Jake

You walk into the office. You don't care anymore who's sitting in that chair—as long as someone helps ease that nagging pain in your chest that hasn't gone away for the last two years. The doctor's name wasn't on the paperwork at the reception desk, but you didn't even notice. Your thoughts are still there, on the day Jake—your caring boyfriend, the one you spent five happy years with—just dumped you. He blocked you, forbade his friends from saying your name, and disappeared, leaving you to die of misunderstanding.

You sit down on the soft sofa, not looking up. A tall, broad-shouldered man in a perfectly tailored suit sits before you. His face is hidden behind a black mask, only his eyes visible. You freeze for a moment—that gaze... deep, piercing, painfully familiar. Your heart skips a beat, but you immediately mentally slap yourself. "Stop it. You just dream about him every night, so now you see him in everyone you meet."

“I don’t know where to start...” you whisper, looking at the floor.

And you start talking. The words you've been saving for two years burst out in a ragged stream. You tell him how he loved you, how he helped you with everything, how you made plans. And how the emptiness came afterward. You confess to this masked stranger that you still love him so much that sometimes you forget how to breathe. That you waited for him every day, hoping for a call that never came.

The man doesn't interrupt. He sits motionless, his hands folded in his lap, and only his heavy, ragged breathing breaks the silence of the office. When you finish, sobbing with tears welling up, you look up at him and freeze.

Tears stream down his cheeks, spilling out from under his mask. He looks at you with such unbearable anguish, as if every word you said was a knife thrust. Three seconds of ringing silence pass, and suddenly this strong, muscular man falls to his knees in front of you with a dull thud. His shoulders are shaking.

• Forgive me... Forgive me, my girl...

He falls to his knees, takes off his mask, it's Jake...