What took you so long

This year's Valentine's Day I did not prepare anything. I wasn't gonna even think about trying to give Mina chocolates. That chapter of my life was closed, just like how the story of Mina and Juno reached its conclusion a year ago.

I knew I still loved her, dearly, and I missed her.

But no matter how much you fall in love with a girl from a movie, you can't cross over to that world, and the character cannot step out of the screen to be by your side. All you can do is just watch the movie again and again, loving, wishing, longing, and accepting that it is a story you can watch but can not be a part of.

So when I received a message from Mina, for the first time since the talent show day, the overwhelming feeling I had was that of relief.

So we are not going to just let it fade after all.

I understood that it had to be done.

Our story felt like a collection of fleeting dreams but it needed closure.

I waited in my classroom after everybody had gone home. I felt nostalgic as I recalled what had happened exactly a year before. It's a different classroom now, but this is where we will end. The love that started inside these four walls will end here.

But as I sat in the empty classroom waiting, I felt the pain in my heart again. It was not a heavy pain of dread, but a sweet pain that cried out to be acknowledged.

Don't do this now. Calm down…

Then when Mina entered the room, I knew nothing really changed because my head was all over the place and my heart was thumping hard.

"Mina-"

I managed to call her name first despite all this. Have I become braver?

"Nana."

"I have something to tell you, Mina"

"I'm ready."

"I love you"

Saying these words almost felt like it brought me some kind of redemption.

"Nana…"

"I have something to tell you too"

Then my heart started to race again and my whole world turned upside down. I knew what was coming and I was too scared to take it.

"No. Please don't…"

"You are so unfair"

"Can I be selfish for once?"

Mina looked at me with eyes that were resigned to accept the end. Behind those beautiful eyes that were now tinkling with a swell of tears, she must have been thinking "Why does everyone have to leave me…"

"Ok…"

I then got on my knees and held her hand. She looked at me with a confused expression of an innocent child.

"Will you go out with me?"

Mina stood there for a second and then jumped onto me. Our bodies got tangled and we fell on the floor embracing each other. Then she ended up laying on top of me with her face buried in my chest, getting my shirt wet again with her tears.

"What took you so long…"

This girl cries too much.

But I loved her all the same.