Arvian had been sitting in the same spot for several minutes. The small bracelet with the moon charm was still in his hand.
That voice.
Nayla's voice.
Even though it had lasted only a moment, Arvian was sure he hadn't misheard it.
For the first time, a piece of the past had returned—not just as a shadow, but as a memory.
He closed his eyes.
Fragments of what had happened began to surface slowly.
A small park.
The evening sky.
Nayla sitting there with a smile.
"You always forget where you put your stuff."
The Arvian in the memory laughed.
"It only happened once."
"I don't think it was only once."
"Then how many times?"
Nayla pretended to think.
"A lot."
The memory stopped.
Arvian opened his eyes, breathing a little heavily.
"Why only that much?"
He felt frustrated.
He'd found a crack in his memory, but everything had disappeared again before he could see it clearly.
Arvian picked up his phone and opened the gallery again. This time, he searched through every old photo connected to Nayla.
There were several photos still saved.
Strange.
He'd never remembered keeping that many photos.
There was a photo of the two of them at a small eatery.
A photo of the evening sky.
A photo of an ordinary-looking street.
But they all felt like disconnected pieces of a story.
There was no beginning.
No ending.
Only the middle remained.
His phone suddenly rang.
A message from Raka came in.
"You still awake?"
Arvian replied.
"Yeah."
A few seconds later, Raka called.
"Why aren't you asleep yet?"
"I can't sleep."
"Still thinking about the letter?"
"Yeah."
Raka was silent for a moment.
"Vian."
"Hmm?"
"There's something I haven't told you."
Arvian immediately sat up straighter.
"What?"
"We're meeting tomorrow."
"Why not now?"
"Because I'm not sure I should tell you over the phone."
Arvian looked at the bracelet in his hand.
"Rak."
"Yeah?"
"Are you afraid I'll remember?"
The question left Raka silent for a long time.
"I'm afraid you'll remember everything all at once."
"Why?"
"Because you were shattered back then."
Arvian fell silent.
The word felt heavy.
Shattered.
He'd never imagined himself that way.
All this time, he'd thought his life had simply moved along normally. Nothing major had ever happened to change him.
But apparently, there was something he didn't even know about himself.
"Tell me everything tomorrow."
"Yeah."
"Don't keep anything from me anymore."
Raka drew in a breath.
"Yeah, Vian."
After the call ended, Arvian still couldn't sleep.
He took a small book from inside a wooden box.
A notebook with a blue cover.
There was writing on the front.
"Things I mustn't forget."
Arvian opened it.
The first page was blank.
The second page contained a few short notes.
"Don't forget to buy coffee."
Arvian smiled faintly.
"Is this for real?"
He turned to the next page.
"Don't forget to call Mom."
The page after that.
"Don't forget to say thank you."
Arvian kept turning the pages.
Until he finally found one that was different.
His handwriting looked messier.
"I'm afraid I'll forget everything."
Arvian stopped.
Beneath that sentence was another line.
"I'm afraid that one day I'll wake up and won't remember why I lost someone."
His hand began to tremble.
He read the next page.
"If I really do forget, maybe it means I'm too afraid to remember."
Arvian closed the notebook for a moment.
His chest felt tight.
All this time, he hadn't lost his memory because of time.
Something had made him choose to forget.
But what?
He opened the last page again.
There was only one sentence.
"Please find Nayla when I'm ready."
Arvian froze.
"Nayla..."
The name left his lips in a whisper.
He looked at the clock.
It was almost midnight.
But his curiosity only grew.
He grabbed his jacket.
Then stopped in front of his bedroom door.
He didn't know where he wanted to go.
Didn't know who he was supposed to look for.
In the end, he sat down again.
Because for the first time, he realized something.
Finding Nayla wasn't just about finding someone from his past.
It was about finding the missing part of himself.
The next morning, Arvian went to the usual place where he met Raka.
A small café near the city park.
Raka was already sitting there with two drinks.
"You look like you didn't sleep."
Arvian sat down.
"I barely slept."
Raka studied his face.
"Remember anything?"
"A little."
"What?"
Arvian took the small bracelet from his pocket.
Raka immediately fell silent.
"You still have that?"
"You know about it?"
Raka nodded slowly.
"It was a gift from Nayla."
Arvian stared at him.
"Why don't I remember?"
Raka fidgeted with his cup.
"Because after what happened, you erased almost everything about her."
"What do you mean?"
"You threw away the photos. You stopped going to the places you used to visit together. You even said once that you didn't want to hear her name again."
Arvian fell silent.
"But why?"
Raka looked toward the park.
"Because you thought it was all your fault."
"My fault?"
"Yeah."
Arvian waited for an explanation.
Raka finally spoke.
"Nayla didn't leave because she stopped loving you."
"Then?"
"Because she was sick."
Arvian froze.
"Sick?"
Raka nodded.
"She never told you everything."
"Why?"
"Because she didn't want you to stop living your life just because of her."
Arvian lowered his head.
Suddenly, so many things began to feel different.
Nayla hadn't left because she was bored.
She hadn't left because she'd fallen out of love.
There was another reason.
A reason he had never known about all this time.
"Where is she now?"
Raka was silent.
Arvian looked straight at him.
"Rak."
"I don't know."
"You're lying."
"I'm serious."
Raka met Arvian's gaze.
"The last I heard, she'd gone far away."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
Arvian tightened his grip on the bracelet.
"But I have to find her."
Raka didn't answer right away.
Because he knew Arvian had made that decision the moment he read the first letter.
This time, Arvian wasn't just looking for someone he missed.
He was looking for answers to a story that had been missing all this time.