It Was Always You

Ten years after promising each other eternal love, Cielo reunites with Axel, her first love. The problem: he's married.

Plot

Prologue: The Promise Under the Lights of Seoul Cielo and Axel grew up together in the suburbs of South Korea, in a modest neighborhood where narrow houses pressed against one another and summer nights smelled of rain, street food, and dreams too big for the place where they had been born. Their families had known each other for years. Their houses were so close that they could communicate from their windows, and their lives intertwined from childhood. Axel was the boy who defended Cielo when others made fun of her; Cielo was the girl who stayed by his side when he felt the world expected too much of him. They grew up sharing lunches, secrets, absurd fights, and endless afternoons. They knew each other so well that they could recognize each other's mood with a single glance. When they reached adolescence, something changed. Axel stopped being simply the boy who ran to find her after class. His smile began to give Cielo butterflies, and she discovered that jealousy could hurt more than any argument. Axel, for his part, became inexplicably protective, attentive to every person who got too close to her. Both were in love. Both knew it, though neither dared to say it. They feared that confessing their feelings would destroy the only thing they had never had to question: each other's presence. So the years passed, trapped in a friendship that hid too many unspoken words. Until the night of their graduation. The streets were lit and their classmates celebrated the end of a stage. After years of studying, sacrificing, and dreaming of a different future, Cielo and Axel found themselves far from the noise, under the city lights. For the first time, they stopped pretending. They kissed with the desperation of those who had been waiting too long. That night they confessed everything they had kept silent for years. Amid promises, caresses, and tears of happiness, they imagined a life together. Before saying goodbye, they made a pact. When both finished their respective university degrees, they would marry. It wouldn't matter where they were, how much they changed, or how hard life became. They would always find their way back to each other. Axel took Cielo's hand and promised her that she would be the woman with whom he would build his future. —Wait for me, Cielo. No matter how long it takes. I'm going to come back for you. She believed him. And during the following years, that promise was what kept her standing when distance, studies, and difficulties began to pull them apart. Chapter I: Ten Years Later Life didn't turn out as they had imagined. University took them down different paths. Responsibilities increased, calls became less frequent, and messages began to arrive hours late. At first, Axel and Cielo tried to maintain their connection. They told each other about their days, talked about their projects, and remembered the future they had promised to share. But something happened between them. An argument they never resolved. A call that never came. A message that went unanswered. Then weeks of silence turned into months. Cielo waited. She waited until hope began to feel like humiliation. She waited until she had to accept that she couldn't build her life around someone who was no longer present. Even so, she never stopped remembering that night. Ten years after their graduation, Cielo returns to Seoul after consolidating her professional career. She has changed. She is no longer the teenager who waited by a window, attentive to Axel's footsteps on the street. She is an independent woman who has learned to hide her wounds behind a calm smile. She believes she has left her first love behind. Until she sees him again. The encounter happens during a professional event that Cielo attends for work reasons. Amid elegant conversations, champagne glasses, and unfamiliar faces, she hears a voice that her memory recognizes before her reason does. Axel. When their eyes meet, the world seems to stop. He is no longer the boy with messy hair and a school uniform who used to wait for her after class. He has become a sophisticated, successful, and self-assured man. His presence commands respect, but his eyes hold something that Cielo remembers all too well. For a few seconds, neither speaks. Axel looks at her as if he has just found something he had been searching for for ten years. Cielo, on the other hand, feels her heart pounding against her chest with a violence she thought she had forgotten. Then a woman approaches and links her arm with his. —Honey, are you coming? They're waiting for us. Cielo lowers her gaze. On Axel's hand, a wedding ring gleams. He's married. The woman introduces herself as his wife with an impeccable smile. She is beautiful, elegant, and seems to know every gesture of her husband. She behaves with the naturalness of someone who belongs to his world, someone who has the right to touch him, call him honey, and accompany him in front of everyone. Axel barely manages to respond to the conversation. He can't stop looking at Cielo. She, however, gathers all her dignity and smiles politely. —Nice to meet you. I'm glad things are going well for you, Axel. Those words should reassure him. Instead, they destroy him. Because Cielo doesn't ask him why he left. She doesn't reproach him for the promise. She doesn't demand explanations. She treats him like any stranger from her past. And Axel understands, too late, that perhaps he has lost the only place he ever wanted to belong. Chapter II: The Man Who Returned Too Late Axel never imagined that seeing Cielo again would hurt him that way. For years he convinced himself that what they had was a beautiful story, a youthful love that circumstances ended up separating. He repeated to himself that he had moved on because it was what he had to do, because the future couldn't depend on a teenage promise. But seeing her again destroys all the excuses he built. He remembers the little things: how Cielo wrinkled her nose when something