Chapter 03 CHASING SHADOWS#

The clock struck midnight, but Win couldn’t sleep.

The silence of his room felt too loud, the ceiling too blank. His thoughts tangled like threads—messy, restless. All he could see was her. Her voice still echoed in his mind, soft and haunting. He remembered the way her eyes didn’t quite meet his, the way she smiled like she was hiding something.

He knew her name.

He didn’t know why she felt so familiar.

And yet, he needed to see her again.

Throwing off his blanket, Win pulled on a hoodie and stepped outside into the cool night. The dorm halls were empty, only his footsteps breaking the stillness. He reached the hallway where he first heard her sing. The same dim light flickered above. But the door—the one slightly open yesterday—was shut now. Silent.

He leaned his ear against it.

Nothing.

Win walked down every hallway of the music wing, trying doors, listening for a hum, a melody, anything. He checked the practice rooms, the stairwell, even the little corner behind the auditorium where musicians sometimes sat. But she was nowhere.

Each turn brought a flicker of hope. Each silence, a disappointment.

It was like chasing a shadow.

The next morning, his eyes burned from lack of sleep. Still, he returned. Every break between classes, every free hour, he searched. Watching faces. Listening. Hoping she’d appear, or that he’d hear her voice again.

Once, he thought he saw her in the crowd. Same hair, same quiet walk. He followed—but when the girl turned, it wasn’t her. His chest sank again.

Days passed like this.

No one seemed to know her. He even asked around casually: “Hey, do you know a girl who sings in the hallway sometimes?”

Most people shook their heads or gave vague answers. One said, “Maybe you're imagining things.”

But he knew he wasn’t. She was real. Her voice was too perfect, too broken. Like a wound in music. And that melody—he could still hum every note of it. It haunted him. It followed him like a ghost that refused to be forgotten.

One evening, as he sat on the steps outside the campus chapel, tired and unsure, he pulled out his guitar. He started to play—just soft chords at first. Then, without meaning to, he began to play her melody.

The moment he finished the last note, he heard it.

A soft echo, barely there. Someone humming, behind the chapel wall.

His heart stopped.

He stood, stepping slowly toward the sound. His fingers shook, breath caught in his chest. Around the corner, the stone wall curved to a small garden.

He followed the sound.

But when he turned the corner—

Silence.

Again.

A bench. A fading warmth where someone had just sat. A folded piece of paper resting on it.

Win picked it up.

In neat, careful handwriting, it read:

“Don’t follow shadows. They disappear.”

...----------------...

To be continued.

Thanks!

Why she said don't follow shadows they disappear? (know?)