The park was quiet that evening, the kind of quiet where even the breeze seemed careful not to disturb the silence. A girl sat alone on a weathered bench, her shoulders curved inward as if she carried more than the weight of the world. Her eyes traced the ground, heavy with thoughts no one else could see.
He noticed her from a distance, something in the way she looked both fragile and strong at once. Without overthinking, he walked over, stopping just a few steps away.
With a small, almost nervous smile, he said, "I'm too lonely to die… wanna grow old with me instead?"
She blinked, startled at first, then looked up. For a moment, her sadness wavered, caught off guard by the strange, vulnerable honesty of a stranger's words. Something softened in her expression. something almost like hope.
It was at that moment, looking face to face on a fading park bench, that everything started. Everything changed.