TOO YOUNG TO FALL IN LOVE

Chapter Four

Falling asleep didn't come easy that night.

Every time my eyes , were shot he appears.

Not clearly.... But enough to make me unsettled.

The calmness of his voice.

The way he spoke my name like that wasn't the first time he ever called it.

Olenna.

My eyes snapped open again.

The silence was too loud almost pressing in on me from every corner.

I turned towards the direction of my phone.

3:00am.

A sigh escaped my lips as I tried to sit up to get into a comfortable sitting position. This was appalling. I had never lost sleep over something so......irrelevant.

My head smacked.

I felt a slight ache.

It started very recently.

I closed my eyes deeply.

And then.....

Buzz.

My eyes snapped open sharply.

The sound was from beside me.

It was my phone.

I paused for a moment. My heartbeat skipped.

I couldn't help but wonder who it could be at this hour.

Slowly......precisely..... I picked it up.

It was an unknown number.

I felt a strange feeling settling in my chest.

Uncertainty.

Confusion.

Hesitation.

Something much more I didn't want to name.

I answered.

".....Hello?"

No response.

Silence.

Not the usual kind.

Not the server problem.

This felt....intentional.

It felt like there was someone else at the other end of the call just there..... listening breathing but decided not to speak.

I tightened my grip on the phone.

"Hello?" I made my voice firmer this time.

For a brief second I thought I heard something.

More like a whisper.

A faint sound.

Sounded like a breath.

Or rather a sigh.

And then....

"Olenna".

My body melted.

My teeth grinned.

The voice was Calm. Controlled. Familiar.

My heart raced violently against my chest.

".... Raymond?" I whispered, uncertain whether I was asking or stating.

But I got no response.

Only silence.

And then....

The call got disconnected.

I dropped the phone slowly, doing nothing just staring at the screen.

The call only lasted for seven seconds.

That was all it took to completely unravel whatever sense of humility I had left.

“This isn’t real…” I muttered, shaking my head.

But unfortunately it was.

The call log was clear evidence.

But still.....it made no sense.

How did he get my contact?

What prompted him to call… and still nothing?

And why did it feel like… that wasn’t the first time he had said my name?

I felt a sharp pain pulse through my head.

I winced, clinching my fingers tightly together.

Not now.

Please, not now.

The room seemed to tilt slightly.

My sight blurred at the edges.

And in a split second....

I saw him.

Standing at the far end of my room.

Watching.

My breath caught in my throat.

I blinked

And he wasn't there anymore.

The room felt empty again.

Completely empty.

I swallowed in my breath....forcing myself to stay grounded.

“This is just the migraines,” I whispered. “Just the migraines…”

But that didn’t even sound convincing anymore.

It was sunrise again.

Or maybe I never really had a good sleep.

I went through my routine as usual brushing my teeth. getting dressed. tying my hair back. All without truly being consciously attentive.

My mind was still stuck on last night.

On that call.

By the time I got back to college, the atmosphere felt… different.

Livelier.

More restless.

Clusters of students stood around talking in excitement . Their voices overlapped in bursts of laughter and disbelief.

I didn’t need to ask what it was about.

“You didn't know?!” Lizzy’s voice cut through the noise as she rushed toward me, grabbing my arm before I could even exchange pleasantries.

I blinked, slightly taken aback.

“Know what exactly?”

Her eyes widened.

“Raymond Sneils is still around!”

My chest tightened.

“What do you mean?”

I mean, "she said breathlessly" he didn’t leave immediately after the event yesterday. He apparently has some kind of extended engagement with the school or some of that sort!"

I didn't give a response.

I didn’t trust my voice.

“Can you imagine?” she continued. “He could be anywhere on campus right now!”

Anywhere.

Her statement echoed in my mind.

I swallowed.

“Lizzy, I....”

“Olenna.”

My name.

Again.

Was mentioned.

But this time… not in my head.

Not on a call.

My entire body went still.

Slowly. almost reluctantly. I turned.

And there he was.

Standing a few steps behind us.

As composed as ever.

As if he hadn’t disrupted my entire night with a seven-second phone call.

As if he hadn’t just said my name like it belonged to him.

Lizzy’s grip on my arm tightened.

“Oh my God…” she whispered. “That’s him.”

I already knew.

My gaze locked with his.

And just like before

Everything else blurred out.

The noise.

The people.

The world.

Gone.

For a moment, neither of us spoke.

Then slowly he moved closer

"I believed I’d find you,” he said.

My heart let me down again pounding too fast, too loud. It felt like I just finished from the racing track of about one thousand metres.

“Find me?” I whispered...my voice was quieter than I expected.

A faint smile appeared on his lips.

“Yes.”

There was something in his tone this time.

Something… deliberate.

Intentional.

“Why?” I asked before i realised it.

For a brief second, his expression shifted a bit.

Like he was reminiscing what to say.

“Because,” he gave a calm response “I don’t believe in coincidences.”

My breath caught.

“That’s funny,” I said, trying to keep myself steady “Because I do.”

His eyes keyed onto mine.

“Do you?”

There was a pause.

Heavy.

Charged.

And then

“Walk with me,” he said.

It wasn’t a command.

But it didn’t sound like a request either.

I hesitated. Wanting to disperse.

Everything in me told me to say no.

To turn around.

To leave and forget everything just like I had planned the night before.

But my feet wouldn't agree with me.

And somehow. In one way or another.

I found myself walking beside him.

We moved away from the crowd, the noise gradually fading into the background.

Neither of us said anything at first.

The silence between us wasn’t empty.

It was… filled with something unspoken. Hidden desire.

“You barely slept,” he said suddenly.

I stopped.

“What?”

He stared at me briefly.

“It shows.”

A flicker of irritation rose in me.

“You know nothing about me.”

He paused on his movements too.

Then turned fully to face me.

“Don’t I?”

The question lingered between us.

Unsettling.

“You called me last night,” I said. With my voice sharper now.

There was no essence of pretending.

His gaze didn’t waver.

“Yes.”

My breath hitched.

“Why?”

A pause.

Then....

“I wanted to be certain.”

"Certain?"

“Certain of what?”

His eyes softened a bit but it only made things more confusing.

“That it wasn’t just me.”

My heart skipped.

“What wasn’t just you?” I asked, barely above a whisper.

He took a step closer.

Not too close.

Just enough.

“That moment,” he said. “When you look at me.”

The world tilted again.

Not physically.

But something within me shifted.

“You felt it too,” he added quietly.

It wasn’t a question.

And that terrified me.

Because I had no answer.

I swallowed, forcing myself to step back.

“This is… this is crazy,” I said. “You don’t even know me.”

A faint smile touched his lips again.

“Then let me.”

The simplicity of it caught me off guard.

No arrogance.

No pressure.

Just certainty.

And that somehow made it even harder to resist.

I shook my head lightly, trying to regain control.

“I should go,” I said.

But my feet still wouldn't move.

Again.

His gaze fixed on me for a moment longer.

Then he nodded.

“Alright.”

Relief washed over me briefly, fleeting.

“But this isn’t over, Olenna.”

My heart was still again.

I looked up at him.

And something in his expression told me

He was intentional about what he said.

As I walked away, I could feel it.

That same strange pull.

That same unexplainable connection.

And no matter how much I tried to convince myself otherwise…

I knew one thing.

This wasn’t just a coincidence.

Not anymore.