PROLOGUE
806 Words
The rain had been falling for hours.
It came down in long silver lines that blurred the lights of the city, turning everything outside the balcony into a soft haze of reflections and distant noise. The night smelled of wet concrete and cold wind, and the quiet hum of traffic far below felt like the world continuing without them.
Sera stood near the balcony railing, her arms wrapped around herself as if she were trying to hold together pieces of something invisible. Her hair clung damply to her face, strands moving slightly whenever the wind brushed past. The rain had soaked through her clothes long ago, but she didn't seem to notice.
Ryan stood a few steps behind her.
He had been standing there for a while, unsure whether he should speak or simply stay the way he always had—close enough to catch her if she fell apart, but quiet enough not to make her feel watched.
Sera let out a shaky breath.
“You know what the worst part is?” she said softly, still looking at the rain instead of him.
Ryan didn’t answer immediately.
He had learned long ago that Sera sometimes asked questions she didn’t actually want answers to.
After a moment, he said gently, “What is it?”
Sera laughed under her breath, but there was no humor in it.
“I really believed it.”
Her fingers tightened slightly around the railing.
“I believed that if you loved someone enough… things would stay the same.”
Ryan felt something heavy settle in his chest.
For a few seconds, neither of them moved.
The rain grew louder.
Sera continued, her voice quieter now.
“People always talk about heartbreak like it happens in one moment. Like something suddenly shatters.” She shook her head slowly. “But that’s not how it works.”
Ryan saw the small tremor in her shoulders.
“It happens slowly,” she said. “Little by little. The way someone stops noticing the things they once loved about you. The way they stop listening when you try to tell them you're hurting.”
Her voice broke slightly on the last word.
Ryan looked down for a moment.
There were a thousand things he could say.
A thousand things he had wanted to say for years.
But he stayed silent.
Because this wasn’t about him.
Sera finally turned around.
Her eyes were red, though it was impossible to tell if it was from the rain or from crying.
She looked at Ryan for a long moment, as if trying to understand something she had never fully noticed before.
“Why are you still here?” she asked quietly.
The question hung between them.
Ryan didn’t look surprised.
He had expected that question eventually.
He shrugged slightly, his voice calm.
“Where else would I go?”
Sera frowned faintly, frustrated by the simplicity of his answer.
“That’s not what I meant.”
Ryan looked at her properly now.
For a second, something unspoken passed through his expression—something that carried years of patience, restraint, and feelings that had never found the courage to become words.
But it disappeared almost instantly.
“You looked like you needed someone to stand here with you,” he said.
Sera stared at him.
“You always do this,” she murmured.
“Do what?”
She hesitated before answering.
“You make it sound simple.”
Ryan leaned lightly against the wall beside the balcony door.
“Sometimes it is simple.”
Sera shook her head slowly.
“No,” she whispered. “It really isn’t.”
The rain continued to fall between them.
For a while, neither of them spoke again.
Then Sera’s voice returned, softer this time.
“Ryan… can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
She hesitated, as if the question itself scared her.
“When someone stays… even after seeing all the broken parts of you…” Her eyes flickered away from his. “Is that love?”
Ryan didn’t answer immediately.
The city lights flickered behind the rain.
Finally, he said quietly,
“Sometimes.”
Sera swallowed.
“And sometimes?”
Ryan looked at her with the same calm patience he had always shown.
“Sometimes it’s just someone who refuses to let you face the storm alone.”
For a moment, the world seemed very still.
Sera looked down at her hands.
Then she whispered something so softly it almost disappeared in the rain.
“I wish I had understood that sooner.”
Ryan didn’t ask what she meant.
Because deep down, he already knew.
And some truths were too fragile to be spoken aloud.
The rain kept falling.
And somewhere between destiny and desire, the story of how everything began waited quietly in the past.
- Writer
