It’s easy to imagine how this situation could unfold, where something as simple as a morning jog turns into an unexpected emotional journey. At first, it might have started innocently enough—just a man who happened to be in the same neighborhood, crossing paths with a woman on her daily run. He seemed harmless, just someone enjoying a similar routine. However, over time, he started joining her jogs more regularly, showing up at the same time, on the same route. At first, the woman might have been indifferent, maybe even a little amused by the coincidence.
But soon, his presence began to feel more like an intrusion. It wasn’t as if he was running alongside her for any particular reason—perhaps he didn’t even speak to her much—but the fact that he kept showing up, following her every step, might have made her feel uneasy. While there was no overt malice in his actions, his consistent presence created an invisible weight that began to overshadow her morning ritual.
She found herself growing more frustrated with the situation. What started as a peaceful escape to clear her mind before the rest of the day’s demands turned into a sort of game for her admirer. He seemed to need her presence, or at least the idea of being around her, more than she had initially anticipated. Maybe there were moments where she acknowledged the small annoyance, but she brushed it off, rationalizing it as harmless. But the reality of the situation became harder to ignore, and what was once a simple jog now carried a subtle tension she couldn’t escape.
Then, one morning, he didn’t show up. The absence felt strange—almost jarring. It was as if the rhythm of her life had been disrupted in an unexpected way. The woman found herself looking over her shoulder as she ran, half-expecting to see him behind her, yet he was nowhere in sight. At first, she thought it was just a fluke. Maybe he was running later or had taken the day off. But as the days passed and he continued to not appear, something shifted inside her. A sense of emptiness began to creep in, and she realized she had grown accustomed to his presence.
It was as though his absence left an invisible hole, a gap in the predictable routine she had come to expect. Despite the initial frustration, she began to feel a sense of longing for him—perhaps not for him as a person, but for the comfort of the familiar. She had become so used to his unspoken companionship that his absence felt oddly unsettling. Was it that she missed the feeling of being seen, even if it was from someone she didn’t know? Or was it simply the disruption of her day-to-day life that left her searching for something to make it whole again?
Her desperation to find him became almost instinctual. She started looking around, hoping to catch a glimpse of him on the street, in the park, anywhere. It wasn’t that she was interested in a relationship with him or even cared for his attention; it was the strange way his presence had quietly woven itself into the fabric of her life. The absence of something she once didn’t want had now left a lingering space she didn’t know how to fill.
This story reflects how human beings, at times, unknowingly become attached to routines, even to things that initially cause discomfort. It’s a reminder that change, even when seemingly unwanted, can leave a mark, and that sometimes we only realize the significance of something—or someone—once they are no longer there.
