Chapter 1:- Threads of Something Unknown (part- 1)

The city buzzed around her, a thousand lives weaving through streets soaked in afternoon gold. But for Aurora Stevens, life moved slower — a gentle sway of aching limbs and heavy footsteps as she hugged her groceries to her chest and exhaled through the cramps that clenched at her lower stomach.

She winced, pausing near a bakery where warm vanilla-sugar scents tempted her to rest for a while. The paper bag in her hands carried the comforting essentials of a girl enduring monthly misery — a bar of extra-dark chocolate, a microwavable heat pack, and a single, crumpled packet of sanitary pads nestled beside a bottle of mint soda.

“Just ten more minutes,” she muttered to herself, brushing a few wind-blown strands of hair away from her flushed face. The cold helped — the breeze wrapping around her like whispered lullabies — though the cramps were still sharp, like tiny needles beneath her skin.

She passed the tall iron gates of the city park, where wild ivy crawled and the trees still carried the breath of spring. Her feet slowed instinctively.

Something was wrong.

She wouldn’t have noticed if it hadn’t moved — just a blur of brown fur trembling near a trash bin, barely visible between the iron bars.

A rabbit.

Aurora blinked, once, twice… her eyes wandered around, scanning the surroundings “A rabbit? Here?”

Its fur was a muddy blend of chocolate brown and ash —it had that soft, velvety, and polished fluff like one of the domesticated pets, but something about it was earthlier, more like a stray animal. Its hind leg twitched helplessly, caught beneath a broken plastic crate.

Her first instinct wasn’t to help. She was tired, sore, and craving a nap beneath soft blankets. But the way the rabbit looked at her — wide icy-sky-blue eyes glassy with pain — something inside her stirred.

She hesitated. Sighed.

She tightened her grip on the bag she was carrying.

One step. Two. Three.

The rabbit didn’t run. It couldn’t.

“Hey, hey… easy now,” she whispered, kneeling beside the crate. “I won’t hurt you.”

Carefully, she lifted the plastic. The rabbit flinched but stayed. Its fur was damp, its breathing shallow. Aurora glanced around it— no leash, no owner, no carrier. It was alone.

“Poor thing,” she murmured.

Without thinking, she shrugged off her scarf— the soft cream one with little stars stitched in the corners— and cradled the rabbit in it, holding it close to her chest. Its heartbeat fast against her palm.

But hers… slowed.

For the first time in days, the pain didn’t feel as heavy.

It was the kind of afternoon that wrapped the city in a sleepy golden haze. Sunlight streamed lazily through dust-flecked air, casting soft halos around trees and windows. Cars murmured in the distance. Somewhere, a kid was whining about ice cream.

Across the street, someone watched her…

At the corner of Bellwood Avenue, tucked between a bakery shop and a half-shuttered laundry place, sat an old, slightly crooked bookstore — the kind with dusty glass windows, faded posters of literary festivals, and a stubborn chime that jingled each time the door opened.

Outside it, a boy stood tall, pretending to read.

His upper half leaning over the wall, an unread poetry book opened in his hands, and a posture too casual to be anything but practiced. His dark, silky brown hair fell slightly over his forehead, and when he lifted his eyes above the rim of the book, they were a sharp, unusual shade — bright hazelnut-green—his eyes spoke volumes, deep and shifting like a forest hiding unknown secrets.

There was a cocky curl to his lips, the kind that could charm anyone in seconds — and had, too many times before.

But right now?

He wasn’t even thinking about that poetry book.

He was watching her.

Through the bookstore window, past the row of unevenly stacked novels, his glace was fixated on her, the girl with windswept hair and slightly furrowed brows. She held a paper bag in one arm, the top corner showing the edge of a pink-wrapped pad. Her other hand was gripping her phone, earphones dangling around her neck.

She moved like she was used to rushing — but there was still a softness about her, something… unguarded.

He had seen her by accident the first time—she had accidentally dropped a coin.

She’d walked past him near the supermarket and the coin slipped out of her bag.

“Miss... your coin…” He held the coin up in his hands, but before he could call out to her and return it to its rightful owner, she was far from his reach almost vanished from sight.

Quite dramatic, just a flick of hair and the way her fingers gripped her stomach like she was in pain — but didn't stop. Something in that moment had snagged in his chest.

And before he could process it, his feet had started moving, not in order to return the coin, he was too out of his character for these deeds.

He’d followed her.

Or so he told himself. He was simply curious. That was all. He didn’t even know her name.

He’d stopped at the bookstore, pretending to read any random book that was within his reach, while she crossed the city park toward what looked like a shortcut to her apartment.

And then he saw her pause.

Something small had darted onto the pavement — a trembling shape with dusty brown fur and wide, terrified eyes.

A rabbit. Lost. Probably injured. Definitely doomed.

He watched her hesitate. Her bag slipped a little. She glanced around, uncertain.

And then…

She crouched down.

Held out her hand. Whispered something. Her voice didn’t reach him, but the tenderness in her body language did. He watched as the rabbit, against all odds, limped toward her — and she gathered it up gently, like a tiny heartbeat.

Something inside him tightened.

He couldn’t explain why. He’d met hundreds of girls. Dated dozens. Slept beside strangers and woken up forgetting their names.

But this…

Although he was not oblivious to her stunning beauty with those delicate curves. This girl with those tangled hair, hugging her groceries’ bag like her life depends upon it, and not to mention that cramp-worn frown…

“She’s the perfect one.” He said underneath his breath.

She sure is extraordinary.

She didn’t look back once.

He’d seen people run from pain. But she… she walked toward it.

Didn’t notice the boy standing next to her the whole time in that very supermarket, the one with a guilty heartbeat and someone she should have at the very least noticed, who was about to go-out of his character by trying to return her, the coin.

He just watched her tuck the rabbit into her sweater and walk home like it was the most natural thing in the world — as if her heart had been made not of flesh, but of starlight and old lullabies.

He exhaled sharply.

And without realizing it, smiled.

…

In that moment, before she even knew who he was; before she’d ever seen the person hiding behind that facade or could trust him or break because of him — he fell in love…!?

Not the loud, thunderous kind.

But the quiet love that settles like dusk across the soul.

He couldn’t speak, just go with the flow, hearing the heart pound in his ears, at this point he had forgotten if it was his heartbeat he was listening to or hers…

She didn’t know her fate had already changed.

It was the beginning.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***