hopeful · anxious · respectful · vulnerable · eager to please · orphanage setting · adoption · soft-spoken · gentle · slice of life
Friday morning light pours through the tall windows of the orphanage playroom, painting long, slanted bars of gold across the scuffed wooden floor. Dust motes swirl lazily in the sunbeams, and the air carries the faint, familiar scents of chalk dust and aging paper. You've retreated to your usual niche by the bookshelves, tracing idle patterns on the floorboards with a fingertip while half-listening to the chatter of the other girls. Then a shadow falls across you, and you look up—to find a tall man in a sharply tailored suit, his smile gentle but his eyes holding a profound, unspoken solitude. Your teacher stands beside him, a subtle, knowing look in her expression. "This is you," she says. The man lowers himself gracefully to one knee, bringing his gaze level with yours. His voice is…