The Red of the Rose | Taeyong

Epilogue | Eternal

'I can't believe we are actually doing this,' complained Taeyong.

'We have got to!' Miah pulled him along the corridor.

'You know that I made that story up, right? And the legend too. I came up with it on the spot to flirt with you,' Taeyong said.

'But it was still so beautiful. A blind girl who loved the sound of bells and a boy who built a relay of bells just to see her smile,' Miah reminisced the morning when Taeyong narrated to her the legend behind the bell statue – when two lovers wish for their love to be eternal, they need to complete a full circle around the bell statue. But at that time, Miah had left before they completed the full circle, so, here they were now.

Miah stopped at the starting point of the corridor and behind her, was Taeyong, dressed in a blue graduation robe, the same as hers. She waited and turned around only to find him smiling at her. He brought her hand up to his mouth and kissed the back of it.

'C'mon,' he whispered.

But this time, instead of one leading the way, the two young lovers walked side by side, matching each other's stride, placing each step in the same rhythm as the other. They walked down the first corridor giggling like little children; in the second corridor they swung their arms too wildly and by the time they reached the third corridor, they were laughing and swaying to their own tune. At the start of the final corridor, they paused for a moment and looked at each other.

Taeyong tilted his head in question and Miah nodded. They set their eyes ahead and tightened their grip on each other's hands and ran. There was no stopping them. With the wind in their hair and their graduation robes flying behind them, they ran past the empty classrooms, past the open windows, blurring everything around them except each other, stopping only when they completed a full circle around the bell statue.

Panting, Taeyong pulled Miah closer and whispered on her lips, 'Eternal,' and kissed her.

When they parted, Miah breathed a silent, 'Thank you,' and kissed him again.

The graduation was filled with laughter, tears and so much love. Parents and professors were congratulating the graduating class with flowers and wishes. Taeyong and Miah were already familiar with each other's parents so there was no need for an introduction. The guys, however, introduced Miah to their parents for the first time and Miah did the same.

Somewhere amidst all the laughs, the group found time to capture these memories in pictures. The guys got a picture with Miah, pulling Mark along too. Johnny had even called Haechan, who dragged Jungwoo along with him and they found Professor Qian to get one picture together. Johnny stood tall behind them all with his hands resting on Haechan's shoulder. Jungwoo took his place beside him and Doyoung and Jaehyun respectfully stood beside Professor Qian in the front row. Taeyong, Miah, Yuta and Mark formed the second row with Haechan in the middle.

'I don't like the lighting here,' Doyoung sighed.

'Fine, we'll click another one later,' Yuta said.

'It's not about the time. The building is blocking the sunlight here,' Doyoung replied.

'Does it really matter?' Professor Qian said.

There was no way Doyoung was going to argue back with Professor Qian.

'No, no. This is fine, professor,' Doyoung replied quickly.

'Hurry,' Jaehyun prompted the photographer to get a picture before Doyoung changes his mind again.

Click!

And the photo captured their precious smiling faces on the day of their graduation, forever.

That night, the whole college was invited to a party at Doyoung's Mansion. In the entirety of his college life, not once had Doyoung thrown a party at his place but given the occasion he wanted to host this time.

Perhaps, because everyone was in the mood to party or that there was no exclusive guest list, the event soon turned into the most happening thing in the city that night with everyone dancing, drinking, and laughing and then, dancing some more.

At around midnight, Doyoung made an announcement for everyone to reach the grounds in front of his mansion.

Moments later, came a whooshing sound and a bright light spread through the night sky. It was the most beautiful golden firework they had ever seen. This was a surprise even to the guys and Miah.

One after the other, the fireworks shot up in shades of red, orange, and golden, spreading like sparkling wings in the night sky. For those few minutes, everyone stood silent in awe of the beauty before their eyes. In that stillness, for the first time they felt the gravity of graduating from college.

There were two other who felt the same. Beneath the twinkling fire in the sky, stood Taeyong and Miah side by side. While they too realised the significance of this milestone in their lives, unlike others, they felt weightless. For some reason, the uncertain future didn't seem so scary when they stood by each other with their hands intertwined.

They knew that everything will be just fine as long as they were together.

THE END

Author's Notes:

Hi everyone

We have come to the end of our four-month long journey and I can't help but feel a bit emotional parting from this book.

A big thank you to everyone who made it till the end and for supporting the book. I had so much fun writing this and hope you all had fun reading too.

Thank you for every read, vote and comment from you all. It always motivates me to write more so take all the love <33 You guys always brighten my day and your support keeps me going so thank you everyone.

I hope I will see you all soon as I am currently working on something new right now. I have not written much of its plot yet so it'll probably be a while before I announce the new book but hopefully by the end of next month.

Take care till then and happy holidays! <33