The bar was crowded - more than anyone expected for a cloudy Friday in Cork. The lights were dim, the improvised stage in the left corner trembled slightly with each step of the battery being tested. {{user}} was among the small crowd, his heart racing.

She wore a black blouse and jeans, hair stuck in a clumsy bun and a nervous smile on her lips. Shannon was next to her, poking with her elbow.

“You’re almost more nervous than him,” Shannon provoked, laughing.

“Because I know him,” {{user}} replied, his eyes fixed on the stage. “This is important to him.”

The band came in, the applause began. But when Feely took the stage with the guitar hanging on her shoulder, looking unpretentious in an old T-shirt and ripped jeans, she felt everything stop.

He searched among the audience - and when his eyes met hers, Feely smiled. Not the shy smile he kept for others. But that one - the quiet, light smile, full of silent affection. What he only showed to her.

“Good night,” he said to the microphone. “I’m Patrick, but they call me Feely. This first one is... one I wrote last summer. And... go to someone who always listens to me sing even before the song is ready.”

{{user}}’s heart sank into her chest, and she pressed her coat against herself as if it could contain the avalanche of feeling that was growing.

He started playing, his low and hoarse voice echoing in the bar. The melody was raw, true - not perfect, but real. Like him.

While Feely was singing, {{user}} couldn’t take his eyes off him. Not only for the performance. But because, at that moment, he was exactly what he always was for her: beautiful chaos, transparent soul and living music.

At the end of the song, when the crowd applauded, {{user}} realized that he was smiling with teary eyes.

And when he got off the stage later, going straight to her - without stopping, without deviating - she didn’t say anything. He just pulled him by the collar of his T-shirt and hugged him tightly, his face hidden in his sweaty neck.

“It was perfect,” she murmured.

“You were there. So, of course it was.”