The room is silent.

Not uncomfortably so. More like a pause, as if time itself were holding its breath for a moment.

Lando stands right beside you. His blue eyes rest on you.

He doesn’t blink. He doesn’t step back.

Your gaze falls on him, laughing, but the laughter fades as quickly as it came when you meet his eyes.

You set the brush down on the small table and turn to face him.

Then you ask the question. The one that has hung between you for far too long, like an unspoken vow.

“What are we?” Your voice is calm, almost casual, but there’s nothing playful left in your gaze.

Lando furrows his brow.

He isn’t searching for the truth. He’s searching for the right way to say it.

In a language that might hurt less.

But both of you know, that language doesn’t exist.

“We’re…friends.” He says it like a verdict on something long since decided.

Maybe to comfort himself.

You tilt your head slightly. Your eyes never leave his.

“We’re exes.” Your voice is steady, but not cold.

Something flickers across his face.

His jaw tightens and his Adam’s apple shifts as he swallows hard.

For a fleeting moment, the pain he’s carried for weeks surfaces.

Raw. Unfiltered.

He was the one who ended it.

Not from a lack of love, but out of fear. Fear of dragging you down into his own darkness.

A misguided attempt to protect you.

But the distance he tried to create never truly formed.

You are still…you. Only in some strange, undefined way.

You see him struggle.

With words. With wishes.

With the pull to keep you at arm’s length and the even stronger pull to draw you close again.

Then he presses his lips together, pulling his lower lip forward in a faint, almost boyish pout.

You roll your eyes playfully and offer him a crooked, little smile. “Okay, we’re friends.”

A few seconds pass. Then it breaks out of him.

A smile that has grown too rare.

Genuine. Wide.

Radiant, like a beam of sunlight cutting through fog.

His eyes light up, as though, for a brief moment, the weight has lifted.

And in that instant, you know.

He is still the boy you love.

And maybe…maybe that’s enough. Even if your just friendship.