He let out a soft laugh barely audible, but enough to make my stomach flip like it had nothing better to do.
“Philosophy, hmm?” he said, raising an eyebrow as if he was trying to read my entire soul. “Alright then… tell me, what do you think shadows are?”
Why was he asking me?
Wasn’t he the poetic-scientific-philosopher-book carrying angel boy?
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Perfect. Exactly what I needed.
My brain decided to shut down at the exact moment he wanted an answer.
He smiled again gentle, warm, absolutely illegal.
“It’s okay,” he said softly. “You don’t have to know everything. Just say what you feel.”
Great. Now he was being kind too? How many ways was he planning to ruin my emotional stability today?
My phone buzzed with a notification. I glanced down and saw my friend’s message they were going to be at least forty-five minutes late. Great. Now I had free time and absolutely nothing to do. When I looked back up, his eyes were still fixed on me, steady and unreadable.
A part of me wanted to respond to what he had said earlier: “Shadows don’t embrace you, they accompany you as long as there’s light. In darkness, they refuse to even recognize you.”
“It’s just the way you’re seeing it,” he replied calmly. “Your shadow blends into the dark so you feel comfortable… it doesn’t disappear.”
I wanted to say that’s just bullshit. People who live in darkness all the time how are they supposed to know what their shadow even looks like? Or if they have one at all?
But uncertainty pinned my words down.
Then he asked again, “Don’t you think so?”
“Sorry,” I whispered.
“Don’t you think we can at least trust our shadow? It stays with us till the end.”
His intense gaze locked onto mine.
And that’s when my focus slipped completely from his words to his eyes.
Those eyes… they weren’t just blue....no, they had the depth of the Pacific. Dark in the center like secrets hidden beneath the waves, fading into lighter shades toward the edges, shimmering with a soft glow like sunlight dancing on open water. One look and it felt like the whole ocean was staring back at me, pulling me in without mercy.
I was lost.
“Your eyes are beautiful,”I blurted without thinking.
The words slipped out like a betrayal. A shiver shot through me as reality crashed in. What did I just do? My hands flew to my cheeks, and I silently screamed into my palms.
“Say it again,” he whispered, his voice dipped in teasing warmth.
The tension thickened around us, almost tangible. My heart pounded so loudly I wondered if he could hear it too. My voice trembled as I tried to gather myself.
“You… you have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen,” I managed, though it came out with a crack.
My face burned as an actual tomato had possessed me. Shame and shock tangled inside me. How could I say something so intimate to a complete stranger? I tore my eyes away from him, wishing for the ground to open and swallow me whole.
“You think my eyes are beautiful? That’s… weird,” he said, amusement dancing in his voice.
“Why?” I asked, unable to resist the pull of curiosity.
“Most people are afraid of them,” he replied, holding my gaze without flinching.
I hesitated, then admitted softly, “So am I… but they’re still beautiful. Like the Pacific Ocean.”
His smile widened, a soft laugh escaping him. “That’s new to hear.”
“What is our existence without a shadow? Don’t we all crave someone’s company?” he asked, smoothly shifting the conversation as if sensing how embarrassed I was.
We circled back to the original topic, but my mind was still tangled. Why were we even talking about shadows? His intensity made me uneasy; I wasn’t used to people diving so deeply into abstract concepts for no apparent reason.
But since my friend had decided to take her sweet time arriving and because, honestly, this was getting way more interesting than scrolling my phone I decided to play along.
“Why does it matter if we have shadows or not?” I asked, curiosity poking at me. “Aren’t they just… terrifying and creepy?”
He looked at me with a seriousness that almost made me step back. “Scary? No, ma’am. Shadows are divine. They’re the most beautiful part of your existence.”
“They make you whole, beautiful, and valuable,” he continued. “Life isn’t only about what’s bright. Shadows add depth.”
“Divine?” I raised an eyebrow. “Now you’re the weird one.”
He didn’t mind. He just smiled.
“Listen. When you stand by the ocean, you only see the surface how beautiful it looks under the sun.” Then his eyes locked onto mine, intense and unblinking. “But those who live beneath the waves… they know the darkness hiding there. The pains the surface can’t reveal.”
“Your shadow holds the secrets you can’t say out loud,” he said, voice soft and hypnotic. “It understands you better than you understand yourself. It stays when no one else does. It comforts you when the world chooses not to.”
I couldn’t fully grasp everything he said, but one thing was clear: he was both captivating and unsettling like the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean.
“You don’t recognize it yet,” he went on, “but your shadow is part of you, just like any other body part.”
I didn’t argue. Something about him warned me that there was more to this conversation than I realized.
“Maybe I’m not ready to see the beauty of shadows… not yet,” I admitted quietly.
He smirked, eyes dancing with mystery. “I thought so.”
A sleek black car pulled up, and he slid into the back seat. Lowering the window, he said, “Let's meet again.”
My silent response was, “Let's never meet again, for my own good.”
As the car drove away, I wondered, “What pain was he hiding? What was he searching for?” His sad eyes lingered in my mind.
“Perhaps it's better if I don't know,” I thought. “Our paths won't cross again. It's best to leave his pain untouched.”
To be continued.
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