Chapter :70
"The Love We Were Afraid to Lose"
Morning had finally arrived.
The storm that had raged through the night had faded into silence. The rain had stopped, and the world outside seemed almost peaceful again. Soft golden rays of sunlight slipped through the clouds, illuminating the school grounds with a fragile warmth. The air was cool and pleasant, carrying the fresh scent left behind by the rain.
Inside the storeroom, however, everyone was still asleep.
The door remained locked from the inside. Apart from Hasnain, not a single person had awakened yet.
Hasnain had been awake for nearly thirty minutes.
He sat quietly near the window, his eyes fixed on Sana.
She was sleeping peacefully, her head resting on Afra's shoulder. Her face was calm and completely unaware of the world around her. The exhaustion of the previous night had finally given her a moment of peaceful sleep.
Hasnain had intended to look at her for only a moment.
But that moment had stretched into minutes.
And somehow, he still couldn't look away.
The longer he watched her, the more precious she seemed to him. There was something about her peaceful expression that made his heart feel strangely full. The affection he had been trying so desperately to hide seemed to grow stronger with every passing minute.
He didn't even realize how long he had been staring.
Until Miss Selena quietly walked over and sat beside him on the edge of the window.
She gently bumped her shoulder against his in a teasing manner and gave him a knowing smile.
"Who are you looking at so lovingly?"
Hasnain suddenly snapped back to reality.
He blinked and looked at her, as though he had just realized that someone else was in the room.
He had completely lost track of time.
Miss Selena followed the direction of his gaze.
Her eyes moved from Hasnain...
to Sana.
The answer became obvious immediately.
A small, amused smile appeared on her face.
She leaned slightly closer and lowered her voice so that only Hasnain could hear.
"Have you told her how you feel about her, or are you just going to keep staring at her like this?"
"Tell her...?"
Hasnain repeated softly.
He fell silent for a few moments.
Then a faint, almost helpless smile appeared on his face.
"I'm scared."
Miss Selena's teasing expression disappeared.
"Scared of what?"
Hasnain lowered his gaze.
"Of losing her."
His voice was quiet, but the fear behind those words was unmistakable.
"Whenever I look at her, I become afraid to look away. It feels like... if I take my eyes off her for even a moment, I'll somehow lose her."
He swallowed.
"And now things have reached a point where I'm afraid all the time."
His eyes returned to Sana.
"Besides... she doesn't like me."
"Did she ever tell you that?"
Hasnain shook his head.
"She doesn't really say anything."
A sad smile touched his lips.
"But her eyes say everything."
He paused.
"Whenever she looks at me, I've always felt like there's hatred in her eyes."
Miss Selena watched him thoughtfully.
"I don't think she hates you. I think that's simply how you're interpreting it."
She glanced toward Sana.
"Otherwise, why would she hate you?"
Then she looked back at him.
"My advice is simple, Hasnain. As soon as you can, tell her what is in your heart."
She fell silent.
Hasnain remained quiet for a moment before finally speaking.
"I'm just scared..."
His voice trembled slightly.
"Every moment, I'm afraid of losing her."
He took a slow breath.
"What if I tell her how I feel and she starts misunderstanding me even more? What if she says no?"
His eyes became distant.
"How would I live without her?"
That thought, more than anything else, was what kept him from getting closer to Sana.
"It is that fear that keeps forcing me to stay away from her."
He looked at Sana once again.
Miss Selena listened silently.
Then she spoke gently.
"If you never tell her what you feel, how will she ever know?"
Hasnain looked at her.
"So, if you ask me, tell her."
Her voice softened.
"But once you do, don't leave her alone. Stay beside her. Hold on to her hand and don't let her feel abandoned."
A faint smile appeared on her face, though sadness lingered behind it.
"Girls can be very sensitive, Hasnain. Sometimes, when someone gives us even a little genuine attention, we begin to treasure it. And before we realize it, we start longing for that person's attention every moment."
She tried to smile.
But her smile couldn't hide the sadness in her eyes.
There were tears quietly gathering there.
Hasnain noticed.
He didn't say anything.
After a moment, Miss Selena wiped away the emotion from her expression and whispered,
"Come on. Let's go outside. Everyone is still asleep. We shouldn't wake them."
Hasnain nodded.
Before leaving, he looked around the storeroom and noticed a large wooden door lying against the wall in one corner.
He carefully picked it up and carried it toward the window.
Without making a sound, he positioned it beside Sana so that the morning light—and later their absence—wouldn't disturb her sleep.
He stood there for another few seconds, quietly watching her.
