batchlinko
THE LINGORM TRILOGY
BOOK I - BEFORE THE BRIGHT SMILE CAME BACK
Before there were five years of silence, there was a Polaroid.
Before distance, there were walks home, saved seats, tennis courts, birthday sleepovers, and a black album filled with things Lingling could never quite say out loud.
Lingling Kwong had always been good at staying quiet.
Orm Sethratanapong had always been good at staying.
From the last year of elementary school to the years that followed, they grew into each other slowly-through friendship, routines, handwritten letters, tennis matches, family dinners, and a closeness neither of them knew how to name.
Until growing up started asking for more than either of them knew how to give.
Orm's world kept getting bigger.
Lingling learned how to build one of her own.
And somewhere between almost-confessions, missed timing, ambition, injury, and everything they left unsaid, the person who once felt like home became someone Lingling no longer knew how to reach.
This is the story before the reunion.
Before the questions they would eventually have to answer.
Before the bright smile came back.