The weeks that passed were mostly quiet. Taeyeon and Jessica found their own routines as Jessica cared for Taeyeon’s healing body. With Taeyeon on so many painkillers, she was found napping most days, but during the times she was awake, Jessica found the girl to be good company.

“I don’t agree with the second book. How can you just kill a character for no reason?”

Jessica laughed as she drank her morning coffee, “I just didn’t want to write about him anymore. Don’t look into the reason too hard.”

Taeyeon threw her head back in frustration, “You can’t just do that! This fictional character has a life! Could have had a life!”

Smiling behind her coffee, Jessica never thought her books were this exciting to talk about before, “Taeyeon forget about him. He is not real and didn’t do much for the story even if he was alive.”

“I find you cruel.” Taeyeon took a bite of her toast, “If I was a writer, I would find it hard to kill off any character but here you are killing of people that you say don’t even matter to the storyline.”

“Taeyeon…” Jessica stood up and snatched the book away from Taeyeon, “You really need to stop reading my books. Your critiques are harder than the critics that review my books. I am not sure I can handle another brutal review from you.”

“I was still reading that!” Taeyeon whined like a kid who got their toy taken away, “I promise to be nicer.”

Jessica dangled the book until she relented and gave it back to Taeyeon, “fine.”

Taeyeon grinned as she held the book closer, as if to protect it, “I do like your writing. It is the senseless killing I don’t agree with. You didn’t do that in the first book.”

Jessica shrugged, “Maybe I was in a bad mood when I wrote that one. I don’t know…it was so long ago.”

“How long does it take for you to finish a book like this?”

Jessica put down her empty coffee mug, “Hum depends. I average about a year per book.”

“Wow just sitting and writing for a year. I am going crazy because I can’t leave this house.”

“You don’t like my house?”

Taeyeon shook her head, “I love it. A good place to recuperate but you say you live here alone. How can you do that? Don’t you want to see other people? Have conversations?”

“I am with you, right now.”

Taeyeon furrowed her brows, “I just came here… and I am going to have to leave eventually.”

Jessica hummed, “Then I will be alone again in my thoughts.”

“That doesn’t seem like much of a life? When I read your books, it was like I can see you living a life full of adventure. Those are things you have to really experience, I doubt you got those ideas from staying in a place like this.” Taeyeon shifted a bit on the couch, “Sorry…I feel like I am prying too much.”

Jessica got up from the chair and left the room for a while before returning with a picture frame, “It has been about a year since I moved here.”

Taeyeon looked at the picture of Jessica with another girl, “Is she your sister?”

Jessica shook her head, “My partner…girlfriend…fiancé…honestly I don’t know what to call her now. She was my world, she was my inspiration to write…she was my everything.”

Taeyeon frowned knowing this story would not have a happy ending, “You must have really loved her.”

Knowing this story was going to bring a waterfall of tears, Jessica reached for the box of tissues and hugged it, “Most stories use rain, a large storm or ominous music to foreshadow tragic events but in reality, the day is sunny, your favorite music is playing on the radio and it is one of those days where you forget all your worries because life is so good at that moment.”

Taeyeon also reached for some tissues.

“Everyone says it wasn’t my fault, that I couldn’t have prevented the delivery truck from hitting our car, but you always wonder if there was something you could have done. Like I was the one behind the wheel, could I have saved her if I swerved left or right…you know those kind of thoughts. Although those thoughts come and go, the thing that doesn’t change is that she is still not here with me.” Sniffling, Jessica dabbed her eyes with the first tissue, “After that, I couldn’t write. I locked myself away emotionally and physically. So much so that my publisher and my parents convinced me to move here. They said that I needed a change of venue. To get away from things that reminded me of her. I wondered if they hated that I was always so mopey,” Jessica laughed, “But the longer I stayed here, I found myself looking at the world differently.  I surrounded myself in books, got caught up in these fictional lives of others and used that as an escape for a while. Then I would take walks at night wondering if I should let the ocean take me away from the pain.”

Taeyeon by now was on her fourth tissue, “I am glad you didn’t…you know let the ocean take you away.”

Jessica put the tissue box aside, “I thought about it a lot, but there was one night that I came out to the beach during sundown and I stayed up for hours, so long that I saw the sunrise again. It was then that I started to appreciate the smaller things in life. I focused on the little things like tasting good coffee in the morning, feeling the cool sand on my feet, or getting joy from finding a new author to obsess over. So long story short, I like it here. I like being alone in my thoughts and finding a new thing to be happy about that day.”

Now on her tenth tissue, Taeyeon dried her eyes, “So you are giving up on people to give you that happiness?”

Jessica laughed, “I thought so…but then you came.”

Taeyeon was shocked, “Me? I just lay here all day.”

“Even if you just lay there, I wonder when you will wake up and find something else to criticize in my books.”

Taeyeon snorted in laughter, “you are clearly deprived of social interaction if that is what you look forward to each day.”

Shrugging, Jessica stood up and got the garbage to throw away Taeyeon’s pile of tissues, “Maybe, but I find your company enjoyable.”

“Do you think you will ever go back?”

Jessica cocked her head, “Where?”

“You know to your life before? Where you used to live and back to writing.”

Jessica thought for a second and then left the room again to bring out a typewriter and set it on the table. Placing the piece of paper between the roll, Jessica typed out a sentence and showed it to Taeyeon.

One day at a time.

“I hope that day comes soon.” Taeyeon smiled gently at Jessica, “If you stay locked away here too long, the world will miss out on someone as beautiful as you. And, eventually, I will run out of your books to read. Your books are needed to have a proper conversation with you and to bring you that happiness you want from me every day with my glowing reviews.”

Jessica giggled, “That is a very compelling argument. I will consider going back to writing much more seriously now.”

Taeyeon laid her head back on the pillow looking up at the ceiling, “If I could remember, you could write a story about my life: 'Girl washed up on the beach' sounds like a good start.”

Jessica sat there looking at Taeyeon, wondering if that story was a comedy or tragedy.