"Yeah, it's me!" Kai said with more enthusiasm than she expected, lifting her spirits further. "It's good to see you, noona."

"You, too! Did you get my letter?"

"Of course I did," he grinned. "That was quite the confession, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, it was," she glanced at Nayoung, who took the cue.

"I'll be waiting at the end of the hallway," she said, "talking to Sunghoon to pass the time. Just walk over whenever you feel like it."

"Wait, Nayoung. Are you mad at me now?"

"No," she admitted. "Just a little frustrated. We had a whole plan, didn't we?"

"I promise I'll join you soon," Nari put a hand on her shoulder. "I just need to meet one more person after this, and then we can spend the rest of the time we have doing what you want. Deal?"

"Deal," Nayoung agreed, with a believable enough smile.

When she walked away, Nari turned to Kai and resisted the urge to throw her arms around him. She wasn't sure if she had the right to do that anymore. "I missed you," she said fiercely, trying to get used to the fact that at nearly nineteen, the boy towered over her. Some part of her wondered if Taehyun was that tall, too.

"I missed you too, noona," he said. "I don't think I ever missed someone this much."

"You're not mad at me?" she couldn't help asking. That was she was really afraid of, with all the boys. What if they were still mad at her, even though years has passed? What if they didn't want to give her a chance anymore?

"I was never mad," Kai said seriously, "just really...sad. I think I understood your decisions, in a way."

"What, the stupid reasons I specified in my letter?"

"No, just...you know, noona," he said with a serious expression, "when you care about someone a lot, it's not difficult to notice when they're feeling down, and you felt down a lot. I knew you had something going on even if you never told me, and now that I know some of it, I'm still not mad. Especially now that I know."

"What about Lea?" Nari asked uncertainly. "Is she still angry at me?"

"Not so much, now that she saw your letter."

"She what?" Nari squeaked, horrified. "That was only supposed to be for you!"

"It's not my fault! She was cleaning out my bag for me so that my mom could throw it into the laundry and she found it and read it!"

"What did she say about it?" Nari demanded, an icy feeling like cold water being dumped on her spreading across her body.

"Only that she feels bad for you," he admitted. "Bahiyyih and Mom don't know anything about it. I actually hid it after that, tucked between my bed frame and mattress. I don't think anyone else should see it."

She breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks," she said sincerely. "Can you tell Lea for me that I would like to reconnect with her? I do miss her, and, well, I think it's time I apologize to her, too."

"Of course. Just one more question."

"Fire away."

"Did you send a letter to someone else, too?"

"Actually, yes," she tilted her head at him. "Five in total, including you. Why?"

"Because my classmate also got a letter, and he was crying," Kai said.

Nari froze. "What's his name?" she demanded, feeling her breathing become more erratic. Kai blinked, confused. "Kai, tell me, please. I need to know, he might be the one I sent it to, I sent yours together, I knew you two were here, I gave it to the front office staff and asked for it to be sent—"

"Kang Taehyun," Kai interrupted, "his name is Kang Taehyun. Let me go get him for you right now. We're nearly done with extra classes; it wasn't supposed to be today what with you guys coming over but no other day worked for us."

"Thank you," she breathed. "Thank you."

Kai studied her for a moment, then darted around her and entered a classroom. She heard the teacher ask him why he had taken so long on a simple trip to the bathroom to wash the ink off his hands; he said he met a friend of his and they talked.

Then she heard him say something indecipherable and shifted on her feet impatiently, but also out of the sudden anxiety coursing through her. Her hands were damp and her chest felt unusually heavy; she had the sudden urge to run away but forced herself to stay still, waiting. She would have waited all day if she had to.

She realized Taehyun couldn't just come running out; she would have to wait until their classes ended. He was still a student, even if just for a few more months. He had duties and responsibilities, just like how she did. She had waited for him for nearly three years; she could wait a few more minutes.

She leaned back against the wall next to the windows of a classroom a few feet away from Kai and Taehyun's, gazing into the vacant one, remembering her school days. Even though she could safely say she had loved studying with her classmates, whom she had fared far better with than she had when she was twelve, she still had to wince when she remembered how messy it had been.

She just wished she hadn't dragged Taehyun into this mess. Or Kai. Or any of them, really, but it was what it was. Remember, the past is the past. What's important is fixing things right now, not dwelling on the mistakes I made as a teenager.

She was startled out of her thoughts at the terrific noise of many chairs scraping back against the ground and her head turned hopefully towards the classroom. Boys and girls streamed out of it, bags and books on shoulders and in hands, chatting with each other as they all walked past her. No one gave her a second glance—of course, they knew the alumni were there for their reunion.