Then, reluctantly, he followed Miss Selena outside.
As soon as he stepped onto the terrace, he found Miss Selena standing near the low wall, both hands resting against it as she looked down at the school grounds.
The campus looked strangely peaceful after the storm.
Puddles of rainwater reflected the golden morning sunlight. Leaves trembled gently in the cool breeze, and the wet ground glistened beneath the early sun.
Hasnain walked over and stood beside her.
For a few moments, neither of them spoke.
Then Miss Selena broke the silence.
"You know..."
Her voice was unusually quiet.
"We girls are very fragile when it comes to our hearts."
She stared at the school grounds.
"Sometimes, a single word spoken with affection is enough for us to believe that someone truly belongs in our lives."
Her smile faded.
"And I'm one of those girls."
Hasnain turned toward her.
Miss Selena continued.
"I was deceived in the name of love."
Her voice cracked slightly.
"After that, I started believing that every love I received from this world came with a hidden price."
She lowered her eyes.
"Because when that man left, the part of me that knew how to love... shattered with him."
Silence followed.
Hasnain watched her carefully.
After a while, he finally asked,
"What happened to you?"
Miss Selena lifted her eyes from the school grounds and looked at him for a few seconds.
Then she turned her gaze away again.
"It happened almost ten years ago."
Her voice became distant, as if she were returning to a memory she had spent years trying to bury.
"I was at university."
She smiled faintly.
"One morning, I went to university like I always did. But that day became one of the most beautiful days of my life."
She paused.
"It was around ten in the morning when he proposed to me in front of our entire class."
A faint blush of old memories appeared on her face.
"And I said yes immediately."
For a brief moment, she looked genuinely happy.
"After that, we were happy together."
"Every moment we spent with each other seemed brighter than the one before it."
"He slowly made me so accustomed to his presence that I couldn't imagine spending even a single moment without him."
She looked down.
"And our relationship continued like that."
Her smile disappeared.
"At least... I believed it was love."
She took a shaky breath.
"But during the final year of university, he disappeared."
Hasnain's expression changed.
"He left me?"
Miss Selena said with the pain she buried under the last corner of her heart.
"Without a word."
Her eyes filled with tears again.
"He simply disappeared."
A tear slipped down her cheek.
Hasnain waited before asking softly,
"Did you try to find him?"
"Many times."
Miss Selena took a deep breath.
"His parents had already passed away, so he had no family I could contact. He lived alone in a rented apartment and worked part-time at a factory."
She wiped her cheek.
"I went to his workplace and asked his colleagues about him."
Her voice became quieter.
"They told me he had gone to China."
Hasnain remained silent.
"I still tried to find him."
She gave a bitter little laugh.
"I tried again and again. But he never came back."
"And he never answered my messages."
"Not a single call."
She stared into the distance.
"He made me so dependent on his presence and then disappeared as though he had never existed."
Her voice broke.
"And I..."
She paused.
"I was foolish enough to mistake his game for love."
The wind moved gently through her hair.
"After he left, I lost my faith in love."
She looked down at her hands.
"And even after all these years, I still haven't been able to rebuild that trust."
Hasnain stood beside her in silence.
He didn't know what words could possibly comfort someone who had carried the same wound for nearly a decade.
Miss Selena still had her phone with her. She reached into the pocket of her coat and slowly pulled it out.
After unlocking the screen, she opened an old photograph.
In the picture, a much younger Miss Selena stood beside a young man.
Both of them were smiling.
She looked almost like a different person—young, carefree, and completely unaware of how painfully that happiness would eventually end.
Hasnain glanced at the photograph.
"Is that him?"
Miss Selena gave a faint smile.
"His name was Neil."
She turned the phone toward Hasnain.
The photograph showed Neil standing beside her, smiling warmly at the camera.
He was a handsome young man with fair skin, short brown hair, and an average height that somehow made him look taller beside Selena.
Hasnain studied the photograph for a moment.
Then he looked at Miss Selena.
She was staring at the picture as though she could somehow return to those days simply by looking at it.
But memories had a cruel way of showing people what they could never have back.
Neither of them spoke.
They simply stood side by side, looking down at the school grounds while the morning sunlight slowly grew brighter around them.
After a long silence, Miss Selena finally spoke.
Her voice was soft.
Almost like a prayer.
"I sincerely hope that you and Sana always stay together."
She lowered her eyes.
"Don't let fear make you lose something that might become the most beautiful part of your life."
Hasnain looked at her.
And for the first time, he understood that Miss Selena wasn't merely giving him advice about love.
She was speaking from the ruins of her own..