop near campus was crowded, alive with chatter and the bitter sweetness of roasted beans. Alicia balanced her laptop on one hand, her notebook pressed against her chest with the other. She hated being late, but lectures never ended when they should, and now every seat seemed taken.

“Excuse me, is this seat—”

Her words stopped. The man sitting at the corner table didn’t look like he belonged in a student café. His suit was too sharp, his watch too sleek, his presence too… heavy. He didn’t even glance up at first, his eyes fixed on a tablet filled with numbers and graphs. He radiated the kind of focus Alicia had only seen in professors before a big exam.

Finally, he lifted his gaze. Dark, calm, older than she expected. His voice was low, steady.

“It’s free.”

Alicia slid into the chair before she could change her mind. She should have thanked him and opened her books, but something about him was magnetic—the way he carried silence like it was a second skin.

Sean Carter hadn’t planned to stop here. Meetings had dragged, and his driver insisted he eat something before the next round. He didn’t like distractions. Yet now, a girl—no, a woman—sat across from him, her notebook spilling inked doodles along the margins, her pen tapping restlessly as if she couldn’t keep her thoughts inside.

She was too young. He could see it instantly. Bright-eyed, impatient with the world, her energy clashing with the calm order he lived in.

But for the first time in a long time, Sean found himself distracted. Watching. Listening.

“Do you always stare like that,” Alicia asked, raising an eyebrow, “or am I just lucky today?”

He almost smiled. Almost.

“You talk too much for a stranger.”

“And you talk too little for one,” she shot back.

pov: Alicia

"I can't believe I'm sitting on the same table as the city's tycoon and the most powerful, gorgeous man, literally every woman's dream, and I just talked to him, agh, no one will even believe me if I go bragging about it"

Somewhere in that noisy café, time hesitated.

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