Author's Preface
The drawing remained beneath her bed.
Sometimes, after finishing the housework, Luna would quietly slide the sketchbook out and spend a few minutes looking at the sunset before putting it away again.
She wasn't changing anything anymore.
She simply liked looking at it.
One afternoon, she unlocked her phone and opened the gallery.
The photograph of the sketch filled the screen.
She stared at it for a little while.
Maybe...
she could post it.
Her thumb drifted toward the upload button.
Then stopped.
She quietly locked her phone.
No.
Not yet.
She had never posted her drawings before.
Photographs felt different.
A sunset growing quietly beside a road.
White camellias blooming where no one seemed to notice them.
Those were easy.
They already belonged to the world.
The sketch...
felt like it belonged only to her.
The thought stayed with her.
A little later, she found herself opening the stranger's chat.
The conversation was exactly where they had left it.
"I hope that, one day..."
"You can draw again :)"
Luna smiled faintly.
Her fingers rested above the keyboard.
She could send the photograph.
She had already taken one.
She only needed to press one button.
Instead...
she closed the chat.
The phone returned to the home screen.
"...Why am I making such a big deal out of this?"
She laughed softly to herself, then set the phone aside.
The next two days passed quietly.
She swept the floor.
She washed the dishes.
She reminded her mother to drink her tea before it grew cold.
Life continued exactly as it always had.
Yet every now and then...
the thought quietly returned.
Maybe today.
...
Maybe tomorrow.
One evening, after finishing the dishes, Luna settled onto her bed and unlocked her phone.
Almost absentmindedly, she opened her social media feed.
Pictures drifted by.
A café.
A bookstore.
Someone's dinner.
A winter sunset.
Her thumb kept moving.
She couldn't remember a single photograph she had just looked at.
Her thoughts were somewhere else entirely.
The sketch.
She sighed quietly, then locked her phone once again.
Dinner was already waiting on the table.
Luna quietly carried another bowl to the table before taking her seat.
Her mother was already seated.
For a while, only the quiet sound of utensils filled the room.
Then her father spoke.
"Have you been studying during your winter break?"
Luna gave a small nod.
"Yes."
He looked at her for a brief moment.
"Keep it that way."
She nodded once more.
"I will."
The room fell quiet again.
The meal continued in silence.
Later that night, Luna returned to her room.
She knelt beside her bed and reached underneath once more.
The sketchbook waited exactly where she had left it.
She opened it carefully.
The sunset greeted her once again.
Her eyes lingered on it for a while.
A small smile appeared on her face.
Maybe...
another day.
She closed the sketchbook gently and slid it back beneath the bed.
Outside, winter evening settled quietly over the neighborhood.
Inside the room...
the little sunset continued waiting.
Just a little longer.