She placed the bottle back down gently.
"I'm glad you're okay," she whispered.
His voice was low, raw.
"You always knew when I wasn't."
"Still do."
That landed like something neither of them could unfeel.
He looked down at her, expression unreadable, and for a second, the silence wrapped around them again - heavy with everything they couldn't name.
And yet, so full of things they never stopped carrying.
The pill bottle sat untouched now.
Aaliyah didn't step back.
Christian didn't move.
There was barely a breath between them.
Just enough space for all the feelings neither of them had words for.
She looked up at him. At the tired eyes, the way his mouth tensed like he was holding back a million things. The way he was pretending this didn't ache.
"I miss this," she said quietly. "Us. The way it used to be."
His throat worked.
"Before the tour?"
She nodded. "Before everything got... complicated."
He studied her for a second. Then said, almost too softly:
"You mean before I left?"
That hit her. Because it was true.
She bit her bottom lip.
"Yeah."
Another beat.
"I didn't want to go, Aaliyah."
"But you did."
"Because I had to. I didn't know how to stay... without telling you the truth."
Her brows knit. "What truth?"
He didn't answer.
Didn't need to.
His eyes dropped to her lips - just for a second.
And that second was enough to shift the entire air between them.
Her breath caught.
"Christian..."
"I know."
He stepped closer.
She didn't move.
Didn't want to.
She tilted her chin up ever so slightly, like her body remembered exactly how close they used to stand, how he used to touch her hair when she was talking too fast.
Their faces were inches apart now.
Everything in her told her to back away.
But everything in her wanted to stay right there.
Then, barely above a whisper:
"I wish I could go back," she said. "To before you left. To before I said yes to someone else."
His jaw clenched, like it hurt to hear it.
He leaned in just slightly - so close she could feel his breath on her cheek.
"So do I."
Their eyes closed at the same time.
No words.
YOU ARE READING
If I Stayed | Christian Yu
FanfictionAaliyah Morales is weeks away from marrying a good man. A man who loves her. A man who isn't Christian Yu. Christian- her childhood best friend, the boy who grew up beside her, the artist whose name now lights up billboards, the one she never quite...
CHAPTER THIRTEEN - 아직도 이해할 수 있어?
Start from the beginning
