The sky was folding into dusk—that soft in-between where day hasn't quite ended and night hasn't fully begun. The final bell had rung, its echo still clinging to the air. Students poured out of the school building, their voices loud and full of life. Some walked in groups, laughing and nudging one another. Others drifted off alone like thoughts unspoken.
I was one of the quiet ones.
I took the same path home every day—my steps steady, my bag slung over one shoulder. The route had become a rhythm: the uneven sidewalk lined with trees that leaned just a little too far, the familiar stretch of road that ran beside the school. I liked the silence after the noise. The calm after the bell. It felt like breathing again.
But today felt… different.
My eyes were drawn across the street before I even realized it.
He was there.
Standing near the school gates with his friends, their laughter floating on the breeze like it belonged to someone else. And even in the middle of it all, he felt apart from it. Like he existed just slightly out of reach.
Soren Alaric.
He didn't try to stand out. He just did. Quiet in a way that wasn't shy, distant in a way that wasn't cold. He reminded me of the sky at dusk—unbothered, beautiful, and so far away.
I didn't know his name at first. That didn't matter. Not really. What mattered was how time seemed to stretch whenever I saw him. What mattered was the strange ache blooming in my chest when my eyes found him. The kind of ache that didn't hurt, but still left a mark.
I didn't know why I looked.
I just did.
And I couldn't stop.
There was something about him. Something still and sharp and quietly bright. He didn't try to draw anyone in. But somehow, he pulled me anyway. Effortlessly. Unintentionally.
He became the most beautiful part of my day.
That evening, I didn't rush home like I usually did. I slowed my steps—just enough to watch him for a little longer.
The next day, I waited. Just a few minutes more before leaving school.
Just in case he walked by again.
It became my favorite part of the day.
That brief moment when he walked by and I could watch from across the road—heart calm, yet oddly restless.
No one knew. No one noticed. But something in me had shifted.
He had become a quiet interest.
A secret rhythm I moved to without even realizing.
A part of my day I never saw coming—
But now, I couldn't stop waiting for it.