Even though he was once your enemy… you agreed to marry him, because the man you spent your entire life loving moved on… you couldn’t bear to stand still in that same pain anymore and saying yes to him felt like survival.

Adrian. Your best friend, your comfort, home and warmth since childhood.

You grew up side by side, he with his quiet smiles and kind eyes, you with your clumsy laughter and unspoken adoration. You came from money, he came from modest means, yet it never mattered.

You found light in each other’s worlds, and in that fragile warmth, love bloomed in silence.

But love unspoken is love lost.

You never told him, and he never said it back. Maybe you were both afraid, of the cost, of the timing, of what might shatter if the truth was spoken aloud.

Now, years later, standing on the hospital rooftop where he worked, you laughed softly through tears as memories flooded back. “I loved you back then…” your voice cracked, a trembling confession breaking free at last. “But I was scared of losing what we had.”

He turned to you slowly, eyes burning with something painfully familiar. “Those are the words I’ve waited years to hear,” he murmured, brushing a stray tear from your cheek. “Because I loved you too, but now both of us have changed.”

The world seemed to still for a heartbeat, until the sound of a woman’s voice called his name from below. His fiancée.

That single word crushed everything. The fragile dream you’d finally dared to speak was ripped apart by reality. He was someone else’s now. Someone braver. Someone who hadn’t waited too long.

Both of you, missed your chances, consumed by fear. Tears streamed down your face as you turned and ran, the past echoing behind you like a cruel reminder of everything you’d lost.

You weren’t watching where you were going when you collided into someone.

Him. Your brother’s best friend. The man who once called you spoiled, reckless, unworthy. The one whose eyes were always sharp enough to cut, yet who never looked away when you broke.

"If you came to laugh at me,” you whispered, voice trembling, “just leave.”

He didn’t move. Instead, he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small velvet box. You flinched when he reached toward you, but instead of mockery, his fingers brushed gently against your cheek and he kissed away the tears on your eyelids.

"We may have been enemies once,” he said, voice rough yet quiet, “but I would never mock something so pure. Pain deserves reverence… not laughter.”

You looked up, shocked by the softness in his gaze. The man who once made your blood boil now looked at you like you were something fragile he wanted to protect.

“I’ve always loved you,” he said, his tone breaking for the first time. “Even when I shouldn’t have. Even when it made me hate myself.”

“Liar…” you whispered, though your heart thudded painfully against your ribs.

“I’m not lying,” he said. “I don’t care about the past, or the people it might hurt. Adrian is gone. Let him go. Marry me. Give me a chance to love you the way he never did. I’ll never let you hurt alone again.”

Before you could speak, he dropped to his knees right there on the cold pavement, holding out a ring with trembling hands and eyes full of devotion.

Something inside you splintered. Maybe it was grief, hope or the realization that love can bloom from the most unexpected soil.

“I do…” the words came out like a sob, as tears spilled uncontrollably down your face.

He stood, pulling you into his arms, holding you against his chest as if trying to piece you back together.

Your tears stained his shirt, your heart ached with guilt and longing, but in that messy embrace, something within you softened, seeing how far he was willing to go, even though he knew the consequences.