HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE

She should have felt free.

That's what she told herself as her boots touched the sidewalk, as the morning wind tousled her scarf, as the tram rattled forward like nothing had changed.

But everything had changed.

The city still hummed, yes — cars moved, shop doors swung open, strangers laughed into their phones — but the noise felt... distant. Dull. Like she was moving through a world dipped in fog.

Serene gripped her bag tighter.

She whispered her schedule under her breath to stay steady.

> "Lecture. Café. Library. Back before dark."

A routine. A tether. Something to make her believe she still belonged here.

---

Campus was as chaotic as ever.

Students sprawled on grass. Professors rushed past. Laughter came in bursts from every corner.

But Serene moved through it all like a ghost.

No one said her name.

No one asked where she'd been.

And he wasn't there.

Idris.

The boy with the kind eyes. The gentle jokes. The steady hands that never tried to own her, only listen.

She scanned every table, every hall, even peered into the café where he once used to sit before class — his seat was empty.

Twice, she almost asked someone.

But fear stopped her tongue.

---

Her café shift was worse.

Customers blurred into one another. She forgot orders. Dropped a cup.

The manager raised an eyebrow. "Rough morning?"

She nodded without answering. Didn't say:

> I haven't spoken to someone without a camera watching in weeks.

I was kissed by a child and her father before I left the house.

I think I'm losing my name.

---

At the end of her shift, Serene sat in the alley behind the café, breathing in the scent of burnt grounds and metal bins. Her fingers trembled as she checked her phone again.

Nothing.

Not even a message.

Idris was gone.

And with him, a part of her that remembered how to feel safe.

She pressed her forehead to her knees.

The city moved on without her.

And even now… in "freedom"…

She still wasn't seen.

---