They stayed like that five minutes.
Maybe ten.
Neither of them knew.
Their sobs blended together.
Their bodies shaking, trembling.
Aera finally found the strength to move.
She grabbed a towel.
A big pink cotton towel.
And she placed it slowly, gently, onto Nari's back, covering her shivering body as if she were laying a sheet over a living wound.
— Nari… listen to me… whispered Aera, her voice broken.
You haven't lost him.
He'll come back.
He loves you too much to let you go.
The sentence slipped into Nari's heart like a drop of water on burning stone.
And suddenly, a tiny light lit up.
A micro-hope.
A breath.
In her mind, a scene formed by itself, like an escape:
Sion knocking on her door.
Out of breath.
Eyes red from crying.
Hands trembling.
He would burst in.
Grab her by the waist.
Lift her against him.
Hold her as if she were the last living thing in the world.
He would press his forehead against hers, their breaths warm, urgent, mingled.
— Nari… forgive me… don't leave me…
I love you…
I love you so much it's killing me…
He would kiss her everywhere.
On her neck.
In her hair.
On her hands.
On her bruises.
He would pull her against his chest, his fingers sliding through her wet hair, his lips on her temple.
And she would finally be able to breathe in his warmth.
She would open her arms.
Hold him.
Keep him for a long time.
A very long time.
Too long.
A world where everything that hurts would disappear.
Nari reopened her eyes.
She had started breathing again.
Aera helped her stand up, slowly, as if every movement could break a bone.
She dried her.
Dressed her in a large, soft, warm T-shirt.
Slipped fluffy socks onto her feet.
Then guided her to the bed.
Aera's room smelled like vanilla and dried flowers.
A cocoon.
A refuge.
Aera pressed a kiss to her warm forehead, like a sister, like a mother, like someone who truly loves.
— Rest, okay?
Tomorrow… you'll see your beloved.
I promise.
Nari blinked.
— … Aera?
— Hm?
— Why are you… so nice to me?
Aera stayed still for a second.
Then she smiled — a soft smile, fragile, almost ashamed.
— I like you, that's all.
And I will never abandon someone I love.
The silence that followed wasn't just silence.
It was a weight.
A shroud.
A void opening between them.
Aera lowered her head.
Her fingers gripped the hem of her pink T-shirt nervously, wrinkling it again and again.
Her shoulders hunched, as if she were suddenly carrying an entire world on her back.
— … actually… you remind me a bit of myself, she murmured, her voice almost inaudible.
Nari straightened instantly, as if someone had pulled a string tied to her heart.
Aera inhaled.
For a long time.
She clenched her teeth.
Then the words spilled out in one tremor, fragile, almost childlike.
— When I was little, I had a boy I cared about a lot, she began, her voice delicate.
As we grew up, we became inseparable, I loved him more than anything.
He was my world, my joy.
He was always smiling, always doing stupid things with me, he was like a light in a dark world.
Her body trembled.
A fine, continuous vibration, like a sheet of paper about to tear.
Nari felt a tear rise without even knowing why.
Aera's voice cracked even more.
— We got together.
I was the happiest girl alive — back then I was still in high school.
I kept telling myself: "That's him. That's the person I'm going to spend my life with."
Then… he started to change.
Little by little.
So slowly she didn't see it coming.
She swallowed, painfully.
Her eyes stayed lowered, unable to meet Nari's.
— He started to… isolate me.
He said my friends were jealous.
He said they wanted to steal me.
He said they were using me.
And I… I was stupid enough to believe him.
Her voice fractured.
— I ended up alone.
Completely alone.
To the point other students started mocking me…
harassing me.
Just because he threatened them behind my back so they'd stop coming near me.
A tear slid down Nari's cheek.
Not for herself.
For Aera.
For the pain vibrating in every word.
Aera breathed in, then continued — as if the story was pouring out of her against her will.
— And then… one day… he raised his hand against me.
Nari's heart clenched violently.
— I didn't want to believe it.
At first he cried, apologized, said he was afraid of losing me, that he loved me too much…
And me… I was so in love I forgave him.
Again.
Again.
Again.
She finally lifted her eyes.
Two eyes full of tears, full of wounds that never closed.
— But the hits… started coming more often.
Heavier.
More violent.
Every time I came home late.
Every time I spoke too politely to someone.
Her voice snapped.
— I refused to admit it… because I thought that's what loving someone meant.
Being ready to die for him.
She looked straight into Nari, intensely.
— Do you understand why I worry about you… now?
Nari stayed still, breath caught, hands gripping the blanket, trembling.
Aera continued, in a voice so soft it hurt even more.
— One day, my mother found the bruises.
All of them.
She called the police.
And… since then…
She exhaled, a broken breath.
— … I never heard from him again.
Silence fell again.
Thick.
Sharp.
Almost sacred.
Two girls.
Two survivors.
Two hearts in pieces.
And in that silence, Nari understood something:
Aera wasn't helping her because she was kind.
Not because she wanted to play the heroine.
But because she recognized in Nari's eyes the same shadow she had once seen in her own…
years ago.
A shadow that said:
"I love him.
I love him too much.
I love him to the point of losing myself."
And Aera would not let the story repeat itself.
The night was long.
Not the kind of night where you sleep because you're tired.
Not a night of ordinary rest.
No.
A night where two exhausted souls finally found a place to fall
without shattering.
In Aera's pink bed, surrounded by oversized plushies, fairy lights, and the scent of clean laundry,
Nari and Aera told each other everything.
Everything they had never told anyone.
Their secrets.
Their fears.
Their scars.
Their impossible loves.
Their childhood wounds.
Their hidden violences.
Their dreams they thought were dead.
They talked until the words faded on their own, replaced by soft, heavy, essential silences.
Then, like two little girls who had finally found refuge,
they fell asleep against each other,
in a heavy, deep, healing sleep,
as if the mere presence of the other was a medicine laid over an ancient wound.