Chapter 1
The sky over Bangkok completely ruptured, unleashing a blinding wall of tropical rain that blurred the neon signs of the city into streaks of bleeding light.
In the midst of the chaotic street, the downpour spared no one.
Manussha stood completely drenched, the heavy water plastering her long, thick wavy hair against her face and shoulders. She wore a red striped sleeveless peplum top paired with blue jeans, her cherry earrings swaying violently with every frantic movement she made. Her red cut shoes were soaked, stepping through the puddles as she looked desperately all over the wet road.
Her tote bag hung loosely from her shoulder, completely wet.
She was weeping. Her tears washed down along with the rain, blurring her vision as she searched wildly for the one thing she could not afford to lose.
Her diary.
It wasn’t an ordinary notebook. It was a repository of her hidden soul, a sacred space containing her whole world—every sketch, every unsaid feeling, and every silent yearning she had kept locked away from reality.
The rain crashed loudly against the ground, but Manussha couldn’t resist the desperate urge to keep searching. She dropped to her knees, her heart breaking in complete grief as she stared at the empty, wet street.
Where is it? her mind screamed. I lost my whole world.
From behind her, a tall figure stopped.
Naravit hadn’t just stumbled upon this street by chance. He had been looking for her, searching through the blinding gray curtain of the storm until his sharp eyes instantly recognized the familiar height, the slope of her shoulders, and the thick texture of her wavy hair. It was a silhouette he had memorized when they were just fourteen years old.
Without a second thought, Naravit ran through the downpour, his footsteps splashing heavily against the pavement as he finally closed the distance to the only girl who held his entire heart.
Manussha sat frozen on the ground, completely consumed by the despair of her loss.
Suddenly, a pair of expensive black leather shoes stepped into her narrow field of vision, wet from the storm as they halted right next to her.
Naravit stood tall, his broad-shouldered frame hovering over her. He was dressed in a simple black long-sleeve tee that was already darkening from the rain, paired with loose blue jeans. He bent down in the downpour, his long, pale fingers reaching out. As he moved, the small red string tied around his right wrist stood out starkly against his skin.
He had no glasses on. The rain ran down his sharp facial features, causing strands of his dark hair to fall damply across his forehead. His intense gaze took in the complete, heartbreaking mess of the girl before him. Without saying a word, he took the jacket he had been carrying tightly in his hand and draped it gently around her shoulders, covering her from the biting cold of the storm.
Manussha’s breath caught in her throat. Startled by the sudden warmth, she stood up and slowly turned around.
Seeing her this close—and in such a broken state—Naravit felt his carefully constructed armor completely shatter. The icy, untouchable mask he wore for the media dissolved into the rain, leaving his raw, aching heart entirely exposed.
Their eyes met.
Those deep, intense eyes. The exact ones that had always made her heart flutter, the ones that had always made her tend to look away. They were the very eyes she had spent seven long years trying to erase from her memory.
Manussha looked down immediately, her pulse hammering against her ribs. She had never, in her wildest dreams, expected to meet him here, at a moment like this.
She had lost her diary—her written world—but the real world was suddenly standing right in front of her, offering her a silent, comforting presence.
Instantly, the familiar terror surged inside her. Manussha’s avoidant defense mechanism screamed like a loud siren in her brain.
Run. He’s too close. You’ll ruin his life again. Just run.
Panicking, she turned her body away, forcing her feet to take a step forward to walk away from him.
But Naravit had held himself back for too many years. He refused to let her vanish into the shadows again. Remaining perfectly still in the middle of the raging downpour, his deep voice cut through the noise of the rain.
“You’re still looking away, Manu?”
The sound of her nickname—spoken in that familiar, quiet cadence from their old school days—completely froze her. Manussha stood glued to the wet ground, her muscles locking as she found herself entirely unable to move.
“I read what you wrote,” Naravit said softly, his voice burning with an emotional depth through the rain. He took one slow, gentle step forward—not to force her to stay, but to offer his entire existence as her anchor. “You thought you were hiding from me all these years. You thought you were protecting me by disappearing without a trace.”
Manussha felt a wave of icy numbness wash over her. Her mind went completely blank, the words trapping themselves in her throat.
“But you are just a deer running through the fog, Manu. Terrified of being caught.”
A hot tear, entirely distinct from the rain, slipped down her cheek.
“So, I became the forest,” Naravit whispered, his voice cracking with a vulnerability he had hidden from the world. “For seven years, I have just stood still in the silence, holding the trees wide...”
He stepped closer, standing right in front of her, his broad shoulders completely shielding her fragile form from the harsh wind. Slowly, he held out the damp, black diary, his eyes completely locking onto hers, refusing to let her look away this time. He wanted to make sure she knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she was completely safe. That she didn’t have to run from him anymore.
Manussha stared at the notebook in his hands, completely speechless. Every single word he spoke resonated deep within her soul.
Because of her deep-rooted defense mechanisms, her instinct was always to pull away, to isolate herself before anyone could hurt her. But deep down, beneath the thick walls she had built, she had always wanted this. She had always yearned for a person who would make her feel secure, comfortable, and truly wanted. Someone who would hold onto her tightly without ever hurting her.
As she looked into his unwavering eyes, a quiet realization settled into her mind.
He never let go. He was always waiting.
