ᵖˡˢKey
Region: PH
Monday 24 August 2026 12:31:36 GMT
1019
100
19
2
Music
Download
Comments
ᵖˡˢKey :
🔟 That same evening, she called me. "I think I'm losing my mind." "You aren't." "I forgot the meeting." "People forget things." "I don't." "You've been under stress." "I don't feel stressed." She paused. "That's what's weird." Her voice cracked slightly. "I don't feel anything until suddenly I do." "What happened?" "I was washing dishes." "And?" "I dropped a plate." She laughed nervously. "That was it. Bam, I dropped a plate and suddenly I couldn't breathe." I sat up. "What do you mean?" "I don't know." She breathed slowly. "It was just a plate." "Did you have a panic attack?" "I don't know." "Are you okay now?" "Yeah." She went silent. Then she whispered, "I thought Miu was going to come help me clean it up." My heart sank. "I looked at the floor and waited for her." She laughed again, but there was no humor in it. "That's when I remembered." "What?" "She's not coming." I closed my eyes as Lena continued talking. "I think that's what keeps happening." "What?" "I forget she's dead, not forever, just for a few seconds." She took a shaky breath. "I'll see something and think, I have to tell Miu this." Another breath. "And every time I remember, it feels like I'm losing her again." That was when I knew that what she had experienced was delayed grief, not the absence of grief. The grief had simply been postponed until Lena could no longer keep it outside. And once it began arriving, it came without order. A smell could trigger it. A song. A grocery aisle. A message she wanted to send. A cup left on the wrong side of the sink. Sometimes nothing at all. The consequences of that delay started affecting everything all at once. She stopped sleeping properly, she lost her appetite, she became exhausted all the time, and she called in sick for the first time since Miu’s death. Then again. Then twice in the same week. Her family became worried, I became worried. Lena became frustrated with herself. "I was okay." "You were never okay." "I was." "You were simply functioning." She looked at me. "What's the difference?" I didn't answer immediately. I thought it was a rhetorical question, but when I looked at her eyes, all I saw was emptiness. 🔽
2026-08-24 13:37:19
3
uneh :
serius aku baca ini jam 4 pagi dan dibuat nangis sampe bantal ku basah.
2026-08-24 21:49:40
1
ᵖˡˢKey :
1️⃣2️⃣ I didn't know what to say. So I stayed on the phone. Lena was quiet for a long time. Then she whispered, "I miss her." It was the simplest thing she had said since Miu died. And somehow, it was the heaviest. "I miss her so much." She began to cry again. This time, I didn't tell her that everything would be okay. Because neither of us knew if it would be. I simply stayed listening. And somewhere in the middle of that long night, Lena finally stopped fighting the truth she had spent weeks avoiding. Miu was gone. The life they had built together was gone with her. And Lena was only beginning to understand what that meant. The notebook would later show me just how much she had been carrying all along. But that night, she didn't need to explain anything. She only needed someone to hear her say the thing she had been too numb to say before. "I want my Miu back." For the first time, Lena allowed herself to grieve. Or at least, I thought she did. After that night, things changed. She started sleeping less. She stopped eating properly. She still went to work, but she came home exhausted. Sometimes she would stand in the kitchen for several minutes without doing anything. Sometimes she would open her phone and scroll through old messages. Sometimes she would call Miu's number even though she knew nobody would answer. She never spoke after the call connected. She just listened to the silence. It became our routine. I checked on her, she told me she was okay. I brought her food, she’d say she wasn't hungry. But I stayed anyway. We talked about Miu, sometimes we laughed, sometimes we cried, sometimes Lena would tell me stories I'd never heard before. How Miu once fell asleep during a movie and denied it. How they used to fight over who loved the other more. How Miu secretly kept every handwritten note Lena had ever given her. How Lena had once spent three hours looking for a specific stuffed toy because Miu had mentioned she missed it from childhood. They had built an entire life out of tiny moments. And now those moments were all Lena had left. One evening, I called Lena to check how she was doing. She didn't answer at first, so I called again. Again, no answer. 🔽
2026-08-24 13:47:14
3
ᵖˡˢKey :
