The day came sooner than either of them wanted.
Elena woke up to the sound of rain, soft at first and steady, as if the sky itself had chosen to mourn. She sat at the edge of her bed, staring at her hands. They still remembered the warmth of Adrian's hands. The way his fingers had curled around her wrist when he finally admitted his fear. That memory lingered, both comfort and pain.
Her phone buzzed.
I'm leaving today. Can you meet me at the pier?
No greeting, no soft words, just that.
Her heart sank, but she typed back: I'll be there.
The pier stretched into the black and gray horizon, its wooden planks slick with the rain. Seagulls wheeled overhead, their cries sharp against the endless hush of the sea. Elena slowly walked toward their meeting location, the rain splashing her face down to her body, the wind against her hair and skirt, until she saw him.
Adrian stood near the end, his duffel bag at his feet, hair damp from the drizzle. He looked different somehow, though nothing about his appearance had changed. Perhaps it was the weight in his stance, the way he seemed both rooted and ready to vanish.
"You came," he said, his voice barely audible above the waves and the rain hitting the wooden planks.
"Of course I did."
For a long moment, neither of them moved. The rain fell between them, stitching silence into every second. Adrian took off his waterproof jacket and walked toward Elena. He carefully placed the jacket above her head, covering her head and torso from the cold rain, just like how much he wanted to cover Elena from the reality they are facing now.
Finally, Elena broke the silence between them. "So this is it?"
Adrian's jaw tightened. "For now."
Her chest squeezed. "You can't even say how long you'll be gone?"
He shook his head. "I don't know. It could be months, maybe even longer."
She wanted to scream at him, tell him it wasn't fair, that he couldn't just walk into her life, change the routine she was used to, and then disappear. But instead, her voice came out small, weak, fragile. "What am I supposed to do while you're gone?"
"Live," he said softly. "Draw. Paint. Don't wait for me to the point you lose yourself."
Her eyes began to burn with her tears. "But... what if waiting is all I can do?"
Rain dripping down his face, his hand lifting as if to touch her, but it stopped midair before falling back. "Elena... If I had a choice, I'd stay. Every day. But this-" He gestured helplessly toward the horizon. "This is who I am, and I hate it because for the first time, leaving here feels like tearing myself apart."
Her breath caught.
The rawness in his voice stripped away all her anger. All that was left was grief and longing.
They sat on the edge of the pier, side by side, the sea stretching endlessly before them. The rain had eased, the air damp and heavy. Elena leaned into him, her shoulder against his, memorizing the shape of him. His warmth, his strength, the way his presence steadied her even now.
"I don't want this to be goodbye," she whispered weakly.
He turned to her then, eyes dark with something unspoken. "It's not."
"Then what is it?"
His lips curved faintly, though it didn't reach his eyes. "It's... a promise. I'll come back here. That I'll find my way back here."
She studied him, trying to hold every detail in memory. The curve of his jaw, the faint scar near his temple, the way his eyes softened only when he looked at her. "Promise? Do you mean it?"
"I swear it." His hand finally found hers, fingers intertwining. His grip was firm, almost desperate. "I'll write. Call when I can. And when it's quiet at night, look at the stars because I'll be looking at them too."
Elena swallowed against the lump in her throat. "You're asking me to hold onto the sky?"
"I'm asking you to hold onto me."
Just as the two take their time, a sound of an approaching vehicle broke the moment... Adrian's ride.
He let go of her hand and stood, slinging the duffel bag over his shoulder, and for the first time since she met him, Elena saw a soldier, not just a man. The straight lines of duty settled back into him, even as his eyes lingered on her with something unbrearably human.
She stood too, trembling. "Adrian..."
He cupped her face with one rain-damp hand, his thumb brushing her cheek as though trying to erase the tears before they fell. "This isn't goodbye, Elena. Not for us."
Her lips parted, but no words came. Instead, she leaned forward, closing the space between them. She finally let go of her tears she had been holding for a while now.
The kiss was nothing like the ones in her sketchbooks or the stories she had imagined in quiet moments. It was messy with rain, desperate with time running out, fierce with everything they hadn't said. A collision of fear and growing love, of wanting to hold on a bit longer, knowing they had to let go soon.
When they finally broke apart, both were breathless.
Adrian stepped back, his eyes staring into hers, memorizing her as if she were the only thing keeping him on his toes. Then, with one last squeeze of her hand, he turned and walked toward the waiting vehicle.
Elena stood frozen, the rain soaking her through. She watched him get into the vehicle. As the vehicle moved and began taking Adrian away from her, she chased the vehicle while tears stained her cheeks.
Adrian refused to look back; he knew if he did, he would get back into her arms. As the vehicle disappeared, she stopped and watched helplessly at the disappearing vehicle until there was nothing left but his promise and the salt taste of him still on her lips.
Only then did she whisper under her breath, voice breaking like the sea against rocks. "Come back to me..."
That night, Elena opened her sketchbook.
Her pencil moved without a thought, sketching the pier, the sea, the rain, and at the center were two figures, holding hands beneath a sky that had begun to clear. She shaded in stars where there had been clouds, her own small act of defiance against the black and gray.
It wasn't a goodbye.
Not yet
Because she believed him.