Theme song:"Where's My Love by SYML(Acoustic)"
"Some hearts aren't meant to be kept. Only held."
— Mira
---
Elian started showing up more often after that day at the lake.
Sometimes with flowers—small ones, tucked shyly into his coat pocket. Sometimes with nothing but the soft gravity of his presence, like he knew I didn't need anything else.
He never called first. He didn't have to.
We became a rhythm. A quiet one.
He'd wait for me after shifts. Walk me home like we were kids in a love song.
We never said what this was. But it was enough to drown in.
---
One night, the power went out in my apartment.
The city was blanketed in black, flickers of candles in windows like silent stars.
Elian was already there. He'd brought takeout and that crooked smile that always made my throat catch.
"I always wanted to have a blackout date," he said, setting food on the counter.
"A what?" I laughed.
"You know, no lights. Just candles and conversations. Like the old days."
We lit two candles and sat cross-legged on the floor, eating noodles and telling stories.
He told me about the time he broke his arm trying to impress his cousin by jumping off a roof.
I told him about the night I got locked in the café pantry for two hours with nothing but coffee beans and my phone at 4%.
We laughed until my sides ached.
And then, without warning, the laughter died.
"Elian," I whispered, "do you ever think about how unfair this is?"
He didn't answer right away.
"I think about it all the time," he said.
"But then I remember... if none of this had happened, I wouldn't have met you."
My heart broke for the thousandth time.
He made it so easy to forget he was sick.
Until he coughed. That dry, cracking sound that never seemed to leave him now.
He turned away quickly, pressing his hand to his mouth.
When he pulled it back, I saw it.
The red.
I froze.
He saw me looking and tried to smile like it was nothing.
But we both knew it wasn't.
"Elian…"
"I'm okay," he lied. "I just… pushed a little too hard today."
I reached for his hand.
"You don't have to lie to me."
He looked away. "I know."
---
That night, he fell asleep on my couch.
I sat beside him and watched him breathe, chest rising and falling like waves too stubborn to crash.
I didn't know how many nights we had left.
But I swore I'd stay for every single one of them.
Even if it shattered me.