justfeelreal
Lately, Aiah notices the shift. Mikha, her childhood friend, the girl she grew up under the same streetlight glow of Bloomsville, has been reaching out more. Little messages. Gentle check-ins. It isn't how things used to be.
Yes, they share the same circle of friends, but their worlds have always been different.
Maybe this is why Aiah jogs longer now. Because she is still trying to make sense of it, the quiet persistence of Mikha's presence, the way it presses against the edges of her carefully ordered life.
How do you turn away from someone whose sweetness is never contrived, whose care is too genuine to dismiss? Aiah can steel herself against strangers, but not against Mikha... not against the girl who has been her playmate, her silent witness through every stage of life. To hurt Mikha is to hurt herself, to stain the innocence of a bond that has endured for decades.
So Aiah tells herself she will protect their friendship, even if it means denying something more. But the hardest truths have a way of slipping through, and love, once it begins, changes everything.