canvas_of_silence
Pond had loved Nancy for more than fourteen years. Now, at thirty-four, he watches the woman he spent years dreaming of marrying choose someone else. He has a successful career, a good life, and everything he could ask for-except the love he always wanted.
Phuwin is a high schooler still trying to navigate his way through life when he begins to look at Pond a little differently. At first, it is admiration. He admires the way Pond loved Nancy for so many years, the kindness he shows even when no one is watching, the courage he carries quietly, and the countless ordinary things he does that somehow become extraordinary simply because they are Pond.
Somewhere along the way, admiration becomes something Phuwin cannot name without being afraid of it.
He knows the reality, though. The years between them are not something he can simply overlook. They are at completely different stages of life, and Phuwin understands that there are boundaries he cannot and should not cross. But even if those years did not exist, he knows the truth would remain the same.
He would still have no chance.
Because Pond's heart has never truly belonged to anyone but Nancy.
Pond spent fourteen years loving someone he could not have. And now Phuwin finds himself loving a man whose heart is still waiting for someone else.
He knows he cannot compete with fourteen years of memories. He knows Pond may never look at him the way he looks at Nancy. But knowing that does not make his feelings any less real.
Perhaps that is what makes Phuwin's love so painful. He simply wishes, in some quiet and impossible corner of his heart, that one day Pond might look at him and see what Phuwin sees in him.
But some loves are not meant to be returned.
Sometimes, you love someone simply because they became precious to you-not because you believe they will ever be yours.
And without ever meaning to, Pond became the person Phuwin would have to learn that lesson from.