Chapter 24

            “Kevin, hold still!” my mother cried.

            “Mom, you can’t just paint in the middle of the hospital!” I said, rolling my eyes.

            “I can too, so hold still!” My mother had a stripe of white paint on her cheek and was glaring at me, paintbrush in hand, waiting for me to stop fidgeting so she could finish the portrait of AJ and I.

            At that point, we had been sitting there for (literally!) hours. I couldn’t even feel my . AJ looked like his face was ready to explode. But, of course, he made the mistake of deciding to smile, so his cheeks would probably be thankful for spontaneous combustion.

            My mother smiled a little, dabbed the canvas with her finger a few times, and stepped back. “There!” she exclaimed. “Perfect!” She turned the picture around carefully, doing her best not to smudge the paint, and showed us her spectacular work of art.

            AJ seemed appalled with how red she had made his face, but it was true to life, so he didn’t exactly argue. I, on the other hand, looked slightly blurry in her painting. Very fuzzy around the edges.

            “Mom, why do I look… not there?” I asked in confusion.

            “Well, Kevin, if you would learn how to sit still, you wouldn’t look so ridiculous!”

            “Oh, yes, right, of course,” I replied sarcastically. I understood that she had all the best intentions in mind, but sometimes things didn’t really work out all that well.

            “I’m so sorry, ma’am! Let me get you a new coffee.” The woman gave me an aggravated look, so I put on my sweetest smile. “And how about I get you a pastry? On the house, of course,” I said in an attempt to placate the woman.

            “Apple Danish,” was all the woman said in reply. I rolled my eyes at her ridiculousness as soon as she wasn’t looking and marched back behind the counter to give her coffee a second try.

            “Clumsy today, are we?” DongHo chuckled.

            “That carpet is a danger to everyone,” I said scathingly.

            “Oh, yes, it was definitely the carpet’s fault! I’ll go beat it into submission!” DongHo picked up a broom and removed the small throw rug I had tripped on from the floor, heading out the door behind the kitchen to clean it.

            “Kid’s crazy, isn’t he?” Hoon laughed, stepping up to the counter.

            “Yeah. Why don’t you make yourself useful and come warm up this Danish?” I said, giving him the plate with the customer’s pastry.

            “I’m not sure you should let me handle food,” Hoon said. “I have been known to eat things that aren’t mine.”

            “Eew. Okay. Just put the Danish in the microwave and go away, okay?” Hoon nodded and complied quickly, placing the plate in the microwave and setting the timer to thirty seconds. Then, he threw me a wink and headed back to his precious piano. Carefully, I put the woman’s drink and Danish on a tray and brought it over to her table.

            “Finally,” she scoffed as I stepped up to the table. My smile grew even wider and I looked at her sweetly.

            “Is there anything else I can get you?” I nearly shuddered at the sugary tinge in my own voice.

            “No, you’d probably screw it up.” The lady laughed a bit and took a sip from her coffee.

            “Well, let me know if anything comes to mind!” I threw one last almost menacing grin at the woman and retreated back to my post behind the counter. Within minutes, DongHo came back into the room, dragging the broom and carpet behind him. At a second glance I realized that it was a completely different carpet than the one he had brought outside.

            “Well, that was tough!” DongHo exhaled, as if out of breath. “But, don’t worry, Kev! This carpet shall never ever ever antagonize you ever again!”

            “Wrong carpet, DongHo, but you get props for at least trying to make me feel better,” I chuckled. DongHo shook his head, put the new carpet where the old one had been, and went back to drying dishes.

            “So, how’s the novel going?” Kiseop asked, taking a sip from his latte. He had dropped by that morning and asked to meet me.

            “I’m almost done with the editing,” I shrugged. “I just still haven’t got that title figured out!”

            “Well, I’m sure it’ll come to you some time soon,” he chuckled. I nodded along with him and subconsciously reached for the memento at my neck. The words felt so delicately inscribed into the metal. My thumb traced them slowly.

            There was a rather curly H, with loops on all four corners stretching out gracefully at different lengths. There was an a, lowercase this time, very tiny and hardly noticeable. But, it was an important a; of that, I was sure. Following that little letter, there were two ps, side by side, a perfect pair. The i was tilted and dotted gaily, though it was strange to think of it that way. The other letters blurred together beneath my fingers, one long, curvy ness. Happiness.

            “So he was okay about the fact that you haven’t found your title yet?” AJ asked. He had to work late, so we sat on a new bench on my wonderful little balcony, looking for stars above the gleaming lights of the city.

