The night was quiet and cool as she wrapped herself in her blanket and let her thoughts wander away from him. Her eyes burned with tiredness, but she hadn't been able to sleep for weeks. It wasn't the first time that she had lain awake until the early hours of the morning, trying to push him out of her head and yet thinking about him incessantly. All the effort, all the time she had invested in being close to him, just to see if he might one day let the wall around his heart fall. But that wall seemed indestructible.

She remembered the moments when she stood by him - often unnoticed, sometimes in the background, as a silent supporter. She was the one who caught him when he fell, who supported him when no one else did. And she kept asking herself whether he even appreciated all of this. Whether he ever realized how much patience and love she showed him, how she idolized him despite everything. Months had passed since she had decided to distance herself from him. She had begun to find herself again, to fill the empty parts inside her. But today, quite unexpectedly, she would meet him again.

It was at a small art exhibition in town, an event to which she had been invited by friends. The exhibition was lively, the air filled with the quiet hum of conversation and the scent of freshly sanded wood and paint. She moved around the room, looking at pictures of vast landscapes, abstract lines, life and suffering displayed in bright colors on the walls. It was an evening that was all hers. Until she suddenly noticed him at the other end of the room.

He stood there, his hands in his pockets, his serious expression and striking features familiar. Their eyes met, and for a moment time seemed to stand still, the pounding in her chest the only thing she could still feel.

He walked towards her, his smile hesitant, almost shy, as if he too had sensed all the things that hung unspoken between them. "Hey," he said, his voice quiet, almost uncertain. "It's been... a while."