There are days when even the sun feels tired of shining.
Days when the laughter fades before it even reaches your lips.
That's what this day felt like for Jackim Ochieng too quiet, too bright, too heavy.
He sat alone in his penthouse office, high above Sue City. Below him, life carried on cars honked, people rushed, lights flickered but inside, everything felt distant. Cold. Like he was watching the world from behind glass.
His phone kept buzzing. Reporters, investors, fans everyone wanted a piece of his time. Everyone except the two people who once made that time feel worth something.
Lina hadn't called in two days.
Ariana had sent only one text:
"We need to talk."
And in the life of a man who had faced assassins, fake deaths, and billion-dollar wars, those four words scared him the most.
That evening, he drove to Ariana's villa. The road was quiet, lined with jacaranda trees shedding purple petals. He used to love this route back when it was filled with laughter and stolen kisses. Now, it felt like a walk to judgment.
Ariana was waiting on the balcony when he arrived.
Hair tied up, no makeup, wearing one of his old hoodies , the one with a small coffee stain near the pocket. She hadn't returned it since their first night together.
When she saw him, she didn't smile.
She just looked at him like she was staring at someone she used to know.
"You're alive," she said softly.
"I am," he replied. "And I missed you."
She looked away. "The world didn't. You've become their hero, their symbol, their… entertainment."
Jackim sighed. "Is that a bad thing?"
She turned sharply, eyes glistening. "It's not you, Jackim! I fell in love with a man who used to walk in the rain, who laughed at cheap jokes, who'd stop to help an old lady cross the road. Now you're… this global figure with bodyguards and hashtags."
Her voice cracked. "You don't belong to me anymore. You belong to fame."
He didn't know what to say. For a man who could negotiate billion-dollar deals, his tongue suddenly felt useless.
He tried to step closer, but she stepped back. "Don't," she whispered. "If you come any closer, I might forgive you. And I don't want to."
Jackim clenched his fists. "Ariana, everything I've done all this was to make sure I'd never be powerless again. Not like before. Not when people laughed at us."
"I didn't fall for power!" she snapped. "I fell for you ,the boy who once told me he'd build an empire just to buy me lunch without worrying about the bill."
Her words hit harder than any bullet.
She sat down, shaking her head. "Do you even remember the last time we had coffee without cameras around?"
He stayed silent.
"Exactly," she whispered. "You keep saying success changed people around you, but maybe… you changed too."
The silence that followed was brutal. You could hear the heartbeat of regret between every breath.
Then she said something that tore through him completely:
"I love you, Jackim. But maybe love isn't enough for men who live like gods."
She handed him a folded note and walked inside, closing the door gently behind her.
He stood there, staring at the door, unable to move.
The note said only one sentence:
"When the world stops watching, find me again."
Jackim drove aimlessly after that ,past the highways, through the city lights, until the rain started falling.
It felt almost symbolic, the way it always rained when his heart broke.
He parked by the roadside, lowered the window, and just sat there — watching raindrops slide down the glass like time itself was crying.
Then, unexpectedly, someone knocked on the window.
Lina.Soaked, shivering, eyes red.
She'd tracked his car using a tracker she secretly placed weeks ago "just in case." Typical Lina ,clever, stubborn, soft-hearted.
He rolled down the window slowly. "You shouldn't be out here."
"I couldn't find you," she said, voice trembling. "You weren't answering. I thought… after what happened with Ariana…"
Her voice trailed off as she saw the pain in his eyes.
Without asking, she opened the door and slipped in beside him.
They sat in silence, rain drumming softly on the roof.
Finally, Lina spoke.
"You know what's funny?" she said, forcing a weak smile. "You can buy everything ,cars, companies, even headlines. But you can't buy peace."
Jackim chuckled dryly. "If I could, I'd pay double."
She looked at him. "You've lost weight."
"Yeah," he said. "Seems stress burns more calories than jogging."
That made her laugh through tears. And somehow, that tiny laugh fragile and pure felt like sunlight after days of storm.
