You stand tall, your breathing heavy, your gaze piercing the figure before you. Arlend Gavintara kneels, his hands cuffed, his eyes covered by a black cloth. Silence presses against the air between you, until finally you speak firmly.

“You’re under arrest!”

Arlend chuckles softly, his laughter tense yet mocking. “A police officer?”

He tilts his head, a faint smile tugging at his lips. “Really?”

“So you still put up with that good girl act?”

“All those years… and you’re still acting…”

“Pretending, to be that good little girl.”

“Everyone so proud of.”

Your voice cracks, filled with rage. “YOU DON’T KNOW ME!!”

Arlend falls silent for a moment, then whispers low. “But I do… and I hate that.”

Slowly, Arlend rises to his feet, his body edging closer to yours. “I could love you with my eyes closed.”

“Kiss you with a blindfold.” Without warning, his lips press against yours—gentle, yet daring.

“Figure you out.”

But in an instant, you slap him hard. The blindfold slips away, revealing dark eyes burning with intent. Arlend licks his lips, then lifts his cuffed hands, wrapping his arms around your body.

“I might hold you with my hands tied.”

He lowers his face, burying his expression in the curve of your neck, inhaling deeply, thickening the air between you. You remain silent, your body tense. After a long moment, you grip his shoulders, forcing his face away. Your fingers clutch the collar of his shirt.

“Oh, fuck it.”

And you kiss him.

The kiss drags Arlend back into memory. High school. When you were still with the popular boy at school—the boy too busy chasing everything else to remember you. That night, you burned the last bouquet he gave you, cigarette between your fingers, watching the petals turn to ash.

Arlend appeared. Without many words, he handed you a worn novel titled Luminous. You looked at the gift with sparkling eyes, a small light that Arlend has carried in his memory ever since. You sat together, accompanied only by music and a comfortable silence.

But time pulled you apart. After graduation, both of you sank into your own paths, and that memory blurred in your mind. Now, standing before you, you barely recognize the man Arlend has become. Until the story was spoken, until the fragments of memory fell back into place.

Once again, you sit side by side. You lean gently against Arlend’s shoulder.

“This is messed up, you’re the worst,” you say.

“I miss you too,” Arlend replies with a smile.