For The Future You Drew

Prologue

I knew I was in trouble the moment I started looking forward to seeing her.

At first, I told myself it was nothing.

She was just another student.

A bright presence in a classroom full of ordinary days.

But then I started noticing the little things.

The way Kaizen smiled when she thought no one was watching.

The way she listened like every word mattered.

The way she carried a kindness that felt strangely familiar.

And somehow, without realizing it, she became someone I searched for in every room.

Someone I waited for.

Someone I missed.

That was when I knew I had crossed a line.

Because I wasn't supposed to feel this way.

Not for her.

Not for someone whose life was already connected to mine in ways she didn't even know.

There were things I could never tell her.

Memories I could never explain.

A past that stood between us like an invisible wall.

Kaizen looked at me like I was someone worth knowing.

But if she knew everything...

Would she still look at me the same way?

Would she still smile at me?

Would she still want to stay?

I spent years convincing myself that some people were only meant to pass through your life.

That some connections existed only to remind you of things you had lost.

But Kaizen was different.

She made me question everything I believed.

She made me want things I had already convinced myself I didn't deserve.

And that was the most terrifying part.

Because the closer I got to her...

the more I feared losing her.

Some feelings arrive quietly.

They don't ask for permission.

They don't care about timing.

They simply appear, and suddenly, your heart is carrying something it was never prepared for.

I loved Kaizen Rayne Grant.

And that was the one truth I could never allow myself to say out loud.