Strings of Fate: The First Loop

CHAPTER 35

------ Betty ------

We snuck away from the crowd, barely saying a word. I don't even remember if I was the one who pulled him or if he pulled me. We just ran, like when two people know that something important is ending, or maybe beginning.

The school was still loud behind us, cheers, footsteps, laughter, but it all blurred, like distant music from a house you’ve already left. My heels clicked faintly against the pavement, the asphalt road, the small park beside our school, until we hit the bricked path that led to the seawall. The wind picked up, and the smell of the ocean grew stronger with each step, salty, earthy, raw.

We climbed onto the concrete edge where the waves crashed against the rocks below. James helped me up, his hand never leaving mine. It was warm. Solid. Like he needed the contact just as much as I did.

The ocean looked endless. A soft sheet of blue slowly swallowing the horizon. The moon was rising, just a sliver, and it danced on the water like it was trying to keep us company.

I stood beside him and took a breath so deep it almost hurt.

Then it all caught up with me.
The song.
His voice.
The words.
"I wanna be somebody to someone…"

I wiped at my cheeks before the tears could fall again, but it was too late. He saw.

“It was always you,” I whispered, not sure if I meant it in the past, the present, or the future.

James looked at me with those eyes that always seemed like they were asking for something, but never demanding it. Just hoping. Like a boy who never got picked first, never got told you matter, never heard I’m proud of you without a condition.

The wind tousled his dark hair, the way it does in movies when someone finally gets their moment.

And I thought, this is it.
Not a concert. Not a spotlight. Not a song.
This.
Him standing next to me, trembling just enough to prove he meant every word.

“You didn’t have to do that,” I said, voice soft.

He gave a small smile. “I did. For you. For them. But mostly… for me.”

I nodded, and we stood there, side by side, letting the waves speak for us. Every detour had led us here. Every scar, every misunderstanding, every moment I thought I stopped loving him and he... hated me. They weren’t wasted.

Because somehow, without meaning to, we found each other.

And for the first time in a long time, I wasn’t scared of what will come next.

The seawall was quiet, kissed by the dim glow of scattered lamplight and the steady hum of waves crashing against stone. The air smelled of salt and old secrets, and as I sat beside him, the wind pressed strands of my hair across my cheek like the world was brushing its fingers along my face.

James took the guitar from his back, like it belonged there all this time, and rested it on his knee.

“I never knew you could play guitar and sing,” I said softly.

He tilted his head. “I’m a man of mysteries, Buttercup,” he said, reaching out to bleep my nose with a grin that still made my heart stammer.

“Well,” he added, voice quieter now, “I’ve got one more song. Something only you should hear.”

He looked at me like I was the only person left in the world worth singing to. Then he began.

WAKING UP TOGETHER WITH YOU by Ardhito Pramono

"Waiting to time will I be better or fall
Play a lovely melody or nothing at all…"

His voice wasn’t polished, but it didn’t need to be. It was true. Honest in the way only someone who's finally tired of pretending can be.