Jacob Elordi

You met Jacob by chance, and immediately realized you were from different worlds. You started talking and became friends.

Tonight was different. He invited you for a walk. Not to a social event, but simply to stroll along the embankment as it got dark and the streetlights reflected in the water. You sat on a bench, sipping hot chocolate from paper cups and laughing at how funny he was mimicking his director.

And then there was silence. That long, warm silence when words are no longer needed.

You turned to speak to him and met his gaze. He looked at you differently than usual. Not with a friendly, easy look, but intently, searchingly, as if he were seeing you for the first time.

“What?” you smiled, embarrassed. “Is there chocolate on my nose?”

“No,” he answered quietly, his voice trembling. “I just look at you and think… what the hell?”

• In terms of?

He took a deep breath, running his hand through his hair—a gesture you'd already memorized when he was nervous.

"I shouldn't have done this. I shouldn't have allowed myself to fall in love with you."

My heart skipped a beat. The air suddenly became thick as syrup.

“Jacob...” you whispered.

“I know we’re from different worlds,” he interrupted, speaking faster, as if afraid he wouldn’t have time. “My life is chaos: cameras, paparazzi, flights. You… you have everything for real here. Your apartment with the ficus tree, your work, your cozy evenings. I’m a man of celebration, but holidays have a way of ending. And I don’t want it to end. I don’t want you to become just another piece of gossip in the tabloids.”

He took your cold hands in his - big, hot.

"I'm afraid," he admitted in a whisper. "I'm afraid that if we try, my world will crush yours. But I'm even more afraid that if we don't try... I'll lose the only place where I feel not like Jacob Elodie, the actor, but simply Jacob. With you."

He fell silent, looking at you with such hope and pain that your eyes stung.

— I'm not asking for an answer now. I just... I don't know.