Ryan gave a small, almost unreadable smile, his voice calm and gentle.
“When I first met you, you were the princess celebrating her birthday in the castle. And I was just the scruffy kid watching from outside the iron gates.”
Amelia froze. An old, dusty memory, long buried, flickered hazily in her mind.
Ryan went on quietly, “You were the first person who ever gave me a piece of cake. That day—it was my birthday, too.”
They shared the same birthday.
But his mother never celebrated his. In Ryan’s childhood memories, his birthday was nothing but a nightmare—the day his mother hated him most. That was always the day her anger turned into violence.
How could you be born? You should never have existed. Just die. Die!
When you live with pain long enough, it stops hurting. You just go numb.
But that day, the princess from the castle handed him a piece of cake.
Today’s my birthday, she told him. I want to share my birthday cake with you. I hope you have a happy birthday, too.
The memory of that little street kid, his face blurred by time, slowly merged with the man standing in front of her now. Suddenly, Amelia saw it clearly—Ryan had been that boy all along.
She just stood there, stunned.
She wanted to say something, but the words wouldn’t come.
Ryan reached out and gently touched her cold cheek.
“Then one day, the princess disappeared. I thought maybe she’d gone somewhere better, somewhere happier. Years later, I found her again. But she was different. Quiet. She didn’t laugh like she used to, and she didn’t remember me.”
Ryan gave a crooked, self-mocking smile, but his eyes were heartbreakingly soft.
“I never knew how to make her smile. I kept trying, but everything I did just seemed to make things worse. She thought I hated her. But honestly… I was just so ashamed. I wanted to be someone else in front of her—not that hopeless kid from outside the gates.”
He said it all so calmly, like he was just placing his heart in her hands—still raw and bleeding.
If he’d known his words would make her cry like this, he might never have said anything.
“Ryan, you have to live. Do you hear me?” Amelia grabbed his hand, wiped at her own face, and stared at him with a seriousness he’d never seen before.
Her eyes were red, her nose too, and to Ryan, she looked heartbreakingly cute.
“I hear you,” he answered quietly.
Amelia couldn’t even tell what she felt for Ryan anymore. Her heart was a mess—shock, gratitude, something else she couldn’t name—all tangled up together.
But she didn’t want to mistake that chaos for love.
Still, there was one thing she knew for sure.
She wanted Ryan to live.
“Ryan, if you could die for me, then from now on, I want you to live for me. Promise me you’ll live.”

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