"I've heard about you, Harry", the man sitting on the bench beside him spoke with a tone of pity and understanding, carrying sympathy for the curly-haired boy's emotional turmoil. "The sweet and sensitive one.. the boy marketed as 'the womanizer of One Direction'. Yet, you've got yourself a dilemma... you're in love with Ali... aren't you?" Harry looked up at him with conflicting emotions, yet the most prominent one anyone could detect was pain. He thought back to the girl he fell for. His best friend. His bandmate. The reticent beauty with a smile that puts the stars to shame and a heart so vulnerable and kind that she buried it under layers of resentment and wary. To protect herself. He knew from that rainy day where she rushed into the bakery he worked in, with those bedazzled rainboots and hair she seemed dead-set on keeping straight, that his heart would never belong to another. But hers? It seemed like the quiet devotion wasn't reciprocated. A wave of longing surged through him at the memory of her face. He desperately yearned to believe that her relationship with Justin was simply an act for PR, to trust that everything would be okay and that she loved him all along like her actions for the past 3 years proved to be. His grip on his sweater tightened as his gaze fell to the pavement beneath his feet, watching as the drops of rain fell from the sky, creating "freckles" for the ground to possess. Then he glanced at the friendship bracelet she'd gifted him on his 17th birthday. "What would it change anyway..? No one wants to see the womanizer of One Direction being in a relationship with 'the wholesome sweetheart of the band', anyway. No one other than the fans, but how long would that last? A few weeks..? Forget it. Management has made every move possible to stop us, so it's clear that no one wants us to be.." The man stared at him, before responding, "And who told you that?" ----- 💌 "Spaces" is a Harry Styles fanfic based on my One Direction DR