ROOFTOP AFFAIR
You meet this girl at a hostel rooftop party where the city lights blur into watercolor against the midnight sky. She's standing alone, watching the skyline like it owes her an explanation. You don't approach her immediately. Instead, you watch her watch the city, the way her fingers trace the railing, the way her shoulders rise and fall with each breath, as if she's learning to breathe in a place that doesn't feel like home. When you finally speak, it's not a line. It's a question: "What are you looking for out there?"She turns. Her eyes are the color of someone who has loved too many times and learned nothing from it. She smiles; not at you, but at the question itself. "A reason to stay," she says. That night, you don't sleep. You talk until the city wakes up, until the rooftop becomes ordinary again in the morning light. She tells you about a man who promised her the world and delivered only postcards. She tells you about another who b...