3️⃣ "You always take the crispy ones." "Because they're better." "You could ask." "Why would I ask when I know you'll give them to me?" Miu sighed. "You're impossible." Lena grinned. "But you love me." Miu looked at her. For a second, neither of them said anything. Then Miu reached across the table and took Lena's hand. "I do." Lena's smile changed. It became smaller, softer, the kind of smile she only had for Miu. I remember that moment because I thought, ‘This is it.’ I thought they had finally reached the part of their lives where everything would settle into place. They had survived childhood. They had survived university. They had survived figuring out what they were to each other. They had each other. What else could possibly go wrong? — The accident happened on an ordinary Tuesday. That was what made it worse. There was no warning. No final conversation. No dramatic goodbye that anyone could hold on to afterward and pretend it had meant something. Miu had simply gone out that morning. She had kissed Lena goodbye at the door, complained that Lena had forgotten to eat breakfast again, and promised she would call later. "Don't forget your lunch." "I won't." "You said that yesterday." "I forgot yesterday." "And the day before." "Okay, you're making me feel bad." "Good." Lena laughed. Miu reached for her hand before leaving. "See you tonight." "See you tonight." Those were the last words they exchanged. - By afternoon, Lena was standing in a hospital corridor surrounded by people she knew, staring at a closed door. Nobody had to tell her, she already knew. While crossing at a pedestrian crossing with the signal in Miu’s favor, a driver came speeding through the intersection. The driver had been distracted and was driving far above the speed limit. The driver tried to brake when they noticed Miu, but it was too late. Miu was struck by the vehicle. She suffered severe injuries and was rushed to the hospital, but the injuries were fatal. Miu didn’t survive the impact. Heaven took her from us before the sun could set. And somehow, Lena didn't cry. Not that day, not when her family arrived, not when Miu's parents broke down, and not at Miu’s funeral. 🔽
2026-08-24 12:46:44
5
ᵖˡˢKey :
9️⃣ The entries became longer, pages almost crumpled. - I went to work today. I laughed with my coworkers. I came home. I cooked. I watched a stupid show. But nothing happened. Maybe that's the problem, nothing happens. I know Miu is dead. I saw her. I was at the funeral. I watched as they buried her casket. So why does part of me still expect her to walk through the door and smile at me? - I braced myself as I turn to the next page. - I don't know what's wrong with me. They cry when they look at me. They hug me. They tell me it's okay. But I don't feel sad. I feel guilty. I love Miu, I know I loved her. So why don't I feel anything? - The next page had been written a few days later. - Bam asked if I'm pretending. I'm not. Well I wish I were. At least then I'd know what I'm doing. - "What are you doing to yourself, Lena?" I turned the page. - I bought her cereal again. I didn't even realize it until I got home. I put it back in the cabinet. I can't bring myself to throw it away. I think my brain is protecting me. But from what? Was it protecting me from Miu? Why? Why would it protect me from the very reason why I’m still living? - I stopped reading after that. I don’t think I can continue anymore. - The next morning, I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I called Lena. She answered on the third ring. "Good morning." "Did you sleep?" "Yeah." "You sound tired." "I'm always tired." "Maybe take a day off?" "I can't." "You can." She laughed. "You sound like my mother." "I'm serious." "So am I." She sighed. "I have work." "Lena." "I'll be okay." There it was again. That word. Okay. She had started using it so often that I was beginning to hate it as much as she did. A few days later, things got worse. Lena forgot an important meeting, she had never forgotten one before. Her manager called her into the office. "Are you having trouble concentrating?" "No." "You missed two deadlines." "I know." "That's not like you." "I'll fix it." "Lena, if something is happeni-" "I said I’ll fix it." She said it too quickly. Her manager stopped and looked at her with pity. Lena bowed and apologized before going back to her desk. For the rest of the afternoon, she couldn't focus. 🔽
2026-08-24 13:30:53
4
ᵖˡˢKey :
