Stay By My Side - Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Kelsey found a little happiness in every day he spent walking beside her, while she found in him someone she could talk to, someone who would listen when she needed to share the things she kept buried inside.

She laughed more whenever they talked, especially whenever she looked at that innocent, honest, ridiculously baby-faced expression of his.

They each carried their own thoughts, their own little worlds. Yet whenever they sat together chatting or discussing something they both loved, they somehow discovered an endless source of inspiration in each other.

Sometimes life felt lighter simply because there was someone willing to listen.

And sometimes, having someone who talked to you made you realize that you could care about another person, too.

In those moments, the burdens weighing on your heart seemed to grow lighter.

Yet for so long, she had kept everything bottled up inside, enduring it all alone. Perhaps that was why the exhaustion, helplessness, and sense of having nowhere to turn had eventually become so overwhelming.

“Ciara must have been really beautiful back then, huh?”

“Do you mean I'm ugly now?”

“No, that's not what I meant. Your appearance has just changed. I only said that because when I saw that old photo of you, you had long black hair. It looked a little strange to me.”

“Why do you men always seem to like women with long hair?”

“Because we like the beauty of Eastern women. And we like Vietnamese hair.”

She fell silent, looking at the photograph in Kelsey's hand.

A faint, bitter smile touched her lips.

“That time is long gone. It's all in the past now. Time passes, and people change with it.”

“But some things last forever.”

“Nothing stays unchanged.”

“Some things do.”

“What things?”

“Love. Love doesn't change.”

He looked straight into her eyes as he said it, his voice firm with certainty.

She gave a cold, crooked smile.

“Have you ever been in love, Kelsey? One day, you'll understand. You'll hate love when someone throws you out of their life.”

“I…”

He hesitated.

“Not yet…”

She left him standing there, still stunned by the coldness of her answer.

He knew so little about her—not really her, and certainly not the past she had lived through. That past must have been as dark and heavy as the way she now looked at life and at the people around her.

She led him to a familiar café, a place she had once visited alone whenever she needed somewhere different to breathe, somewhere that belonged entirely to her.