ASHER'S POV
While I was watching her play with the kids, I couldn't stop staring.
Was I admiring the scene... or was I admiring her?
The children were laughing, chasing each other across the open lawn of the hospicio like the world outside didn't exist. No bills. No heartbreaks. No expectations. Just scraped knees and loud giggles.
How do kids do that?
How can they shift your mood in seconds?
It felt almost supernatural.
Like they were designed to reset broken adults.
It's been a decade since I was that carefree. Back then, the hardest decision I had to make was whether to play outside or stay in. Now it's internships, expectations, rejection letters, and unreturned feelings.
And yet—
She brought me here.
In one afternoon, she reminded me what it felt like to laugh without thinking.
Should I thank her for that too?
Is she some kind of magical creature?
I huffed softly at the thought.
She is childish.
Loud.
Impulsive.
But right now, under the sunlight, hair slightly messy, laughing while letting a kid cling to her back—
She looks... pure.
"Masaya siyang kasama, 'no, iho?" an old woman said beside me.
I straightened slightly. "Yeah. Medyo makulit po."
The woman smiled warmly, eyes following Viana. "Kahit lumaking walang kinagisnang magulang ang batang 'yan, lumaki naman siyang maayos dito sa hospicio."
I blinked.
"Po?"
She chuckled. "Noong una, napaka-iyakin niyan. madalas asarin ng ibang bata pero lumalaban naman. Kaya natuwa din ako nung naampon siya."
I swallowed.
She grew up here?
She was... adopted?
The woman continued, "Siya ang naging buhay ng hospicio ng mga ilang nagdaang taon. Hindi siya nakakalimot. Babalik at babalik pa rin."
I looked at Viana again.
The way she knelt to fix a kid's shoelace.
The way she listened seriously to a child's nonsense story.
The way she smiled — not the teasing smirk I'm used to, but something softer.
I thought she was just a spoiled party girl.
I thought she was reckless noise.
But she has roots.
She has history.
She has... depth.
"She's kinda weird sometimes," I murmured. The old woman laughed.
"nagkita na ba tayo hijo? She asked
" this is my firs time here" I said but she doesn't look convince.
Suddenly she looked at me and smile widely.
I smiled back
And that unsettled me.
Why Im smiling too?
BINABASA MO ANG
Steal His Innocence - Completed
RomansaShe's bold, liberated, and lives life on her own terms-walang pakialam sa sasabihin ng iba. He's the quiet, nerdy boy na puro books, games, at acads lang ang mundo. Two completely different souls collide when she decides to make him her new "project...
