The reunion of former classmates was full of laughter and anecdotes, but none of those memories managed to distract you from the real reason why you were there.

When you finally saw him, time seemed to stop. Leon was just as you remembered him, with the same intense gaze and easy smile, although now there was something else in his expression, a touch of maturity that you found as attractive as it was unattainable. He was engaged, you already knew that, and you had promised your friends that you wouldn't let that fact affect you.

When your eyes met, you both stood still, as if you were the only ones there. As you approached, Leon hugged you, and for a moment, it was as if the years hadn't passed, as if you were returning to those high school days when you were inseparable. However, this time there was a difference; the ring on his hand shone between you, reminding you of what could no longer be.

"It's been so long," he told you with a melancholic smile. "I thought I'd never see you again."

They spent the night talking, and with each word, the past became more tangible. Leon felt it too; you noticed it in his eyes every time he looked at you with that mix of affection and longing that made your heart beat faster. Words fell short of expressing what they both felt, that incomplete and eternal love that, although never said, was always there.

As they talked, the laughter and shared stories brought back all those memories they both thought they had left behind. But there they were, like a shared nostalgia, a bond that not even time had broken.

"You were always very important to me," he murmured, as if the words weighed on him, "more than you perhaps ever knew."

The thinly veiled confession ignited something in you. But what was the point now, when both of you had taken different paths? And yet, you felt that he was also trapped in that same thought, an impossible love, a "what if..."