People avoided her. Let her have her silence, her space. She made sure of it.

But Kael… he didn’t follow her like others did. He didn’t hover. He didn’t beg. He just… appeared. Like the wind. Like a storm warning that never quite hit but always loomed.

She found him again, this time sitting on the sea wall near the edge of town.

Same quiet eyes. Same maddening stillness.

She should’ve walked away.

She didn’t.

Instead, she stopped, arms crossed, hair tangled in the wind. “If you’re going to keep showing up, you might as well say something worth hearing.”

Kael glanced up, unbothered. “You think silence isn’t worth hearing?”

She scoffed. “I think it’s easy to hide behind.”

A pause. The corner of his mouth lifted—barely.

That one cut deeper than she let show. Her jaw tightened.

“You don’t know me.”

His eyes met hers—dark, steady, searching.

“Not yet.”

The words were simple. But they landed like thunder.

She hated how her heart skipped. She hated how the wind felt warmer for a second.

Without another word, she turned and walked away.

But her footsteps weren’t as steady as they used to be.