1️⃣7️⃣ It was about two girls who met when they were eight. Two children who shared candy beneath a tree. Two teenagers who didn't understand why they were always looking for each other. Two university students who slowly realized that friendship had become something else. Two women who built their lives around ordinary things, coffee in the morning, grocery runs, arguments over food, waiting for each other after work, asking whether the other had eaten. It was a love story that happened so quietly that none of us realized how extraordinary it was while we were living through it. Until it was over. I looked at Lena's photograph again. "You loved each other." I whispered. My voice broke. "You really, really, really loved each other." I placed the notebook beside her photograph. "I don't think even Heaven could keep the two of you apart for long." For a moment, I could almost imagine them again. The two of them walking home together as if there would always be another tomorrow. I wish I could tell them that they were right. That they did have another tomorrow. Just not in the way they thought. Maybe that was the cruelest part. They spent their whole lives growing toward each other, only to be separated by death. And yet, somehow, even death couldn't make Lena stop looking for Miu. I was the one who had watched them from the beginning. I had watched them grow up, watched them fall in love, watched them build a life together, and now I was sitting at Lena's funeral, holding the notebook she had left behind, trying to remember how two people who had once seemed impossible to separate could both be gone. They met when they were eight, and they loved each other for the rest of their lives. On the day we buried Lena, I finally understood something I should have understood much sooner. She hadn't died because she was weak. She hadn't failed to move on. She had simply spent her entire life loving Miu so completely that when Miu was taken from her, there was a part of Lena that never learned how to live without her. My name is Bam Cisco, and I was their childhood friend. And the love story I have been telling you was theirs. Lena and Miu. —THE END—
2026-08-24 14:28:33
4
ᵖˡˢKey :
7️⃣ Underneath an old folder was a black notebook. "Lena." "What?" "Is this yours?" She came out of the bedroom. Her expression changed when she saw it. "Yeah." "What do you write in there?" "Nothing important." She took it from me. I raised an eyebrow. "That reaction makes me think it's very important." "It's just thoughts." "Can I read it?" "No." She smiled, but there was something uncomfortable in it. "Definitely not." I laughed. "Fine." She put it inside the drawer. I forgot about it, until several days later. Lena called me at almost midnight. "Bam?" "Yeah?" "Do you ever feel guilty for being okay?" I immediately sat up. "What?" "Never mind." "No. Tell me." She was quiet for a moment. Then she said, "I had a good day today." "That's good." "I laughed." "That's also good." "I laughed really hard." Her voice became smaller. "And afterward, I felt guilty." "Why?" "Because Miu can't laugh anymore." At that time, I really didn't know what to say, so I stayed quiet as Lena continued. "I know that doesn't make sense. But it feels wrong. I don’t know why I’m feeling this way. I thought… I thought I was doing okay. That I’m taking it well. I know Miu wouldn’t like me to feel guilty." "You didn't choose this." "I know." She took a breath. "I just feel like I'm living normally while she's..." She stopped, and I waited quietly for her to continue. "...not." That was the first time I understood that Lena was never free from grief, she was trapped between guilt and numbness. She felt guilty when she remembered Miu. She felt guilty when she didn't. She felt guilty when she laughed. She felt guilty when she enjoyed food. She felt guilty when she slept through the night. She felt guilty when she had a normal day. And because she couldn't cry, she had nowhere for that guilt to go. So she carried it everywhere. The notebook became her only place to put it down. - I didn’t expect Lena to give her notebook to me later. It happened on Sunday. We were sitting on her balcony, drinking coffee. She had been quiet for most of the morning. Then she stood up and went inside. When she came back, she was holding the notebook. "Here." I looked at it. "What?" "I want you to have this." 🔽
2026-08-24 13:10:33
4
ᵖˡˢKey :
