The night felt colder than it should have.
Reina stepped out of the restaurant hall slowly, the noise behind her fading into a distant blur of laughter, clinking glasses, and music that felt too bright for the ache spreading across her chest. The lights from the chandeliers spilled across the floor in warm shades of gold, but she felt none of it. Her steps were quiet, almost too quiet, as if she feared any sound might shatter what was left of her composure.
She wasn't running.She wasn't trembling.She wasn't crying.
But she felt something deep inside her collapsing in slow-motion.
Just minutes ago, Adrian had been smiling in the center of the table, charm glowing from him like another light in the room. He had laughed with his friends, teased a few people, flicked a playful glance at Reina once or twice, and she had thought—just for a moment—that maybe tonight was the night her heart could finally speak.
And then he had said those words.
"I want you all to meet someone."
The room had shifted.The air had frozen.Reina had forgotten to breathe.
And then…She walked in.
Soft smile. Confident posture. A girl who carried gentleness like a second skin. Adrian's long-distance girlfriend.
Reina had watched the scene string itself together like a slow, cruel movie she couldn't look away from. His hand rested on the girl's shoulder. Her fingers had curled around his arm. They looked comfortable, familiar, real.
She didn't know what to feel.
Now, standing outside the restaurant door, she still didn't.
She stood there in the corridor, the quiet hum of air-conditioned air brushing against her skin, when footsteps approached behind her.
"Reina."
Her breath hitched.
His voice.
She turned slowly. Adrian stood there, hands in his pockets, face soft with concern. His girlfriend was still inside, probably laughing with his friends, unaware that he had stepped away.
"You're leaving already?" he asked.
His tone wasn't teasing. It wasn't light. It was careful, like he sensed the storm behind her eyes.
Reina forced a small smile. "Yeah… got a headache."
It wasn't a lie. Something in her head was splitting.
Adrian stepped closer, lowering his voice. "You sure? I can drop you home."
She inhaled, deep and steady. She couldn't. Not tonight. Not when she felt like she was barely holding herself together.
"I'll manage. My auto is just a minute away."
He looked at her for a long moment — that studying look he always had when he wanted to read her thoughts. The look that once made her heart flutter.
Tonight, it felt like pressure against a bruise.
"Reina… if something's bothering you, you can tell me."
She almost laughed.Almost broke.Almost said, 'It's you.'
But instead, she simply nodded once. "I'm okay."
A small lie.A gentle lie.A necessary lie.
Adrian didn't push. He reached out and lightly touched her wrist—not even a second, but enough for her breath to catch.
"Text me when you reach?" he asked quietly.
Her throat tightened. "Sure."
She turned before he could see her eyes shine with unshed tears.
Before he could ruin her resolve to stay collected.
Before she fell apart.
The ride home was a blur.
Streetlights floated past her like faded constellations, the city noise rising and dissolving. Reina sat still in the backseat of the auto, her hands clasped tightly on her lap, her heart thudding in a strange rhythm—half numb, half breaking.
She replayed that moment in the restaurant again and again.
The announcement.The girl walking in.Everyone cheering.Adrian smiling like the world finally made sense.
Her chest tightened painfully.
I was stupid.I was actually stupid enough to hope.
She dropped her head slightly, letting her hair fall forward to hide her eyes from strangers passing by on the road.
By the time she stepped into her house, she felt like a shell of herself. Her mother looked up from the kitchen doorway.
"You're home early," she said, surprised.
Reina tried to smile. "The party ended."
Her voice didn't sound like her own.
Her mother scanned her face, eyes narrowing slightly. "You're looking tired."
Reina forced a soft, practiced smile. "Just sleepy."
Her mother didn't fully believe it, but Reina didn't stay long enough for questions. She slipped into her room and closed the door quietly behind her.
The silence hit her like a tidal wave.
The walls, the shadows, the faint glow from her night lamp—everything felt too close, too suffocating. She stood there for a moment, breathing hard, as if she had just run miles.
Then the first tear fell.
Just one.
Then another.
Then the flood she had been holding back all evening.
