Pages of a One-Sided Heart

four

Even after he was gone, I kept him in my heart. It wasn’t something I chose; it was just how things were. Deep down, I held onto the hope that we might meet again someday, somewhere on this vast earth. Four years passed, and not a single word from him. It was as if he had vanished into thin air, leaving only memories behind. I tried to move on, convincing myself that life was too short to linger on what could never be.

But no matter how hard I tried, he remained a quiet presence in my mind, like a song I couldn’t forget. I even managed to fall in love again, or at least I thought I did. For a while, I let myself believe that someone else could fill the space he left behind. But it wasn’t the same. It never was. That love fizzled out as quickly as it began, leaving me with a hollow sense of déjà vu. Moving on had seemed so simple in theory, but in reality, it felt like I was just running in circles, always finding myself back at the beginning—with him.

Eventually, life moved forward, as it always does. I graduated, packed up my childhood room, and made my way to university. It felt like a new chapter, a fresh start. Yet, even as I walked through the bustling campus, surrounded by new faces and endless possibilities, he was still there, lingering in the back of my mind.

I wondered if he ever thought of me, if he even remembered those afternoons spent studying together, the dreams we quietly shared, the laugh over that silly monster mouse. Did he ever look back and think of me, too? Or was I just a distant memory, a part of a past he had long since left behind? I didn’t know, and perhaps I never would. But despite everything, a small part of me held onto the hope that our paths might cross again someday, that we might have a chance to say all the things that had been left unsaid.