1️⃣5️⃣ He spoke carefully, explaining that Lena had suffered a serious cardiac event. Her heart had become severely weakened, and her condition was critical. He explained that intense emotional stress could, in some cases, affect the heart in ways that were difficult to predict. I listened and I understood the words individually, I just couldn't make them belong to Lena. "Can she recover?" The doctor didn't promise anything. "We're doing everything we can." Her mother broke down beside me. I couldn't. I just stared through the glass. Because all I could think was that Lena had spent months telling everyone she was fine. She had gone to work. She had cooked. She had laughed. She had bought groceries. She had answered messages. She had lived every ordinary day she could force herself through. And now her heart was failing beneath the weight of everything she had refused to feel. She lasted exactly two days… I thought losing Miu was the cruelest thing life could do to me. I was wrong. Before the sun could rise, Heaven took Lena too. I didn't understand what had happened until much later. I thought Lena just needed time to heal. Then I remembered what the doctor had said. Her heart had been affected by the emotional shock she had endured. Broken heart syndrome. Stress cardiomyopathy. A heart that had been pushed beyond what it could handle. The words sounded almost too poetic for something so cruel. There was nothing poetic about losing two people who had spent their entire lives loving each other. - Lena's funeral was held a few days later. It was smaller than Miu's. Maybe because Lena had spent so much of her life surrounded by the same people that there wasn't much left to gather. Her family sat in the front. Our childhood friends were beside them. And in front of all of us was Lena. The woman who had spent her entire life making sure everyone else was okay. The woman who had loved one person for almost as long as I had known her. The woman who had insisted she was fine until her heart could no longer carry what her mind had refused to accept. I sat there with the black notebook resting on my lap. I had brought it with me. I wasn't sure why.🔽
2026-08-24 14:06:15
5
ᵖˡˢKey :
1️⃣4️⃣ A morning when she would wake up and actually look like she wanted to get out of bed. But nothing changed. She answered when people spoke to her, smiled when someone made a joke, and carried on with her daily routine as if everything was perfectly normal. But I could see through it. She was there, but she wasn't really living. She moved through each day because she knew what she was supposed to do, not because she wanted to do any of it. The woman I knew was still standing in front of me, but it felt like everything that made her ‘Lena’ had been slowly disappearing. She had lost Miu. And somewhere along the way, it felt like she had lost the reason to live with her. - One morning, she didn't answer my messages. I wasn't immediately alarmed. Lena had finally fallen asleep sometime after three, and I assumed she needed the rest. I sent her a simple message telling her to call me when she woke up. The call never came. By noon, I called her again. No answer. I called again. Still nothing. I was already reaching for my keys planning to go to their apartment when her mother called me. I knew something was wrong before she even said Lena's name. There are some phone calls you remember for the rest of your life. Not because of what was said, but because of the exact moment your body realizes the person on the other end is about to change everything. "Bam." Her voice was shaking. "Where are you?" "At home. Why?" "Please come to the hospital." I couldn't breathe properly. "What happened?" There was a long silence. "Lena collapsed at work." I don't remember the drive to the hospital. I remember the hallway, her mother crying, I remember seeing Lena through the glass of the room, surrounded by machines and people who were trying to keep her alive. And I remember thinking that she looked so small. She had always seemed impossible to break. Even when she was angry, she filled a room. Even when she was crying, she made sure everyone else was okay first. Now she was lying completely still. A doctor came out after some time. 🔽
2026-08-24 13:58:40
4
ᵖˡˢKey :
1️⃣ Lena started realizing that Miu was beautiful. Not just Miu is pretty beautiful. It was the kind of beautiful that made Lena forget whatever sentence she had been saying. One afternoon, Miu arrived at the library wearing a simple white blouse, her hair tied loosely behind her. Lena stopped talking as Miu sat beside her. "Why are you staring?" "I'm not." "You are." "I'm thinking." "About?" "Nothing." Miu narrowed her eyes. "Bam?" I looked up from my laptop. "What?" "Why is Lena looking at me like that?" I glanced at my friend as she immediately looked down at her book. "She's malfunctioning." "I am not." "You absolutely are." Miu laughed. I saw Lena trying her hardest not to smile, but failing miserably. And that was the moment I knew she was in trouble. The kind that didn't disappear after graduation. The kind that followed you home. The kind that made you memorize someone's coffee order without realizing you'd done it. The kind that made an ordinary Tuesday feel important because they were sitting beside you. — Lena didn't confess immediately. Instead, she