There's a way the air changes when something is about to end. It hums with a sadness only hearts can hear — low, steady, undeniable.
She didn't know how she first sensed it. Maybe it was in the way he smiled a little less. Maybe it was in the way the world around her — their little accidental collisions — grew fewer, quieter, almost as if the universe itself was preparing her. Preparing her for something she didn't want to face.
One ordinary afternoon, she heard the whisper in the hallway: He was leaving.
Leaving. Such a small word to carry so much ache.
She felt it like a thread pulling loose inside her chest. A tiny unraveling she couldn't stop.
At first, she denied it. Told herself it didn't matter. Told herself their story — whatever it had been — was already long finished, folded and tucked away in some hidden drawer of her heart.
But the truth was harsher, sharper: You can't mourn someone twice if you never stopped missing them the first time.
She walked the office halls differently after that day. Every glimpse of him felt heavier, more precious — even if he didn't look her way. Even if she pretended not to notice him anymore.
There's a strange kind of grief in knowing you're losing something you never really had. No shared memories to hold onto. No promises to break. Only... only the fragile, secret hopes she had built in silence — now crumbling quietly in her hands.
And then, in the quiet of her heart, something stirred. It wasn't a sudden revelation. It was something she had always known, tucked away so deep that it never dared to speak out loud. But now it did. Now she said it, quietly, to herself, through a tear she couldn't hold back: "I love him."
The weight of those words felt different than anything she had imagined. Because, somehow, she had always known. But to acknowledge it, to say it out loud — even if only to herself — felt like giving a part of her soul away. A love that had no chance to bloom. A love that, in all honesty, had never been hers to begin with.
She had bought a necklace once.A simple, beautiful piece from Buscalan. The kind of thing that people bought for protection — a token, a symbol of care. She had bought it with the hope, the foolish hope, that maybe someday — just someday — she would have the chance to give it to him.To say, "Take care. Stay safe."To offer a small part of her heart, even if it was never meant to be returned.
But now, with the news of his leaving, she realized that chance would never come. And the necklace — it would stay with her. A quiet reminder of something that never had the time to grow.
And then, in the quiet moments when everything seemed to fade away, she wrote it.
A letter she knew he would never read.A letter she would never be able to give him.
But it was a confession — raw, honest, and filled with the weight of everything she had been holding inside.
It wasn't about the words she couldn't say out loud.
It was about the truth that had been quietly growing inside her heart, the truth she could no longer ignore.
She loved him.
And with that love came the necklace.
The one she had bought from Buscalan, hoping that someday, in some universe where their paths might cross, she would have the courage to give it to him.
A gift to protect him. A symbol of her care, her hope, her silent wish for him to be safe.But now? Now, it all felt futile.
The letter would remain unsent. The necklace would stay in its box. Because he was leaving.
And with his departure, her chance to ever speak these words, to ever share this part of herself with him, slipped away quietly.
But now? Now, it was just another letter sitting in her drawer, sealed with the unspoken words of a love that never had a place to go. The goodbye letter she could never give. The words she would never get to say.
She sat in the quiet of the office, staring at her screen, thinking of all the things she could never say to him. Wishing, perhaps, just once more, that she could tell him: "You were worth every moment of this silent love. "But the silence, it seemed, had already spoken for them both.
And as she said goodbye to him in her heart, she knew this much:It wasn't about him ever knowing. It was about her letting go, even if it hurt more than she ever thought possible. Because love, she realized, is often quiet. A stillness that exists in the heart, even when the world is moving on without you.
And maybe, someday, she would meet someone else, someone who would hear her words.But for now, she held onto the memory of him, and the necklace, and the letter that would never leave her drawer.
Because in her heart, he would always be a part of her story — even if he would never know the truth of it.