Chapter –2

I used to think that distance only meant living far away from someone.

I was wrong.

Sometimes, someone can still be a part of your life and yet slowly start feeling far away.

After graduation, things started changing.

He got a job, and suddenly our lives didn't look the same anymore.

Earlier, seeing each other was normal. We could meet, study together, talk for hours, or just sit around doing nothing.

Then work happened.

He became busy. Our calls became shorter. The long conversations became less frequent. The little updates about our day slowly became fewer.

At first, I tried not to complain.

I understood that he had responsibilities now. He had work, family, and a completely different routine.

And honestly, I trusted him.

I didn't need him to talk to me every minute of the day.

I just wanted to feel that I still mattered in his life.

So whenever we couldn't talk, I tried to understand.

Whenever he was busy, I waited.

Whenever I missed him, I reminded myself that things were simply different now.

I kept telling myself,

“This is what growing up looks like.”

Maybe it was.

But somewhere along the way, I started missing the little things.

The random calls.

The long conversations at night.

Studying together.

Telling each other about the most boring parts of our day.

Even the simple feeling of knowing that if I needed him, he was there.

Still, I didn't think our relationship was falling apart.

I thought we were just going through a different phase of life.

And because I trusted him, I never imagined that trust itself would become the thing I would struggle with later.

Then one day, he told me he wanted to go on a trip with some friends.

It was supposed to be for a few days.

There were two boys and two girls in the group.

I wasn't comfortable with it.

I told him honestly that I didn't want him to go.

Maybe I was being insecure. Maybe I was simply uncomfortable. I don't know.

But I told him how I felt.

And after that conversation, I thought the matter was over.

I didn't know that he would go anyway.

I didn't know that he wouldn't tell me.

And I definitely didn't know that a trip I knew almost nothing about would become the moment when something inside me changed.

At that point, I still believed that no matter what happened, he would tell me the truth.

I was wrong.

And I was about to find out just how much one hidden truth could change a five-year-old relationship.