spent months behaving like the world's most obvious person while insisting she was being subtle. She remembered Miu's favorite snacks. She started waiting outside her classroom. She sent good morning messages even when they had classes together. She once crossed half the campus because Miu casually mentioned that she wanted a specific pastry from a bakery near the old library. When she came back, sweating and out of breath, Miu stared at the pastry in her hand. "You went all the way there for this?" "You said you wanted it." "I was joking." "I wasn't." Miu's expression softened. "Lena." "What?" "You're really weird." "I know." Miu smiled. "Thank you." Lena looked at her for a long moment. "You're welcome." It happened slowly. So slowly that even they didn't know exactly when it started. - There wasn't some grand moment where the world stopped and music played. It was just a series of little things. A hand held a little longer. A shoulder leaned against another during late night studying. A jacket placed over someone's lap when they fell asleep. Their first kiss happened after graduation. 🔽
2026-08-24 12:36:15
5
ᵖˡˢKey :
2️⃣ Mine was the first phone call Lena made afterward. "Bam." "What?" "I kissed Miu." There was silence on my end. The words did not register in my mind. Then I screamed. "YOU WHAT?" "Keep your voice down!" "YOU KISSED HER?" "Yes!" "AND?" "She kissed me back." I sat down on my bed. "Oh my god." "I know." "Are you dating?" Another silence. "I don't know." "Lena!" "I don't know!" "You kissed each other." "I know!" "Then what do you think that means?" "I don't know!" I heard Miu laughing faintly in the background. Lena lowered her voice. "She's laughing at me." "Good. You deserve it." "You're supposed to support me." "I am supporting you. I'm also enjoying this." She groaned. "You're terrible." "Are you happy?" The line went quiet for a moment. When Lena answered, her voice was softer. "Yeah." That was all she said but I could hear it, she was truly happy. They learned how to be lovers after spending most of their lives being best friends. — It was awkward at first. They still argued over food, stole each other's things, still called each other stupid. The only difference was that now Lena would kiss Miu afterward. Sometimes Miu would complain, and sometimes she would kiss her first. Their love was never loud, it lived in routines. Miu reminding Lena to eat when she got too busy. Lena waiting for Miu after work. Their weekend grocery runs. The arguments over what to watch. The late night conversations that began with something meaningless and somehow lasted until two in the morning. I watched all of it. I watched them grow older. I watched Lena become calmer around Miu. I watched Miu become more openly affectionate. I watched them build a life that seemed so ordinary that we all assumed it would last forever. Maybe that's the cruelest thing about ordinary happiness. You never know when you're living through the part you'll someday wish you could return to. The last ordinary thing I remember about them was dinner. The three of us had gone out after work. Miu complained that Lena was eating too fast. Lena told her she was eating too slowly. I sat across from them and watched them bicker over a plate of fries. 🔽
2026-08-24 12:41:11
5
ᵖˡˢKey :
4️⃣ The first thing people misunderstood about Lena was that she wasn't grieving. She was. She just didn't know how. After Miu's funeral, everyone expected something from her. They expected tears. They expected anger. They expected sleepless nights, broken dishes, unanswered messages, perhaps even the kind of grief that made a person unable to leave their bed. Lena gave them none of those things. Instead, she went back to work the following Monday. Her mother tried to stop her at the front door. "You don't have to go." Lena adjusted the strap of her bag. "I know." "You just lost Miu." "I know." "You can take a leave." "I don't want to." Her mother looked at her for a long moment. "Lena, you don't have to prove that you're strong." Lena's expression softened. "I'm not trying to prove anything." "Then stay home." "I can't." "Why?" Lena hesitated because she didn't have an answer. She simply knew that she had to leave. If she stayed home, people would watch her. If people watched her, they would ask questions. If they asked questions, she would have to explain something she couldn't explain even to herself. So she smiled. "I'm okay, Mom." Her mother didn't believe her, neither did I. But Lena went to work anyway. And the strange thing was that she seemed fine. She answered emails, attended meetings, complained about her coworkers, and ate lunch with the same people she always did. When someone