“Do you know that stars die?” I asked, breaking the silence. I didn't know where the question came from, but that's the only thing that came to mind.

“Yeah,” he answered. “And some stars we see in the sky may be already dead. But they're so far away that their afterglow can still be seen above. Some of them may seem glowing but they’re truly dead.”

We all have a little gallery of photographic memories inside our hearts. An exhibit of things we could never forget through our short moments in time. Some were so good, we held it like they were the best part of our lives while some were things we desperately ran away from － they hunted us, and killed our hopes.

The beginning of my life ended on my tenth birthday, the day when my childhood was stolen away from me. I longed to run away from that nightmare that held me tightly in my neck and made me helpless under its grasp.

Going to college had become my final chance to run away. On my seventeenth birthday, after enrolling at a university, my life took another shift. I met a man who showed me the glimmer of hope I always wanted to see. And this was our story. A narration of first love, bittersweet and worthwhile.

DISCLAIMER: This novella primarily contains gay romance. Read at your own risk.