THROUGH THE CRACKS

Behind the perfectly ironed shirts and calm sarcasm is a heart that never healed.
A boy who watched his mother die.
A son left behind by a father who built a new life in a new country without looking back.
A man who learned how to stay strong by staying alone.
He became the man everyone leans on but no one truly knows.
The one who cracks a joke in the middle of a storm just to make others feel less broken
even when he's the one drowning.

But what happens when someone walks into his life ,not loud, not demanding , just... seeing him?

Someone who doesn't just notice the cracks.
Someone who looks through them and stays.
Until someone walks into his life who doesn't fear his silence.
Someone who reads between his pauses and sits with his shadows instead of chasing them away.

She doesn't try to fix him.
She just sees him in the places where he cracked and never told anyone he bled.
She doesn't ask him to open up.
She just stays open.
And suddenly, the silence he once found comfort in
feels too loud.

And for the first time, He begins to wonder:
What if being understood is more terrifying than being alone?