The next night, Claire Su sat by her window, the breeze from Penang's late monsoon season brushing her curtains like a ghost of something unspoken.
It was 8:59 PM.
She refreshed her messages again.
And there it was.
Evan Lin: "Ready?"
Attached: a link from Melofy.
The track was called "Midnight Skyline."
She plugged in her headphones and pressed play.
A slow piano intro melted into Evan's voice—deeper than the night before, closer somehow. It wasn't just a song. It felt like a confession in disguise. His singing wasn't perfect, but it was… real. And raw.
Claire let her eyes close, letting the music swallow her whole.
"You always send me songs that feel like rainy nights," she typed afterward.
"You always listen like you understand."
"Maybe I do."
The silence between messages lingered. But it wasn't awkward. It was like they were still listening together, even after the song ended.
Then he sent another message.
"I wish we lived closer."
Her fingers froze over her screen.
So did she.
They started talking more often after that. Some nights through LynkChat, other nights they'd sit quietly on Melofy, using the "Listen Together" feature without even talking—just hearing the same song, at the same time, from two different countries.
Sometimes they teased each other.
Evan: "You sing like a commercial for sugar."
Claire: "You sound like you're hiding something behind every note."
It became their routine: laugh, flirt a little, avoid saying too much.
Claire didn't know what they were. Friends? Almost something? A maybe that would never quite become a yes?
Evan never pushed further, and neither did she.
He had exams coming. He was stressed.
Claire tried not to expect too much.
But sometimes, she caught herself checking his profile on RedLeaf, wondering what he was posting, wondering if any of it was for her.
One night, he didn't show up.
No message. No song. Just absence.
Claire stared at the app. Pressed play on "Our Song" anyway.
"If one day you hear me again,
Know I never stopped singing to you."
She looked out at the cloudy sky.
Thousands of miles away, maybe Evan had just fallen asleep.
Or maybe… he had already moved on.
But the thing about echoes is—they always return.
Even if it takes time.