Chapter 01:One Tick
When God decides to give you someone special… why does He place them so far away?”
That was the first thing I wrote in my diary after meeting him.
At the time, I didn’t know a stranger from another country would slowly become the person my heart searched for every day.
It started on the Unbordered app.
Just another random notification.
Just another stranger saying hi.
At least that’s what I thought.
His profile said he was from America.
Todd.
Twenty-four.
A smile that somehow looked both kind and distant at the same time.
Normally, I ignored messages from boys online.
Most conversations never lasted anyway.
But that night, for some reason…
I replied.
Hey 😊
Simple.
Nothing special.
Yet somehow, that one reply changed everything.
At first, our conversations were casual.
Where are you from?
What do you do?
What time is it there?
The usual things strangers ask before disappearing forever.
But he didn’t disappear.
Days turned into weeks.
Weeks turned into routines.
And slowly, without warning…
He became part of my everyday life.
I started waiting for his messages.
Checking my phone more than usual.
Smiling at random notifications like an idiot.
And the worst part?
He was easy to talk to.
Too easy.
Somehow, conversations with him never felt forced.
We could talk about music, life, random jokes, deep fears, or absolutely nothing at all.
And still…
I never got tired of him.
Then one evening, while we were talking on WhatsApp, he suddenly said something that stayed in my mind for months afterward.
“I don’t really believe in long-distance relationships.”
My heart sank slightly after reading it.
At the time, I told myself it didn’t matter.
We were just friends anyway.
Right?
Still, something about those words hurt more than they should have.
Maybe because even then…
A small part of me was already falling for him.
I tried to ignore it.
Tried to stay normal.
But every voice call made things worse.
Especially at night.
There was something dangerous about hearing his voice in the dark.
Soft.
Sleepy.
Comforting.
Sometimes we stayed on calls for hours without realizing it.
Sometimes he’d laugh quietly when I became too quiet.
Other times, he’d simply stay on the phone while I fell asleep.
And every single time…
My feelings grew deeper.
The scary part was that he never promised me anything.
Never flirted too much.
Never lied.
In fact…
He warned me from the beginning.
“I can’t be what you want.”
But my heart was stupid.
Because instead of walking away…
I stayed.
One night after our call ended, I opened my diary immediately.
My emotions felt too heavy to keep inside anymore.
So I wrote:
“I really need you in my life.”
“When we talk, my whole body misses someone I’ve never even touched.”
“I know this is probably wishful thinking… but I think I’m falling in love with you.”
I stared at those words for a long time afterward.
Then quickly closed the diary in embarrassment.
Because deep down…
I already knew something terrifying.
This was not just a crush anymore.
And no matter how much I tried to deny it…
The boy from America was slowly becoming the person my heart loved most.
