Noah watched from the shadows, just beyond the rusted fence behind Olivia’s school. He stood still, blending into the overgrown hedges like a ghost only she never saw. The afternoon sun cast golden light over her as she laughed with her friends—so loud, so alive. She had no idea anyone was watching.

But Noah always was.

He knew the time she left the house every morning—7:16, always with her headphones in and a small smile on her face. He knew she liked strawberry yogurt, but only the kind with real fruit at the bottom. He’d once followed her to the grocery store just to see which brand she picked. She never looked up. She never saw him. But he was always there, just out of reach.

To others, Noah was just another quiet face in the crowd. But to him, Olivia was everything. She was the calm in his chaos, the light in his dark world. She didn’t know it yet, but he cared for her—deeply, desperately. He wasn’t trying to scare her. He just wanted to make sure she was safe, that she smiled every day, that nothing bad ever touched her.

He kept a notebook hidden under his bed. In it, he wrote everything she said when he passed close enough to hear her voice. He even drew little sketches of her, careful to get the details right—the curve of her lips, the softness in her eyes.

Noah didn’t think of it as obsession.

He called it love.

And one day, when the time was right, he’d finally introduce himself—not as a stranger in the shadows, but as the boy who had been there all along.