He Writes Me Back

Adrian Reyes wasn't looking for anything special. He just needed scratch paper for his project. That's all.

But in the farthest corner of the school's old storage room, tucked beneath piles of forgotten records and faded test papers, he found a dusty notebook - no label, no subject, nothing but time soaked into its pages.

On the first page, there was written in barely-there ink.

"𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘌𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘊𝘳𝘶𝘻. 𝘞𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘮𝘦."

No same name.
No section and grade level.
Walang record ng student na Elian Cruz.

It was like he never exist.

Still Adrian always write in the notebook.

At first, it felt like a game. Something to laugh about.
But soon, the words turned real - thoughts he couldn't say out loud.
Secrets. Regrets.
The kind of feelings you want to keep and only admit on paper, never in person.

And then one day... the notebook replied.

"𝘐'𝘮 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦. 𝘐'𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘐 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘭𝘺. 𝘜𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭 𝘯𝘰𝘸. - 𝘌𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘯"

After that, the letters never stopped.
Elian knew too much.
Things Adrian never ever wrote down.
He listened like he'd always been there.

But no one sees the notebook but Adrian.
No one remembers Elian.
No one ever has.

If no one knows Elian...
then is he real?
Or is he just the person Theo created when no one else listened?