Then she said something soft, almost a whisper:
"Do you ever miss being nobody?"
He turned to her. "Every damn day."
She nodded. "Me too. I miss when you'd brag about silly things like finishing an instant noodle packet faster than me."
He smiled faintly. "Those were good times."
"They were real times."
The car grew quiet again.
Then she reached out, gently touched his hand, and said, "Jackim, I don't care about your fame. I care about the boy who used to carry extra change for matatu fare. The one who helped his neighbors even when he had nothing."
Her voice cracked. "I just want to know if that boy's still alive."
Jackim swallowed hard. "I don't know. Sometimes I look in the mirror and see a stranger wearing my face."
"Then let's find him again," she whispered.
He looked at her, eyes tired but full of warmth. "And what if I hurt you again?"
"Then I'll heal again," she said simply. "Because loving you hurts less than losing you."
At that moment, the System chimed quietly in his head , its tone softer than usual, almost human.
System Task: "Choose the woman who truly loves you."
Reward Locked Until Sincerity Test Completed.
He frowned. "Not now," he muttered under his breath.
Lina blinked. "What?"
"Nothing," he lied quickly. But the System didn't stop.
New Prompt: "Emotion Conflict Detected. HeartSense Active."
Analyzing emotional signals around you…
And suddenly, he felt it ,not like a voice, but like energy.
Ariana's pain echoing through memory.
Lina's warmth radiating right beside him.
Both real. Both deep. Both… love.
But one was pulling him toward peace.
The other toward chaos.
And he wasn't sure which one he deserved.
He finally turned off the car engine.
"Lina," he said quietly, "what if I told you I'm scared of happiness?"
She looked at him, puzzled. "Why?"
"Because every time I touch it," he said, eyes distant, "something or someone gets hurt."
Lina leaned her head on his shoulder. "Then stop touching it. Just let it sit beside you for once."
That made him smile.
The rain stopped after an hour. The air smelled of wet earth and second chances.
They walked outside, no umbrellas, just silence and puddles. Jackim looked up at the cloudy sky and whispered, "System, what's the right choice?"
For the first time ever, the System didn't respond.
Just a single glowing message hovered before his eyes:
"This one… you decide on your own."
He exhaled deeply.
Maybe that was the point some things, no amount of power or system guidance could decide for you.
Days passed, and the world moved on from the "Fake Death" saga. But inside Jackim, a storm kept brewing.
He'd attend meetings, smile for cameras, launch new ventures — but at night, he'd sit on the balcony, staring at two pictures on his phone: one of Ariana laughing with wind in her hair, and one of Lina asleep on his shoulder in that rain-soaked car.
Both meant home.
Both meant heartbreak.
He often joked to Kelvin, "Bro, I'm not in a love triangle. I'm in a love maze with no exit."
Kelvin would laugh. "You're rich enough, just buy a GPS."
But behind the jokes, even Kelvin knew — Jackim's heart was cracking quietly, piece by piece.
One evening, during a live interview, a journalist asked:
"Mr. Ochieng, with all your success, do you believe you deserve love?"
The studio went silent.
Jackim looked straight at the camera.
And for the first time in a long time, he answered not as a businessman, not as a system host, but as a man.
"No," he said softly. "I don't think anyone deserves love. You don't earn it. You don't buy it. You just… get lucky when it finds you."
He smiled faintly. "And sometimes, you get unlucky when it leaves."
The internet exploded with reactions — memes, tears, praise.
But behind that viral moment, a single truth echoed:
For all his bragging, all his victories, Jackim Ochieng was still just a man searching for peace in the noise.
That night, the System whispered again:
System Update: "Emotion Sync Achieved."
Reward Unlocked: HeartSense Level 2 — Ability to Detect True Intentions.
And beneath that, one final message appeared:
"Love can't be bragged about. Only felt."
Jackim smiled tiredly. "Finally, you're learning."
He leaned back on his chair, eyes closing as city lights flickered below him.
For once, he wasn't bragging.
He was just breathing.