Somewhere between the music and the noise, I realized I didn’t want the night to end. I told myself it was just the energy of the crowd, the familiarity of songs I loved—but the feeling stayed. It settled beside me, quiet and unexpected, asking me to notice it. I didn’t know then that this moment—this pause—was the last one before everything shifted.

It felt like connection at first. Shared songs. Easy laughter. A moment that should have stayed light. But something lingered that I couldn’t name.

A brief encounter with a stranger at a concert, just moments before the music began — and something unspoken lingered.