That day, the rain fell softly. Again.
As if the sky knew… someone in Room 205 was trying to make peace with a wound no human eye could see.
Rey sat by the window, hugging his knees, as usual.
He wore a worn gray hoodie, his hair slightly longer than the last time Aurel came, and his gaze was empty—fixed on the mist forming on the glass.
Nurse Rani entered with a small box wrapped in old brown paper.
"This is for you, Rey," she said.
Rey turned his head. "From who?"
Nurse Rani smiled.
"From someone who once waited for you… but now waits for someone else to come home."
Rey fell silent.
His hands trembled as he accepted the box.
---
It wasn't a large box.
Inside were three things:
1. A worn notebook filled with Aurel's handwriting
2. An old photograph—of them both on a hill, Rey smiling awkwardly, and Aurel sticking out her tongue
3. A final letter
Rey opened the notebook first.
---
> "This isn't a diary.
It's a place where I kept the pieces of you still living in my mind."
> "Every time I woke up and you weren't beside me, I wrote.
Every time I missed you but couldn't tell anyone, I wrote.
Every time I wanted to give up and marry someone else, I wrote."
> "Until one day… I stopped writing.
Because I stopped hoping."
The pages were filled with scribbles.
Some were torn, some had ink smudged from tears.
But every word was real.
And every word was about Rey.
---
Rey opened the final letter.
> To Rey, the man who once held all of my heart.
Today, I no longer wait for you to come home.
Because I know… you're still fighting to come home to yourself.
But I want you to know:
I never hated you.
I just learned to accept reality.
You're a good man, Rey.
You didn't fail.
You were simply defeated by time.
I will raise my child with the kind of love I learned from you:
Love that doesn't demand.
Love that doesn't blame.
And if one day, you heal…
I want you to visit my house.
Not to disturb my life—
But to have dinner, as two old friends who once saved each other.
Don't die in this dark place, Rey.
I'm done waiting for you.
But you…
You're not done waiting for yourself.
—Aurel
---
Rey didn't cry.
Not that day.
He simply closed the letter slowly…
And placed it gently on the table.
His eyes turned to the now-brightening window.
And for the first time in months…
He stood up—on his own, without anyone's help.
---
A few hours later, Nurse Rani came back into the room—only to be surprised.
Rey was folding his clothes.
"Where are you going?" she asked in a panic.
Rey gave a faint smile.
"I'm not going anywhere. But I want to tidy up. Maybe tomorrow morning I can help clean the garden. Or read the paper to some of the other patients."
Rani said nothing.
But her face softened—somewhere between confusion and quiet emotion.
Rey looked at her and said:
"She's no longer waiting for me.
Now… it's my turn
to wait for myself to come home."
---
Elsewhere in the city, Aurel sat beside a bed, gently holding the hand of a newborn baby—just two days old.
Her eyes were tired. Her body exhausted.
But her heart… was calm.
"His name is Reyhan," Aurel whispered.
Damar sat on the other side of the bed, gazing at the baby with a faint smile.
"What if he asks why his name is Reyhan?" Damar asked softly.
Aurel turned to him, then replied:
"I'll say…
it's because someone once taught me that true love isn't about having.
It's about letting go—
with a whole heart."