Chapter 1 : The boy I meet in the village

I never thought a place as quiet as my village could hold something that would later change the way I understood love.

It was the kind of village where mornings came slowly, where people greeted each other like time was not something to chase but something to live inside. Dust rose gently from footsteps, and laughter always seemed to travel farther than voices.

That was where I met him.

He came to stay with his uncle, who was a close friend of my father. At first, he didn’t feel special in any way that I could explain. He was just… there. Another boy passing through a place that never really changed.

But there was something about the way he existed in silence.

He didn’t talk too much, but when he did, it felt intentional. He listened more than he spoke. And somehow, without trying, he started becoming part of my daily life.

It began with small things.

I would go on errands, and sometimes our paths would cross. He would ask simple questions about the village, and I would answer like I knew everything, even when I didn’t. There was a strange comfort in those moments—like we were both pretending not to notice how often we were finding reasons to be around each other.

Then came the notes.

He struggled sometimes with his studies, and I helped him when I could. Sitting beside him, pointing out lines in his books, correcting small mistakes—it felt normal at first. But over time, I started noticing things I didn’t plan to notice.

The way he looked at me when I explained something. The slight smile he tried to hide when I got serious. The way silence between us didn’t feel empty.

It felt full.

Back then, I didn’t have the language for what I was feeling. I just knew that when he was near, my day felt different. Lighter. Sharper. More alive.

And without warning, he became my favorite part of a place I once thought was too quiet to ever hold anything important.