In a small town where religion ruled above everything, people looked at gays and lesbians with disgust. For them, love had only one path, and anyone who strayed from it was cast aside. The Nakpil family followed this rule strictly. For generations, it was their tradition: if any family member turned out to be gay or lesbian, they were immediately disowned.
This is where Lyn’s story begins. She was only sixteen, a girl still searching for answers about herself. Since she was young, she never had a crush, never felt the warmth of love. Maybe it was because her mother died when she was only six. Soon after, her father left her for another family, leaving Lyn in the care of her grandmother.
All her life, she wondered what love was supposed to feel like. She had never felt it from her parents, never heard words that made her believe she was enough. The only thing she knew was emptiness—an emptiness so deep that sometimes she thought love was just a story people told to make life less lonely.
And so, Lyn lived quietly, carrying questions in her heart that no one dared to answer.
Until one day, Lyn met someone—Rose. Rose was two years older than her, an old classmate she hadn’t seen in years. Rose’s family had moved away long ago, but when she returned, Lyn found herself reaching out. What began as a simple reconnection slowly grew into a quiet, fragile friendship.
Rose, with her gentle smile and patient heart, soon began to fall in love with Lyn. But Lyn was complicated. She didn’t know how to respond to love, not when she had never truly felt it before. In the past, she had broken hearts without meaning to—sometimes by ghosting people, sometimes by simply losing interest. To others, she was a puzzle, always distant, always hard to reach.
But Rose was different.
When Lyn found out that Rose had feelings for her, she didn’t walk away. She stayed. And that small choice lit a fragile hope in Rose’s heart—maybe, just maybe, Lyn could love her back.
Yet, there was a problem Lyn couldn’t escape. How can someone recognize love, when she had never experienced it? How could she say she loved Rose back, when she didn’t even know what love was supposed to feel like?
And so Lyn stayed by Rose’s side, torn between the fear of breaking her heart and the fragile wish that, maybe this time, love could finally find her.
