Chapter 1:(the boy that walked her home)
Some people arrive so quietly that you never notice the exact moment they become a part of your soul🖤...
The first snow of November drifted lazily across the sleepy Finland countryside, covering the pine trees in delicate white and turning every rooftop into a painting. The village of Koivula, nestled between endless forests and a crystal-clear lake, always looked as though time had forgotten it.
Life moved slowly there.
The church bell rang every Sunday morning.
Children rode bicycles along narrow roads lined with birch trees.
Neighbors greeted each other by name.
Nothing extraordinary ever happened.
Until Ivy met Ryan.
She was eleven years old.Too young to understand why some people made your heart feel strangely lighter simply by standing beside you.
It happened on an ordinary school morning.
The classroom buzzed with chatter as students settled into their seats, their laughter filling the room. Ivy sat near the window, tracing invisible shapes on the fogged-up glass while watching snowflakes dance outside.
"Ivy."
She looked up.
Her neighbor, Emma, stood beside her desk with a boy she'd never seen before.
"This is Ryan," Emma said brightly. "He just transferred here."
Ryan smiled.
It wasn't the loud kind of smile that demanded attention.It was quiet.
Gentle.
The kind that made people feel safe.
"Hi," he said.
"Hi."
That was all.
Just one word.
Yet somehow...
Neither of them would ever forget it.
Weeks passed.
Ryan quickly became part of Emma's circle of friends, which meant he often found himself walking beside Ivy after school.
He wasn't talkative.He listened more than he spoke.
When Ivy complained about mathematics, he laughed.
When she forgot her lunch, he quietly shared his.
When she tripped over tree roots on the way home, he pretended not to notice so she wouldn't feel embarrassed.
Little things.
Tiny moments.
The kind that never seem important until years later.
Sunday mornings became their favorite tradition.
Their families attended the same church.
Every week, Ryan would wait patiently outside until the service ended.Without asking, he'd carry Ivy's Bible whenever it became too heavy for her small hands.
Then they'd walk home together beneath towering pine trees, talking about school, books, and dreams far too big for children their age.
The road wasn't long.
Yet Ivy secretly wished it never ended.
One evening, after walking her safely to her gate, Ryan turned to leave.
Then he stopped.
"You should go inside before it gets colder."
"What about you?"
"I'll be okay."
"You always say that."
Ryan laughed softly.
"Because it's true."
She watched him disappear down the quiet road until his figure became nothing more than a silhouette against the falling snow.
Only then did she go inside.
Her mother noticed.
"So..."
Ivy looked up from removing her shoes.
"Who is that boy?"
"No one."
"He walks you home every Sunday."
"We're just friends."
Her mother exchanged a glance with her father.
Neither of them said another word.
But something had already begun to change.That night, Ivy lay awake listening to the wind brushing against her bedroom window.
She couldn't explain why seeing Ryan made her happy.
She didn't even know what the feeling was.
She only knew...
Church felt brighter when he was there.
The walk home felt shorter.
And somehow...
The little village of Koivula no longer felt quite so ordinary.
Outside, snow continued to fall in silence, covering the roads, the rooftops, and the footprints they had left behind together.
Neither Ivy nor Ryan knew that childhood has a quiet way of making promises.
Promises that time would one day test.And somewhere beyond the frozen forests, destiny had already begun writing a story neither of them was old enough to understand....
