Claire Mendoza had always lived a simple life.

She was the type of student teachers adored, organized, quiet, consistently top of her class. Her notebooks were neat, her schedules followed to the minute, and her circle of friends remained unchanged since middle school. She loved the comfort of routine. It gave her a sense of control in a world that was always rushing to spin off its axis.

As she walked into her senior year of high school, nothing felt different. The same squeaky doors, the same posters half-ripped on the walls, and the same seat she always took beside the window and she frequently look outside to pass time in her boring class. She didn’t expect anything to change and in a way, she didn’t want it to.

Until one day she walk in as usual and didn't expect anything.

It was a humid Monday morning when the principal entered the classroom with a girl trailing behind him. Claire barely looked up from her journal until the murmurs around her grew louder.

“This is Kris Reyes,” the principal said, gesturing toward the girl who stood awkwardly at the front. “She transferred here from Ridgeview Academy. I expect all of you to welcome her properly.”

Claire finally looked up.

Kris was...different.

Not in the way new students usually were,... shy, withdrawn, anxious. Kris looked calm, maybe even bored. Her uniform didn’t quite fit right, and her backpack had a worn strap that kept slipping off her shoulder. Her black hair was tied loosely in a ponytail, with messy strands falling over her cheek. But what stood out the most were her eyes it's sharp, thoughtful, like she’d seen something too big for her age.

“Hi,” Kris said simply. “I’m not great at introductions, but... I’m here.”

Some students giggled. Others whispered.

Claire didn’t.

She just kept looking, not even realizing she had stopped writing mid-sentence.

Kris ended up seated just one row behind her.

The first few weeks passed slowly. Claire stuck to her usual group, but she couldn't help noticing Kris more and more.

She wasn’t like the other students. She didn’t care about fitting in. She didn’t laugh at shallow jokes or pretend to be impressed by popularity. She wasn’t rude just… detached. Like she had already been through a world that didn’t require pretending.

It intrigued Claire.

One afternoon, as Claire sat by the garden eating her sandwich alone (her friends were busy in a club meeting), Kris walked by.

“You always eat here?” she asked, nodding toward the bench.

Claire looked up, surprised. “Sometimes.”

Kris didn’t wait for an invitation. She sat down beside her and pulled out a lunch box that smelled like garlic rice and fried egg.

They sat in silence for a while.

“I thought you’d be one of the students who'd avoid me,” Kris said without looking up.

Claire raised an eyebrow. “Why would I avoid you?”

“I don’t know. People tend to avoid the new girl. Especially when they find out she used to go to some fancy private school.”

Claire tilted her head. “So why’d you transfer?”

Kris paused. “My dad’s company went bankrupt. Couldn’t afford the tuition anymore.”

Claire nodded slowly. She appreciated the honesty.

“I like it better here, though,” Kris added. “Feels real.”

Claire smiled for the first time. “It is real. Too real sometimes.”

That was the beginning.

In the weeks that followed, Claire and Kris grew closer.

They started walking home together. At first, it was just casual conversation, complaints about teachers, homework, or cafeteria food. But soon, it became more personal.

Claire found herself opening up about things she’d never told anyone. Her dreams of becoming a writer. Her fear of failure. Her parents' silent pressure to always be perfect.

Kris, in return, shared bits of her past, how the sudden fall of her family’s fortune turned her life upside down, how people treated her differently now, and how she was trying to find herself outside of wealth and expectations.

Claire liked that about Kris. She didn’t sugarcoat things.

One afternoon, as they walked under the golden hue of sunset, Kris asked, “Do you ever feel like you're just... stuck? Like everyone expects you to be one thing, and you’re scared to become anything else?”

Claire thought for a moment. “Every day.”

Kris smiled. “Glad I’m not the only one.”

...----------------...

By the time graduation neared, they were inseparable.

They shared playlists, exchanged books, and even studied together. Though Kris often got distracted, Claire would patiently pull her back to focus. In return, Kris taught Claire how to loosen up, to laugh at herself, and to find beauty in being imperfect.

Then came graduation night.

There was music, lights, and a bittersweet air hanging over everyone as they said goodbye to their high school years.

Claire stood by the gate, waiting for her parents, when Kris approached her, slightly out of breath.

“Hey,” Kris said, brushing her hair back. “Can we talk?”

Claire nodded, feeling her heart flutter unexpectedly.

They walked toward the old basketball court, now empty and quiet. Kris seemed nervous a rare sight.

