Unrevealed love

I was browsing the library for a good novel to read in the afternoon when I came across a book that looked interesting. I picked it up and started leafing through it, and that's when I discovered them: a letter stuffed between the pages of the book. I couldn't stop reading them, and while doing so, I fell in love with the letter writer. I had no idea who he was, but I knew I had to track him down.

With that letter, I spent the next few weeks looking for him, but I had terrible luck. I was about to give up when I discovered another letter in another book at the library.

I began writing my letters to him, slipping them into the books he wrote, and soon we were exchanging letters all the time. We never met in person, but I developed a strong connection with him.

I found out through letters that he is younger than me. Mentally, I chastised myself. How could I fall in love with him without knowing what was going on in his heart?

Because of the customs of this universe, I became scared. I stopped writing him as much and began responding in fewer words. I was hesitant to express to him how I felt because I wasn't sure if he would accept me. I didn't want to risk losing him, so I suppressed my feelings.

Once he expressed his desire to meet me, I nervously wrote that I am older than you and that it would be inappropriate for both of us to pursue our relationship in this manner.

He also confesses in a subsequent letter that he feels the same way about her as I do about him. It makes no difference to him that I am older than he is, and that he will always accept me.

We made plans for a meeting in the same library, but I arrived late that day as he had already left, while he had been swapping secret messages through book spine poetry for me. I was hopeless, but I adored this wonderful idea of communicating through books.

He would pick books from the shelves with care and arrange them in a specific sequence to spell out a message. That's how I discovered his name, address, and other details. The excitement of the secret correspondence heightened our love.

After obtaining his phone number. I opted to take the risk and finally express myself in person. I was still worried, but I knew it was the correct decision.

I dialed his contact number. After several attempts, someone responded to my call and asked to join me at that place. 

I went to that location, but I discovered that he had ended up dead.

This was too much for me to bear. Devastated, I went to the library to find that he had secured his secret message for today, our special day when I last spoke with him.

He desires that we will see each other after our first in-person meeting, but he is not currently with me. I'm entirely alone. I found the book spine quotation he has already left for me on that day with tears in my eyes.

It said: "I will love you forever."