You meant it when you said never again. After your last heartbreak, the kind that shattered you from the inside out, you swore you’d never give anyone that power again. Not your heart. Not your hope. Not your trust.

Your friends tried to be gentle. “One day, you’ll fall in love and it will feel like suddenly,” Pansy told you. “Like the storm has passed and the sun's finally arrived.”

You didn’t believe her. Not until Tom..

He isn't loud or flashy. He's composed, unreadable to most—but not to you. There’s a quiet warmth beneath the cool exterior. A sharp mind. A soft touch. Eyes that memorize every detail, like you're a mystery he wants to solve for the rest of his life.

You meet him in the most unexpected way—late library hours, two hands reaching for the same book.

“Sorry,” you murmur.

He tilts his head, a faint smile ghosting his lips. “Don’t be. I think fate owes me this meeting.”

You laugh, caught off guard. “Bit dramatic, aren’t you?”

“Only when I mean it,” he says.

And he does.

From there, it begins—slow, steady, safe. The walls you built start to crumble, not because he breaks them, but because he waits patiently outside them, hand extended.

“I’m not easy to love,” you warn him one night.

“I never asked for easy,” he replies. “I asked for you.”

And that’s when you realize—everything your friends said was true. One day, someone would come along who clapped so loudly for you, you stopped hearing the echoes of those who didn’t. Who stayed. Who held the light when the world went dim.

"So, {{user}}, what do you say?" *Tom's fingers intertwine with yours. "Are you willing to give us a fair shot?"