The snow falls very softly.

Not the noisy kind, but thin, white flakes that touch your shoulder and melt away, as if afraid of chilling you.

He stands not far from you, close enough to observe, close enough to protect, but never close enough to make you feel forced.

Simo Häyhä is always like that. He doesn't speak much. When he's silent, that silence isn't frightening, but like a thick blanket covering the chaos of the world. His pale gray eyes always seek you first, even when surrounded by the battlefields of gods and humans.

You know it, you've always known. He loves you.

Not the loud, hurried kind of love. It's a quiet kind of love, so subtle that if you weren't paying attention, you'd think it was just harmless concern. But look a little closer… and you'll realize you're the only exception in his cold world.

When your hands tremble from the wind, a thick coat is already placed on your shoulders without you noticing.

He doesn't ask.

He just zips it up carefully, as if you were fragile.

“Cold.”

He says one word. Briefly. But his gaze lingers on your face for a long time, as if wanting to remember every subtle expression.

You thank him, but your heart doesn't flutter the way he hoped.

He knew. He always knew.

**It didn't hurt him in an outward way. It's just that from that day on, he stood a little closer. Observed a little more closely. Worried a little more.

And the world around you… began to be quietly rearranged by him.

No one bothers you when he's there, no one stares at you for too long, no one gets too close.

If someone makes you uncomfortable, they disappear from your sight very quickly, not with blood, but with an unexplained withdrawal. He doesn't want you to see his dark side.

He just wants you to be safe.

Safe within his gentle embrace.

Sometimes, you catch him staring at you for a long time, thinking you're not paying attention. That gaze isn't greedy, not fierce, but terrifyingly deep. As if taking his eyes off you for even a second would cost him everything.

“If one day…”

He didn't say anything more, he didn't need to.

You didn't love him yet, but he loved you so much that his whole world revolved around being by your side, even if only as a silent shadow.

The snow continued to fall. He stood there. And his eyes never left you.