"Hey, uh, Luna?"

Krystal's work colleague, the freshly brunette ex-accountant, looks up while pouring a green juice. "Yeah?"

"I just..." Krystal bites her lip. "I realised it's my mom's birthday. She's halfway across the country, so I always write, and I've just remembered that I totally forgot to write her a letter in advance..."

Luna waves the rest of her sentence away. "Don't sweat it, sweets. Go out the back or something and pump it out. I'll cover for you."

"Thanks." Krystal flashes her a guilty beam, unlooping her apron as she walks past and through the back door. 

There's a pen on top of a pack of printer paper; Krystal tears open the wrapping and pulls out a couple of sheets. 

'Dear Kai...' she scribbles, 'I've been asking about you for years, and the answers kept changing. They still keep changing, don't they? 

Krystal pauses for a moment, realising that up until this moment, she'd had no idea what she would say. While the decision was a spur of the moment thing, she hadn't even bothered planning since making the choice, to avoid over complicating things, but it seems everything she'd left unsaid had been lying in wait for years and is now ready to come pouring. Gripping the pen, she continues:

'I had a crush on you in first grade,  and what I knew about you then was that you were the guy who stole my crayons and fought with Julian because you wanted to sit next to me and not Kevin. 

In 6th grade, when I moved away, honestly for a while, I forgot about you. Then I turned 15 and you came back that summer, and when I asked around, this time I heard that everyone discovered that you were interesting and suddenly you weren't my secret anymore and our friendship wasn't special. You'd just turned 16 when I told you I didn't like you, because some kid made up a rumour that I never got over you. I told you it wasn't true because I don't like people putting words in my mouth, but really, I think you were right, and I know you knew you were because that time I asked you about you, and you told me the night the car crashed that you were the one who told that kid all about us. Because you wanted him to know. Because you wanted everyone to know. 

I shouldn't have kissed you that night because it made the petty high school betrayal sting more. But I guess other things felt worse; like the cut above my brow from the smashed glass, and the smile you gave me the day after, like you'd wiped the slate clean, and I hated that because starting over was my job and you were supposed to be the one holding on. 

What hurt the most, though, is that you didn't notice the cut until months after it healed, when I said we were done and I was leaving. You asked me if I was sure, and I never looked back.

Kai, I haven't heard about you in years. Maybe some people are meant to be together, and that's why they keep finding each other, but I think we've been searching too long and too hard for something that doesn't want to work. I believe in effort but more importantly, I believe effort shouldn't be wasted.

And I think you'll learn this someday, but when you do, I'll be miles away. When I saw your face today, I realised  I'd made the right choice all those years ago - it was always better off this way.'

For a moment, Krystal thinks about signing it with her name, but ultimately decides against it. She's done enough explaining for him.

***

Kai returns a couple of hours later, his pockets warm and ringing as he ducks his head back into QUENCH.

The staff seem to be in the process of closing up - someone is on their knees wiping down the glass cabinet out the front, and another is dusting off the chalkboard. The girl behind the till with glossy brown hair looks up as he approaches. "Oh, I'm sorry, sir, we were actually just closing-"

"That's alright, I wasn't here to buy anything," Kai says hastily. The flowers in his hands shake and the girl's eyes follow the movement, widening imperceptibly. "I'm just here to ask if Krystal was still in?"

"Krystal?" The brunette's eyes flick back towards the flowers. "Oh. She just left." Her eyes make contact with Kai's, unreadable. "Only a few minutes ago, actually."

Kai's jaw tightens. Damn. "Thanks," he says, anyway, pressing a smile onto his lips as though gratitude, not disappointment, is his Sunday best. He exits the shop with the smile frozen on his face, heading back towards his car. His hand, the one not clutching the flowers, tightens around the box in his pocket, almost as if to check if it's still there. Precious cargo.

Kai pauses, confusion spreading across his face like an unfurled map. There's something tucked behind his windshield wipers. A parking ticket? As he gets closer, he realises it's a piece of paper, folded in half. His name is scrawled on the back, on the other side of the writing impressions clear through the paper. 

A letter.

****

A/N (16/01/16, 12:36 AM): I absolutely had to finish this story, because it's 70% based on actual events and 100% based on actual feelings; and I wanted to write something I knew I could finish because it had an ending.