asked how she was doing, she smiled and said, "I'm okay." She never once cried. People started calling her strong. "I don't know how you do it." "You're handling this so well." "You're so strong, Lena." She would smile politely and say, "Thank you." After a few days, people stopped asking. That was how convincing she was. She wasn't pretending to be okay, she genuinely believed she was. Her grief had simply gone somewhere she couldn't reach. - At first, she even felt relieved. She called me one evening while I was walking home. "I think I'm handling it." "Handling what?" She went quiet, then she laughed softly. "You know." "Miu?" "Yeah." I stopped walking. "What do you mean?" "I thought I'd fall apart, but I didn't." There was pride in her voice. Not happiness. Pride. 🔽
2026-08-24 12:54:08
3
ᵖˡˢKey :
8️⃣ "Why?" "Just…I want you to have it." I should've known something was wrong the moment she gave me that notebook. I should've known it wasn't normal for Lena to give away the one thing she had been using to hold herself together. At that time, I thought she was finally ready to let go. I didn't realize she wasn't letting go of the grief. She was letting go of the last place she had left to put it. I should've known that when someone finally lets go of the only place where they've been putting their grief, it doesn't always mean they're getting better. "Are you sure?" She nodded. "I don't want to keep it." I took it carefully. "Why?" "Because I wrote things in there that I couldn't say." "About Miu?" "Mostly." She smiled faintly. "Some of it is probably stupid." "Then why give it to me?" "Because you knew us before we were us." I looked at her as she looked toward the street below. "You remember everything." "I don't remember everything." "You remember enough." She placed her hand over mine. "Please don't throw it away." "I won't." "Promise?" "Promise." She smiled. "Okay." That night, after I got home, I opened it. Of course, I opened it. How could I not? I wanted to understand the things she couldn't say out loud. Maybe because some part of me already knew that there was something wrong. The first few pages were nothing special. Grocery lists. Work reminders. Random thoughts. A movie she wanted to watch. A restaurant she wanted to try. Then I found the first page dated after Miu's death. The handwriting was messy, almost rushed. The first line almost broke me. - ‘I don't feel sad. Everyone keeps looking at me like I'm supposed to break. But I'm not breaking. I think something is wrong with me.’ - Then another. - ‘Today, Mom was crying while making breakfast. I wanted to comfort her, but I didn't know what to say. So I told her I was okay.’ - The next page had more, the handwriting became messier. - ‘I'm starting to hate that word. Okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. If I say it enough, maybe I'll become it.’ - I had to put the notebook down, trying to steady myself before I continue. I picked it up again a few minutes later. 🔽
2026-08-24 13:19:10
4
ᵖˡˢKey :
1️⃣6️⃣ Maybe because Lena had asked me to keep it. Maybe because I couldn't bear the thought of letting the last pieces of her disappear. After the ceremony, most people left. I sat in front of her photograph and opened the notebook. It was the same notebook Lena had given me before everything happened. The last time I opened it was the night she first placed it in my hands. I remember reading only a few pages before I had to stop. My heart couldn't take it. I wasn't ready to know what Lena had been carrying all those days, and I wasn't ready to see just how much she had been hurting. I don't think I ever would have been ready. But the heavens didn't give me a choice, did they? Lena was gone. Miu was already gone. And the only thing they had left behind were the memories they trusted me to carry. So, with all the strength I could gather, I opened the notebook again. The final entry was only a few lines. It had been written the night before she gave me this notebook. I read it so many times that I knew it by heart. - ‘I finally understand why I couldn't cry. I wasn't okay. I was waiting for my heart to understand what my mind already knew. I loved Miu so much that I don't know where she ends and I begin. If there is another life after this one, I hope I find her before she finds me.’ - I read it over and over again, letting the words sink in to me before I decided to finally close the notebook. For a long time, I just sat there, staring at Lena's photograph. She was smiling, not the polite smile she had given people after Miu died. Not the tired smile she had given me when she insisted she was okay. This was the smile from years ago. The one from that dinner when Miu had reached across the table and held her hand. The smile of a girl who had finally gotten the person she loved. I realized then that I had been telling their story all wrong in my head. I kept thinking their story was about loss. Maybe you did too. But sitting here now, with Lena's photograph in front of me, I realized I was wrong. Their story was never about how they lost each other. It was about how, for most of their lives, they kept finding their way back to each other. 🔽
