Ugh… finally, class is over," Claire sighed as she packed her bag.
Then she paused.
"Hey… I should call Leo," she thought.
She quickly dialed his number.
Leo picked up.
"Hey, Leo. You called me earlier, right? I'm sorry I couldn't answer," Claire said.
"Oh, it's okay," Leo replied. "By the way, how are you? How was your day?"
"It was good," Claire said. "What about yours?"
"Yeah… it was fine."
Just then, someone entered Leo's office.
It was Werren's father.
"Claire, I'll talk to you later," Leo said.
"Oh, okay. Bye."
After the call ended, Werren's father spoke.
"Leo, did you talk to Werren yesterday? What did he say?"
Leo hesitated.
"Ah… well… he didn't really want to talk. I'm sorry."
Werren's father sighed.
"It's fine. Werren is… difficult to understand sometimes. Even I don't understand him."
After saying that, he walked away.
Leo stood there quietly.
"Yeah… that's true," he murmured. "He really is hard to understand."
Just then, it started raining.
Leo looked outside the window.
The sound of rain filled the silence.
Slowly, he closed his eyes…
…and memories from the past came back to him.
"Dad, I don't want to go to another place," young Leo said.
His father didn't even look at him.
"No. We're going," his father replied firmly.
"But I don't want to go!" Leo protested.
The next day, Leo moved to a new city.
It was a beautiful place… but to him, it felt empty.
At his new high school, Leo sat quietly in class, staring out the window as the rain fell.
Other students whispered.
"Look, he's new."
"He's so handsome."
"Let's go talk to him."
"I don't think he'll talk to us," one girl said.
Another girl stepped forward confidently.
"I will."
Her name was Rebecca.
She walked up to Leo.
"Hey, you're new here, right? Do you like this school? Where are you from? What's your name? I'm Rebecca."
Leo didn't respond.
He kept looking outside the window.
"Hey?" Rebecca said again.
Leo finally looked at her.
"Excuse me… can you move?" he said coldly.
Then he stood up and walked away.
Rebecca was stunned.
"What? He's so rude!"
"I told you," another girl said.
That evening, Leo returned home.
He felt empty.
"There's no one here… no Claire," he thought.
Time passed, but he never felt happy in that place.
One day, Leo went to his father.
"Dad… I don't want to live here anymore."
"Why? What's wrong?" his father asked, still busy with his work.
Leo looked at him quietly.
"Dad never cares about my feelings," he thought.
Then he finally spoke.
"Why don't you ever care about me?" Leo said.
His father stopped working and looked at him.
"I told you before that I didn't want to come here. But you still forced me."
"Every time I try to talk to you, you're always busy."
"Why are you like this?"
His father sighed.
"Leo… you don't understand the reason behind this."
"I don't want to understand!" Leo replied.
"Why should I care… when you never cared about me?"
After saying that, he walked away.
The next day, it was raining again.
Leo went to school.
During class, the teacher suddenly called him.
"Leo… I need to tell you something."
Leo listened.
And then—
"What…?" he whispered.
His whole body started shaking.
"No… that can't be true…"
He ran home.
"No… please… this can't be real," he cried.
"Mom… Dad… you can't leave me…"
He fell to his knees, breaking down completely.
After some time, Werren's family came to see him.
Werren's father looked at Leo with concern.
Werren wanted to go to him, but his mother stopped him gently.
"Werren… give him some time."
Even Werren couldn't believe what had happened.
Days passed.
Leo stopped going to school.
He stopped talking to everyone.
He stayed alone.
One day, he sat quietly in his room.
"Dad… I may have said those things to you…" he whispered.
"But all I ever wanted… was your time."
"I just wanted you to notice me…"
Tears filled his eyes.
Outside, the rain fell heavily.
One day, Leo was walking past the hallway when he overheard a conversation.
Werren's father was speaking to someone.
"This is so unexpected… what happened to Leo's parents," the man said. "It's really sad."
"Yes," Werren's father replied.
"Sir, I need to tell you something," the man continued. "The company's stocks are going down."
"I know," Werren's father said.
At that moment, he noticed Leo standing nearby.
He stopped talking immediately.
"We'll discuss this later," he said.
Then he walked over to Leo.
"Leo… how are you doing?"
"I'm fine," Leo replied quietly.
Werren's father smiled faintly.
"It's nothing serious. Don't worry about anything. Just take care of yourself."
Leo looked at him silently.
After some time, Leo returned to school.
But things had changed.
"Hey, that's Leo…"
"Did you hear about his parents?"
"Yeah… it's really sad."
"Poor guy…"
Leo could hear everything.
"It's suffocating," he thought.
Hearing those words made his pain worse.
During break, he walked through the corridor.
People kept staring.
They kept whispering.
"Just… leave me alone," he muttered.
He went outside to the school grounds.
"Ah… it's better here," he said quietly.
"Why do they keep talking about it?"
"Every time I hear it… it reminds me of them…"
The next day, things didn't change.
Students still looked at him.
Still whispered.
And Leo…
felt more alone than ever.