…but this lifetime, she didn't know the cost of finding him again.
The night was quiet, but Elena's thoughts were anything but. She replayed their meeting over and over, like a song she couldn't turn off. That look in Adrian's eyes
— the mix of relief, longing, and something unspoken — refused to leave her mind.
It was unsettling, the way her chest tightened whenever she thought of him. She barely knew him, yet she couldn't shake the strange sense that she had been waiting for this moment all her life.
Maybe she had.
The next day, fate — or perhaps something else entirely — placed them in the same path again. She was walking toward the small café near campus when she saw him, leaning casually against the wall as though he had always belonged there.
Her steps faltered.
"Adrian?"
A slow smile spread across his face. "I was hoping you'd show up."
She raised a brow. "Hoping? Or waiting?"
He didn't answer, just held her gaze until the air between them felt heavy with everything unsaid.
Finally, he spoke. "Elena… do you ever feel like you've been here before? Not here exactly, but… like you've lived parts of this already?"
Her lips parted, but she hesitated. "What do you mean?"
"In another time," he said softly, "you were mine. We didn't meet like other people do. We found each other — after fighting through storms, after losing everything. And when we were torn apart, we made a promise. No matter how many lifetimes it took… we'd find each other again."
The words sank into her like drops of water seeping into dry earth.
She wanted to laugh, to tell him it was absurd. But deep inside, something stirred.
A flicker of memory she couldn't place — running through a moonlit courtyard, hands clasped, laughter mixing with fear. The echo of his voice swearing they'd never be apart. And then… the sound of her own sobs as his figure disappeared into darkness.
Her breath caught.
"Elena," Adrian said, stepping closer, "I can't explain how I know this, but we've been here before. And I'm not going to let the same ending happen again."
She searched his face for any sign of a joke, but there was none. Only that strange, aching sincerity.
She didn't know whether to run from him or toward him. But one thing was certain — whatever bound them together, it wasn't ordinary.
And if the past was any clue, love between them would never come without a fight.
Somewhere unseen, the very same shadows that tore them apart before began to stir — patient, waiting, and ready to try again.