“This-…are you telling me the truth?”

She nodded. “He really has been…waiting for you, all this time.”

They stood together in silence for a few moments, one by the window and the other by the door. The taller one blinked tears out of her eyes. “So he was actually-” Something lodged itself in her throat. She couldn’t say anything else.

The other one turned to leave the room, her hands trembling.

It was late, everyone else had gone home. Very few stayed after-hours, so the hallway was dimly lighted.

Tugging at her scarf, she pressed her lips firmly together and tried to appear normal. He would only believe her if she did this…there was no way she could cry.

The doors slid open and she walked straight out. He was waiting by the bus stop, just like he’d said he would.

She waved, he waved back.

“Took you awhile,” he said with a smile. She forced herself to return it. “What were you doing?” he asked, taking her hands and rubbing them with his own, “You hands are freezing!”

She pulled away with a laugh that hurt her chest. He didn’t seem to notice.

He started off down the road, heading for the place where they always ate, a great noodle shop. She caught sight of his back. The back she was always chasing.

“Hey!” she shouted.

He turned.

She paused.

“What is it?” he asked.

She swallowed.

“We need to talk.”

“Really?” he looked amused, “We do that all the time.”

She grinned. It hurt more than the laugh.

“I know. So let’s talk about something different.”

“Different?”

It wasn’t working. She had to get to the point, and she had to do it fast.

“I know. You like. That person.”

“What?” He looked confused. Of course he was.

She swallowed again and put on her ‘normal’ face. The one with a smile that hurt more than the laugh and the grin put together.

“Stop being such an idiot.”

His eyes widened as she handed him a crumpled piece of paper. A page torn off his notebook, the one he had put into an envelope but had never sent, the one that he had tried to mail a thousand times over, the one that said-

“How did you-”

She shook her head and pointed up, towards the only lighted window in the whole building.

“She’s waiting for you.”

His face grew desperate. She knew what he was thinking.

“I’ll be fine. Just go.”

And she smiled.

He left, walking uncertainly at first, turning to look back at her every once in a while. She continued smiling, her face frozen in place.

Then at last, she waved.

He didn’t turn back again after that.

I didn’t understand the feeling of love,

This time, which will never come again,

taught me what it meant.

Inside this endless time, being able to meet you

made me stronger than anything else.

Even if I someday fall in love with someone else,

you’ll always be special and precious to me.

‘I’ll be alright,’ she thought, ‘at least, I think so.’