Kai walked past her, pausing to whisper, "good luck. I can see how much he loves you and I hope you do, too."

She squeezed his hand briefly. "Believe me, more than you know."

Then he was gone, catching up to the last of the students walking towards the stairways, talking and laughing away with the happiness he should have had in middle school without people bothering him constantly.

"Nari noona?" a familiar voice, definitely deeper but still so familiar, called out to her. She turned slowly, almost afraid to see him again, almost afraid that he would change his mind; but there he was.

Kang Taehyun, her Kang Taehyun, still as beautiful as she last saw him, those big eyes of his she so adored even wider and beginning to overflow with tears. Taller, definitely taller than her now, but she didn't care, not one bit. Her body was moving on instinct, and she ran at him, throwing her arms around him, realizing he was real, he was there.

"Taehyun," she choked out, breathing in his scent, some type of perfume she couldn't identify, arms tightening around him. "Taehyun."

She stood there like that for a few seconds, repeating his name over and over and finally bursting into loud, heaving sobs, realizing that finally, finally, she had her Taehyun back, she had him back, she really had him back.

He was real, he really was, this wasn't a dream shown to her by her delusional brain. He was there, she knew it, with his arms around her, his body firm and warm and real, blood and flesh and bones, not a dream, nothing like the dreams she'd had over and over.

And he didn't seem to care at all that she was crying all over his uniform, he just dropped his head to rest on her hair, murmuring her name over and over, his own body shaking with his cries. He was holding her just as tightly, breathing heavily. It was as if the two of them didn't want to ever let go of each other ever again—and they didn't.

"Taehyun," she cried in a rush, pulling away from him just a bit, not removing her arms from around him, "I'm so sorry I hurt you that day, I was an idiot, I didn't mean to ever hurt you like that—"

"Stop," Taehyun said softly, gently rubbing away the tears on her face. "It's okay. I hurt you more, didn't I? Staying away from you, going out of my way to avoid you? That was a really cruel thing to do, and I can't ever apologize enough for it."

"But if I had just told you the truth!"

"Would it have made any difference?" Taehyun asked. "Would it have changed the fact there was nothing to be done?"

"No, but maybe you wouldn't have run away then," she buried her head in his chest again, suddenly wanting to hide the anguish written on her face. "Maybe you would have stayed. Maybe we could have stayed friends still."

"We both know we wouldn't want that," he said. "And it still wouldn't have changed the fact I would have still run away. It's...shameful to admit this, to say the least, but that's how it would have been."

"Taehyun, don't leave me again," she cried quietly. "I missed you so much, it hurt so much, Taehyun. Tell me you'll never leave me again."

"I swear it," he said, pressing a soft kiss to the top of her head. She was somehow unsurprised by the warm feeling that flooded her at the tender, loving gesture. "But first I need to finish school, don't I? Find a way to start my life? Can you wait until then?"

She didn't want to let go of him for a second, but knew it was only right. Reluctantly, she broke free of his grip and gazed up at him with undisguised love and affection, knowing her face was a horror show of tears tracking her cheeks, eyes and nose red.

But even so, the look Taehyun gave her was enough to make her feel like it didn't matter. He was looking at her like she was the only thing in the world that mattered, that smile she so adored on his face, his warm eyes sparkling with happiness now that they weren't crying out in relief anymore. She intertwined their hands together.

"If that's what it takes, then I'll wait forever if I have to," she said. "I'll wait for as long as I have to, for as long as it takes, for as long as you need, as long you come back to me one day."

"I will always find a way back to you," he promised. "No magic required, just your number."

She was startled into laughing. "Just my number," she agreed, whipping out the pen she used to give Beomgyu her number and took his wrist, scribbling it out. "I can't believe you've been at the library all this time! I never knew!"

"Does it make you feel better that I ask the librarian how you seem to be doing?" he asked, mouth twitching towards a grin.

"Actually, yes, it does," she said, stepping forward to hug him again. "See you soon, Taehyun. I'll wait until you call me, and you better. Come find me soon."

"I will," he whispered, pressing another kiss to her forehead. "I will."

***

When she rejoined Nayoung, her first question was: "why do you look like you've been crying?"

"I have," Nari replied, taking Nayoung's arm again. "Come on, I'll explain it all to you."

✧✧✧

WORD COUNT: 1964

A/N: if you won the challenge, then you have my respect because either you're good at controlling your emotions or i'm just very emotional. also, yes, this was planned right from the start, this whole chapter, and it came out better than i imagined it to be. gear up for taehyun x nari heart-flutters.