The Story
One lantern. One promise. Seventeen years.
A slow-burn K-pop romance about the girl the whole world watches, and the one person who ever really saw her.
The Idol I Loved First
They were kids at a lantern festival in Seoul: an American boy with a camera, and a Korean girl who believed in wishes. They sent one into the sky together, made a promise to find each other again, and said goodbye.
Seventeen years later, Colin Crane is a burnt-out photographer in Boston who hasn’t taken a picture in years. Eun-ji is a solo idol on the eve of a comeback world tour, smiling until her face hurts for a crowd that knows her by another name.
Then he takes a job he doesn’t want, shooting a six-month tour for a pop star he has never heard of.
In an industry that owns everything about her, including who she is allowed to love, finding each other again might be the easy part.