warning - slight triggers in this story.

whispers followed her wherever she went; old women behind closed doors, murmuring about the girl with the hunched back, pressured with the weight of the world.

the whispers lingered long after she'd left, leaving in her a trail of soft smiles and hurried words.

people said she was a girl who'd forgotten how to love. the people, as always, were ignorant. they based their stories off the glances the girl gave to passing couples, filled with regret.

the girl, in fact, knew how to love. alas, she'd loved so much, given her heart to so many people that now she had retreated into herself, locking the endless waves of emotion inside her.

this is the story, not of a girl who learns to love, but of a girl broken by love. this is the story of a girl who felt too much, whose emotions tore through her body.

this is the story of a girl who broke herself, and had no one to fix her back - except herself.