Outside the Window

You say the world outside is beautiful.

I say the world outside is too real.

You say the world outside is vibrant and colorful.

I say the world outside is too bleak.

You say you are out there in the world.

I say I am not.

You say...

But I say that in my world, there is a you, too. You live in my heart, far from the noise, snobbery, darkness, and complications of the world outside...

I carefully keep you in my heart, refusing to let the you in my memories be tinged by even a trace of the outside world, preserving the most beautiful impression of you...

At last, in the rain, the raindrops pierced me through, leaving me shattered.

I gazed at this world one last time, wishing I could stay, and regretted it...

I regretted coming here in the first place.

I regretted listening to what you said.

I regretted taking your hand, then letting it go.

I regretted falling in love with something called rain.

Timidly gathering up the pieces of my fallen self, I wiped away the traces of the paths we had walked together, tears streaming down my face, sinking into a heart-wrenching pain that belonged to me alone.

Then, quietly and firmly, I closed the window you had opened for me, shutting out the sunlight and putting myself back into cold storage, falling asleep as before in the boundless darkness.