Stay By My Side - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The sound of the rain grew heavier, blending into the endless stream of thoughts running through her mind.

For so long, she had believed that painful memory had ended on that afternoon. Yet even now, every once in a while, it still came back as a sharp ache, as though the wound in her heart had never truly healed—still bleeding from the love she had given for the first time, and from the first great fall of her life.

Her cheeks felt cold.

She drifted off to sleep without even realizing it, a single tear still clinging to the corner of her eye.

Then her phone rang.

She fumbled for her handbag, her voice heavy with sleep.

“Hello?”

“Excuse me, is this the number for Ciara?”

“Who is this?”

She woke up properly and rubbed her eyes at the strange way he had addressed her. She almost burst out laughing, but instead tried to sound serious.

“How do you know me? And how did you get my phone number? Who are you?”

“Slow down. I'm only human, you know. I can't answer everything at once.”

“I’m the representative of the company you came to interview the other day.”

“How do you know my nickname?”

“You left a folder at my office. I happened to see it and found out about that name of yours. It's quite an interesting nickname.”

“Oh, is that so?” She suddenly remembered. “The baby-faced guy!”

His unexpected phone call pulled her out of her hazy memories and brought her back to reality.

And from that day on, they began to know each other.

They discovered that they had similar tastes, that conversations between them came easily, and little by little, they became friends rather than a journalist and a company representative.

Kelsey was twenty-seven, young, energetic, and full of passion. He poured everything he had into the work he was pursuing, yet his soul was always filled with a playful sense of humor and endless curiosity about life.

He knew he was younger than her, but he always tried to act mature whenever he was around her. Unfortunately, his eternally youthful face betrayed every attempt he made to appear older.

One evening, they wandered along the streets during rush hour.

He quietly turned to look at her as she walked beside him, apparently lost in thought. Her sun-bleached golden hair caught the fading light, while her long, curved lashes cast delicate shadows over her eyes.

For some reason, his heart seemed to beat a little faster.

He was startled when she gently nudged his arm.

“Come on.”

And so they continued walking.

Sometimes they were like old friends. Sometimes they were colleagues. Sometimes he was simply the familiar contact she turned to whenever she needed an opportunity to collaborate on a story.

They also shared a love of exploring places neither of them had ever been before.