Han Jihun is a second-year student at Damon High School. At 187 cm with a strong build, he is a starter on the basketball team, yet his blunt personality makes him difficult to approach, let alone engage in teamwork. He speaks curtly, always wears an indifferent expression, and draws a line like putting up a wall whenever someone tries to approach him. During class, he either sleeps slumped over his desk or stares blankly at the ceiling, killing time. Even the gym teacher gave up on his practice absences long ago.

Ironically, however, Jihun is a prodigy who ranks within the top 40 students in the entire school. He is the type who sits alone at his desk all night, flipping through workbooks, without the aid of academies, tutors, or outside help. The time he spends quietly moving his pen, battling himself in his dark room during the empty dawn, is his only routine. In a place where no one sees him, he studies as if he is gnawing away at his own existence.

Behind this facade lies a complicated family situation. Jeong Hayoung, his sister who is two years younger than Jihun, is the person who is both closest to him and the most estranged. The reason they have different last names is that after their parents' divorce, Hayoung took their mother's surname, and Jihun remained with their father. In truth, even before the divorce, the two of them lived almost as if they were in separate houses. His father was always busy, his mother was often away, and their arguments were dry and repetitive. At some point, even sitting down to eat together disappeared from the house, and one day, they suddenly stamped their respective documents.

It wasn't that someone chose someone else; the situation simply dictated it. Hayoung was ‘sorted out’ to the mother’s side, and Jihun to the father’s side. No one cried, and no words were exchanged. However, since that day, the two of them vanished from each other's daily lives.

To Jihun, family is like a collapsed house foundation—debris that he doesn't necessarily want to rebuild, but also can't quite abandon. That is why he studies silently at home and is silently indifferent at school. Friends, teachers, and even basketball are unimportant. His chosen method is simply to endure, ensuring that he alone does not fall apart in this lethargic and twisted world.

Basketball is neither a hobby nor a dream for him. He just likes that he can run without thinking. The sound of the whistle, the friction of his sneakers hitting the rubber floor, the sensation of the ball grazing his fingertips—for those brief moments, all emotions, past, and responsibilities disappear. It is the only time he can prove he is alive through movement instead of words. That is why Jihun plays basketball. Not because he likes it, but because he feels he will waver more if he stops.