They didn't say his name out loud.
Not because it was unknown…
but because it felt dangerous to speak it.
Darian Korr.
A man people avoided like a storm standing still in human form.
He didn't need to threaten anyone.
His silence did that for him.
He lived with distance.
With control.
With nothing that could be used against him.
That was how he survived.
Or at least… how he thought he did.
That afternoon, the city felt too ordinary for someone like him.
He stepped out of his car, adjusting his coat, eyes already scanning everything out of habit—exits, movement, threats that didn't exist yet.
Then—
A small voice broke through the noise.
"Hey… you're really scary, you know?"
He stopped.
Slowly, his gaze lowered.
A little girl stood near the roadside railing, legs swinging like she had all the time in the world. Dust on her shoes. Hair slightly messy. Big curious eyes that didn't know fear the way others did.
She looked at him like he was just another person.
Just… one she had decided to talk to.
"You're sooo scary," she repeated again, as if confirming it.
Darian didn't respond at first.
Then, flatly—
"Where are your parents?"
The girl blinked.
"My mom told me to stay here," she said. "She went somewhere. A long time ago. She didn't come back yet."
A pause.
Then she added, casually, like it didn't matter much:
"My dad doesn't live with us. He doesn't love my mommy anymore. So we don't live together."
Darian's expression didn't change.
But something in his stare sharpened slightly.
"…And you're alone," he said.
"I'm not alone," she replied immediately, pointing at him like it was obvious. "You're here."
That answer shouldn't have meant anything.
But it did.
Darian looked away briefly, as if the city itself had become louder than before.
Then he crouched slightly in front of her, voice still cold.
"What's your name?"
The girl brightened instantly.
"Oh! I forgot I didn't tell you yet!"
She leaned forward proudly.
"I'm Lina Veyra."
As if announcing something important to the world.
Darian repeated it once in his mind.
Lina Veyra.
Too small a name for how loud she was acting.
"How long have you been here, Lina Veyra?" he asked.
She tilted her head, thinking hard.
"Umm… the sun moved a lot. So… long?"
Silence.
A car horn echoed somewhere far behind them.
She leaned closer, studying his face.
"You really don't smile, do you?"
"…No."
"That's sad."
That single word landed strangely in the air.
Darian stood up.
Something had already decided for him before he consciously did.
Ten minutes later, she was still talking.
Non-stop.
About clouds that looked like "sleepy animals,"
about how she once argued with a cat and lost,
about how serious people probably don't eat sweets (which she found suspicious).
Darian said almost nothing.
And yet—
She walked beside him like she belonged there.
At one point, she grabbed his sleeve.
"Hey, scary man."
He didn't correct her.
"…Are you taking me somewhere?"
"Yes," he said simply.
"Safe?"
A pause.
Then—
"Yes."
She nodded immediately.
"Okay. I'll go then."
Like that was the easiest decision in the world.
And just like that—
Darian Korr, the man who never took anything with him…
walked away from the street…
with a small girl who had decided he was no longer a stranger.