Days, weeks and months went by. Winter came, winter passed. Jongin and I grew a lot closer, and I became friends with the tall dork called Chanyeol and the just as tall, but not as dorky, Sehun. Both of them were great guys and I could sincerely feel how much the three boys cared for each other. The affection that appeared in their eyes whenever they met was so obvious and I once, as a joke, told Jongin he should have a crush on them and not me. He jokingly responded thar I hadn't seen the best of him yet and that I would definitely fall for him when I did. He was aware that I liked someone else, but I hadn’t told him much more of who Yixing was. And Yixing. How I missed him. The period of time that passed between the occasions when we contacted each other grew longer and longer, but I never stopped missing him. However, I forgot about it from time to time. It almost felt like I had been living in a dream for the months that he actually had been in reach, and I blamed myself big time for not realising and confessing my feelings before he so suddenly disappeared. But maybe it was time to forget it all and move on…-
       “Hey, what are you thinking about?” Sehun appeared out of nowhere. I was waiting for them, including Sujin and Inna, at a café and it seemed like Sehun was the first to arrive. 
       “About me maybe?” he winked and plopped down in the seat right across the table, still with his hands in his pockets. 
       “Sure.” I scoffed and he pouted. 
       “You know I’m at least, if not even more good-looking than Jongin,” he tried to regain his confidence, but probably failed when he saw me just smiling.
       “That’s not really what I’m looking for.”
       “Are you hitting on my almost girlfriend?” Jongin’s voice boomed through the café. I turned around and saw him walking past the counter, towards our table, with determination in his steps. 
       “Watch out who you’re calling-“
       “I said ALMOST. Almost.” he said and sat down next to Sehun, grabbing his arm and snuggling it. “How dare you flirt with my best friend?” he looked at me and pouted. 
       “Then what about me? Am I some kind of third wheel?” Chanyeol’s voice came from right behind me, so I jumped in surprise. Jongin and Sehun sniffled. 
       “This relationship includes three people, no third wheels here, no, no.” Jongin said to an ever smiling Chanyeol, who plopped down on top of the two other guys. 
       “Ouch! You’re heavy!” Sehun huffed and made a pained expression. 
       “Well this is a mess.” Sujin and Inna had entered the café and were making their way over to our table. 
       “I know, right?” I agreed and she laughed. 
       The girls didn’t even bother to sit down, since would immediately would leave after their arrival. Inna had proposed a short trip to a beach somewhere, and since we all had gotten close, everyone was going. 
       “Well then, let’s go!” 

It was one of those warm days of late spring, and the sea was roaring its beautiful melody to the blue sky, which for that matter didn’t have a single cloud in it as far as my eyes could see. Chanyeol stopped the car in the parking lot, and Jongin sprinted out on the plains where the grass was still growing after a long winter. 
       “It’s the sea!” Chanyeol yelled and ran after Jongin, who was now far away, rolling around in the white sand. 
       Yixing would have loved to see the sea like this. I smiled when imagining how excited he would have been. 
       “What are you waiting for?” Sehun interrupted my thoughts. 
       I looked around: Inna and Sujin were already unpacking all our stuff from the car, and Chanyeol and Jongin were playing in the sand. Left was only I and Sehun, who was at the moment sitting in the backseat, staring at me.
       “Why are you so lost in thought?” he asked.
       “I was just…-” I didn’t know how to answer, probably because I wasn’t sure what was the truth and what was just me being irrational. “I don’t know.”
       He frowned, but then shrugged it off.
       “You know, if you have something you need to do, just do it. I’ll wait outside.” 
       I nodded. He went out and closed the door. I on my phone, hesitant. What if he was busy? What if he’d moved on? No, I couldn’t keep thinking like that. I dialled his number and pressed ‘call’. Three signals went forward before someone picked up on the other end. The only thing was, the voice I heard was not Yixing, and it wasn’t a boy. 
       “Hi?” a woman said in Chinese. My insides started to twist. 
       “Um… Yixing?” was the only thing I was able to say. 
       “Yeah he’s here.” 
       There was a rustling sound, and then Yixing’s voice was finally on the other end. 
       “Hello? Who is this?” his voice was hoarse and sounded very tired. My heart sank for a moment. 
       “Um…” I had no words left. 
       “Hyejin? Wow, hi, it was a while ago!” the tone in his voice lit up a little bit, making me feel a little better at least. I was curious about why there was a woman answering his phone, but decided not to mention it. It might have been his mom or cousin or something, and it felt rude to ask. 
       “Hi…” I said. I didn’t know what to say.
       “You know, I’d really love to talk, but I really gotta go.” He said hurriedly. It was so sudden, how he went from so tired to so eager.  
       “Oh, okay…”
       I was really not satisfied with this call. 
       “Before you go, you have to promise me one thing,” he was now dead serious. Gosh, what is it with him and changing his mood every other second?
       “Yeah?”
       “You have to promise me that tonight, you’re going to ask your mom if you have gotten something with the post recently. It’s really important.”
       “Um.. Okay…”
       “Promise me!” he said persistently. 
       “I promise, on my honour and conscience, that I, Hyejin, will ask my mother about this tonight.”
       “Good.”
       “Well, bye then…” I really didn’t want to end the call, but if he was busy..
       “Bye, love.” He said so lovingly, and all the doubts I had had, disappeared in just one second. 'Bye love'. He called me 'love', I thought and electricity ran down my spine. I opened the car door and sprinted out to join the others. 
       “Hey, where did you disappear to?” a sand-covered Jongin asked in the middle of splashing sea water onto Sehun, who was already in a protective pose with his hands in front of his body, as though he would be able to avoid the water with his hands. I opened my mouth to answer, but Sehun was faster.
       “She had some things to deal with.”
       Jongin gave him a suspicious look.
       “And how come you know so much about what Hyejin’s up to?”
       “I happened to be there- HELP!” Sehun yelled when Jongin kept shovelling water onto him. 

