Shrinking Distance
880 Words
Sarah gripped the steering wheel as she drove through the afternoon traffic, her eyes focused ahead but her mind drifting somewhere she could not fully control.
Leeore.
The name surfaced again, quiet but persistent, like something her thoughts refused to file away properly.
By the time she reached home, the gate was already slightly open. Before she could even switch off the engine properly, the front door swung wide.
“Sarah!”
Aria rushed out, full energy, phone in hand, eyes bright with excitement.
Sarah frowned slightly. “What now?”
Aria leaned closer to the car window. “You missed it. Channel 7. Live interview. The CEO everyone’s talking about. Leeore.”
Sarah paused as she unbuckled her seatbelt. “Leeore?”
Aria nodded quickly. “Yes, Leeore, the CEO of that engineering firm. He was insane. So calm. So sharp. Like nothing can shake him.”
Sarah stepped out slowly. “Mm.”
Aria immediately continued, not giving her space to escape the topic. “He answered everything like it was nothing. Success, business growth, everything. But then the interviewer tried to ask something personal.”
Sarah walked toward the house. “And?”
Aria followed right behind her. “About someone special. And Leeore just shut it down. No hesitation. No emotion. Just said he prefers to keep his personal life private.”
Sarah’s expression stayed neutral. “That’s normal for public figures.”
Aria scoffed. “Normal? Sarah, this is Leeore. People are saying he’s basically untouchable when it comes to emotions. Like there’s something behind him nobody knows.”
Sarah unlocked the door and stepped inside. “People always say things.”
Aria lowered her voice slightly, more dramatic now. “But the way they described him… it felt like there’s a story he’s not telling. Like something he’s been carrying for a long time.”
Sarah paused for half a second.
Then continued walking.
Aria noticed but kept going. “And he didn’t even look uncomfortable. Just… distant. Controlled. Like he’s used to hiding things.”
Sarah finally set her bag down. “It’s just an interview, Aria.”
Aria raised an eyebrow. “You’re really not curious?”
Sarah shook her head lightly. “Not really.”
But as she walked toward the stairs, her pace slowed slightly.
Leeore.
A CEO now.
Someone the world watched.
Someone who apparently could silence a room without raising his voice.
She had not seen the interview. Not a single second of it.
Yet somehow, hearing it described felt heavier than it should have.
Behind her, Aria was still talking, but Sarah had already started climbing the stairs.
And somewhere in the quiet of her thoughts, the name Leeore did not feel like just news anymore.
It felt like something she had only just started to understand, even without seeing it.
Sarah climbed the stairs slowly, her hand trailing lightly on the railing. Aria’s voice was still echoing faintly downstairs, something about Leeore, about the interview, about how the CEO had looked so untouchable on screen.
But Sarah did not stop to listen anymore.
Inside her room, she closed the door gently behind her.
The silence felt heavier here.
She set her bag down on the chair and stood there for a moment, unsure what to do with herself. Her phone lay on the bed, screen dark. One tap away from watching the interview everyone was talking about.
Leeore.
The name surfaced again in her mind, quieter now, but sharper.
She walked toward the bed and picked up her phone. Her thumb hovered over the video link Aria had probably already sent in the family group chat. The thumbnail showed him in a suit, composed, successful, untouchable.
She stared at it for a long moment.
Then locked the screen.
“No,” she whispered to herself.
She placed the phone face down.
Why should she watch it anyway?
It was just an interview. A successful CEO answering questions he had probably answered a hundred times before. Nothing she needed to see.
Still, her thoughts refused to settle.
Leeore was not the boy from memory anymore. He was a man now. A CEO. Someone who probably lived in a completely different world. Meetings, contracts, luxury offices, people who understood his level of success.
People like him did not stay the same.
They moved forward. They built lives. They got married.
That thought slipped in quietly, uninvited, and stayed longer than she wanted it to.
Maybe he is married now.
To someone polished. Wealthy. Someone who matched his world perfectly. Someone who understood the language of success without needing it translated.
Sarah turned away from the bed and walked toward the window.
Outside, the street was ordinary. People passing, motorcycles buzzing, life continuing as if nothing had shifted.
But inside her mind, something felt slightly off balance.
She crossed her arms loosely, watching the movement outside.
She exhaled slowly.
“Good for him,” she said softly, though her voice lacked certainty.
But even as she said it, her reflection in the window looked distracted.
Like part of her was still standing in a classroom long ago.
And another part had just realized that some names, even after years, never really leave the air once they are spoken again.
- Writer
