She stopped touching him first.
It was small things that Elion noticed. She no longer stood close when they spoke. She moved her chair farther away at meals. When their hands almost brushed, she pulled back as if burned.
He told himself it was nothing.
But loneliness had trained him to recognize the early signs of abandonment.
One morning, she announced she would start sleeping on the floor.
"There is more space," she said, not meeting his eyes.
He wanted to argue. He did not.
That night, the room felt colder than before.
Days passed. Words grew fewer. The warmth that once lived between them faded into something tense and fragile. Elion carried conversations alone while she answered in careful pieces.
He started returning home later.
Not because he wanted to leave her. Because staying hurt too much.
One evening, he found her standing by the door with her cloak in hand.
"I should go," she said.
The words echoed through his chest.
"Where" His voice came out rough.
"I do not belong here," she replied. "You should not carry someone like me."
Someone like me.
Those words cut deeper than any insult.
"You are not a burden," he said.
She finally looked at him then, eyes wet but distant. "You say that because you are kind. Not because it is true."
Silence stretched between them.
"You deserve something gentle," she continued. "Something that does not wake you in the night. Something that will not leave scars."
"And you think that is not you"
She shook her head slowly. "I know it is not."
He took a step closer. She stepped back.
The space between them felt unbearable.
"Please," he said quietly. He did not know what he was asking for. For her to stay. For her to choose him. For love not to leave again.
She turned away.
"I do not feel what you feel," she said.
The lie was soft. Careful. Almost convincing.
Elion nodded.
He had heard worse truths spoken more gently.
That night, he lay awake listening to the silence she left behind in the room. He did not cry. He had learned long ago that tears did not change outcomes.
But something inside him closed.
If love was going to hurt like this, then distance was the only way to survive.
And so he let her go.
Even though every part of him wanted to beg her to stay.