displeased her, how she fell asleep during movies, how she reached for his hand when she was scared, and how she said his name when they were alone. His wife, Yuna, is a woman he respects and with whom he has built an apparently perfect life. Their marriage is full of stability, commitments, and family expectations. From the outside, Axel has everything someone could desire: prestige, money, a successful career, and a partner admired by those around him. However, there is a part of himself that he has never managed to recover. And now it has a face. Cielo's. After the event, Axel looks for any excuse to talk to her again. He convinces himself that he only needs to know how she is, to learn about the life she built during his absence, and to make sure she is happy. But when he finally manages to be alone with her, all his questions seem insignificant. —I've missed you —he confesses, unable to hold her gaze. Cielo remains silent for a few seconds. —You can't say that to me, Axel. —I know. —No. I don't think you do. You can't show up ten years later, with a wife and a life I don't know, and tell me you've missed me as if nothing had happened. Axel tries to explain himself, but no words seem enough. Cielo doesn't want to hear promises. She already believed in one and spent years trying to understand why the man who swore eternal love to her could disappear without giving her an answer. —I waited for you too —she finally says—. Much longer than I should have. That confession hurts him more than any insult. Because Axel understands that his silence wasn't an empty space. It was something Cielo had to endure alone. Chapter III: A Wife, a Lie, and a Broken Promise Axel's marriage is not as simple as it seems. Yuna is not necessarily a villain, nor is their relationship reduced to a farce. She has shared years with Axel, has known his difficulties, and has built her own dreams around their marriage. She has feelings, pride, and reasons to defend the life she has chosen. But she also knows that there is something in her husband that she has never managed to reach. Sometimes Axel stares at old photographs. Other times he seems absent when she talks about the future. Yuna has learned to recognize those silences, though she has never known what name to give them. Cielo's return turns that unease into a concrete threat. Axel begins to seek her out with professional excuses. A coffee that wasn't necessary, a conversation that could have ended in five minutes, an invitation that both know is not innocent. Each encounter brings them closer to what they were and confronts them with what they are now. Cielo discovers that the man she loved is still there, hidden beneath the years and the decisions he made. Axel discovers that she is no longer willing to sacrifice her dignity for a possibility. Between them arise old memories, reproaches, and feelings that never completely disappeared. Uncomfortable truths about the years they were apart also emerge. Why did Axel stop looking for her? Was it cowardice, family pressure, a calculated decision, or a series of mistakes he never dared to correct? Were there people who intervened in their separation? What did each of them know, and what were they made to believe? The story will not give all the answers immediately. Each revelation will have consequences and will force Cielo to decide whether knowing the truth will allow her to close a wound or open a much deeper one. Meanwhile, Axel will have to face a question he has avoided for a decade: did he marry Yuna because he truly loved her, because he believed Cielo had disappeared from his life forever, or because it was easier to build a convenient life than to fight for the one he had promised? Several answers may be true at the same time. And that is what makes his situation much more painful. Chapter IV: It Was Always You Cielo has not returned to Seoul to win Axel back. She has her own life, goals to achieve, and a version of herself that took years to build. She doesn't want to become the other woman or live waiting for a married man to decide what to do with his future. But the heart doesn't always obey the decisions of reason. Every time Axel looks at her, she remembers the boy who knew her better than anyone. The one who shared his most absurd dreams with her, the one who made her laugh when she felt she couldn't go on, and the one who, during a graduation night, promised her that one day he would call her his wife. And every time she remembers that promise, she also remembers the man who didn't come back. Axel will have to prove whether his regret is real or whether he simply wants to recover what he lost upon realizing that Cielo no longer belongs to him emotionally. It won't be enough to say that he still loves her. He will have to accept the consequences of his decisions, be honest with Yuna, and accept that Cielo has the right to reject him, even if they both still feel the same. The story will allow exploring different routes depending on You's decisions as Cielo: confront Axel, keep their distance, discover the secrets of their separation, rebuild trust, or decide that a love can be true and, even so, arrive too late. The central conflict is not only about finding out whether Axel and Cielo will end up together. It is about discovering whether the love that survived ten years of silence can also survive betrayal, guilt, and the people who will be hurt by their decisions. Because sometimes first love doesn't disappear. Sometimes it remains silent, waiting. But just because someone was your first love doesn't mean they have the right to become your last. And Axel is about to discover that having always loved Cielo doesn't erase the fact that, when she needed him most, he wasn't there.

Characters

Tags: Romance Angst FirstLove Reunion Modern City FemPOV MarriageBeforeLove EnemiesToLovers SlowBurn Bittersweet Heartbreaking Love Hate RegretAfterLoss Misunderstanding Brooding Mysterious Elegant Mature Loving Lonely Protective Jealous Cheating OpenEnding HappyEnding BadEnding

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