Chapter 29
The Life We Chose.
Several weeks passed.
Nothing strange happened.
And that was exactly what Aira had wanted.
She returned to university.
Ren started working on his photography again.
They met for coffee, walked through the city, argued about what to eat, and sometimes spent entire afternoons together without doing anything important.
Ordinary days had become precious.
One evening, Ren brought Aira to the hill overlooking the city.
The lights stretched across the horizon.
Aira looked around.
“You brought me here for a reason.”
Ren smiled.
“Maybe.”
“You're hiding something.”
“I'm trying to surprise you.”
“That never works.”
He laughed.
Then he handed her a small envelope.
Aira opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
It showed the two of them standing beside the river.
But it wasn't a recent photograph.
It was from the day everything ended.
Aira looked at it carefully.
“We don't remember taking this.”
“I found it in my camera.”
She looked at him.
“How?”
“I don't know.”
On the back of the photograph was a sentence.
Some memories choose where they belong.
Aira smiled.
“Maybe we don't need to understand everything.”
Ren nodded.
“I agree.”
He took another photograph from his pocket.
This one was blank.
Aira frowned.
“What is that?”
“Your turn.”
“My turn for what?”
“To take a picture.”
She laughed.
“I don't know how.”
“Neither did I when I started.”
He handed her the camera.
Aira pointed it toward him.
“Smile.”
“I am smiling.”
“You look serious.”
“This is my smile.”
She laughed.
The camera clicked.
Aira looked at the photograph.
Ren was smiling.
Not the careful smile he used to hide his feelings.
A real one.
She looked at him.
“I like this.”
“Me too.”
He sat beside her.
For a while, they watched the city.
Then Ren spoke.
“Aira.”
“Hmm?”
“I love you.”
She looked at him.
He seemed nervous.
Even after everything they had survived, those three words still frightened him.
Aira smiled.
“I know.”
Ren laughed.
“That wasn't the response I expected.”
She turned toward him.
“I love you too.”
He looked relieved.
Aira rested her head on his shoulder.
“We spent so much time trying not to lose each other.”
Ren gently held her hand.
“Now we don't have to.”
The wind moved through the trees.
Aira closed her eyes.
For once, she wasn't thinking about yesterday.
She wasn't afraid of tomorrow.
She was simply there.
With him.
And that was enough.
Later that night, Aira placed the photograph beside her bed.
She looked at it one last time before turning off the light.
The city outside was quiet.
No strange voices.
No hidden doors.
No forgotten names.
Just the peaceful sound of rain against the window.
Aira smiled.
The story that had once been measured in seven days had finally become something much bigger.
A life.
A future.
A choice they could make every morning.
Together.