The night was darker than most.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk442kbP5Rc
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.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9QNFHHwLAt
He had made up his mind.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAvWoWeZDvq
Not out of drama. Not out of weakness.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ87IG4fu6cJ
But out of exhaustion.
He had lived too many lives in one lifetime.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlAOgjWpqtZ
Fought too many battles no one saw.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ5gjnW7ja9
And felt too little joy for a man who had gained so much.
He stepped closer to the edge—13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW2XowtSjYN
And then he heard it.
A voice.
Not loud. Not grand.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSkCkhfb4iK
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.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ98pvcAWLY5
And it sounded so impossible, it nearly made him laugh.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4JhfqjRo3O
But he didn’t.
He simply blinked and stepped back from the edge.
“Don’t you know me?” he asked, tone cold but curious.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2la1XBpk3U
“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.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw8oPM16GWm
She didn’t leave.
Over the next few weeks, they met again—first by coincidence, then by routine.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLpvg1pSyqs
She worked in the building. A freelance designer. Laughed too loud in elevators. Spoke her mind in a world that preferred silence.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeFdZaQesmw
And Smile, despite himself, kept listening.
He didn’t know why he allowed her near.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtaaas4t2Jp
Maybe it was the way she didn’t treat him like a god or a ghost.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv59eCZxJ8v
Maybe it was because she didn’t ask about his pain, but still understood it.
She nicknamed him “Raincloud.”13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrNRIZOZCge
He didn’t tell her to stop.
He began to look forward to her presence.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCczcOjKi5o
The sound of her boots on the marble hallway.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzJY1DTPxXq
The way she danced when no one was watching.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy6IU97JHPT
The way she said “life’s hard, but laughing’s free.”
For the first time in years,13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8szwmTPx8y
he talked.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTflUGgU6aR
About the past. About his parents. About Elda. About the town of Alexandra.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0xsjc1Rkz9
About everything he had buried beneath steel, silence, and success.
And Happy?13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgabDvgZxIy
She didn’t fix him.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGAuSzIhjBc
She didn’t offer solutions.
She just listened.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd6riyw6H60
And with each word he spoke, he felt something shift inside.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHAQhBARnUt
Like a rusted lock turning slowly, painfully—finally—toward opening.
One night, under the stars, she told him,13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJNxrA2zcPs
“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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