It didn’t take you long to pack your belongings. The emotions fuelled you on, and the longer Jaehyun didn’t come after you made you hopeless. You had no confidence left to go barge in there and find him.

You were hurting too much from it all.

With a of luck, your desperate call actually connected with Natalia. “Woah-Woah-Woah, why are you crying, Y/N?!”

“It’s all gone horribly, and I fell in love but I don’t know how to help that, and he’s behind the fire, and now I’ve been told to leave and-”

“Y/N. Breathe,” Natalia instructed firmly, and you placed your phone down on the counter, taking a solid five minutes to cry it out. Once feeling a little more composed, you explained the happenings of the past couple of months with as much detail as you could.

“And he’s not allowing you to explain the misunderstanding at all?” she finally asked, and you groaned loudly. “Y/N, come home.”

“I should, shouldn’t I? But the problem is, Natty, I don’t know where home is anymore. I love it here. I’m in love here.”

“You need clarity from it all. Love or not, come here to me. There’s no point staying in a place where you’re not welcome and in an environment where everything is hostile right now. Give Mr Jung, Jaehyun, the whole township, some time to recompose themselves as well. He’s probably just reacting because his son means more to him than he’s let on and there’s obviously a deeper story involved here about the fire. Still, you can’t do anything there. And staying will only aggravate the mood. Come back to the city.”

“Without saying goodbye?” you asked weakly, looking around the living area of the house. So many memories had been made within these walls, and your chest ached with the endless pain that had been inflicted earlier. You tried to capture them all in your mind to carry away with you, breaking down once more. “I should say goodbye.”

“If Jaehyun hasn’t turned up yet, there’s probably a good reason for it. Besides, it’s not hard to contact someone if you need to, regardless of where they are in the world.”

You laughed on instinct, realising just how hard it could be even within Blayne.

Natalia was right though, and the longer she comforted you over the phone, the more urgent it became for you to see her in person.

So you finished packing up your car, took a final teary walk around the house and property and left the keys on the kitchen counter, walking out of the house and closed the door.

“Thank you for everything,” you whispered, heading over to your car and drove away.

Blayne soon was long behind you.

Of course, once Pierce heard the deal was completely bust with the Jungs’, and of your sudden return to the city, he called you into the office and attempted to rage off at you. However, you had been prepared for his reaction, and before he got more than two minutes of heated disappointment out across the room, you stood up, his eyes wildly following yours.

“Sit down. I’m not done with you yet.”

“I am with you, and this job,” you announced, handing in your resignation and stepped out of the office immediately.

Returning to your apartment felt depressing, so you drove to your parent’s house instead, finding only their weekly cleaner present. “They’re not here?”

“Your parents won’t be back until late tonight. Will you wait for them?”

“No,” you mentioned sadly, turning back on your heel and headed for your final destination of Natalia’s apartment. Entering the code to the front door since you knew she was at work, you then slumped your way over to her couch and laid down.

Now that you were back in the city, you had everything at your fingertips. With your skills set, you would easily find another job, and your savings would cover the unemployment period for now. If you were to pull out your phone now, you could scroll endless of job opportunities.

None would be advertised for Blayne, though.

Here you could binge all the shows the outdated television couldn’t pick up on out there, and scroll mindlessly through social media for days on end. Neither sounded interesting to you now and when you stuck your head out the window to breathe in some fresh air, there wasn’t that country scent about it. In fact, it felt suffocating, much as the apartment itself. It was spacious for a one-bedroom place in the city, but you were used to having multiple rooms and separated living spaces back in the quaint homestead. You missed the barn, and when you went to bed last night, you anticipated the owl but only heard the faint sounds of city life below. No were birds chirping, or the funny buzzing sound the air conditioning system made anymore. Everything worked.
Yet everything was broken.

Natalia found you in a daze when she came home that evening, sighing heavily and was rather unsurprised to see you there. She sat down beside you, and you curled up into your best friend’s lap, her hands instantly running through your hair. “What about your apartment?”

“It feels cold.”

“Well, given the heat of the world outside, isn’t that nice?”

“It doesn’t feel like home,” you countered, and Natalia sighed again. “My parents are too busy working too.”

“I’m sure they’ll be free soon. How about we go have dinner with them? Did you quit your job?”

You nodded, and Natalia patted you softly. “Good. You’ve completely closed that chapter now. Better opportunities await.”

Glancing up at your best friend then, your bottom lip wobbled. “I don’t want Blayne to be a chapter I close.”

“Oh, you poor thing. You’re a mess. This guy really took your heart, didn’t he?”

“It’s not just Jaehyun. Natty, if you saw Blayne, stayed there even, you’d understand how I feel then.”

“I understand you now to a point. But you’re scaring me. Isn’t it normally me who’s crying in your lap because some guy broke my heart?”

You shot her a watery smile. “It’s your turn now.”

“Let me think of what our next game plan will be then.”

“Our?”

Natty nodded firmly. “Well, I’m not going to let you sink into complete despair. Besides, this guy told you he loved you, right? Why isn’t he on your doorstep begging you back?”

Whilst your instinct was to defend Jaehyun, you couldn’t give a reasonable answer either. The image of him curling up and rocking beside you during that meeting had haunted you for the entire week since it happened. You had attempted to piece together the events of the fire, and Jaehyun’s part in it for some time now, but you were missing parts of the puzzle that made the most sense.

You knew that right now, Jaehyun would be reliving something horrific, and the last thing on his mind would be you.

