"This can't be! This can't be!"

Lilianne keeps on repeating the same sentence as she looks around the house, looking for her poems that she kept in a box. She wanted to go back again to the past to save Winona.

Tristan on the other hand is puzzled because Lilianne is suddenly acting strange, "What are you doing?" He asked in confusion, following Lilianne around.

But Lilianne didn't answer, she didn't even give him a look. She just keeps on focusing on her goal: find an old poem to bring her back to the past and save Winona.

She doesn't know why Winona did that to herself. She asked Tristan but the incident is still a question to everyone. Everything was fine with Winona until the next day, she was found hanging in her room with no suicide note. Nobody knows why. I guess you'll never know what someone's really going through. They might seem fine but they're not.

But Lilianne knows one thing for sure, it's her fault. Winona should still be alive today if she doesn't keep on changing the timeline.

"Got it!" She exclaimed when she found the box full of her old stuff, including poems.

"What's that?" He asked but once again, he didn't receive a reply. "Babe, hello? I'm still here. I'm so confused. Can you please tell me what's going on?" A mixture of confusion and irritation is evident in his voice because Lilianne seems like ignoring his existence.

That is when Lilianne faced Tristan with teary eyes. "I'm so sorry, Tristan." Lilianne stared straight at Tristan's eyes.

"Are you crying? Why are you saying sorry?" Tristan asked.

"I shouldn't have done this." She said with pure sincerity, ignoring Tristan's questions.

"Done what? Come on, babe, fix yourself. We still have work. We're gonna be late." Tristan said, "But if you're not feeling well, I could just substitute your classes. We both can't be absent today so let's just talk about this later, okay?"

"So we're still teachers," Lilianne sighed. She still got her dream job with her dream guy but it costs Winona's life. Is it really hard to get all she want?

Tristan furrowed his eyebrows more at Lilianne's response which just added more confusion to him. "I don't know what's going on. Maybe I'll just stay here with you."

"Oh no," Lilianne replied, "You should go. We shouldn't influence students to not attend classes for no good reason."

"So what's your good reason to not attend your classes today?" Tristan asked

To save Winona. Lilianne sighed once more. "I'm so sorry. I'll tell you everything once I fix this."

"Fix what?"

"I'll promise to tell you everything once this is over." If they're still together once Lilianne comes back in the present because the last time she did is she ends up with Claude.

"Okay." Tristan, still confused, "I'll get ready then."

Right after he leaves the room, Lilianne immediately scans her box, looking for something dated on the day Winona killed herself. Perks on putting dates on the poems and shenanigans she wrote.

She found a poem written a few days after Winona's death.

Lilianne has always been blaming herself from the start. Being together with Tristan and being friends with Claude, the consequence of what she had done to alter the present leads to Winona's death.

She shook her head, stopping her tears from falling. Crying and blaming herself right now is no use. What she needs to do is go back to the past and correct her mistakes.

And she found just the thing that could make her do that.

It's a haiku that she wrote.

Wow, that 16-year old Lilianne who wrote this is really happy about having a new friend and a boyfriend. It was really a simple yet beautiful life. Little did that 16-year old Lilianne, life's not just all fun and games. What she was doing has consequences and she's facing it now.

It's time to correct those doings. She immediately burned the paper.

———

Lilianne returned exactly where she left the last time. It was when she got home from school after walking with Winona. She is in front of her desk doing homeworks and other shenanigans like the haiku in front of her that brings her back in the year 2012. She always writes different kinds of poems in her free time.

She immediately contacted Winona.

Lilianne walks back and forth in her room while biting her fingernails. She is anxious because of the sudden change of tone in Winona's last reply and now she doesn't receive any reply at all.

She tried calling Winona but it cannot be reached.

Another person in her speed dial is her boyfriend but she doesn't want to disturb him knowing he and Claude are taking quizzes right now. She just left him a message which he fortunately replied to right away.

Lillianne didn't waste another time. She didn't bother how she looked. She just left her house and sprinted towards Winona's which is a street away from hers.

She was welcomed by Winona's parents, who are confused to see her all sweaty and catching breath, at their door. "Yanyan, how can we help you?"

"Good afternoon Mr. and Mrs. Roberts." she greeted, "Is Win here?"

"She just got home almost an hour ago." Mrs. Roberts answered.

"Yeah, don't you two walked home together?" Mr. Roberts asked.

"We did. I just need to talk to her. There's something I forgot to tell her a while ago. Can I see her?" Lilianne requested.

"Sure. You know her room. Just go upstairs." Winona's parents permit. They widen the door so Lilianne could enter. "Maybe she's asleep. She hasn't left her room since she went home."

Lilianne went upstairs headed to Winona's bedroom door. She knocked. "Winwin?" She got no response which didn't help with her growing worries.

'We're outside Win's house.' She received a text from Tristan. Then she heard a doorbell from downstairs followed by Tristan's and Claude's voice.

She puts down her phone as she knocked again. "Hello? Are you asleep?" She leaned in closer to the door, listening to any signs of Winona. She hears a sobbing sound and struggling noise which fuels her worries. "Win, are you alright?" Again, no response. She touched the doorknob and twisted it. It is not locked.

"I'm sorry to invade your privacy but I'm gonna open this door already since you're not responding." Which she did. The view of Winona's room surprised her. Winona is standing on a chair with a rope around neck hanging from the ceiling.

"Oh my God, Winona." Lilianne whispered in shock.

