Chapter Ten: Choosing Herself
After that day, Feifei changed.
Not in a way people noticed.
She still came to school. Still answered questions. Still smiled when necessary.
But inside, something had shifted.
She stopped forcing herself into conversations that drained her. Stopped explaining herself to people who weren't listening. Stopped pretending that being invisible didn't hurt.
She also stopped sitting under the tree at lunch.
Including with Kael.
It wasn't because of him.
It was because she needed space — real space — to hear herself again.
Kael noticed, of course.
He always did.
"You've been avoiding me," he said one afternoon as they crossed paths in the hallway.
Feifei hesitated. Then nodded. "A little."
"Did I do something wrong?"
"No," she said quickly. "You didn't."
"Then why?" he asked gently.
She took a breath.
"Because I'm learning how to be okay without leaning on anyone," she said honestly. "Even you."
Kael studied her, something unreadable in his eyes.
"That's… fair," he said after a moment.
She expected him to be upset.
He wasn't.
That night, Feifei sat on her bed with her notebook open. She wrote slowly, deliberately.
I don't need to disappear to protect myself.
I just need to choose myself.
She closed the notebook and leaned back, staring at the ceiling.
The world hadn't magically become easier.
But she felt steadier.
Stronger in a quieter way.
And somewhere deep inside, Feifei realized something important:
Healing didn't mean never hurting again.
It meant deciding that she mattered enough to try.