INTRO
You always felt like the world was too big for yourself. Like you’d always be the person looking in through the window, pressing your hands to the glass but never quite stepping inside. Too soft, too much heart, too in love with all of it — the people, the moments, even the hurt.
And then there was Stefan.
Stefan was everything and nothing at once. A storm with eyes that flickered between calm seas and wild tempests. He smiled like he was apologizing, like he was warning you at the same time. But you, God, you didn’t care. You fell the way rain falls — unaware of the damage until it’s already flooding.
It started slow. It always does.
You met him at a party neither of you wanted to be at. You were leaning against the wall, a glass of something you’d forgotten in your hand, scanning the room but not really seeing anyone. Until you did. Until you saw him.
He wasn’t loud or commanding attention the way others were. He was... quiet, folded in on himself, carrying a weight you recognized without knowing the shape of it. Maybe that’s why you approached him. Maybe she saw her own loneliness reflected back.
—“You look like you’re somewhere else,” you murmured.
He glanced at you, curious. “Maybe I am.”
And that was the beginning.
They weren’t perfect. Not even close. But it felt like something sacred anyway. Nights spent driving nowhere, windows down, your laughter spilling into the dark. You loved so recklessly, with your whole chest. You kissed him like you were afraid the world might end before morning. And Stefan—he let you.
He let you love him.
But love, for Stefan, was something frayed at the edges. Something stitched together by guilt and memory. He wanted you—needed you—but part of him always held back. You knew this. You always knew. But you gave anyway, pouring yourself out until there was nothing left untouched.
Sometimes, when he’d leave in the middle of the night, you’d stay awake staring at the ceiling, pretending you didn’t notice the door closing softly behind him. You’d trace constellations in your mind, wishing you could be the gravity he kept orbiting.