Update

I took down this story about a year ago, but I'm now ready to finish it for good. So for those still interested in the story, you can find the re-post of it (with new scenes added, some old ones removed, and with edits in general) under the same name in my profile.

Here's the URL (add this after the 'fictionpress-dot-com-slash'): s/3337952/1/Somewhere-Else-NEW

So, I would like to explain why I took the story down. I received an unhappy message the exact day I deleted the story on FP, and in hindsight I would like to say how grateful I am that someone cared enough about this story to message me about it! Haha. I'm sorry. So, as I said, I started writing this sequel in 2014. I did a ton of research on Finland and Finnish culture and even the language to write it, so much as that Aksel and Emilie's apartment is a real apartment that I found listed for rent at that time. I looked at Google Earth and maps to describe the surroundings. It was honestly my baby project.

Then in 2015, I decided to go to Finland myself, because researching so much on it had made me fall in love with the place before even setting foot there. I booked a flight, tried to get into a Finnish course (got waitlisted and never got a spot), and just went. And I honestly fell in love with Helsinki, and Finland in general.

And, funny thing, I ran into the Finnish guy that I had based Aksel's character on. Apparently he was living about 400 metres away from the apartment I was renting in Helsinki at the time.

To this day, I'm not sure if I wrote myself in love with Aksel and then projected all of that on the actual guy, but long story short, we had a really short (30-minute) meet-up before I left Finland but kept in contact online for the next 5 years, and somewhere along the way, I fell in love with him. Or maybe I already had a (story-caused) crush on him before I met him, and being in contact with him only exacerbated those feelings.

Then October 2016, he texted me one night to tell me he liked me but the problem was the distance between us. I was astonished, because I had always been under the impression that he wasn't interested at all and anyway I had seen pictures of a girl on his Facebook and thought he had a girlfriend. So I asked him about it. And he said he didn't have a girlfriend anymore. But it turned out that he was drunk that night. And the next day, he was avoiding me until I made him talk to me about what he said, and then he begged me to forget about it and let's stay friends.

Except our friendship went on fast-forward, and it didn't feel like just friends anymore. He texted me more, video-chatted with me more, called me more, and even kept asking where I was and who I was with. Stuff like that. So a month later, I told him I liked him back.

And then he told me, "but I still have a girlfriend."

LOL. So of course I was heartbroken and distanced myself, except he wouldn't let me, he kept calling and bugging me. And eventually we talked on Skype with his girlfriend listening in to make sure everything was aboveboard (they had a huge fight over that, apparently. At some point she also threw and broke his phone). And we agreed to stay friends. And I was actively trying to get over him so that we could stay friends, because by then he had become important to me. And I was going through the worst days of my life in 2016 and 2017, and he was there for me the whole way. His girlfriend was pretty cool too. But every time he got drunk (which was a lot), he would come out with a "confession" to me. It was quite terrible, but I learnt to ignore it because I knew he was only saying it because he was drunk.

Still, it took me a really long time to get over him. And part of getting over him meant removing this story, because it had all started with this story, in a way.

But now, after 3 years of dragging on and repeated heartbreaks, I can honestly say I'm over him and it. I think I really wanted my Aksel and this guy really behaved like him sometimes. Still, what's not meant to be will never be. And I'm happily with someone else now. The Finnish guy and I are still friends, even if we're not so close anymore, but that's also for the best. So here's the whole sordid story about what made me stop writing this story. But now I'm ready to finish what I started so many years ago, to put an end to all of it. :D

Please check out the new version of the story if you liked reading this!