Chapter 1: Fading Footsteps, Lingering Echoes
The days after I left the school blurred into each other like water-colour on paper, soft and bittersweet.
No more familiar glimpses of her figure patrolling the hallways.
No more casual waves across crowded corridors.
No more moments of finding her by pure accident… or maybe by the quiet wish of my heart.
The building that once held our laughter now stood only in my memories, a place unreachable yet unforgettable.
But even though the footsteps I left behind had long faded from those hallways, an echo remained — an echo that lived in the small glowing screen in my hand.
A message from her would pop up once in a while — simple, casual… yet heavy with warmth.
“Hey, how are you holding up?”
It was never anything grand, never long paragraphs, but somehow those short words carried the strength to hold my heart together.
Across the distance, across different routines and separate days, she still reached out.
And every time she did, it was like the soft brush of a hand across a tired shoulder, reminding me that even though we walked different roads now, we hadn’t truly let go.
I found myself checking my phone sometimes, almost out of habit — hoping for her name to light up the screen.
And even when it didn’t, it was enough just knowing that somewhere out there, she still thought of me too.
We had promised, after all — even if the seasons changed, even if our skies looked a little different — we would still stay connected.
And somehow, even as time tiptoed on,
that silent promise clung to my heart…
like a letter carried by the wind, waiting for the day it finally reaches the hands it was always meant for.
