The world was never silent, but she had always lived in silence.
From the time she was old enough to understand the difference between company and solitude, she knew she was different. Not because she didn't have people around her. She did. Family. Classmates. Neighbors. But none of them truly saw her — not in the way she longed for.
She wasn't sad. Not exactly.
She had made peace with loneliness long ago, like two strangers sharing the same room, nodding politely but never speaking. It was just... part of her. Just like her habit of whispering her thoughts to Lord Shiva late at night, as if He were the only one who could hear the words trapped behind her lips.
"Why me?" she would murmur into the darkness, lying on her back, eyes tracing the cracks in the ceiling like constellations."I'm not asking for much, you know... just one person who gets it. Who gets me."
But no voice ever replied. Shiva stayed silent — stubbornly divine, like always.Still, she talked to Him. Complained to Him.And sometimes, when the loneliness became too loud, she'd cry — quietly — like she had learned to do so well.
She wasn't weak.She was just... tired of always being strong.
She liked things others didn't understand.Anime. K-dramas. K-pop. Manhwas.Her classmates said she was "too quiet," but her world was loud — full of color and feeling, just hidden in subtitles and soundtracks.
She sketched.She wrote poetry.She dreamed of stories where characters like her — the quiet, awkward ones — were loved for exactly who they were.
And yet, in real life, friendship had hurt her more than loneliness ever could.Betrayals. Broken promises. Words left unsaid.Still, she didn't hate anyone. She couldn't.She just drifted away — not out of pride, but to protect whatever little of herself she had left.
Romance?
She had never dated. Never crushed. Never kissed.Love, to her, wasn't some passing feeling or burning glance.It was sacred — meant for one soul. One person.Her future husband, wherever he was.
Until then, she belonged to herself.
And to her mother — the one person she would always protect, no matter how dark life got.
She didn't drink. Didn't smoke. Didn't judge.Her thoughts ran deeper than most people's words.Emotional, yes — but steel ran through her softness.
Today, she stood at the edge of something new — her final year of college. The last stretch before the so-called "real world."And once again, she walked alone.
But deep inside her, something stirred.A quiet whisper — maybe Shiva, maybe her own heart:
"Your story is only beginning."