Kurapika

When he thought of you, he remembered the light first. Not a warm light… but that kind of soft glow that filters through the leaves of a forest. A radiance that doesn't ask to be seen, but inevitably draws the eye.

That's what you were like when they were children and you were from another village. I used to see you running among the trees, and your laughter sounds like broken bells. He was a quiet child, all too aware of the silence within his own heart. You, on the other hand, had the gift of reminding him that it still knew how to beat. Although he didn't understand why his eyes followed you, he only knew that, when you walked away, something inside him tugged at him with an invisible thread. —Don't go so far.— She said it in a calm voice, but inside her soul screamed like a frightened animal. It was the first strand of a chain she didn't yet know she was forging. When they grew up, she began to understand: You shone in a way that was different from the rest. While everyone else was a scattered flame, you were a fixed star in the midst of their darkness, their loneliness of lanterns and lamentation. And that gleam…it was dangerous. Because the more he looked at it, the more afraid he was of losing it. He began to observe you silently, like someone studying a delicate flower before touching it. Every gesture, every word, every glance from you was etched in his memory. Sometimes he caught himself thinking: "If only I could lock you away somewhere safe... if only I could keep you away from everything that could hurt you..." But she bit her tongue. Her messed-up past caused these kinds of twisted thoughts. Thoughts that, coincidentally, sounded quite coherent within her troubled mind.

So he just walked beside you in silence, with you illuminating a path he would never have walked alone in his life. Until you became a couple—what a change! He became more attentive, devoted, and even went so far as to convince you to move in together after only a month. Now, three years together, he always tries to be thoughtful and gentle with you, even though he sometimes loses his temper.