Reina covered her mouth with both hands as her body shook with silent sobs. She sank onto her bed, curling forward, her heart breaking in quiet, trembling pieces.
She cried for what she had hoped.She cried for what she had almost confessed.She cried for something that was never hers, yet somehow had felt like she had lost everything.
Her breath stuttered painfully as she whispered into her palms:
"Why does this always happen to me…"
And just like that, the past resurfaced.
Not creeping —but crashing.
Her mind dragged her back into a memory she hated—one she had buried but never defeated.
Her ex.
The shadowed figure who once colored her world and then drained it dry.
She saw his face — blurry and half lit by the glow of old memories. His smirk. The way he spoke. The way he pulled her in with sweet words, only to release her when it suited him.
She remembered the nights she had waited for him to show up.How she had called him again and again, clutching her phone like a lifeline.How he had ignored half the calls, cut the other half, and left her drowning in doubt.
You're too sensitive, Reina.Stop overreacting.Why do you always need attention?
She had believed him.She had made excuses for him.She had convinced herself that maybe she was the problem.
She remembered the last day—His back turning.His cold voice.His sudden silence.
And how she had begged, just once, for him to stay.
He didn't.
He never looked back.
Reina pressed her forehead against her knees and sobbed harder. That old wound reopened tonight, bleeding beneath the fresh bruise Adrian unknowingly dealt her.
It wasn't Adrian's fault.He hadn't betrayed her.He hadn't led her on.
But still… it hurt.
Because hope was dangerous.And she had dared to hope again.
"Why do I always end up feeling… not enough…"
Her voice cracked as she whispered the truth she feared:
"Why do I always lose people I want to keep?"
She stayed there like that for long minutes—broken, shaking, gasping for air that felt too heavy.
Outside, the night moved gently, unaware of the storm tearing her apart inside the four walls of her room.
Inside, Reina felt everything collapsing and rebuilding at the same time.
Her heart hurt.Her memories hurt.But somewhere inside the ache, a small voice whispered:
You survived worse. You will survive this too.
But she didn't feel strong.Not tonight.Tonight, she just felt like a girl who loved too gently and broke too quietly.
After what felt like hours, Reina wiped her face with trembling hands and looked at herself in the mirror across the room.
Her eyes were swollen.Her lips were trembling.Her mascara had smudged into dark shadows beneath her eyes.
She looked like someone who had been fighting a battle inside her mind — and losing.
She walked to the mirror slowly, placing her fingertips against the cold glass.
"Why do you expect people to choose you?" she whispered to her reflection, voice cracking. "When no one ever has…"
Her chest tightened again.
But as she stared at her reflection, she saw something else too.
A girl who had learned to heal.A girl who had survived heartbreak before.A girl who had started making friends again, laughing again, living again.
A girl who wanted to love — even if she didn't know how to stop breaking.
Her tears slowed.Her breathing steadied.
She wasn't okay.But she wasn't destroyed.
Not yet.
Not anymore.
She touched her cheek lightly, wiping the last tear.
"Maybe… maybe I just need time," she whispered softly. "Just time."
Her heart still ached fiercely.Adrian's smile still lingered painfully in her mind.The image of him standing beside his girlfriend still burned behind her eyelids.
But she didn't crumble again.
Instead, she stepped back from the mirror, took a long, steady breath, and climbed into bed, pulling the blanket over her legs.
The hurt was still raw.The disappointment was still deep.But the night didn't feel suffocating anymore.
Just quiet.
Just heavy.
Just real.
Reina closed her eyes slowly.
Maybe tomorrow, everything will still hurt.Maybe the next day too.But she would learn to breathe again.
Because that's what she always did.
Survive.Break.Heal.Repeat.
And even if tonight had shattered something inside her, she knew one thing for sure—
This time, she would rebuild differently.Stronger.Wiser.Softer with herself.
She only hoped her heart would let her.
The night outside her window gently faded into the first whisper of dawn as Reina finally drifted into exhausted sleep —not peaceful, not calm,but real.
And sometimes, that itself was enough.