CHAPTER 2 — Five Years Too Late Time has a way of changing everything—voices, faces, even the things we once thought would last forever. For Leon Kael Rivera, it took five years for the world to turn him into someone new. Not harder.Not colder.Just… quieter in a different way. The quiet of acceptance, not loneliness. He stood inside the art gallery as warm lights settled on the charcoal paintings he spent years perfecting. People murmured softly around him—art critics, casual visitors, strangers who admired the shadows he once poured his heart into. But Leon wasn’t nervous.Not today. His heart felt steady, like someone who finally understood the rhythm of his own life. He wasn’t the boy who used to wait on a rooftop anymore.He wasn’t the boy whose world softened every time a certain girl smiled. He was simply Leon.No longer someone’s secret universe. And he was okay. --- ❖❖❖ Aria Valle Monteverde hesitated at the gallery doors. She didn’t know why her hands were trembling. Maybe it was shock. Maybe nerves.Or maybe guilt—heavy, suffocating guilt she carried for five long years. She heard Leon was exhibiting his art. She told herself she came out of curiosity.Out of support.Out of nostalgia. But the truth hit her the moment she stepped inside: I wanted to see him.I wanted to know if he was still the same.I wanted to know… if I still matter. The scent of clean wood and old paper filled the room as she walked with careful steps, her heart racing faster with every sketch she passed. City skylines.Silent stairwells.Lonely rooftops. Scenes she recognized. He still draws the places we shared… But when she reached the last wall—the one where the lights were warmest—she stopped breathing. It was a portrait.Of a girl. Faceless, but unmistakable. Aria felt her knees weaken. Me…? The soft shape of the shoulders.The familiar posture of someone hugging her knees.The messy hair that she always tried to tame. It was her.A memory frozen in charcoal. A memory she never knew meant that much to him. And stabbed by that realization— What else did he feel that I never saw?What did he carry that I never noticed? Her throat tightened as someone approached. “Aria?” Her heart dropped. Slowly, she turned. --- ❖❖❖ Leon stood there—gentle, composed, older in a way that didn’t make him distant, just unreachable. He had grown into his features.Jaw sharper.Eyes calmer.Smile… softer, yet not the same softness she remembered. No longing.No hesitation.Just polite warmth. “Leon…” she breathed. He nodded once, hands in his pockets, voice calm and steady: “It’s been a while.” The words felt like a blade—not because they were cold,but because they were so… normal. As if she were just another past acquaintance.As if five years hadn’t meant anything. She forced a smile.“Yeah. Five years.” Leon’s gaze moved briefly to the artwork behind her. “I didn’t think you’d come.” “I… wanted to see your work.”I wanted to see you. He didn’t answer that. Instead, he gestured around. “Thank you. It means a lot.” Again with the polite tone. Not familiar.Not intimate.Not “her Leon.” A stranger’s. --- ❖❖❖ Aria gently touched the edges of the faceless portrait. “You drew this,” she whispered. Leon nodded. “Yeah.” “Is it… based on someone?” He paused for half a second. Her heart begged him to say yes.To say it was her.To say she still lived somewhere inside him. But instead: “It used to be.” Used to. Past tense.Final.Closed. Aria swallowed the sting crawling up her chest. “You’ve changed,” she said softly. Leon gave a small, peaceful smile—the kind that didn’t hide anything nor reveal too much. “People grow.” His voice had no bitterness.No resentment.No heartbreak. Just acceptance.A kind of calm she didn’t know he once fought so hard to have. She felt her eyes warm. “I’m glad you’re doing well,” she whispered. Leon nodded. “I hope you are too.” That simple kindness shattered her more than any distance could. --- ❖❖❖ “Leon…” He turned to her fully then, waiting—not with anticipation, but with patience. She bit her lip, voice breaking. “Do you ever think about the past?” Silence.She wondered if he even needed to think. “No,” he said gently. “Not anymore.” Her chest caved in. The boy who once cared too muchnow cared…just enough. Not enough for her.Not anymore. A tear escaped before she could stop it. “I see.” Leon blinked in surprise. “Aria—” “I’m fine,” she lied, wiping her cheek quickly. “I just… I should have said this a long time ago.” He waited. She inhaled, trembling. “I think I loved you, Leon.” The room felt like it exhaled for her.Too late.Too painfully late. Leon didn’t move.Didn’t flinch.Didn’t look hurt. Just… sad.For her.For the time they lost.For the version of him she only realized too late. “Aria,” he whispered, “I cared for you. A lot.” Past tense.Always the past. “But people change. Feelings change. And… I don’t want you to hurt yourself holding onto something long gone.” Aria pressed a hand to her chest, as if she could hold the pieces together. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “You don’t have to be,” Leon said softly. “We were young. We didn’t know better.” But she did now.And that was the tragedy. Leon gently stepped aside to greet another guest, giving her a small, respectful nod before walking away. Aria stood there, staring at the portrait that once captured her in a moment she never realized meant everything to him. Tears fell quietly. “He fell first…” she whispered shakily,“…but I fell late.” The universe didn’t wait.It never did. To be continued.

CHAPTER 1 — The Day He Started Falling

CHAPTER 2 — Five Years Too Late

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When the Stars Fell Out of Sync

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