Chapter Twelve: Words That Matter
It happened on an ordinary day.
No rain.
No dramatic buildup.
Just a quiet afternoon when the world felt unusually still.
Feifei and Kael sat on the school steps after classes ended, watching students trickle out slowly. The sun hovered low, casting long shadows across the ground.
"I never asked," Feifei said, breaking the silence. "Why you transferred."
Kael didn't answer immediately.
Then, "Things fell apart where I used to live," he said carefully. "Not all at once. Slowly. Until staying felt worse than leaving."
She nodded. She understood that kind of collapse.
"My parents fought a lot," he continued. "I learned early how to stay quiet. How to not make things worse."
Feifei looked at him then. "That's why you don't talk much."
"Yeah," he said. "And why I notice people who do the same."
Her breath caught.
"You noticed me?"
He smiled faintly. "From the first day."
She looked down at her hands. "I thought being quiet made me forgettable."
"No," Kael said firmly. "It just makes people like us invisible to the wrong ones."
She let that sink in.
After a moment, Feifei spoke again. "I'm scared of needing people."
"That makes sense," he replied. "Needing people means they can disappoint you."
She swallowed. "But I don't want to be alone either."
Kael turned toward her fully now. "Then maybe the answer isn't choosing between independence and connection."
She looked at him.
"Maybe," he continued, "it's choosing people who respect both."
Something settled inside her.
They didn't promise anything that day.
Didn't label what they were becoming.
But as they stood and walked away together, Feifei felt lighter.
Words mattered.
And for the first time, she felt like hers had finally been heard.