The laughter climbed the hill before the people did.Velithra could hear the voices more clearly now — sharp, familiar tones, full of the same false sweetness she'd spent years surviving.
Her stomach twisted.
Kai didn't move. He just stood beside her, steady as the fading light, watching the group approach. His silence wasn't indifference; it was deliberate. Controlled. The kind that made the air around him feel heavier.
The first to reach the top was Maya.
Of course.
She froze when she saw them — Kai standing close, Velithra beside him. Her expression flickered between surprise and disbelief before settling into something Velithra knew too well: amusement laced with cruelty.
"Well, well…" Maya drawled, tilting her head. "Didn't think I'd see you here."
Velithra said nothing. Her fingers dug into her sleeves, heart hammering against her ribs.
Kai didn't look at Maya. He was still watching Velithra, calm but sharp, as if he was waiting to see what she'd do.
Maya stepped closer, her friends trailing behind like shadows. "You two on a date or something?" she said with a smirk. "Guess everyone was right after all."
Her friends laughed — the kind of laughter that wasn't really laughter at all.
Velithra's throat tightened, but before she could speak, Kai finally turned to them.
His expression was unreadable. His voice, when it came, was low — too calm."You really don't know when to stop, do you?"
Maya blinked, startled by the flatness in his tone. "Excuse me?"
Kai stepped forward just slightly — not enough to threaten, but enough to make her take a step back anyway."Don't act surprised," he said. "You've been doing this for years. You think if you talk loud enough, no one will notice how empty you sound."
The words hit like quiet thunder. Even the wind seemed to stop.
Maya's friends shifted uncomfortably, eyes darting between them. "We were just—" one of them started, but Kai's gaze cut through her words.
"Leave."
It wasn't shouted. It didn't need to be.
Maya scoffed, but her voice faltered. "You think you can just—"
"Now," he said, softer — but the kind of soft that carried weight.
Something in his tone cracked whatever confidence they had left. One by one, the group backed down, muttering to each other as they disappeared down the hill.
When the last of their voices faded, the quiet returned — thick, heavy.
Velithra let out a shaky breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.
Kai turned back to her, eyes unreadable again. "You okay?"
She nodded automatically. "I'm fine."
He frowned slightly. "You don't have to be."
Her lips parted — to argue, to lie, she didn't even know which — but then she caught the way he was looking at her. Not pitying. Not fragile. Just seeing.
For a moment, the noise of the world fell away, and all that remained was the sound of the sea, and two people standing in the quiet ruins of what used to hurt.
But even in that silence, something unspoken pulsed between them — something neither of them dared name yet.