The night was darker than most.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQrKIEyBP0Z
Smile stood on the balcony of his penthouse, high above the sleeping city, where the wind howled like a memory and the world below glowed like it was trying to forget its own sadness.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9i0ATqdcL9
He had made up his mind.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWEfrvcoeK5
Not out of drama. Not out of weakness.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3RuXc6ThLi
But out of exhaustion.
He had lived too many lives in one lifetime.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPcgQnEWllH
Fought too many battles no one saw.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG1nWzfNxen
And felt too little joy for a man who had gained so much.
He stepped closer to the edge—15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwphzUtVqVT
And then he heard it.
A voice.
Not loud. Not grand.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKK0YA2n3j4
Just warm, human, and oddly misplaced in a moment like this.
“Hey... you're kind of ruining the sky for the rest of us.”
He turned.
Standing at the rooftop entrance was a young woman, leaning casually against the rail, a coffee cup in hand, eyes bright and untamed like she belonged to a world far better than his.
Happy Kingston.
That was her name.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOdlIx5Dd4j
And it sounded so impossible, it nearly made him laugh.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJnl9QctVkn
But he didn’t.
He simply blinked and stepped back from the edge.
“Don’t you know me?” he asked, tone cold but curious.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7UEl5gh2jF
“You’re that serious guy from the magazines, right?” she said, sipping her coffee. “The one who never smiles. Kind of ironic, don’t you think?”
He didn’t answer.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMnYznfavd0
She didn’t leave.
Over the next few weeks, they met again—first by coincidence, then by routine.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPo3bCHIFCP
She worked in the building. A freelance designer. Laughed too loud in elevators. Spoke her mind in a world that preferred silence.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXeLsmPPyD9
And Smile, despite himself, kept listening.
He didn’t know why he allowed her near.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1qIykc2nue
Maybe it was the way she didn’t treat him like a god or a ghost.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡak4eNDtovs
Maybe it was because she didn’t ask about his pain, but still understood it.
She nicknamed him “Raincloud.”15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5n2Q0jaGgt
He didn’t tell her to stop.
He began to look forward to her presence.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQUQRy2ZtIw
The sound of her boots on the marble hallway.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ487rccHsXr
The way she danced when no one was watching.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbYySasjLGL
The way she said “life’s hard, but laughing’s free.”
For the first time in years,15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBtnPO96Y3h
he talked.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcVjjnYcomt
About the past. About his parents. About Elda. About the town of Alexandra.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4amNHAZp3k
About everything he had buried beneath steel, silence, and success.
And Happy?15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSULRDkBiMU
She didn’t fix him.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqEYhPnMXgY
She didn’t offer solutions.
She just listened.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXrJXWVWWXc
And with each word he spoke, he felt something shift inside.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLzZyE80t3F
Like a rusted lock turning slowly, painfully—finally—toward opening.
One night, under the stars, she told him,15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmmTCnPkGUU
“I think you’ve spent so long surviving, you forgot what living feels like.”
And in that moment, he realized something terrifying and beautiful:
He was beginning to feel again.
He was falling in love.
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