All This Time

Choose courage

Mika's heart started pounding the moment she left unit 16K all the way to the elevator the next morning. It didn't help that when the elevator slowed to a stop on the 8th floor, Paul's face was the first one she saw.

"Mika," he said, his voice low and sounding like he needed some more sleep. He gave her a smile. "Good morning."

"Hello, Paul." For the umpteenth time last night, she wondered if Therese's theory was right. "Is this the first time we've seen each other outside Ahjummart in the morning?"

His brows furrowed. "I think so. You're earlier today."

"I'm always early," she replied with a grin. "And at least we get more time to talk today, right?"

Paul's smile grew bigger, making her heart do a somersault. Good thing the elevator stopped at the next floor, so she had an excuse to look away and calm her insides, even if she could feel him watching her from the corner of her eye.

When they reached the ground floor, Mika followed Paul as he stepped to the side to let the people pass so they wouldn't have to jostle around the other residents heading out. Once they were gone, she turned to him.

"I'll catch up with you at Ahjummart, okay? I just need to do something."

"Sure. I actually have to check on something, too."

"See you!"

But instead of moving in separate directions, they both headed toward the exit.

"Oh, you're going in the same direction, too," Mika said with a laugh. "Where are you going, anyway?"

He hesitated for a bit, then shrugged. "I'm actually waiting for a letter."

"But...the mailboxes are there." She pointed to the other side of the ground floor.

"It's a different letter." To her surprise—or not really, because at some point between the elevator and the exit, she realized that she was expecting that—he stopped in front of the bulletin board.

"I've been exchanging notes with the artist behind this piece," he explained, pointing to her poster.

Oh my god. "How...long have you been writing to MJ?" Her voice had grown faint, and the pounding in her chest was now accompanied by strong flutters in her stomach.

"About a month now? I asked to buy this poster because Love is my mother's name. And you know that Courage is also my name." Paul pointed to the word on the poster—the one she had written. "Anyway, she usually pins the reply here, but maybe she's still busy. I hope her creative block is gone. She gave me this poster, but I promised to wait until she's done with her new one—"

"C. For Courage," she interrupted hoarsely. Mika could practically hear things click in her head.

His head whipped toward her, confusion flashing in his dark eyes. "Yeah, that's what I used, but—how did you know?"

Instead of speaking, Mika brought out the envelope in her tote bag, and carefully pulled out a piece of thick green paper, and pinned it on the board, right beside her old poster. On it, she had written:

Choose Courage.

Below it, she had signed her initials MJ, and at the bottom, she had written her new website address.

Then she pulled out the letter for C she wrote last night and handed it to Paul.

"Hi, C. I'm MJ. Nice to meet you."

Paul looked at the note in his hand then back at her, eyes wide and jaw slack. "It's you."

For one quick moment, she felt fear seize her heart. Still, she pushed it away, remembering that the person standing in front of her was a living, breathing, walking reminder of courage. So, she looked straight into his eyes and nodded.

"MJ, for Mikaela Joan. I made these." Mika waved her hand toward the posters. "And yes, we've been writing to each other for a while now."

"All this time?"

She nodded. "Did you know it was me?"

"I thought about it once, but I didn't want to assume," Paul admitted. "Did you?"

"I had a little help figuring it out," Mika said. Then she blushed. "You didn't write to me for five days, and your last letter was very telling."

"I didn't write because I was busy with you." She heard the note of wonder in his voice as he took a step closer to her. "Did you get mad?"

"I got worried...and I got scared that I would lose you. Well, I'd lose C." She laughed softly. "But when I started putting some pieces together..." Mika waved a hand toward him. "I wanted it to be you."

"You'd never lose me, MJ." Paul's lips stretched into a wide smile, the same one that she saw the day they met, the one that had made permanent residence in her heart. "I'm glad it's you, too, Mika."

He held out his hand, and Mika took it, his hand warm and secure as she intertwined her fingers with his. Paul took a step toward her just as she did, and soon she found herself in his arms, his embrace as warm and secure as the words he had given her in all those letters.

Mikaela Arceo had goals, and there was nothing on earth that could stop her from getting it.

And today, she was glad to find that she had Courage by her side all along.