            “He seemed okay. I’m not sure,” I shrugged. “I mean, he just kind of brushed past it, like it wasn’t too big of a deal. Do you think that means he’s okay with it?”

            “I think it does. I mean, knowing Kiseop, you can’t be positive unless you can see inside his head, but you can always hope it’s true.” AJ sighed, a puff of steam coming from his mouth.

            “It’s getting colder,” I smiled softly.

            “I can already feel winter in my bones,” AJ laughed in reply.

            “It’s not even halfway through fall yet!” I cried, hitting him playfully on the arm.

            “You think I don’t know that?” he winked. “I was just being silly.”

            “Oh, ha ha ha, you’re so funny,” I said sarcastically.

            “I am the epitome of humor,” AJ waggled his eyebrows as if he was impressed with himself.

            “Keep telling yourself that,” I chuckled.

            We grew silent, and I shivered. AJ wrapped an arm around me and pulled me closer. “Should we go inside?”

            “I like it out here,” I breathed, curling my legs beneath me and snuggling closer to him.

            “Oh, alright, if you say so,” AJ whispered. We sat there like that for quite some time, until I felt AJ move beside me. “Look!” he pointed up at the sky. I followed his finger and found a shooting star zooming across the great black expanse of the night sky.

            “Beautiful,” I smiled.

            “Make a wish!” AJ said in excitement. We both closed our eyes and made our wishes. I would share mine with you, but everyone knows a wish doesn’t come true if you tell someone what you wished for.

            When the star had gone, I had become too cold to tolerate being outside anymore, so AJ and I went back into the buildings, gathered our things, and headed home.

            “That’s it!” I exclaimed, almost spazzing in front of my computer screen.

            “What’s it?” AJ asked from beside me on the couch.

            “I figured it out!” I grinned widely.

            “What?” I waited for it to sink in. Slowly, AJ’s eyes grew wide with realization. “You figured out your title?!” I nodded vigorously and he smiled happily. “Congratulations!” He gave me a big hug and then paused. “So what is it?”

            “Ah, you see, that’s a secret,” I said slyly.

            “Hey, no fair!” he cried. “Why can’t you tell me what it is?”

            “I want it to be a surprise. You’ll see when my book comes out.” I typed the title at the top of my novel and quickly shut my laptop. I breathed deeply, overcome with the gargantuan feeling of being done. Finished. It was a wonderful feeling, but it was sad, too. It was like saying goodbye to an old friend.

            Two extremely uneventful months later, a package came in the mail. It was almost December, and the brown box I found on my front steps had the first copy of my novel in it. AJ was running around almost maniacally in search of the scissors to open the box.

            “Where did we put them? When was the last time you saw them?”

            “The last time I saw the scissors was when Ted had them, and that was three weeks ago, before he went back home,” I laughed. “I do have a pocketknife, you know!”

            “Seriously?!” AJ ran back into the living room and plopped down beside me.

            “Seriously.” I pulled my pocketknife from my bag and began cutting the tape on the box. I went painstakingly slow, just to torture AJ.

            “OH GOSH KEVIN WOO JUST OPEN IT PLEASE!” AJ cried in aggravation.

            “I’m making sure I don’t rip anything!”

            “You won’t!” At this, I laughed and opened the box faster, pulling out a bubble-wrapped copy of my book. AJ took it from my hands and tore the bubble wrap open as quickly as he could.

            In that moment, I was inexplicably proud of myself. AJ sat there staring at the cover for what seemed like an eternity. When he looked up, his eyes were rimmed with red. “Now I know why you were being so enigmatic,” he whispered, a smile creeping across his mouth.

            “I want to see it,” I said softly, taking the book from him. It was a simple picture, of a long corridor made of stone. There was a light shining at the end of it, and you could make out the silhouetted of two people holding hands. Across the top, in curly silver letters, it read, “Happiness.” 



THE END

A/N: SO RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU FIGURED IT OUT LOL. This is depressing. IT'S THE END! Maybe I'll start that new story over the weekend... On the bright side, I made it out of November alive! :D Man, I'm gonna miss this story. Seriously. Like, I don't even know what to do with my life now. Is there existence outside Title TBD?! LOL JK. But no seriously, this ! Bleh. :((( 

I don't know what to say. I've been staring at my computer screen for several minutes. The ending just... it creeped up on me. This afternoon, I felt like it was there, and now all of a sudden the ending has come and gone. Gosh. This . I might do this thing where NaNo gives you a coupon code for five free paperback copies of your book. If I don't ACTUALLY have to pay... Hmm... I LOVE YOU ALL.