Four years. That is the amount of time that had passed. Four years since the saesangincident. Taewoon could not believe it. Sometimes, time seemed to crawl, and the present seemed never ending, but when he settled down to think about it, time really moved quickly.

The radio DJ talked in a soft voice, leading listeners into a lulling contemplation of life. Hardships were mountains, but he kindly reminded everyone that each breath taken was like a giant’s stride against all odds. Taewoon sighed, maneuvering his car towards the exit.

A flurry of snowflakes fell on his window. He turned the wipers on with a flick of his fingers. The DJ continued to talk about life’s mountains. Taewoon thought that metaphor was incorrect. Life did not have mountains, life had valleys. It was a never-ending trial and error, a series of victories followed by a chain of failures. Life had no consistency, no promise of a clear, vast field at the bottom of some monstrous mountain.

The DJ finally stopped his lecture and played a song that had been at the top of the charts since its release. Taewoon shifted in his seat, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Eun Mi’s voice glided through the speakers, surrounding him in her silvery threads.

Taewoon’s smile never truly formed. The ache and sadness in Eun Mi’s voice rang clear, and the gentle accompaniment of the guitar and piano highlighted the fact that she was in mourning.

Up ahead, the bell tower of St. Cecilia loomed. By the time he made it to the prayer garden, the snow was coming down steadily. He could tell that it would stick; by morning, there would be white sheets everywhere.

He walked up to the figure laying in the middle of the meditation circle. Taewoon settled down beside her. Eun Mi inched closer and buried herself under his arm.

“The ground is too cold.”

“I know, but this is my favorite spot.”

Taewoon threaded his fingers through her dark hair. After the incident, Eun Mi had cut off most of her hair. After four years, it had grown back to its original length. She’d kept away from dyes but had added bangs that made her round face look innocent and lost.

He pressed a kiss to her forehead, feeling the chill of her skin against his. “We should go home.”

Eun Mi cuddled closer, wrapping her arm around him. Eventually, she allowed him to get her on her feet. She jumped on his back, giggling when he spun them around.

“Mom’s going to start calling if we don’t hurry,” he said.

“We’re not late, are we?”

Taewoon glanced at his watch. It was too dark to see, so he shrugged and kept walking. Eun Mi pressed her face to spot between his shoulder and neck, inhaling his scent. Taewoon protested, but not really.

“Your song was on the radio earlier,” he said as he closed the car door.

“Oursong,” she corrected, lacing her fingers through his and bringing his knuckles up to her lips for a soft kiss.

Taewoon smiled, feeling shy under her unwavering gaze. While the lyrics had been all her doing, the music had been his. A song he had composed while she had been in the hospital, a melody that spoke of lost love and aching hearts. When Taewoon started the car, their song was being played again.

They exchanged a look, both smiling sadly, both for two very different reasons.

“Hey,” Taewoon said, giving her hand a squeeze. “We’re okay.”

Eun Mi smiled, pressing his hand against her cheek. “We’re okay.”

Time had moved forward, they had changed, and yet a lot of things still remained the same.

Zico continued to climb to the top, in more ways than one. He had ventured into different music genres, expanded as a solo artist while occasionally promoting with Block B. He had been caught dating AOA’s Seolhyun. Eun Mi had teased Taewoon about it for a good while, telling him that he should use this opportunity to get to meet the group. Taewoon had blushed and waved her off, but Zico had gotten him a few autographed albums “in secret.”

L6 made its return a year after Ryouta and DAEE’s scandal. Their relationship had not survived the strain. Sadly, no one had expected it to. Ryouta’s therapy sessions had helped him reconnect with his true personality, as well as accept the grief that came with sudden change and growing up.

As for CELESTIAL, well, they’d had it rougher. To make up for the drop in popularity caused by DAEE, the company decided to add a new member. Trainee Jeon Nari had joined the girls during practices. Her vocal lessons had been strenuous, but she had done her best. Ienna had been the most reluctant to accept the change. When the CEO brought up the possibility of them losing Eun Mi, Ieanna had given in.

But Eun Mi did not give up. She continued, even when the road became rocky and painful. She had worked her hardest during physical therapy. She faced her inner demons and aimed to get better. She wanted to be alive. She wanted to live beside Taewoon. They had kept their relationship a secret from the public until Taewoon had enlisted.

Eun Mi had made a formal announcement to A.Borealis. Neither of them felt as if they owed anyone an explanation for their feelings, or their relationship, but it was a formality they had to go through. Whatever pushback they had expected was more than what they’d actually received. Somehow, a lot of people were okay with them. Their PR teams suspected that it was due to how things had played out back then.

When it came to Taewoon, he never did manage to escape from the shadow that was Zico. Not as a rapper, not as an idol, and if he had revealed his identity to the public, he would have been haunted by comparisons as a songwriter and composer as well. The past four years had brought many career changes to Taewoon, none which strayed from the path of being an artist.

It wasn’t until Eun Mi asked him to write with her that he allowed himself to shift his preference from rap to ballads. Taewoon wrote the most beautiful ballads. Each song hit the top of the charts in real time. Everyone wondered who this mysterious O-zo T was, but no one dug deep enough to find out. They liked the mystique, they liked the heartfelt echoes of his songs, the ache that emanated from each note. O-zo T was a musical genius according to most critics, and his collaboration with Song Eun Mi in her first solo release had proven that good songs are made even better with good voices.

With his enlistment, creating music had become more challenging, but he’d had enough songs stocked up that he was able to space out their releases without drawing attention to his physical absence from the industry. Being O-zo T was not what he had first envisioned, not what he had chased after, but it was good.

What Taewoon had was good. What Eun Mi had was good. What they had was good.

As Taewoon pulled into the underground garage of his parents’ apartment complex, he took a moment to contemplate what his future would be like. He could not see beyond the moment in which he had to return to base; his present overshadowed everything.

In this moment, Taewoon decided, he was standing at the bottom of a hill and contemplating which he would climb later. He took a deep breath, pulling Eun Mi closer as they walked. His family would be waiting. They had been waiting for weeks for his holiday leave to be granted. Even Zico had made the effort to be home on the night Taewoon came home.

Stopping just outside the front door, Taewoon embraced Eun Mi as hard as he could. He had missed her so much despite her constant visits. The men in his barracks always asked him if CELESTIAL would go on base and perform for them. Taewoon always laughed and said he would see what he could do. All he really wanted, though, was to be home with Eun Mi.

“I missed you,” he breathed.

Eun Mi hugged him tighter. “I missed you, too.”

Neither of them wanted to let go. They knew that once they crossed that door, Taewoon’s attention would be divided. They couldn’t wait until he finished his service.

Taewoon took her face between her hands gently, pressing his lips against hers in a lasting kiss. He couldn’t see beyond the hills ahead of him, but he did know one thing: he was going to ask her to marry him. He was going to start a family with her. Even if that family only consisted of the two of them, Taewoon was going to spend the rest of his life with her. Of that he was completely sure of.

“Hey,” he said. “I love you.”

“Hey,” she said. “I love you, too.”