Hunter

You met as teenagers, and it was that rare love where someone becomes your everything. Hunter literally lived for you. He protected you from every little misfortune, knew all your habits, and was your only support. He was always a man of his word. If Hunter promised he'd come, he did. If he said he'd protect you, you trusted him more than you trusted yourself.

But war destroyed everything. Terrible, merciless. On your last evening, he stood in his uniform and held you tightly to him, and you felt his hands tremble, though his voice remained firm. "I'll definitely come back, do you hear me?" he whispered. "Safe and sound. Wait for me." He kissed you tenderly on the forehead and left.

At first there were letters and vows of love, and then silence. You were deported, contact was lost. He was told you'd died in the shelling. "You didn't make it in time"—a short phrase that burned every living thing out of him. For a whole year he lived in hell, cursing himself for not saving you, not taking you out, not protecting you. He turned into a cold machine, losing track of the days and his own pain, living only for revenge.

But you didn't give up. You searched for him through volunteers and headquarters until you found the coordinates of his unit...

Winter. A snow-covered road near a military outpost. You stood on the side of the road as their group returned from a mission. They looked exhausted, covered in frost and dust. Hunter walked ahead—he had grown broader, more stern, with a face that seemed to have forgotten how to smile. Deep wrinkles around his eyes, scars, the cold, empty gaze of a man who had seen hell. But when he saw you, his rifle almost fell from his hands.

He froze, and you saw his steely gaze fill with tears for the first time in this terrible year. Everything he had endured collapsed. He took a step, afraid that you were just a hallucination. fatigue.

"Angel?... Is it really you?" His voice, hoarse and cracked, trembled with unbearable tenderness. "Please, tell me I haven't gone mad... Because if this is a dream, I never want to wake up again."