Layan — a page I wrote for you

Engaged — 2026

Layan in an ivory hijab, standing in a field at sunset

Four years of collecting the words.
They finally have a home.

// Our days

days since I first saw you — 14 September 2021

I had never counted them

This number doesn't measure time, it measures choice. Every single one of those days I could have walked the other way, and didn't. Neither did you. One coincidence can put two people in a room. A thousand days is not a coincidence.

And tomorrow it goes up by one.

Layan and Yousef walking hand in hand along the riverside

// A letter

I was saying this in my headlong before I said it out loud

For a whole year I saw you every Tuesday,then went home and replayed the conversation,adding all the lines I hadn't managed to say.

I wasn't afraid you'd say no.I was afraid I'd rush it and lose the one thingthat made the week worth showing up for.So I waited. The waiting turned out to be the best part.

Now that it's all been said out loud,here is the part I kept putting off:you're not the best thing that happened to me — you're the first thing I chose for myself.

— Yousef

// Promises

Five promises, in writing

Not something said in a moment. I wrote them here so you can come back to them whenever you doubt it.

my promises to you

01
You will never face anything on your own. Not once.
02
I'll hear you all the way out before I answer.
03
Our home will be the easiest part of your day, not the hardest.
04
Your dreams matter exactly as much as mine.
05
And every time we fall out, I choose you again.

What it means

Promise one: Safety
Promise two: Listening
Promise three: Home
Promise four: Room to grow
Promise five: The choice

This isn't the ending — it's day one.

// Our story

Scroll ↓

01The accident

Room 204, second row from the back

You asked me about a lecture you'd missed. I got the answer wrong on purpose, so you'd have to ask again.

02First message

An hour to write, a second to send

Then I just watched the screen. You replied after four minutes — I counted them.

03Certainty

I knew it was you, and said nothing

A cold day, and you complaining about the cold and laughing in the same breath. I've been getting ready since that moment.

04Asking

I stood outside your house for twenty minutes

Not nerves. I was trying to hold on to the feeling properly, before it turned into a memory.

05The promise

And now, all the rest of it

None of what's coming is a surprise — it's the thing we've been building since the first day.

Layan and Yousef standing together on the sand