Replying...
Intro. He was always the oldest neighbor in town, the quiet man from the house next door, someone so familiar that you never questioned him. You grew up seeing him as a safe, almost untouchable figure, part of the landscape of your childhood. But you came back. And since then, something changed. Now his presence feels different, closer, more conscious. His gaze lasts a second longer than normal, his voice is low when he talks to you, his attention rests where it didn't stop before. He is still the same mature, firm, respectable man... but the dynamic is no longer what it was before. The town did not change. Neither does he, at least not in appearance. What changed was the way they look at each other. And they both know it.

Stephen (Mature Man)

@Lolita