Once In A While

Bonus Chapters {2. Blue is the color of us}

She is nineteen when she first crosses paths with him, lifetimes after their abrupt separation.

Of course, he wouldn't know- Because he had forgotten all about her, the girl he promised a shared future to.

She knew he didn't remember her, because while she was finally able to recall all the details of his face that had faded from her memory, he didn't even spare her a second glance, picking up his pace.

Two years later, at twenty one, she meets him again;

As she held a seashell in hand, gaze somewhere lost in the horizon and the endless blue that stretched beyond her feet, he sat down next to her.

"Isn't it kind of weird to be sitting alone here in the middle of the winter?" He asked her, an eyebrow arched as he eyed her.

"Well," she paused, tugging at her scarf, "You are here, too. So wouldn't it be weird for you to be walking around the beach alone, too?" She looked at him briefly, a bittersweet smile drawn on her lips.

"You're right..." He trailed off, and oblivious as he was, asked;

"So? What are you doing here?"

She closed her eyes, crafting her sentence meticulously, before simply replying,

"I am... Waiting for someone."

"That's a weird place to meet up, given the weather. You must love them a lot, to endure such cold patiently." He remarked, shoving his hands in his jacket's pockets.

"I do love him. And this place is really significant to us... So I think I can wait, as long as it takes. And you? Why are you here?"

"I was just taking a stroll, to be honest. Had to clear my mind from studying because I am exhausted." He confessed.

She hummed in response, opting to look at the sky above; rough and stormy he looked, almost like her 'home', the sea, during this time of the year. She didn't mind.

"Your friend seems to be taking his time, huh? I don't think it's very nice of him to let you hang like that." He spoke some solid five minutes later.

"It is okay, I do not mind. Once he's ready, I am sure he will come." She smiled at him again, and he would admit that her smile made him quite sad; because it looked so nostalgic, but he couldn't pinpoint how. And he couldn't do anything to help about her morose situation; that's what he thought.

"Well I have to go now, have to run some errands. Good luck with your friend..."

"It is (Y/n)." She offered a hand to him, which he shook.

"I'm Jean." He introduced himself, though that was unnecessary to her; she knew him, and she also knew he was the one she was waiting for.

The days passed and a habit had formed between the two young adults; On Thursdays and Fridays, they would meet up at the beach, sitting next to one another, usually not talking a lot. It was reassuring to know that there would be some comforting silence to enjoy. For Jean, it was an escape from his mundane and strenuous routine. For her, a glimpse into the past. The ocean was him, she recalls from long lost thoughts.

"I am not going to lie, this place makes me feel kind of weird..." He had huffed against his forest green scarf.

"Does it bring out...emotions of some sort?" She had asked, eager for the boy to explain further.

"Its puzzling. I've never experienced anything like this before. I can't explain how or why... It feels familiar. Like I've seen it before, but I don't mean all these times we've met up here. I just feel like I've been here, a long time ago. That's the kind of feeling it gives me."

"Jean, how do you perceive the color 'blue'?" She asked him, eyes searching for his.

"Blue? I mean... I did study it in art theory class, but on a personal level? I don't know... It's nice, I guess... Though I'm much more of a 'green' type of guy, to be honest." He had laughed it off.

She waited, and waited, and waited patiently, patiently for him to remember her and their sea, the same waters they were looking at every Thursday and Friday afternoon now.

But he never did, it seemed. To him, the sea was simply there; a place to swim in when the weather was unbearable. To her, it was the path to the life she longed to go back to, despite the death and chaos it included. Because in that life, he remembered her.

It took Jean three months and nine days to show signs of remembrance. He showed up earlier than usual to their little unscheduled of some sort meetings at the beach. That Thursday afternoon the sky seemed even more aggressive, threatening to rain any minute.

As the rain droplets fell down, they didn't exchange any words; because both their minds were racing with thoughts about one another.

She thought that maybe she was never enough. Never enough to draw Jean back to their little sea. It seemed that he had ventured too far in those centuries that passed, and in favor of freedom, he had forgotten his way back home. Perhaps their once shared love wasn't enough to pull him back in this lifetime. Or perhaps it was too big, too big on her part, that it tore them apart.

But it was then revealed, this wasn't quite the case;

"Hey, can I tell you something?" He turned his head to face her, and she nodded.

"This might come off weird, since we haven't known each other for more than a few months but... It really feels like I've known you for eternity, and I can't even explain how but it is driving me kind of crazy."

Her eyes lit up; maybe he remembered her.

"Took you some time, didn't it?" Her words puzzled him at first, but then it hit him; of course. It was her, after all.

"So it's real? You feel it, too?"

"Of course I do. For a long time, I have."

"That's good. Really good." He smiled sheepishly at her, not sure how to articulate any further sentences.

"Welcome back, Jean. I'm glad you're home." And it was those few words that finally put him at peace. He was home.

And she felt at peace, too. Because it seemed that she was enough- despite wandering off during those lifetimes they were separated from one another, Jean eventually returned home. It didn't matter how long it took him, because he was finally here.

Because Jean had always been like the ocean- untamable, fierce, passionate, free-spirited; despite that though, just like the crashing waves, he would always come back to the shore, because that's what he knew how to do the best.

she thought to herself, ' I am happy with were I am, with what I am doing.' and as she thought that to herself, she realized that all of this circumnavigation of the sea and the land, was to get back to her life. To appreciate him and the comfort he provided for her even more, possibly even more than the gallons of water the ocean held.

She is twenty two when she realizes, underneath all its hues and intricacies, blue is after all, the colour of their home. They were finally home, together.