The following weeks changed everything.
People still whispered sometimes, but Aurora didn't care.
And Elias didn't hide anymore.
Not from her.
Not from the world.
He sat beside her in music class.
He walked with her in the halls.
He wrote songs with her after school.
And slowly—gently—Elias began to step out of the shadows he had lived in for so long.
One afternoon, Aurora found him in the practice room playing the song that started it all.
He looked up and smiled softly.
"This is where I fell in love with you," he whispered.
Aurora walked toward him, sliding into his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"And this," she whispered, kissing him softly, "is where I started loving you too."
He held her close, feeling something warm and steady bloom inside him.
He wasn't afraid anymore.
Because Aurora was no longer the girl he loved from afar.
She was the girl who chose him.
The girl he kissed under stage lights.
The girl who held his heart in her hands.
And he was the boy who finally believed he deserved her.
Together, they closed the practice room door behind them—
not hiding,
not afraid—
but beginning a new chapter already unfolding between them.
The story wasn't perfect.
But it was theirs.
And it was just beginning.
—THE CHAPTER END—