Years later, Elara stood once more in the sunflower fields. The breeze carried the scent of earth and grass, and for a moment, she swore she heard faint guitar strings drifting in the air.
She closed her eyes. She saw him there—Kai in the sunlight, smiling, calling her name. For a fleeting heartbeat, it felt real.
When she opened her eyes, the fields were empty. Only the wind remained, brushing gently through her hair.
Elara smiled sadly. She touched the pendant around her neck, where she had folded a piece of his letter long ago.
"Goodbye, Kai," she whispered into the breeze.
The sunflowers bent in the wind, as if bowing with her.
And in that quiet, golden moment, she knew: some loves were not meant to last forever. Some were meant to bloom once, burn bright, and then fade—like summer itself.
The breeze carried her whisper away, across the hills, into the wide world Kai had chosen.
Elara turned back toward her cottage, where her eternal sunflower waited on canvas—forever golden, forever alive.
But inside her chest, where love once burned like fire, there was only the soft ache of longing, and the silence of a promise broken.
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🌻 The End.