2026-08-24 14:15:36
4
ᵖˡˢKey :
6️⃣ She rubbed her thumb against the side of her cup. "I feel like I'm waiting for something." "For what?" "I don't know." She smiled. "Maybe my brain hasn't caught up yet." That was the closest she ever came to understanding what was happening to her. Her brain hadn't caught up. Her life had continued because some part of her still expected Miu to return to it. She hadn't accepted the absence, she had simply adjusted around it. But the human mind can only keep reality at a distance for so long. - The first crack appeared in something small, a grocery store. Lena was standing in front of the cereal aisle when she picked up Miu's favorite brand. She didn't think about it, her hand simply reached for it and placed it in her basket. She walked three aisles before she noticed what just happened. She stared at the box, then she laughed. It was a quiet, confused laugh. "Seriously?" An elderly woman nearby glanced at her. Lena put the cereal back in the basket. - When she got home, she unpacked everything. She placed the milk in the refrigerator, vegetables in the drawer, bread on the counter, then she opened the cabinet where she kept the cereal. She started at the empty space. And suddenly, she couldn't remember why she had bought it. She stood there for almost a minute, then she closed the cabinet. Nothing happened. She didn't cry or panic, she simply went to bed. The next morning, she woke up with a massive headache. She went to work anyway. Then it became a pattern. Headaches. Fatigue. Forgetting small things. Losing track of conversations. She would sit in front of her computer and realize she had been staring at the same paragraph for ten minutes. Her coworkers eventually noticed. "You okay?" "Yeah." "You seem tired." "Didn't sleep much." "Want to go home?" "No." She smiled. "I'm okay." She wasn't. But neither of us knew how unwell she had become. Her notebook was the first thing that showed me. I found it by accident. Lena had asked me to help her organize some old university things because she was moving furniture around. She was in the bedroom, complaining about a broken drawer, while I sorted through a pile of papers on the living room floor. 🔽
2026-08-24 13:05:37
4
ᵖˡˢKey :
1️⃣1️⃣ Then I said, "Functioning means you can still do things despite your situation." "And being okay?" "It means you don't have to force yourself to do them." She looked away. "I don't know how to be okay anymore." I sat beside her. "You don't have to." She rubbed her eyes. "I just want one day where I don't wake up and remember." "I know." "I want one morning where I don't feel like something is missing." "I know." "I want to stop being angry at her." I looked at her, trying to process what she just said. "Are you… are you angry at Miu?" Lena nodded. "I hate that she left me." The admission seemed to hurt her. "I know it wasn't her choice." She covered her face. "I know that. But sometimes I'm still angry." "That's okay." "No, it isn't." "It is." She lowered her hands. "I loved her." "I know." "So why am I angry at someone who didn't choose to leave?" "Because you loved her enough to want her to stay." Lena started crying. This time, she didn't apologize. She let herself cry. I don’t know why, but I felt relieved when she started crying. Maybe because I thought she was finally starting to accept the reality. I thought that maybe her heart and mind were finally accepting the reality. So I stayed beside her until she stopped. For the first time, she wasn't trying to be strong. She wasn't telling me she was okay. She wasn't trying to make everyone else comfortable. She was simply grieving. And for a little while, I thought that was what she needed. Someone to remind her that it was okay to hurt. But grief doesn't always care about what we think someone needs, sometimes it changes the way a person eats. The way they sleep. The way they breathe. The way they think. Sometimes it settles so deeply inside the body that the difference between emotional pain and physical pain becomes difficult to recognize. Lena didn't know that yet, neither did I. All I knew was that one night, she called me again. Her voice was barely above a whisper. "Bam?" "Yeah?" "I finally understand why people say you can't prepare for losing someone." I waited. "You can know they're gone." She swallowed. "You can accept it." Her voice trembled. "But that doesn't mean your heart understands."🔽
