MK froze.
It happened so suddenly she didn't even feel her lungs stop — one second she was walking hand-in-hand with Ashley toward the exit, the next, that familiar cluster of voices rose over the crowd, and her entire body locked.
Shriya's group.
The past and present collided inside her like two storms meeting head-on.
She forced her face into something neutral, something steady, while her heart swung violently between dread and anticipation.
Peach arrived first, bright as always.
"MK! Long time no see."
MK nodded, polite, composed.
"Peach. Leah."
She didn't say the others' names — she couldn't remember them clearly, not when the air behind the group practically crackled with the presence she was trying not to acknowledge.
Ashley's fingers squeezed hers lightly.
MK swallowed, lifted her chin.
"This is Ashley," she said, tone too cheerful, too forced. "My girlfriend."
The word landed like a thrown stone.
Ashley smiled and offered a small wave.
"Hi."
Leah grinned. "Nice to meet you, Ashley. Wow… MK, you really snagged a queen."
Peach elbowed her. "Seriously. She's gorgeous."
MK felt Ashley relax beside her, but her own heart was ricocheting painfully against her ribs.
Because behind them — partially hidden, partially shining like she always did — stood Shriya.
She looked… stunned. Hurt.
Trying hard to hold herself together.
Her friends' shameless admiration for Ashley only made it worse.
'She looks happy,' Shriya told herself.
'She doesn't need me anymore.'
Her throat tightened. She started to turn away, willing herself not to crumble—
"Shriya!" someone called, catching her before she escaped.
Slowly, she stepped forward.
"Hi. I'm Shriya," she said, offering Ashley her hand.
Ashley reached out.
Shriya's fingers tightened — just a hair too much.
A silent act of defiance.
A warning.
The moment stretched.
Then MK shot Shriya a sharp look — not angry, not hostile, but the kind that said not here.
Shriya released Ashley's hand at once and cleared her throat.
"Sorry. We… should be going."
Before she turned fully, she stepped toward MK — just enough to brush MK's fingers in what looked like a friendly shake.
But it wasn't friendly.
It was electric.
MK felt it like a jolt — a spark that shot through her stomach and made her knees weaken for a second, memories detonating in her chest.
She snatched her hand back too quickly.
Shriya saw it.
And it hurt.
She swallowed, forced a distant smile, nodded once, and gestured for her group to move.
They walked away.
MK didn't breathe until she could no longer see the familiar length of Shriya's hair in the crowd.
Ashley watched her closely.
"I see she still has an effect on you."
MK turned fast, shaking her head.
"No. No, she's my past. You… you're my present. And I want you to be my future."
Ashley stopped walking.
"Are you serious?"
MK looked her dead in the eyes.
"Yes. I want to love you right. Properly. Not halfway."
Ashley nodded slowly — hope glowing, but doubt still lingering in her lashes.
MK kept her close the whole night, almost smotheringly so — feeding her, hugging her, offering small affection in nervous bursts, as if trying to outrun her own racing heart.
Ashley loved it.
Ashley also knew it wasn't normal.
Something had shaken MK.
Something with a familiar name.
---
THE NEXT MORNING
Ashley woke to her manager's voice.
"Miss Ashley, I'm sorry — they refused to postpone the endorsement shoot. You must be on set tomorrow."
"T-tomorrow? I'm still out of the country—"
"I can book an evening flight back."
Ashley stared at MK sleeping beside her.
Failure meant penalties. Ruined reputation.
She couldn't afford that.
"I… I'll see what I can—"
A soft tug.
MK had woken and gently pulled the phone from her hand.
"Ashley, go," MK said softly.
"I don't want your career affected. We'll visit again. I'll be back home in three days anyway."
Ashley hated how reasonable she sounded.
"Okay," she said to her manager. "Send me the ticket."
She hung up, biting her lip.
"MK… but we still have time— I wanted—"
"It's fine," MK reassured her. "What do you want to do today? Beach? Mall? Mountains?"
Ashley stepped closer, arms sliding around MK's waist.
"No," she whispered. "Can we just stay here today? Cook something, watch something… I just want time with you."
MK's shoulders loosened.
"Of course."
Ashley smiled, leaned in, and kissed her slowly, tenderly — the kind of kiss meant to leave a mark before a flight.
"I'll miss you," she breathed against her lips.
MK touched her cheek and whispered back,
"It's only three days."
But the warmth in her voice didn't reach her eyes.
Because somewhere in the crowd yesterday…
a pair of eyes had woken a ghost she'd buried deep.
And MK was terrified that three days wouldn't be enough for that ghost to go back to sleep.