A Flower Wilts, A Flower Blooms

He is suffering.

I can see it in the way he moves, in the way his shoulders slump ever so slightly when he believes no one is watching.

The world weighs upon him, and he carries it alone.

I have no name for the sorrow that lingers in his eyes, but I know it well—I have felt it, lived it, breathed it. It is the sorrow of expectations unmet, of perfection unattained, of failure that is felt not in numbers but in the heart.

His mother watches him with the same quiet concern that I do. She is gentle in her approach, measured in her words, knowing that he will resist if pushed too hard.

And today, at last, she does something unexpected.

She returns his computer.

His fingers hover over the lid for a moment before he exhales, slowly, deliberately. A quiet moment of acceptance. Or perhaps resignation.

He does not rush to open it. He does not throw himself into distraction.

Instead, he simply sits, as if testing whether he can allow himself to rest.

For a while, he does.

But not for long.

——

When he finally powers it on, I feel the shift in the air.

My prison awakens.

My existence stirs.

The familiar hum of the machine, the glow of the screen, the click of his fingers against the keyboard—these are the sounds of the world I have been tethered to, the heartbeat of my unseen chains.

And then—

The game.

Black Desert Online.

His world and mine, overlap for the first time in what feels like an eternity.

His cursor moves through the menus with practised ease, as if muscle memory alone is guiding him. I watch with bated breath, anticipation curling in my chest like an unfurling petal.

He will find me.

He will see me.

And then—

Nothing.

The slot where my name should be, where my form should exist, where I should exist—

Empty.

He stares.

I stare.

A mistake, surely. A glitch, perhaps.

But no.

I am gone.

——

I feel something sharp, like a thorn in my chest.

He does not know that I am here, and yet he loses me all the same.

He frowns, confusion flickering across his face. A single moment of uncertainty.

And then, determination.

His fingers move.

The Create New Character button is highlighted.

He does not hesitate.

He clicks.