Smiling again at Natalia, you hugged her tightly. “Can we order takeout?”

“Burgers?”

Your mind went to the farmer’s market, knowing no burger in the city could compete with that. You shook your head. “Anything but burgers.”

“Pizza? Chinese? Should we make a mukbang?”

“And film my ugly emotional face as I eat it all?” you answered with a laugh, and your friend grinned.

“Finally, there’s my girl. First, we’ll eat. Then we’ll come up with a plan that will make Blayne regret giving up on you, and make Pierce grovel for your forgiveness.”

Your self-pity only lasted a couple more days before you finally woke up with a sense of direction. Pursuing it, you marched into offices and presented yourself as an asset to multiple investors. It wasn’t easy, but your mindset was clear.

Finally, you convinced someone of it.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Natalia asked, and you shot her a look. She laughed. “Of course you are. You even sold your stiletto boots on Marketplace. Those were your babies.”

“They’re highly impractical for where we’re heading,” you told her with a laugh, hauling the last suitcase out of the bedroom and over to the front door. You smiled brightly back at the space. “Isn’t it funny? I fought tooth and nail to secure this apartment two years ago. I was convinced I’d live here forever.”

“All these windows are a blessing. My apartment could never compare to this place.”

“And now I’m giving it up without a care,” you stated, stepping out the apartment and after Natalia moved into the hallway also, you shut the door without even feeling the need to say goodbye to it. Beaming at your friend, you gestured towards the elevator.

Natalia chuckled. “Will we regret this?”

“Well, you might.”

“Hey! I grew up on farms, remember? You’re more of a city-slicker than me.”

“You’ve managed to get another case of the coffee pods, right?” you asked suddenly, and Natalia laughed heartily.

“You can take the girl out of the city, but you cannot take the coffee out of her blood.”

“Good coffee,” you corrected as you travelled down in the elevator to the lobby. You tasked Natalia with heading out to your car whilst you finished signing the documents at the reception and handed over you keys. Once collecting the cheque for your bond, you turned, finding Natalia stock still in the lobby.

“Nat?”

“Is that… am I seeing things?” she breathed, and with a perplexed expression, you followed her gaze out to the street where the security guard refused entrance to two men.

“Cowboy hats, you see them too, right, Y/N?”

Running across the lobby, you pushed through the front doors and then came to a short stop in front of the entrance. “Simon, it’s fine.”

“Oh Miss L/N, you know these men?”

“Indeed.”

The guard backed off then as you stared back at Jaehyun, taking in his dishevelled state.

Avery cleared his throat. “You know, the city near us is basically a pond compared to this place. Even I’m out of my depth here. It took us a few days to find this place.”

“Don’t worry, we’re not staying here long,” you breathed, and Jaehyun quirked an eyebrow at you. You grinned. “Mr Cowboy.”

“Miss City?”

“Oh, you can’t use that anymore with me,” you announced, taking another step closer. Jaehyun’s hands instinctively reached out for you, and you inhaled deeply once inside his embrace.

“Why not?”

“I’m going to become a permanent resident of Blayne.”

It was surreal sitting in Natalia’s small apartment with not one, but two cowboys. And your best friend was struggling with the concept as well. “I can house you with ease, but them as well?”

“We leave in the morning, should we make them find a motel around here for one night?” you asked, and Natalia shook her head, before nodding, only to shake it again.

Avery smiled graciously at you both. “It’s quaint.”

“It’s a shoebox,” Jaehyun announced, shaking his head. “How do you people survive like this?”

“When you’re busy, you don’t care too much about what you come home to as long as it has the basics,” Natalia explained as you laughed.

“A bed and a place to wash up?” Jaehyun assumed, and you shook your head.

“Fast internet speed, Netflix, and takeout on speed dial.”

Avery and Jaehyun shared a peculiar expression before joining you both at the small dining table you sat at.

“Why are you leaving the city?” Jaehyun asked, and Avery laughed.

“Why did I leave the city?”

Rolling his eyes, Jaehyun nudged his cousin. “You’re not born here. They are.”

“I must admit, I can understand Y/N, but you Miss Natalia-”

“Natty, please,” she urged to Avery, and he nodded, shooting another of his loose yet charming smiles. You could tell after one too many Nicolas Sparks novels, that Natalia was having a hard time surviving the romantic concept in her mind right now. She laughed a little as she looked at you for backup.

“She’s my assistant. My partner in crime. And I’m going to need her a lot once I’m back in Blayne.”

“Why come back after the way my father went off at you?”

“Why not? He’s not the only person in Blayne. Dorothy needs at least three new workers to survive winter if Jacob really does leave to find a wife. And old Reg mentioned without repairs done on his roof he could be struggling real soon too.”

“You’re worried about them?”

You nodded. “Blayne might be a tight-knit community, but if there’s one thing I learned from my stay is if you give people enough consideration and sincerity, they’ll tell you what they need. And it’s very clear to me that you need the redevelopment.”

Natalia clapped her hands together. “But not a resort.”

“You’re not following through with the original plans?”

“I spoke with your mother two days ago,” you announced to Jaehyun, his eyes growing round. “I guess you could see me as your new town remodeller.”

“You’re kidding?!” Avery said and then whooped excitedly. “This is quite the plot twist!”

“So how about it, Cowboy? Reckon you can show me the ropes of what it’s like to become a fully-fledged Blayner?”

Jaehyun reached over the table for your hand and gave it a good squeeze. “I’m pretty sure you’re already halfway there, Miss Adaptable.”