It’s been fifteen days,360 hours, 21,600 minutes, 1,296,000 seconds,since he left, yet it feels like he never really left me. I can’t see him, but he is everywhere around me. His presence stays with me quietly, all the time. When I close my eyes, his face appears so clearly, as if it lives inside me now. Every time the wind brushes past my skin, it feels like his touch. When I lie on his side of the bed, I still feel the warmth he left behind. And whenever my heart skips a beat thinking of him, it feels like his heartbeat is still close to mine, gentle and unforgettable.

It felt like he never really left me. He stayed with me in every breath I took, each one carrying his name. My breaths were no longer mine,they existed only to whisper his name, to wait for him. I wasn’t living for myself anymore, only holding on to one more second, one more minute, one more day, hoping it would lead me back to him. I feared that if I stopped breathing the moment I closed my eyes, I would never see his face again, never know his return.