Kine Willimes
Bio
Dreamer of quiet truths and soft storms.
Writer of quiet truths, lost moments, and almosts.I explore love, memory, and the spaces in between. For anyone who’s ever wondered “what if” or carried a story they never told these words are for you
Stories (37)
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Light Breaks Water
Light Breaks Water: The first time I realized light could break water, I was seven years old, standing barefoot at the edge of a lake I couldn’t name. My mother was somewhere behind me, calling out not to go too far. The sun was setting low, dipping its orange belly into the horizon, and as it scattered its dying light across the rippling surface, it fractured — like glass. It danced, scattered, shimmered in pieces, as though the water itself had caught fire.
By Kine Willimes6 months ago in Fiction
You Were My Favorite What If
ou Were My Favorite What If I don’t know how to start this letter, or even if I should be writing it at all. But if unsaid words carried weight, I’d be crushed beneath the ones I’ve left between us. So this is me, setting them down, even if they’ll never reach you.
By Kine Willimes6 months ago in Fiction
In Defense of the Dreamers
In Defense of the Dreamers I’ve always admired the dreamers. Not the ones with carefully laid five-year plans or vision boards dense with images cut from glossy magazines. No — I mean the ones who carry soft, unreasonable hopes in their back pockets. The people who believe in impossible futures, secret miracles, and the tender audacity of sending love letters in the age of unread messages.
By Kine Willimes6 months ago in Fiction
We Were Never Just Friends
We Were Never Just Friends I’ve spent years trying to name what existed between us. We never dated. Never kissed. Never confessed. But everyone knew — or maybe they just felt what hung heavy in the air whenever we were together. It was in the lingering glances, the late-night phone calls that bled into dawn, the way we finished each other’s sentences and remembered the smallest details. It was in the fact that neither of us ever brought a partner around when the other was there.
By Kine Willimes6 months ago in Fiction
The Mistake That Made Me
The Mistake That Made Me When people talk about pivotal moments in their lives, they often mention a grand achievement or a moment of perfect clarity. Mine wasn’t like that. Mine was a mistake — one I made on a humid, restless August night when I was 22.
By Kine Willimes6 months ago in Fiction
A Stranger Who Changed Everything
A Stranger Who Changed Everything I don’t remember her name. I don’t even know if she gave it. But I remember her face — the kind that could’ve belonged to anyone’s grandmother. Soft eyes. Wrinkled skin like creased paper. And a voice that sounded like it had spent a lifetime soothing frightened children.
By Kine Willimes6 months ago in Fiction
In Defense of the Quiet Ones
In Defense of the Quiet Ones Not all heroes arrive with grand entrances. Some slip into a room like a change in the weather — unnoticed at first, but impossible to ignore once you realize how they’ve shifted everything. This is a story for them, the quiet ones.
By Kine Willimes6 months ago in Fiction
The Person I Almost Became
The Person I Almost Became When I was 23, I nearly moved to Chicago. It wasn’t part of some grand life plan, or a decision fueled by ambition. It was because of a boy. Or, more accurately, a man who made me believe for a season that my life might be different, lighter, sharper around the edges. His name was Luke, and he had eyes the color of storm clouds before rain. He talked about things like architecture and dive bars and how Lake Michigan could fool you into thinking it was the ocean if you squinted. I was a fresh college graduate with a job offer I didn’t care about and a lingering suspicion that the life I’d built so far wasn’t really mine.
By Kine Willimes6 months ago in Motivation
Things I Learned From Strangers
Things I Learned From Strangers You don't realize it at the time. Not in the moment when your hands brush while passing a cup of coffee, or when a stranger on a park bench tells you something profound, unsolicited and unplanned. But if you live long enough — or pay close enough attention — you'll find that the people you never knew are sometimes the ones who shape you the most.
By Kine Willimes6 months ago in Families
I Remember It Differently
I Remember It Differently I remember it was raining that night. Not a gentle drizzle, but a downpour — fat drops clinging to my skin, the streetlights blurry halos through my windshield. I remember pulling up in front of the old café on 3rd Street, our place, the one with the chipped blue awning and coffee that always tasted burnt.
By Kine Willimes6 months ago in Fiction
The House That Raised Me
The House That Raised Me People ask me where I’m from, and I hesitate. It’s not because I don’t know the answer — it’s because the answer isn’t a simple town name or a street address. I could tell them about the faded white house on Maple Lane, with the peeling shutters and the front steps that creaked under your weight. But that house didn’t really raise me. A house is wood, paint, and plaster. The thing that raised me was something harder to name.
By Kine Willimes6 months ago in Fiction
