~Fascination Begins in Silence,
POV: Leona Joey
Date: January 15, 2023
Location: Brooklyn, New York – Her Apartment
(Leona: There were men who dressed well.
There were men who spoke well.
And then… there were men like Ethan Vale.
Men who made silence a weapon.)
Leona Joey sat cross-legged on her couch, sipping dark tea, watching the snow fall outside her 8th-floor window. Her room, always minimalist, now held something messy: questions. Ethan had only spoken with her for fifteen minutes that morning—calm, guarded, surgical. But he hadn't left her mind since.
> "You're going to be dangerous. Just not yet," she had told him.
She'd meant it. And now she couldn't stop thinking about it.
---
The Mind of a Strategist
Leona wasn't some wandering soul. She was sharp at age of 25 with beautiful features and wind. Graduated top of her class in narrative systems at Columbia. Built campaigns for indie startups that went viral in 48 hours. She could smell ambition. And she could sense lies.
But what threw her off with Ethan was this:
> He didn't sell himself at all. Yet everything about him felt pre-sold.
There was no pitch. No hunger. Just direction.
She'd seen his notes, diagrams, project drafts. ARGOS wasn't just a startup idea—it was a reflection of how Ethan saw the world: everyone operating on instincts, flaws, loops... and how those loops could be decoded, influenced, redirected.
"He's not coding a product," she thought, "he's coding people."
---
A Woman's Curiosity, A Mind's Obsession
She tried to distract herself. Opened Netflix. Closed it. Checked social. Saw Ethan had posted nothing. No photos. No captions. Not even stories.
Yet, in one DM reply from him a day before, he had said exactly this:
> "You only look busy if you're trying to convince people you matter. I'm still working on making it true."
"
Italics. Precision. Power.
That struck her. Deeply.
Who was this man?
He wasn't rich. He lived simply. But there was that intensity—like he was already somewhere far beyond 2023, just waiting for the world to catch up.
---
Flashback: Watching Him Work
She'd lingered longer than she needed to in his apartment two days ago. The window light had hit his jawline as he leaned over the screen, absorbed but aware of her presence.
He didn't flirt. Didn't perform.
He just existed fully where he was.
> "True confidence isn't charming. It's unnerving."
And Ethan unnerved her.
---
Desire of a Different Kind
This wasn't about lust. Not yet.
It was about wanting to understand.
To be let into the fortress that most people didn't even realize he had built around himself.
She found herself typing a message. Then deleting. Typing again.
Leona (Draft):
> "Just checking—are you always this unavailable, or do I need a password?"
Deleted.
She tried again.
Leona (Sent):
> "Still thinking about ARGOS. You're hiding a lot more than code."
She stared at the screen.
No reply for minutes.
Then finally—
Ethan:
> "That's the first accurate thing anyone's said this week."
A pause.
Then:
> "Let's talk. But not like everyone else does."
---
Her Thought, Before Sleep
Lying in bed, sleepless, her mind circled the same idea:
> "Some men walk in with charm. Others build world pray them ."
(Ethan was a fragment of that unattainable .
And Ethan?
He was that. )