Silent Fall

Part I – “I’ll Stay, Even If He Leaves Me First”

Everyone liked Sky.

He was the kind of person who made you feel like the world wasn’t so heavy. Loud when the silence got awkward, soft when it mattered, always the first to notice when someone disappeared into their own head.

Everyone liked Sky.

Except the one person he wanted most.

Nani didn’t dislike him, no. He just didn’t… give anything.

Sky could talk to Nani for hours—about music, stupid teachers, dreams they’d never chase—and Nani would just sit there, unreadable. A nod. A hum. A blink that felt like maybe he was listening. Maybe.

But Sky kept showing up anyway.

Because sometimes—just sometimes—Nani would look at him like he was the only sound in a quiet room. And Sky lived for those glances. He didn’t need much. He never asked for more. He just stayed.

They were best friends. Everyone knew that.

Sky had known him since their first year of high school. Nani never liked people. But he let Sky in—in his own closed-off, unspoken way. That was enough.

At least, it used to be.

Until Dew showed up.

Transfer student. Sharp jaw. Soft eyes. The kind of boy who spoke quietly and listened like it mattered.

Sky didn’t panic when Nani first spoke to Dew.

But then it happened again. And again. And then Nani started waiting for him after class. Started replying faster. Started smiling—barely, but enough for Sky to feel it like a knife in the ribs.

That was when it started.

The ache.

It sat in Sky’s chest like a secret too loud to swallow.

He was the best friend. The one who always showed up. The one who knew Nani better than anyone else.

But now he was just the background noise in a story that didn’t star him.

And Nani… Nani was slipping away, so slowly it almost looked like nothing at all.