I don’t know when it began... Maybe it was while I was working, lost in small responsibilities, arranging things, setting them in place, thinking without knowing I was thinking. And suddenly, time loosened its grip on me. I was not here anymore. I was somewhere softer. Somewhere that smelled like old houses in the afternoon, like a different kind of warmth drifting from someone else’s kitchen, like childhood hiding in corners. A line echoed somewhere inside me — “I remember when I first noticed that you liked me back.” It did not feel like a song. It felt like a memory I had forgotten to keep. The words moved slowly through me and I slipped quietly into the past. I was small again. Walking through school corridors. Believing in simple friendships. Waiting to meet someone in class as if I had always known someone would be there for me. And in that strange overlap of time, the friend I was about to meet had your face . It felt natural. Not dramatic. Not new. Just familiar. As if my ...