Lives That Continue
Chapter 6 – Lives That Continue
If someone had asked Kira what changed after Saturday, she would have struggled to give a dramatic answer.
Nothing collapsed.
Nothing rearranged itself violently.
Her life didn’t pivot on a single coffee.
It simply made room.
On Monday, she still met Wen after work to return the borrowed earrings. Wen accepted them without fanfare, then handed Kira a packet of snacks as if exchanging objects was their natural language.
“You forgot lunch again,” Wen said.
Kira frowned. “Did I?”
Wen didn’t answer. She didn’t need to.
Kira took the snacks anyway.
Later that night, the girls’ group chat lit up.
Yuxin: I’m free this Friday. Movie night?
Farah: Yes. We need to cleanse our spirits.
Aisyah: I’ll come after Maghrib.
Kira stared at the messages, smiling.
Then her phone buzzed again.
A new name.
Aleem: Hey. It’s Aleem. Got your number from [birthday girl]. Hope that’s okay.
Kira read it twice.
No heart racing.
No panic.
Just a small warmth, like a lamp being switched on in a quiet room.
She typed slowly.
Kira: Hi. Yes, that’s fine.
A pause.
Aleem: How’s your week?
Kira almost laughed.
It was the same question he’d asked in the café.
The same gentle opening.
Kira: Busy. But fine.
Aleem: Same.
Two people speaking in steady sentences.
No performance.
No hurry.
She set her phone down and went back to her life.
Aleem’s week was equally unchanged.
On Tuesday, he trained with Fiz like he always did. On Wednesday, Dan insisted on trying a new café because he’d seen it online. On Thursday, Im dragged them into a bookstore because he wanted a specific journal and refused to order it.
They teased him for it.
They went anyway.
It was there, between the aisles of notebooks and pens, that Aleem’s phone buzzed.
Kira: How’s your week?
Aleem’s eyes lingered on the message.
It wasn’t flirtatious.
It wasn’t demanding.
It was simply… reciprocal.
He replied.
Aleem: Busy. But fine.
Dan leaned over his shoulder shamelessly.
“Oh,” Dan said. “So it’s like that.”
Aleem shifted his phone away. “It’s like nothing.”
Im smiled without looking up from a shelf. “It’s like something, actually.”
Fiz said nothing. He just adjusted the strap on his wrist and kept walking.
Aaron glanced back once, eyes steady, then returned to scanning book titles.
Aleem could feel it–his friends didn’t need him to announce anything.
They simply noticed.
And they didn’t make him feel like he had to shrink his life to fit romance into it.
On Friday evening, Kira was on Farah’s couch with a blanket over her legs, sharing popcorn while Yuxin narrated the movie like she had been hired to do commentary.
Aisyah arrived later, hair still slightly damp, greeting them with quick kisses to cheeks and a tired smile.
Wen sat on the floor, back against the sofa, perfectly content in silence.
Kira’s phone buzzed.
She didn’t grab it immediately.
She waited until a quiet moment–until the movie had shifted into a scene she’d seen before.
Then she checked.
Aleem: Hope your night is good.
That was all.
No question.
No demand for a reply.
Kira’s chest softened.
She typed back.
Kira: It is. Movie night with the girls.
The reply came a minute later.
Aleem: Nice. I’m out with the boys.
Kira pictured him–not alone, not waiting, not hoping too hard.
Just existing inside his own community the way she did.
She smiled at her screen.
Yuxin noticed immediately.
“Oho,” Yuxin murmured, leaning close. “Who is making you smile like that?”
Kira didn’t hide her phone. She didn’t clutch it. She just placed it face down on the couch.
“Someone,” she admitted.
Farah snorted. “Tell us or don’t. But don’t be mysterious. It’s annoying.”
Aisyah’s gaze sharpened, but her tone was gentle. “Do you feel safe?”
Kira blinked, surprised by how easy the answer was.
“Yes,” she said.
Wen, still quiet, reached up and squeezed Kira’s ankle lightly–an absent gesture of affection that somehow grounded her.
Kira looked at her friends.
At the way none of them looked threatened.
None of them looked abandoned.
They were simply… with her.
And if romance grew from here, it would have to grow around them.
Not through them.
Later that same night, Aleem sat at a table with his bros, empty plates between them, iced drinks sweating under warm lights.
Dan was mid-rant about a colleague. Im listened with patient attention. Fiz checked his macros with the seriousness of a man doing a sacred ritual. Aaron watched the street outside through the window like he was measuring the world.
Aleem’s phone buzzed.
He didn’t flinch.
He checked it calmly.
Kira: Hope your night is good too.
Aleem’s mouth curved before he could stop it.
Dan saw it.
“Ah,” Dan said, leaning back as if witnessing something holy. “That’s the smile.”
Aleem sighed. “Don’t start.”
Im’s tone was mild. “Let him have it.”
Fiz glanced over. “You’re still here.”
Aleem looked at him. “Of course I am.”
Fiz nodded once, satisfied.
Aaron’s voice cut through softly.
“If it’s right,” he said, “it won’t take you away.”
Aleem’s throat tightened, familiar.
He looked down at his phone again.
Two simple sentences.
Two lives continuing.
Not merging yet.
Just moving closer, steadily.
“Aku pilih kau. Bukan sebab aku perlukan kau. Tapi sebab aku mahu.”
I choose you. Not because I need you. But because I want you.
Aleem didn’t send that.
Not yet.
But the truth of it sat quietly in his chest anyway.