Malik wasn't looking for Sonia that night.
In fact, he was planning to avoid everyone — Angela, Peter, even the worship team group chat that wouldn't stop blowing up. His body was fasting, but his soul was tired.
He walked into the back of the chapel, where no one ever prayed anymore. The lights were dim. Quiet hummed through the air. And then — he saw her.
Sonia.
She was kneeling.
Her shoulders shook, but she made no sound.
Then something happened that Malik couldn't unsee.
She pulled her sleeve down — quickly — but not quick enough.
The scar. The soft pink. The way she winced when the fabric touched it.
He froze.
She didn't see him.
He left immediately.
---
That was months ago.
But since then?
Malik had been carrying the weight of two secrets — his own addiction, and the quiet suffering of a girl no one checked on.
---
📍Present Day, Just After Peter's Outburst in Class
Malik finds Sonia outside, sitting under the mango tree beside the back gate. It's her hiding place. He knows. Because it's his too.
He walks over, stands in front of her, unsure if his voice will betray him.
> "Sonia."
She looks up, startled.
Wipes her eyes quickly.
> "Hey... thought you'd be off somewhere with Angela and Peter, saving the world."
He doesn't laugh.
He sits.
Silence.
Then:
> "I saw it," he says quietly. "That day. In the chapel. You didn't know I was there."
Sonia stiffens.
Her eyes go cold.
Her lips press tight.
> "You saw what?"
He meets her gaze.
> "The sleeve. The scar. I saw… you."
Sonia tries to stand, but her knees buckle a bit.
Malik catches her gently.
> "Don't touch me," she whispers. "Please. Don't."
> "I didn't come to pity you, Sonia."
> "Then what? To preach? To tell me God can heal what I've already tried to bury?"
His voice shakes.
> "No. I came to confess."
Sonia pauses. Confused.
> "Confess?"
Malik looks at the sky, then back at her. His chest tight. His soul undone.
> "That I know what it's like to want to die... while looking like you're fine."
> "That I've worshipped with sin still sticky in my mouth."
> "That I've been addicted. Ashamed. Afraid."
> "And I kept quiet because I thought people only loved you if you looked whole."
Sonia's face softens, but tears are already running. She doesn't bother hiding them this time.
> "Why now?" she whispers. "Why tell me now?"
Malik's voice drops.
> "Because I don't want to keep watching you bleed when I know healing lives where two people tell the truth."
> "And maybe… maybe we're both tired of lying."
---
Silence.
But this time, it was safe.
A stillness that didn't demand quick fixes or spiritual slogans.
Just two people — broken, bleeding — sitting under the sky together.
Breathing.
---
Sonia didn't say much after that.
But she didn't walk away.
And when Malik stood to leave, she reached for his hand.
Just held it.
No prayer. No promise.
Just presence