Chapter 1
ORIGINAL WORK - PLEASE BE MINDFUL
The story cover is NOT my work.
A love without time
Mika always thought she’d have time—time to discover the world, to find her place, and, someday, to understand love. But when the doctor told her she had only three months to live, it felt like her world had been turned upside down. Mika had grown up without parents, shuffling between foster homes, never really knowing what it meant to belong. She’d heard people say, “You were never shown affection as a child, so you’ll never be able to offer it to anyone, no matter how hard you try.” Maybe that was true; she’d never been in love, never felt anything close to what people described in books and movies. Part of her worried she’d never know what it felt like.
Then she met Koa.
Koa, with his calm confidence and effortless charm, was her opposite. He was twenty-nine, six years older than her, and he’d dated plenty of women before her. Mika was aware of his past, which only made her feel more inexperienced, like a novice in a game he’d mastered. And part of her felt envious—wondering if she would ever be enough, if she could make him feel anything real.
To Koa, Mika was different from anyone he’d ever known. The women he’d dated before came and went, each one nice and easygoing but never quite enough to leave a mark. Mika, on the other hand, seemed to see the world in a way that drew him in completely. She was clever, cautious, and guarded in ways that intrigued him. She had this quiet way of lighting up over small things, as though each new experience were something precious. With her, he felt more alive than he ever had with anyone else. Koa didn’t just want to be near her; he wanted to know her, to uncover every story behind her guarded smile.
They started spending time together, and Koa found himself falling fast. He could see that she held back, that she’d grown up with walls around her heart, never learning what it meant to be loved. But he didn’t care about any of that; in fact, it only made him want to show her how much she deserved.
Then, he found out.
One day, Koa overheard Mika on the phone with her doctor, speaking in a voice so quiet he barely recognized it. He was about to knock on her door when the words stopped him cold.
“Three months,” she whispered. “Just three months left.”
The rest of the conversation faded to a blur in his mind, replaced by a single, crushing thought: he was losing her. All he wanted was to break down the door, to hold her and tell her he was there, that she wouldn’t face this alone. But he didn’t. Mika hadn’t told him for a reason—she didn’t want to be loved out of pity or fear. She wanted to be loved for who she was. Koa decided then and there that he would give her everything he could, that he would show her what love was, even if it meant hiding what he knew.
In the weeks that followed, Koa poured his heart into every moment. They went on spontaneous road trips, picnicked in wildflower fields, and spent quiet evenings dancing under the stars. He took her to her favorite places, and they stayed up until dawn just talking, watching the world turn around them. He wanted her to feel loved in a way that was real and complete, to know that she was enough.
At first, Mika didn’t question it. She thought maybe, after all these years, she’d finally found someone who saw her for who she really was. She felt herself opening up to him, sharing pieces of her past that she’d kept hidden, her heart slowly breaking free of the cage she’d built around it. She felt, for the first time, that she belonged.
But as the days passed, doubt crept in. Mika began to notice little things—how Koa would look at her with a mix of sorrow and admiration, as if he were trying to memorize her face, as if he were saying goodbye without words. It felt too perfect, too intense, and it left her wondering: did he know? Was he doing all of this because he felt sorry for her?
One evening, as they watched the sunset over a quiet lake, Mika couldn’t hold back any longer. She turned to him, her voice barely a whisper. “Koa… are you only with me because I’m dying?”
He looked at her, taken aback. “Mika, no. Why would you think that?”
She looked away, her voice breaking. “It just… it feels like you’re trying so hard to make me happy. Like you’re afraid of what happens if you don’t. It feels like pity.”
Koa took her hands, pulling her close, his voice soft but steady. “Mika, I’m not here because I feel sorry for you. I’m here because I love you. Do you know what it felt like to realize I’d spent years with people who made me feel nothing like this? You… you make me feel alive. None of them were like you.”
Her eyes filled with tears as he continued. “I know people say that those who didn’t receive love don’t know how to give it. But that’s not true. You’re proof of that. You have this light in you, Mika, something that no one else has ever given me. I don’t know how much time we have, but I know I want to spend every moment of it with you.”
In that moment, Mika felt a warmth she’d never known before—a feeling of being seen and loved in a way she hadn’t thought possible. She realized that she didn’t need a lifetime to understand love. In Koa’s eyes, in his voice, she had found everything she’d been searching for.
For the next few months, they shared a love that was pure and honest, filling each day with laughter, adventure, and the quiet peace of simply being together. They took endless photos, wrote letters to each other, and made promises that they knew they couldn’t keep but wanted to believe in anyway. Koa would write little notes to her, telling her how much she’d changed his life, and Mika would tuck them away like treasures, as though each word held a lifetime’s worth of love.
The day Mika slipped away, Koa was by her side, holding her hand, whispering that he loved her. And though he felt the ache of losing her, he also felt a strange peace, knowing that Mika had finally experienced what it meant to be loved and cherished. Her presence would stay with him always, a part of his heart that would never fade.
In the years that followed, Koa felt Mika’s absence like a pang that never healed. Everywhere he looked, she was there—a laugh caught in a memory, her scarf draped over a chair, notes she’d left with words he’d memorized. Sometimes he’d reach for his phone, wanting to tell her something simple and sweet, only to remember she was gone. On quiet nights, he would sit under the stars they’d once traced together, the world turning quietly without her, as he wondered how he could ever feel whole again. She’d been the only one who made him feel truly alive, and now, she was the part of him he’d never get back.
* Mika (ミカ) – A short form for Mikazuki, meaning ‘new moon’ in Japanese, symbolizing new beginnings.
Koa is a boy’s name of Hawaiian origin that means “warrior,”*
