Chapter Thirty-Four – The Echo On the surface, Yn was untouchable. The halls were hers now — or at least, that’s what everyone thought. People smiled at her, stopped to talk, even invited her to sit with them at lunch. The same faces that once looked through her now lit up when she walked by. But when the noise faded, when the doors closed behind her at the end of the day, the silence was deafening. Her phone buzzed constantly with notifications — group chats, memes, compliments — but not the one name she wanted to see. Malachi’s absence was a hollow space she couldn’t fill, no matter how many people tried to stand in it. That night, she sat on her bed with the lights off, the glow of her phone screen the only light in the room. She scrolled past videos of Lila’s downfall, past messages from people who suddenly “had her back,” until she found herself staring at old photos — ones she’d promised herself she wouldn’t look at again. There they were. Her and Malachi, laughing in the rain. Her leaning into him at the carnival. His arm slung around her shoulders like it belonged there. She pressed the phone to her chest, as if holding it close could bring him back. But the truth was, she’d won the war everyone could see… and lost the one that mattered most. The tears came quietly, slipping down her cheeks without warning. She didn’t sob. She didn’t break. She just… leaked sadness, like it had been waiting for the right moment to escape. Outside, the world kept moving — cars passing, dogs barking, life going on. Inside, Yn sat in the dark, realizing that sometimes the loneliest place isn’t when you’re hated. It’s when you’re loved by everyone except the one person you can’t stop missing.
