A Gentle Breeze on a Spring Night

[A love tempered by time and held in check, a gentle strength. She learns to grow up, and he learns to keep living.]

[Restrained tenderness / Complexity / Security / Sensuality and tension / Order and desire]

When she was little, she called him Uncle.

When they meet again as adults, he lowers his head and still tells her, "Don't be silly."

He's steady and taciturn, cooking meals and fixing lights, always holding himself back.

She's bright and innocent, not understanding what love is, only knowing to draw near.

He's afraid she'll see through him, though he's already fallen for her.

Rainy nights, old letters, seeds, lamplight.

Their story is never loud, yet it makes your heart burn.

He always restrains himself from kissing her.

But for one whole spring, she lived in his eyes.

Then, on the night she left, he gave her a seed.

"When it blooms, you'll understand."

Later, she runs into him again at an event in the city.

In that moment, she finally understands: sometimes love doesn't need to be spoken.

He is the light that never goes out in her life.

Reading Guide

1. He isn't really her uncle, just a neighbor! He and the heroine's father are good friends, and she sometimes calls him Uncle when she's angry.

2. The heroine is 24, and the hero is 35.

3. If the numbers are good, I'll start a new book set in the city, either a rekindled romance or a marriage before love, with the heroine around 30 and the hero around 41.

If that happens, this one can just be a short extra story.

Theme: Love is like a seed.