“I’ve been meaning to say this,” she began, fidgeting with the hem of her sleeve. “I don’t know what happens next. You’re amazing, Claire. You’ll get into your dream college, chase your goals, make something great out of life.”

Claire blushed but said nothing.

“But before we go separate ways…I have something to tell you” Kris took a deep breath. “I like you. A lot. I don’t know when it started maybe from the first time we talked. But I need to say it. I don’t want to leave this chapter without you knowing.”

Claire’s eyes widened. For a second, she was speechless.

Then, a soft smile formed on her lips. “I like you too.”

They shared their first kiss under the moonlight and stars.

It wasn’t perfect Kris bumped her head trying to lean in, and Claire laughed nervously but it was theirs.

A real moment. Unscripted. Honest.

They made plans for college hoping to enroll in the same university.

Claire got into her dream school, her hard work paying off.

Kris didn’t.

She failed the entrance exam.

She wasn’t surprised. “I’ve never been a fan of studying,” she said, trying to laugh it off. “Guess it caught up with me.”

They tried to stay strong. “It’s just distance,” they told each other believing that it would work out. “We’ll make it work.”

And for a while, they did.

Despite being in different cities, they talked every night. Sent each other photos. Said “good morning” and “good night” like a ritual. Sometimes they videocall and studied “together” from miles apart.

But life, as it often does, became harder.

In their third year of college, things began to fall apart not because of a fight, but because of silence.

Claire was overwhelmed with internship work and projects. Kris was struggling to keep up with part-time jobs and classes. Messages became shorter. Calls were missed. Birthdays were forgotten.

One evening, after three weeks of barely speaking, Kris called.

Claire answered, tired and drained.

“Hey,” Kris said.

“Hey.”

They were quiet for a moment.

“I miss you,” Kris finally said.

Claire sighed. “I miss you too. But it’s hard.”

“I know.”

“I don’t want to lose you,” Claire whispered.

“Maybe we need a pause,” Kris said gently.

Claire’s heart sank.

“A pause?” she echoed.

“Not a goodbye,” Kris added quickly. “Just a pause. Until we’re both ready. Until we’re not dragging each other through this mess.”

Claire didn’t respond right away. But deep down, she knew it was true. They were growing, but in different directions. And love, as beautiful as it was, couldn’t be the glue holding broken schedules and silent gaps together.

“Okay,” she said, tears forming in her eyes. “But promise me one thing.”

“Anything.”

“When we’ve figured ourselves out... when we’ve become who we’re meant to be...”

“If we’re still meant for each other,” Kris said softly, finishing her sentence, “we’ll meet again.”

They didn’t say “goodbye” that night.

Just a quiet, hopeful “See you again someday.”

Six years had passed.

Time had turned from a quiet whisper to a thundering echo in the lives of Claire Mendoza and Kris Reyes.

They hadn’t spoken in years not since the night they promised to find their way back to each other “when the time was right.” But in the silence, they worked hard. Tirelessly. Until their names, even if never spoken in the same room again, began to carry weight of their own.

Claire Mendoza had become a name that echoed across the halls of art galleries and creative institutions in the Philippines and beyond. Her first solo exhibit, “Whispers of Silence,” held only three years after college, sold out on opening night. Collectors from Hong Kong, Japan, and France began to take notice of her work, pieces of chaotic color and soft pain, raw emotion on canvas, and poetic brushstrokes.

Every painting had a story.

Every story, a piece of her.

Somewhere hidden in the layers of every canvas was a part of her that no one could ever fully understand. a memory, a face, a goodbye left unspoken.

By the time she turned twenty-five, Claire owned her own gallery in Taguig City. “Clairé,” it was called simple, elegant, and always filled with light. It wasn’t just a business, it was a haven for young Filipino artists, especially those who couldn’t afford to showcase their work elsewhere.

Despite the fame, despite the growing fortune and media interviews, Claire never lost that quiet, introspective soul she carried in high school. She was still the same girl who used to sit near the garden with a sandwich and a sketchpad. Only now, her art touched lives far beyond the school fence.

But none of it came easy.

Her journey had been paved with sleepless nights, missed meals, failed exhibits, and self-doubt. There were days she couldn’t get out of bed from exhaustion. Weeks where deadlines loomed like dark clouds. She had cried herself to sleep more times than she cared to admit.

People called her “genius.” They didn’t see the hours spent in front of blank canvases, her hand trembling from fatigue, or the medications she sometimes forgot to take.