The sun started to set and I was sitting on a cliff by myself, looking at the changing colours of the sky. Sujin and Inna were packing all our stuff back into the car, while Sehun ran after Chanyeol on the beach that stretched several miles away. As I was sitting there, eyeing the view in front of me, I heard leaves rustle behind me, and then a thud next to where I was sitting. I didn’t even have to look. 
       “Why are you sitting here all by yourself?” Jongin’s voice broke the silence. 
       “Looking at the sky. Isn’t it pretty?” I said, still with my eyes fixated on the sea in front of us. 
       “Very.”
       We sat silent for a brief moment before he continued.
       “You know…” he took deep breath, shaking, hesitating. “I’ve tried so hard to be your friend. But I can’t go on pretending anymore. I can’t pretend to have only friendly feelings for you.”
       Here it comes. 
       “So, can’t you give me chance?” he sighed. 
       I turned my head to look at him, his eyes were glittering, all teary and with desperation of some sort in his gaze. I opened my mouth, only to close it, open it again and then close it. 
       “I-…” I started but already knew my words weren’t going anywhere. What did I even want to say?
       “I’ll give you some time to think it over further,” Jongin said and stood up, trying to gain his balance back. 
       “Jongin, I-…”
       “No. Later.” He moved away and started making his way towards the car and the others. I glanced at the pink sky one more time before following him. 

I arrived home in a dull manner, barely even greeting my mother whom was sitting in the kitchen with yesterday’s crossword. I had always known this day was going to come, but no matter how much I had twisted and turned the issue, I hadn’t been able to find a solution, any less now. 
       I suddenly remembered my promise to Yixing and stuck out my head from the doorway to my bedroom. 
       “Hey mom, has anything in particular come with the post recently?” I asked her, and she looked up from the jumble of letters on the newspaper she was holding. 
       “I think so, I’ll go check.” She said and disappeared out for a little while. I returned to my bed where I had been sitting. A little while later, mom appeared in the doorway, carrying an envelope with her. She just looked at me, and then broke the silence. 
       “It’s been four months since he went.”
       “I know…” I felt the lump of anxiety grow bigger in my stomach. It was a very familiar feeling, as I had been feeling that lump every night for the first month I was without him.
       “I sometimes wish you would start to like that nice boy you meet sometimes, Jong-something, instead. Then I wouldn’t have to see your tears as much lately.” She continued.
       “Mom, you know…-” 
       “I know, I know. The heart decides, and not the brain.” She kept tugging the envelope. “I got the opportunity to talk to the boy in private before he left, though. He seemed to be very fond of you.”
       I felt dizzy from the sudden swirl of thoughts that ran through my head. She held forward the envelope with my name written on it with his damn neat handwriting. I had been so jealous of his neat characters standing together in perfect harmony, in difference from my scrawls. My eyes were burning and big, warm tears streamed down my face. 
       “Have..” I had to take a deep breath before continuing. “Have you seen what’s inside?”
       ”That’s for you to see, so no.” she said with a warm smile when she saw my reaction.
I ripped the envelope open and there were two pieces of paper. One of them was of a more stiff type, and in a strange shape, while the other one was a regular post-it note. His handwriting was there once again:

Use this if you still want me.

/艺兴

       That was the only thing that was written. I looked at the other piece of paper. There was a strange bright blue line in the top of it, and bright, white letters reading ‘BOARDING PASS’ on it. My eyes travelled further down and landed on the headings ‘from’ and ‘to’, and under them ‘Incheon International Airport (ICN) KOREA’ and ‘Huanghua, Changsha (CSX) CHINA' respectively. I just stared at the stiff paper I was holding in my hand. He had given me the chance to board a white steel plane that would take me to where he was. I would be able to meet him again. 

A/N

After a major writer's block and close to no free time whatsoever, I managed to write another chapter! Hope you like it, stay awesome!