Chapter 1: The Hollow Boy
From the moment he was born, Elias felt nothing. Not joy, not sadness, not even fear. The doctors thought he was simply a quiet child, one of those rare babies who never cried. His parents were concerned but hopeful, thinking he would eventually grow out of it. But as the years passed, it became clear—Elias was different.
He could mimic expressions. He could say the right words. But he never felt them.
At school, he watched other children laugh, cry, and yell, unable to understand why. When someone fell and scraped their knee, the others would rush to comfort them. Elias only stared, wondering, Why? The injury will heal either way.When a friend lost his dog and sobbed for days, Elias tilted his head, confused. Why be sad? The dog is simply gone.
It wasn’t that he wanted to be distant. He wanted to understand. But emotions were like a foreign language—one he could never learn.
He spent years studying people, memorizing reactions like an actor memorizing lines. He laughed when others laughed, frowned when they frowned. But no matter how hard he tried, people sensed something was off.
“They say Elias is weird.”
“He doesn’t care about anyone.”
“He looks at you, but it’s like he’s looking through you.”
The whispers followed him everywhere.
Then one day, he asked his mother, “What is love?”
She hesitated, her hands trembling as she brushed his hair. “Love is… when you care about someone more than yourself.”
Elias processed her words carefully. “How do you know if you love someone?”
She smiled gently. “You just feel it.”
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That was the problem.
He never would.
Chapter 2: The Friend Experiment
Determined to fit in, Elias attempted something new—he would make a friend.
He focused on a boy named Adrian, who seemed friendly enough. Elias followed him, observed his likes and dislikes, and approached with carefully rehearsed words.
“Do you want to be my friend?” Elias asked.
Adrian blinked. “Uh… sure?”
Thus began Elias’s greatest experiment.
He learned to nod at the right times, to say “That’s funny” when Adrian laughed. When Adrian was sad, Elias patted his shoulder—a learned response from watching others. Slowly, Adrian grew attached to him.
But then came the day Adrian’s father passed away.
Elias found him crying in the classroom. Others whispered condolences. Elias, unsure of what to do, sat beside him and repeated words he had memorized:
“I’m sorry for your loss.”
Adrian looked at him, eyes red and swollen. “Are you really?”
Elias hesitated. “That’s what people say when someone dies.”
Adrian’s face twisted. “That’s not what I asked.”
The friendship ended that day. Elias had failed.
Chapter 3: A Girl Named Lila
By the time he reached adulthood, Elias had become a master of imitation. He had a job, coworkers, and a carefully constructed life. But his world was gray—void of attachment, void of meaning.
Then he met Lila.
She was different from the others. She was kind, patient, and oddly fascinated by him. “You’re strange, Elias,” she told him with a smile. “But I like talking to you.”
No one had ever said that before.
Lila asked questions no one else did. “What makes you happy?” “What do you dream about?” “What’s the first memory that made you cry?”
Elias had no answers.
One evening, as they sat under the stars, Lila asked, “Do you care about me, Elias?”
He thought for a long time before replying, “I don’t know what that means.”
She didn’t get upset like Adrian had. Instead, she held his hand. “Then let’s figure it out together.”
Chapter 4: The Man Who Borrowed Emotions
Lila became his guide, teaching him what words alone never could. She showed him the joy of simple things—watching the sunrise, feeling the rain, listening to music.
Elias still didn’t feel emotions the way others did. But something changed.
One day, Lila fell ill. A terminal disease. She was fading, and there was nothing he could do.
When he sat by her hospital bed, she weakly reached for his hand. “Elias… are you sad?”
He hesitated. He didn’t feel the crushing grief others described. But his chest felt heavy, his throat tight.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I don’t want you to go.”
Lila smiled. “Then maybe… maybe that’s enough.”
She passed away that night.
And for the first time, Elias understood what it meant to cry.
Chapter 5: The Feeling He Never Knew
Years later, Elias stood before Lila’s grave, tracing her name with his fingers. He still wasn’t like other people. He still struggled to understand emotions.
But he had learned something important.
Caring wasn’t about understanding. It wasn’t about feeling the same way others did.
It was about choosing to stay. Choosing to hold someone’s hand. Choosing to be there.
As the wind blew through the cemetery, Elias whispered, “Thank you, Lila.”
And for the first time in his life, he didn’t need to borrow someone else’s emotions.
Because, in his own way, he had finally found his own.
