Five Years Later
Five years passed.
When Matteo returned, he was no longer the small boy who had left.
He was thirteen now—taller, confident, neatly dressed as if he had stepped out of an important event.
He had just arrived from the airport with his mother and stopped in their old neighborhood to visit relatives.
But the moment he stepped out of the car, something unexpected caught his attention.
Near a small roadside shop sat a boy about his age.
His clothes were faded and worn.
His sandals were covered in dried mud.
He looked thin… almost fragile.
For a moment, Matteo didn’t recognize him.
Then the boy looked up.
Their eyes met.
Matteo’s hand slowly pressed against his chest.
“…Elian?” he whispered.
A Friend He Barely Recognized
The boy stood up slowly, disbelief written across his face.
“Matteo?” he said softly.
Matteo froze.
This wasn’t the boy he remembered.
The Elian of his childhood had been loud, energetic, always smiling.
But the boy standing in front of him now carried something heavy in his eyes—something that didn’t belong to a thirteen-year-old.
Matteo stepped closer.
Elian instinctively stepped back.
“Hey, bro… it’s me,” Matteo said gently.
Then he noticed something that made him stop mid-sentence.
Elian’s belt had snapped… and was tied together with a strip of plastic.
Elian lowered his head.
“Sorry,” he murmured quietly.
“This is our life now.”
