The new city was bigger and stranger than Isabella had expected. Crowded streets, the sounds of cars, the flickering lights at night, and the unfamiliar faces rushing past… everything reminded her of the past she wanted to forget.
Since the recent incident, she felt her heart surrounded by a wall no one could break through. Love? The word seemed distant, unrelated to the feelings she had left. Yet, she forced herself to start anew, standing now in front of the gates of her new school, wondering if she would find her place among the students.
She entered the classroom hesitantly, carrying her bag over her shoulder, trying to avoid everyone's eyes. She sat at the back of the class and opened her book to partially hide her face, but she couldn't resist glancing around. The classroom was filled with new faces, some friendly, others seemingly absorbed in their own world.
Suddenly, her eyes met a pair of calm eyes across the room. Ethan was sitting quietly, reading something in his notebook. His features were attractively simple, and his eyes held a mysterious warmth, as if saying, "Don't worry, everything will be okay." She didn't know him, and he didn't know her, yet a strange feeling of comfort washed over her heart.
A few minutes later, one of the new students came over to introduce himself, easing her tension slightly. She didn't speak much, but she noticed Ethan watching her with a small smile, neither teasing nor forced—just calm attention.
The school day ended, and Isabella left the school feeling a little lighter, though the weight on her heart hadn't disappeared entirely. She couldn't stop thinking about Ethan, whose eyes seemed to hold something… something she didn't yet understand.
There was something about the way he looked at her, or perhaps in his quiet presence, that made her heart beat faster than it had in a long time. She didn't know who he really was or why she felt this strange comfort beside him, but she sensed that their meeting was no mere coincidence.
Deep down, she felt a mysterious sense: that something significant, perhaps a major change in her life, was about to happen…