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Title: Riverbeds and Goodbyes

Pairing: OC/Reader x Yugyeom

Word Count: 1,532

Rating: T

Warning: Mention of cancer, minor character death (mentioned very briefly)

Note: This was a bit hard to write. I hope I did it justice, but I'm not the best at fluffy fics. Or one-shots. I tried to make it soft and non-romantic and as suitable to your liking as possible! I hope you like this, princess, and have a wonderful holiday this winter. 

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Riverbeds and Goodbyes

 

Five years.

How much can change in five years? Nothing? Everything? For me, it had been the latter. Just five years ago, I was sitting here, on the bank of this crystal-clear river, with my best friend. He was a dork, he was adorable, and he was my world. His eyes always held a glimmer of mischievous laughter and his smile held all of the happiness the universe could give.

Until he left.

Neither of us were very happy about it, but there was nothing to be done. His father received a job offer in a town three hours away and, with how short on money they’d been, he had no choice but to accept. There were tears, there were arguments, and there were heartbroken embraces, but there were still goodbyes.

He left in June with the promise of Skype calls and text messages, his brown eyes shimmering with tears as he closed his car’s door. I had all summer to get over it. To accept that he was going to be far away and that I might never see him again. He kept his promise and called me every day. We talked about how hot it was getting and what color we were dyeing our hair and about his new dog. Never about the ‘I miss you’s. Never about how boring it was without each other. Never about how sad we were.

Once school started up, nothing changed. I started high school off with a cracked smile on my face and a freshly-painted mask of happiness. Freshman year was fine enough with him just on the other side of my computer screen. Hell, I was even okay through the next summer, calling him while I sat next to our river and excitedly telling him about all of the crawdads I found. But sophomore year… He didn’t call for the first week.

When I called him the week after to ask about classes, he apologized and said that he had to go out shopping. I tried to keep in touch after that, but I’d go straight to voice mail and an auto-message would state that he was busy and would get back to me. After three months, I stopped trying.

I asked my mom if she’d heard from them and she just looked at me sadly and shook her head. She’d seen how much his absence was affecting me. She’d understood that I couldn’t handle him not answering me without reason, but she also understood that I wouldn’t be able to handle a lie from her. Not like that.

So, I put it to the back of my mind. I still visited the river, but it was to study and get away. Not to connect with him. The location had morphed from ‘our river’ to ‘my safe space’. It didn’t belong to anyone else anymore. Just me and some memories that I tried to scrub out.

That brings us back to today, with me sitting next to my river and my fantasy novel laying open on my lap. After the craze of my graduation faded, the gaping loneliness he left came back. I never quite got over it, but I never dwelled on it, either. Just ignored the scars my heart had from when it was ripped in two and went on with my life. Today was the five-year anniversary of his departure, so I came back here to think and be by myself.

However, the universe didn’t like that plan and threw hers out into play.

I heard the crunch of someone walking along the bank of the river and nearly fell over with the force of my startled jump. I looked up and saw a boy about my age with shaggy blonde hair and approximately 200% more height that he needed walking around, his gaze scanning the area with an almost sad glaze in his eyes.

“Um… Hello?” I called out to him, internally chuckling at the jolt of fear that obviously went through him when he looked at me.

“Oh! Hi, sorry, I didn’t… Think anyone would be around here, it’s usually-“

“Empty?” I cut him off, my eyebrow cocked and a sympathetic grin on my lips. “Yeah, it usually is. That’s why I come here… Have been since I was a kid.” He looked almost startled and cocked his head at me, seeming very confused, so I supplied him with a vignette of my old friendship. “We used to come here practically every day and chase crawdads… It’s a wonder I’ve never seen you before.”

My eyes scanned over his face, noting that he did, in fact, look familiar, but I couldn’t place it. He might have been one of the kids in the year under me in school, but I could’ve sworn I’d never seen him.

“Ah, yeah… I just came back from being gone a few years. Actually, I haven’t been here since before freshman year.” It was my turned to look confused.

“Really? Why come back? I mean, no offence, but this town probably has nothing to offer you but scenery,” I pointed out, closing my book and shoving it into my bag so I could get up and look him in the eyes. When I did, it turned out that he was much taller than I gave him credit for. He stood at six-foot-nothing and, while his body was proportionate, his face held a child-like softness that seemed to offset the overall giant shape he possessed.

“Oh, uh… My best friend lives here, actually,” He nervously rubbed the back of his neck. “I haven’t spoken to her in almost three years… I haven’t seen her in even longer.” He looked down and kicked a rock into the river. “I was hoping to maybe catch her before she left for college.”

There’s… No way. Right?

“Um, what’s her name?” I inquired. “Maybe I can help you find her. She had to have been in my grade, so I probably know her.” My heart was beating so hard that I was sure he could hear it. There was absolutely no way that he was who I thought he was.

Now… When I said the universe didn’t like my plan, I thought it was going to bad. I thought I was going to curse her for throwing a wrench in my relaxation schedule and have to go home. But when he said those two words… I couldn’t have thanked her more.

As soon as the boy said my name, I teared up a bit.

“A-Are you sure?” I cleared my throat. “Like, you’re absolutely sure that that’s her name and that you haven’t spoken to her in three years and that you used to come here all of the time with her.” He looked skeptical and nodded.

“Of course I am. I wouldn’t… Is she okay?”

How did I not recognize him? How did he grow to be such a different person that I didn’t recognize him?

How did he not recognize me?

I shakily walked towards him and smiled, sniffling quietly before looking him in the eye.

“Yeah, she’s… She’s perfect, Yugyeom.”

His eyes widened and he took a step back, eyebrows furrowed as he looked me over.

“How do you know… Who are you?” I laughed softly and shook my head.

“Still an idiot, I see.” He look slightly offended and I shook my head, gesturing for him to follow my to the tree closest to the river. Our tree. I pointed to the little carving we made in the roots, now almost covered by moss.

“’I’ll always come back’, Yugy. You kept your promise, right?”

Yugyeom stared at the tree with confusion, sadness, and then surprise, turning around to me and saying my name. It wasn’t a question; it was recognition.

Before I could register it, I was swooped into the biggest hug I’ve ever received. The tears I’d been holding back finally spilled over as I clung onto him, his exclamations of ‘oh my god’ and ‘I’m so sorry’ filtering out of my mind as I breathed in the scent of home. He didn’t let go and I didn’t want him to. We just sat by the river and let the feeling of belonging sink into our skins and bind us together again.

He came back, just like he promised.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

On the way back to town, he filled me in. His mother, bless her, had gotten very sick during the summer before sophomore year. He didn’t really worry about it until school started and no one could care for her around the clock. That’s why he stopped replying.

Almost six months later, she was hospitalized and died a short two months after that. There was nothing they could do to keep the rapid cancer cells from taking over her brain. Through his quiet tears, he apologized for not talking to me. He apologized for his mother’s death.

I told him that I understood. That it wasn’t his fault and that he was here now.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Five years.

How much can change in five years? Nothing? Everything? For me and Yugyeom, it was the latter.

But he kept his promise.

He came back.