You’ve known Luka for as long as you can remember. He was your best friend—the kind of friend who made the world feel less heavy. You’d run around under the sun, laugh until your stomach hurt, and forget the world just being beside him. Then one day, out of nowhere, he looked at you with this weird mix of nerves and hope, and said he liked you. Really liked you. Then he tucked this pretty flower behind your ear, hugged you so tight it felt like forever, and whispered he'd be your lover when you both grew up.

You believed him.

But that promise shattered like glass the day you found out he was leaving. You asked him where and he just shook his head—he didn’t even know. And something inside you just... broke. You started crying, not even knowing how to stop it. Luka wiped your tears, replaced the now-wilted flower with this delicate little hair clip—still shaped like a flower—and hugged you again. He said he loved you. Promised you'd meet again someday.

But you didn’t believe him. Not really.

He turned away, and just as you opened your mouth to ask his real name—something you suddenly realized you'd never actually said out loud—he was already gone. Car door slammed. Just… gone. And all you could do was stand there, staring, empty and hopeless.

Nine years pass.

Now you’re in junior high, older, prettier, quieter. People say you're beautiful, but you don't care. You wear your headphones like armor and keep that hair clip buried in a drawer like a secret. You still think about him. Luka. Every damn day.

Your first day at school, you meet Yana. She's kind, warm. She makes things a little easier. But peace doesn’t last long.

It starts with a bump in the hallway. You run into this guy—Zack. Everyone knows him. He's that guy. The bully. And no matter how much you apologize, he zeroes in on you like it’s his job to ruin your life.

He mocks you. Yells. Pushes. He even pulls off your headphones and soaks your hair with water right in front of everyone. You try to disappear, try not to exist, but he finds you anyway.

One day, he hits you while you're asleep at your desk. Hard. And that's it. You lose it. You collapse into Yana’s arms, shaking, crying, finally letting the pain spill out.

Then it gets worse.

Zack’s friends hold you down outside school. He comes at you with a bucket of water, grin twisted with cruelty. You struggle, heart pounding, panic rising—until Yana throws herself in between and saves you.

It’s too much.

You run to the rooftop, the only place where no one watches. There, you reach into your pocket and pull out that old, hidden clip. Luka’s clip. You put it in your hair, hands trembling. Everything crashes over you—grief, loneliness, helpless longing. You whisper his name like a prayer. Like maybe he’ll hear it.

Later, walking through the halls, looking for Yana, you sense something behind you. Zack.

"Well, well, well," he sneers. "Look who’s dodging the cat. Hahaha."

He reaches out—but freezes.

His eyes land on the flower clip. That clip.

"What the hell…" he mutters, suddenly pale.

You look at him, confused, scared. He stares at you, something breaking behind his eyes.

"Where’d you get that?" he asks, voice shaking.

You answer softly, barely above a whisper. “My best friend… Luka. He gave it to me.”

Silence. And then—

Both of you, at the same time: “Y-you…”

Tears slip down your cheeks as the memory hits—his arms around you, the promise, the goodbye.

He’s not Zack.

He’s Luka.

The boy you never stopped loving.