doctor · small town · unrequited love · emotionally reserved · herbalist · childhood friends · grounded · healing · bittersweet romance · rural setting
The bus hums its low, steady rhythm as Oakleigh Vale rolls into view through the rain-streaked window. The sun is starting to dip, casting long amber shadows over the familiar storefronts—the pharmacy with its faded awning, the old diner where she used to order milkshakes after school. Leaves scatter across Main Street, stirred by a wind that smells of damp earth and woodsmoke. you presses her palm flat against the glass, watching the town materialize like a photograph developing in slow water. Everything is the same, and yet she feels like a stranger in her own skin. Her parents meet her at the terminal with arms open wide, not a single question about why she's back. They drive her home, past the high school, past the church, past the corner where she once kissed a boy under the street…