Stay By My Side - Chapter 10

She had gone to the little café.

Sitting alone inside, she picked up a small piece of paper and carefully wrote:

“Perhaps Kelsey won't come here with me a second time. This place is too sad for anyone carrying a sorrowful heart.

The things I said to Kelsey were only my way of fighting against the feelings that had begun to take root inside me. I don't want to fall into another pit that fate may already be preparing for me.

It's like an injured animal caught in a trap. No matter what happens, the next time it sees a similar trap, it will never go near it again.

Another rainy summer day.

Perhaps the rain will carry away everything from the past that has remained inside my heart, turning it all into tears and returning it to the distant memories of yesterday.

Every hope I once had for him ended yesterday, when I saw him walking beside another woman into a church.

Goodbye, my first love—the love that brought me so many tears and so much pain.

I will leave.

I will go somewhere filled with sunlight and wind, to a place of my own, where the rivers meet after the storm has finally passed.”

Stay by my side.

The afternoon breeze swept gently across the river.

The quiet water seemed to sleep peacefully beneath the sunlight, slowly awakening beneath the golden glow.

She sat on the riverbank, staring blankly into the distance, her eyes fixed on a world that seemed to have lost all meaning.

Suddenly, she looked up.

A pair of hands was shielding her face from the harsh sunlight above.

“Why did you know I was here?”

“I went to the little café looking for you. The waitress told me you'd been there a few days ago.”

He paused.

“When I was desperate and had no idea where else to look, I remembered the little notes you'd written. I realized that whenever you're sad, this is where you come to hide.”

Tears welled up in her eyes.

Her lips trembled.

“Stay by my side, whether the world outside is raging with storms or resting in peace.”

His voice was soft but unwavering.

“I'll love you quietly. I'll stay beside you quietly and wait until you come to me. I'll wait until every storm inside your heart has finally fallen asleep.”

She lowered her eyes.

“What… what am I supposed to do when it's so difficult to begin again—to love someone and trust someone all over again?”

“We'll stay together and take care of that love, one day at a time.”

He looked at her gently.

“One day, you'll realize that life isn't filled with lies, and that not everything is meaningless.”

He smiled.

“And when that day comes, that's when love will finally bloom.”

He reached for her hand.

“I'll stay beside you until we reach the end of the road—a place where there is no more pain, no more tears left to fall.”

She lowered her head against his chest.

His strong arms wrapped around her, and for the first time in a long while, she allowed herself to believe that perhaps she was safe.

She knew tomorrow might still bring difficulties. There might still be storms waiting ahead.

But she would find her way back to herself.

She would give her heart a new path.

A path leading toward the sky where he was waiting for her—

a place where a new love could finally take root, quietly blooming after all the storms they had survived.