Ayra wasn't expecting Cairo to stop her after class.
She had barely stood up when his hand lightly tugged her sleeve. His face was calm, but his eyes were restless.
"Come with me," he said.
"…Why?"
"There's something you need to know. About Zayn."
Ayra blinked, heart tightening at the mention of his name. "What about him?"
Cairo didn't answer. He just walked. And Ayra followed.
They ended up in the empty art room, where sun filtered in through the dust-speckled windows, casting golden shadows over the abandoned paintbrushes and sketches on the walls.
He turned to face her. "You've been trying to understand him, haven't you? Zayn."
Ayra swallowed. "I just… I want to know why he is the way he is. Why he gets cold one second and soft the next. Why he looks at me like he's fighting something inside himself."
Cairo looked at the floor for a moment before answering. "Because he is fighting something."
Then his voice dropped.
"Ayra… Zayn didn't grow up the way we did. He had to survive things. His family—especially his brother—they pushed him into things a normal kid shouldn't even witness. He saw violence, betrayal, and… he was taught that love makes you weak."
Ayra's lips parted. "He never told me."
"Of course not. Because now that he's finally feeling something real, he doesn't know what to do with it." Cairo stepped closer. "He doesn't know how to be gentle with something he thinks he'll eventually lose."
Silence.
Cairo exhaled. "I'm not telling you this to make you pity him. I'm telling you because I can see how much you care. And if anyone's ever going to break down that wall, it's probably you."
Ayra's heart was thudding now. A hundred questions rushed to her lips, but she couldn't ask any of them. Not yet.
Cairo stepped back, eyes a little softer. "But you deserve to know the full story before you decide whose heart you're going to carry."
And with that, he left.
Ayra stood still in the middle of the room, her emotions tangling like a thread unraveling too fast.
Zayn had been hiding scars behind that cocky smile.
Andnow she wasn't just in the middle of a love triangle…
She was in the middle of someone's healing