The Days of our Romance

PROLOGUE

Prologue

My mother always told me to come down to reality, to stop chasing the kind of love that existed only in fairy tales. She said real love wasn't the stuff of books or dreams; it was messy, imperfect, and rooted in the everyday. But how could I believe her when I had spent my life seeing magic in the small things? The sound of pages turning, the light of dawn breaking over an old building, the laughter hidden in moments others overlooked—those were the things that made me feel alive.

I never expected someone like Melvin Carter to disrupt that world. He was everything I disliked: arrogant, self-assured, and maddeningly charming. From the moment I met him, I despised the way he walked into a room as if it belonged to him, the way he talked as though no one else mattered. I hated the way he looked at me, with eyes that seemed to know my every thought before I could form it. Or at least, I told myself I hated it.

But what I didn't realize—what I refused to admit—was that my hatred wasn't real. It was something else, something I couldn't name. A camouflaged feeling that I kept buried beneath layers of denial, even as it grew stronger with every passing day.

Melvin, for his part, hid his feelings behind his sky-high ego. He was the boy who seemed untouchable, the one who had everything. Yet behind his self-assured façade was someone terrified to care for anyone but himself. Love made him vulnerable, and vulnerability was a weakness he couldn't afford—especially not with the secret that shadowed his every step.

We were medical students, strangers in a foreign country, navigating not only the challenges of a new school but also the clash of our worlds. His life of privilege and mine of simplicity were as different as night and day, as incompatible as oil and water. Yet, against all logic, we found ourselves drawn to each other, pulled together by something neither of us could explain.

This is the story of how Melvin and I, two people from opposite ends of the spectrum, decided to give love a chance—despite the chaos it caused, despite the walls we built, despite the pain we knew it might bring.

And maybe my mother was right. Maybe love isn't perfect, and maybe it doesn't always end the way we imagine. But it's real, and it's raw, and sometimes, it's worth the fall.