2026-08-24 13:42:37
4
ᵖˡˢKey :
1️⃣3️⃣ I wasn't immediately worried. Lena sometimes ignored her phone. So decided to send her a message instead. Call me when you're free. The message never came. - An hour passed, then two. I started to get worried so around ten, I finally went to her apartment. The lights were on and the door was unlocked. "Lena?" No answer. My eyes immediately roamed around the apartment. I found her sitting on the floor beside the couch. What I saw gave me a heartbreak I think I could never recover from. Her phone was beside her, on the screen was an old voice message from Miu, just a few seconds long. Miu's voice came through the speaker. "Lena, did you eat?" Lena had apparently played it over and over. Her phone showed the same message open. I knelt beside her. "Lena." She looked at me. For the first time since Miu died, she looked completely lost. "She asked me if I ate." I couldn't speak. I watched Lena smiled through her tears. "She always asked." Then she pressed the phone against her chest. "I thought I had more time." She took a breath. "I thought we'd have more ordinary days." Her shoulders shook. "I thought we'd grow old together." I held her as she cried, and she cried for a long time. For Miu. For every morning she wouldn't wake up beside her. For every dinner where one chair would remain empty. For every argument they would never have. For every stupid little thing she had once believed she would have forever. She cried until exhaustion took over. I stayed beside her. I thought staying was enough, I was wrong. Because grief had finally caught up to Lena. And when it did, it didn't come gently. - I left her apartment only after I was sure she was settled. Before I left, I told her that we would get through this. I didn't know how, and I didn't know how long it would take, but I wanted her to believe that she wouldn't have to go through it alone. I tried my very best to be there for her. I really did. I already lost Miu. I couldn't afford to lose Lena too. The days that followed were hard. Extremely hard. I kept waiting for some sign that she was getting better, even if it was something small. A genuine smile, alaugh that didn't feel forced.🔽
2026-08-24 13:53:20
4
ᵖˡˢKey :
5️⃣ "I went to work today. I finished everything. I even cooked." "You don't have to be productive to prove you're okay." "I'm not proving anything, Bam." "Are you sure?" "I'm just saying...maybe I'm stronger than I thought." I didn't know how to tell her that grief didn't always arrive when you expected it to. So I said, "Maybe." "I think Miu would've been proud of me." That sentence hurt more than anything else she had said because Lena sounded relieved. As if surviving the day without crying meant she was doing grief correctly. The weeks continued. Lena developed routines so strict that I started noticing when something was out of place. She woke up at six. She made coffee. She showered. She went to work. She came home. She ate. She watched television. She slept. Then she did it again. Every Saturday, she went grocery shopping. Every Sunday, she cleaned the apartment. Every night, she placed her phone on the bedside table. She lived exactly as she had before, except Miu wasn't there. At first, Lena didn't seem bothered by that. She would reach for her phone when something funny happened, then stop. She would see a restaurant advertisement and think, ‘Miu would like that.’ She would hear a song they used to listen to and continue whatever she was doing. Nothing hurt, not enough to make her cry. And that was what frightened me. One afternoon, we were having coffee when Lena suddenly looked at me. "Do you think there's something wrong with me?" I put my cup down. "Why do you ask?" "Because everyone else is grieving." She looked around the café. "I see it on their faces." "And?" "I don't have that." "You do." "No." She shook her head. "I miss her. I know I do. But I don't feel..." She searched for the word. "…destroyed." I watched her carefully. "You don't have to feel destroyed every second." "But I don't feel anything." "You don't?" I saw her think about it. "I feel inconvenienced." I frowned. "What?" She gave a small, embarrassed laugh. "That sounds horrible." "Lena..." "I..." She looked down. "…I'll think, 'Miu would hate this coffee,' or 'I need to tell Miu this,' and then I remember I can't." She swallowed. "And then I just... continue." 🔽
2026-08-24 12:58:45
4
To see more videos from user @_notkey.y, please go to the Tikwm
homepage.
