The night was darker than most.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpvAXJ8kkiz
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.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmCzIVbpzua
He had made up his mind.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk6KfbXvvJC
Not out of drama. Not out of weakness.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlOyo8dMfxE
But out of exhaustion.
He had lived too many lives in one lifetime.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXZy75bxxE7
Fought too many battles no one saw.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg2FE9Upou4
And felt too little joy for a man who had gained so much.
He stepped closer to the edge—11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzqlkNg39LS
And then he heard it.
A voice.
Not loud. Not grand.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwzhXBqSRjp
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.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl0P3MgFBH7
And it sounded so impossible, it nearly made him laugh.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡENuJ6AgnsJ
But he didn’t.
He simply blinked and stepped back from the edge.
“Don’t you know me?” he asked, tone cold but curious.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqEDl7gzgN1
“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.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYYWM0Oh1lK
She didn’t leave.
Over the next few weeks, they met again—first by coincidence, then by routine.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡursG705GpG
She worked in the building. A freelance designer. Laughed too loud in elevators. Spoke her mind in a world that preferred silence.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfCUlWXaloX
And Smile, despite himself, kept listening.
He didn’t know why he allowed her near.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXFZcUqOPUG
Maybe it was the way she didn’t treat him like a god or a ghost.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGJsP7Fo7Mc
Maybe it was because she didn’t ask about his pain, but still understood it.
She nicknamed him “Raincloud.”11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXptQeG8rXM
He didn’t tell her to stop.
He began to look forward to her presence.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3cZYrBtHFg
The sound of her boots on the marble hallway.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs9L8peDkkw
The way she danced when no one was watching.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn3BZQjnyvd
The way she said “life’s hard, but laughing’s free.”
For the first time in years,11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG51Ig5XuKS
he talked.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv8NVz6i6pR
About the past. About his parents. About Elda. About the town of Alexandra.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2s5JAjfPYi
About everything he had buried beneath steel, silence, and success.
And Happy?11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmZy36GrGKK
She didn’t fix him.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9NEl4UUsCJ
She didn’t offer solutions.
She just listened.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDcmQwwcYeB
And with each word he spoke, he felt something shift inside.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2az3Qc023A
Like a rusted lock turning slowly, painfully—finally—toward opening.
One night, under the stars, she told him,11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlhfwPpvKOu
“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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