Chapter 15: The Answer

5 0 0
                                        

Summer ended slowly, as if reluctant to say goodbye.

Final exams passed. Clubs quieted. The sky began to soften into the washed-out blue of early September.

One morning, I arrived at school to find a note in my locker.

No envelope.
No name.
Just a folded graph paper with neat handwriting in pencil.

"There's no formula for this.
No proof.
No perfect solution.
But if you're still willing to solve it with me...
I'll meet you where it started."

The rooftop.

When I got there, Sora was waiting.

She wasn't sketching. She wasn't reading.
She was just... waiting.

She looked at me and smiled—not shy, not hesitant. Just real.

I stepped closer, heart steady.

"You left me a variable," I said.

"You always did like solving things."

"And what if I'm wrong?"

"Then we'll try again."

She held out her hand.

And this time, I didn't hesitate.

We didn't kiss.
We didn't say I love you.
There was no dramatic music or fireworks.

But in that stillness, I understood:

Love isn't about solving someone.
It's about choosing them—over and over—even when the equation gets messy.

She was never the unknown.

She was the constant I hadn't known I needed.

And this?

This was the answer I wasn't smart enough to expect,
but just lucky enough to find.

Unknown Variables — End.

Unknown VariablesWhere stories live. Discover now