"Why are you here?" Winona said in a cracked voice as her face is wet with tears

"I'm here for you. You don't have to do this. Please, Win, get down there." Lilianne slowly walks toward Winona, trying to convince her not to do anything.

"Stay away from me or I'll jump." Winona said in full authority, making Lilianne stopped in her tracks.

Lilianne started sobbing. Seeing her best friend in this situation just breaks her heart. "Please don't do this. I'm begging you. Remove the rope on your neck, get down, and we'll talk."

"My life has no meaning." Winona said while crying, pain is evident in her voice.

"What? No, don't say that. That's not true."

"It's true! You have no idea! Nobody understands me. It's better this way."

"Why did you ever come to this point? Is it me? You can tell me anything. I will listen to you and I'll try my best to understand."

"Will you understand that I'm in love with your boyfriend but you're both my best friends and I don't want to ruin your relationship and our friendship but seeing the two of you happy already kills me inside so let me just actually kill myself!" Winona screams in pure range and pain.

Lilianne froze. She's right. She really is the reason that drives Winona to do this. She doesn't know that Winona feels this way. If only she doesn't change the timeline, everything will just be fine. She should be the one experiencing that pain and not Winona.

"I know." Lilianne said.

"What do you know? You know nothing." Winona scoffed.

"I know you have feelings for Tristan and I know you're about to confess to him on the day that I also confessed but–"

"How did you know that?"

"I'm sorry. I'm scared that if you confessed first, Tristan might choose to date you instead."

"What are you talking about? Are you saying that you decided to confess first so I could lose my chance with Tristan?"

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. I should just let you go on with your plan."

"So you know my plan all along and you decided to ruin it?"

"I'm sorry, Win."

"I hate you!" Winona shouted as she jump and kicked the chair.

"Win, no!" Lilianne runs toward Winona as she starts to shake while hanging.

Lilianne tried to stand the chair again and carried Winona so she wouldn't choke as she shouted for help. Luckily, Winona's parents arrived together with Tristan and Claude. Horrored by the view they saw, they still immediately made an action so they could bring Winona down which they successfully did. They gather around her to check her. She lost her consciousness but thank goodness she's still breathing. They immediately called an ambulance.

Lilianne, Tristan, and Claude were left when the ambulance arrived. Winona was brought to the hospital and her parents followed. The three are still traumatized by earlier.

"It's all my fault." Lilianne cried.

"I know it's very hard to witness such a thing but don't blame yourself. Nobody wanted this to happen. It's no one's fault." Tristan hugged her, trying to stop her from crying but her wails just got louder.

"No, I'm such a bad friend." Lilianne breaks from the hug and faced the two.

"Well, I guess we all are because we didn't realize she's struggling with something. But nothing good will happen if you blame yourself for what happened." Claude said.

"I provoked her to do that." Lilianne

"What happened today was too much. I think you should rest. I'll take you home." Tristan

"No, it really is my fault. I shouldn't have done any of this." Lilianne

"What do you mean?" Claude

Lilianne faced Claude. "Claude, I'm happy that you've been part of our group. We've just been friends for a short time but I really do appreciate you. You're such a nice friend. You deserve all the love in the world." she said as she embraced him tight for a few seconds. The two boys looked at each other because of Lilianne's sudden action.

Lilianne then faced Tristan. "Babe, you know I love you so much. I would always love you no matter what timeline we are in. But I should make this right. Maybe this timeline is not the right one. I'm so sorry."

"What are you sorry?" Tristan asked in confusion

Lilianne wiped her tears and took a deep breath. "I'm so grateful to have you. You're the best friend and boyfriend ever. I don't deserve you and you don't deserve me either. You deserve someone better. You deserve the best."

"Why do you sound like you're bidding goodbye? Are you breaking up with me?"

"No, no! I'm sorry. I'm just..." Lilianne paused for a while because she couldn't handle her tears.

"There, there," Tristan patted her back. "What happened was very stressful for all of us. We should go home and take a rest. Let me walk you home."

"No, it's fine. I can handle myself." Lilianne wiped her tears

"Are you sure?" Tristan asked in a worried voice

"Yeah. It's just a street away."

"You're not thinking of doing anything like what Winona did, right?"

"No, of course, I won't. I'm sorry if I concerned you about what I said. I just can't think straight because of earlier."

"I understand. Text me when you get home."

There were a few seconds of silence after Tristan spoke.

"Do you still have the confession letter I gave you?" Lilianne randomly asked

"Uhh, yeah, of course. I kept it."

"Is it with you right now? Can I have it?"

"Yeah, it's in my bag. Why?"

"I just, uhm,..." Lilianne thinks of an excuse. "I mean, I keep the letter you gave me too and I just wanna like preserve those. I don't know, it sounds romantic." She lied

"Wow, it sounds cool. Sure," Tristan opened his school bag and searched for Lilianne's letter. "Here."

Lilianne accepts the paper from Tristan. She looked at it and heaved a deep breath. She faced Tristan and looked straight to his eyes. She cupped his face and passionately kissed him. She enjoyed every second of it for this may not happen again. She ended the kiss when she felt her tears attempting to fall again.

She turned her back around them and walked away without looking back. She heard them calling her but she just walked faster. Her mind might change if she turned around.

———

The moment Lilianne reached her home, she immediately searched for a lighter. She looked at the letter one last time before burning it.

"I hope this works. Bring me back to that day, please." She whispered to herself as she watched the paper dissolve into ashes while tears fall down her face.