Still, she pushed forward.

She told herself that someday, when everything settled, maybe she’d walk into a coffee shop and find her again.

But life didn’t work that way.

Meanwhile, in a more shadowed corner of the world, Kris Reyes had carved out a legend of her own.

When she parted ways with Claire, Kris had one thing on her mind..... Redemption

Not for anyone else but for her father.

Before the bankruptcy, Kris’s father had been one of the most respected figures in the medical field Dr. Marcelo Reyes, founder and CEO of St. Aegis Medical Center, the most renowned hospital in the country. Patients flew in from other provinces just to be admitted there. Medical students dreamed of interning under him.

Then it all collapsed.

A trusted executive his best friend for over twenty years had orchestrated a scheme with foreign accomplices that drained millions from the hospital’s funds. By the time the court case started, it was too late. The hospital had fallen, and with it, her father’s spirit.

He fell into depression, and soon after, his health began to deteriorate.

Kris saw it all.

The man who once saved lives now lay helpless in his own room, barely speaking. She took odd jobs to support them both working in hardware stores, repairing laptops, managing event lights, even delivering food

But in the quiet hours of the night, she studied.

Marketing. Business. Technology. Coding. Leadership.

She consumed books, free online classes, old business podcasts, anything that could help her build a life powerful enough to protect her father, and maybe one day… rebuild what was lost.

Then, when she turned 24, it happened.

She gathered everything she learned and launched a startup.

No one knew it was her. She used a pseudonym, created a fake profile, hired remote workers under encrypted emails, and operated behind layers of legal privacy.

The company was called “ARKNET.”

It began with simple cybersecurity tools, then expanded to data protection software, AI solutions for small businesses, and eventually built a reputation for outpacing industry giants.

In just one year, ARKNET's name became synonymous with innovation. It was suddenly everywhere. offices, universities, even government agencies.

News outlets scrambled to figure out who the CEO was.

“Who is the genius behind ARKNET?”

Some speculated it was a retired Google engineer. Others said it was a group of anonymous investors. No one guessed it was a 25-year-old woman who once failed her college entrance exam.

Kris preferred it that way.

She wasn’t interested in being known just in being effective.

But the fame came with a price.

She barely slept.

She worked 18-hour days, often forgetting to eat. Her vision blurred at night. Her hands ached from typing. And when her body began to break down, she ignored it.

She was too close.

Too close to building something that could take care of her father forever. Too close to keeping her promise.

Too close to letting go of the girl she used to walk home with, the one who once smiled at her through paint-stained fingers and told her she believed in her.

One evening, in her private apartment office filled with humming monitors, Kris stared at the painting on the wall.

It was small one of the first artworks Claire had ever given her back in high school. A girl standing in the rain, holding an umbrella half-open. Her face wasn’t visible, but her posture spoke of waiting. Always waiting.

Kris hadn’t seen Claire in person since they parted.

But she knew.

She knew who Claire had become.

Even from a distance, their lives still echoed in each other’s worlds. Kris watched interviews of Claire with the volume turned off. She read articles about her sold-out exhibits. Sometimes, she passed by the gallery building but never entered.

And Claire? She sometimes found letters without names delivered to her office by unknown couriers. Letters that spoke of admiration, of art, of pain... and of memories only the two of them could have shared.

Neither one reached out.

But neither one ever truly let go.

Then came the night when everything started to change.

Claire had just finished the opening night of her “Rebirth” collection, a deeply personal exhibit themed around transformation and letting go.

The room was full of celebrities, artists, collectors, and old classmates.

As Claire stood in front of the final piece a painting of two silhouettes walking in opposite directions on a long, winding path. A woman approached her assistant at the gallery desk.

She was in a suit. Black, sleek, professional. A mask covered half her face, as was common in the age of lingering health scares. But her presence was commanding.

“I’d like to purchase this piece,” the woman said softly, handing over a black card with the ARKNET logo.

Claire’s assistant froze for a moment. “This... this is ARKNET’s founder’s card,” she whispered.

The woman didn’t respond.

When Claire turned to see who the buyer was, the woman had already left.

No name.

Just the sound of her heels disappearing down the hall.

Claire stared at the card for a long time.

Something in her chest stirred.

She knew.

At the same time, in a tall, glass building overlooking the city skyline, Kris stared out the window as the rain began to fall just like the painting.

She whispered to herself, “I’m almost ready.”

Almost.