Silar could feel it spreading.
The pain in his side had changed. Earlier it had felt like a deep wound that throbbed every time he moved. Now the pain was different. It was colder, like something crawling slowly through his veins.
He walked with the others through the dark corridor, but his steps were becoming heavier.
Josh was leading the group carefully, and Mira stayed close beside him. The students behind them whispered in nervous voices. Everyone was trying not to look directly at Silar's wound.
But he understood what they were thinking.
He would probably die soon, or even worse.
Strangely, the thought didn't make him angry.
Silar leaned one hand against the wall for support as they walked. His breathing was steady, but the weakness inside his body was getting harder to ignore.
Maybe it was fate.
At least he would not have to see what the world was becoming.
The thought made him close his eyes for a moment.
And as he walked, memories began surfacing from somewhere deep inside his mind.
Silar had not been born into wealth or power.
His childhood had been simple.
His father worked as an accountant for a small trading company. His mother ran a small food stall near their neighborhood market. They were not poor, but money had always been something they needed to manage carefully.
Their house was small but warm.
Silar remembered waking up early as a child to the smell of fried eggs and rice coming from the kitchen. His mother would already be preparing breakfast while humming softly.
His father always sat at the table reading the morning newspaper before work.
There had been a calm routine in those days.
His older sister, Lina, used to tease him constantly when they were younger.
"You walk too slow," she would say whenever they went to school together.
"You talk too much," Silar always replied.
Even back then she had been more confident than him.
She was the kind of person who made friends easily.
Silar had always been quieter.
He preferred watching people instead of being the center of attention.
School had been normal for him.
He was not the smartest student in his class, but he worked hard. His teachers liked him because he listened carefully and rarely caused trouble.
He still remembered the first time he realized he liked someone.
It had been during his second year of secondary school.
Her name was Alina.
She had short black hair and a habit of tying it into a loose ponytail whenever she studied.
She sat two rows ahead of him in class.
Silar had spent almost an entire semester pretending not to look at her.
His friends noticed immediately.
"You stare at her like she's a celebrity," one of them joked.
"I do not," Silar replied quickly.
"You do."
His ears turned red every time they teased him.
Eventually one of his friends pushed him to talk to her during a group assignment.
Silar had been so nervous that he almost forgot what he was supposed to say.
But Alina turned out to be friendly.
They started talking more often after that.
There wasn't anything dramatic that happened.
There were no dramatic confessions or romantic scenes like in movies.
They simply became very close.
When he finally gathered enough courage to ask if she wanted to go out with him, she smiled and replied him YES
Silar remembered how proud he felt walking home that day.
It had been the first time in his life he truly believed the future might be simple.
But life rarely stayed simple for long.
Years later, when Silar graduated from university, reality started showing its teeth.
Finding a job had not been easy.
He sent dozens of applications before finally receiving an offer from a small consulting firm.
The pay was not impressive, but it was enough to support himself and help his family when necessary.
By that time his older sister had already married and moved to another city.
That meant more responsibility naturally fell on him.
His younger brother was still studying, and his parents were growing older.
Silar did not complain,He simply worked Overtime.
The relationship with Alina continued through those years.
They had been together for nearly six years by that point.
Most people around them believed they would eventually marry.
Silar believed that too.
Until the day everything changed.
It had happened on a quiet evening after work.
Alina had asked to meet him at a small café they often visited.
Silar noticed something strange immediately.
She looked nervous.
He assumed it was about work or family problems.
Instead she looked down at the table and spoke quietly.
"I need to tell you something."
Those words alone had made his stomach tighten.
When she finally explained, Silar struggled to process what he was hearing.
Alina had developed feelings for someone else.
But the part that shocked him most was not the betrayal itself.
It was who the other person was.
Another woman.