Serendipity//Billie Eilish

0.16

After dinner Ella and Yohan spent time looking at Ella's photo albums. There's a picture with a sweaty Billie holding a newborn Ella and although Billie is looking at Ella adoringly, Yohan can tell how stressed Billie was. She looked close to collapsing.

There's one of Ella's first birthday, it was taken in Yohan's hospital room. There's one of Yohan's birthday, a 2 year old Ella blowing out the candles as she sat next to Yohan on the hospital bed.

There's a several pictures of Christmas. Drew, Zoe, Billie, and Ella all crowded around Yohan opening presents. The rest are taken from the loft as they all are Christmas dinner.

There's photo after photo filling in Yohan on everything that she missed. She was touched that although she wasn't awake, it seemed Billie was adamant to keep her there in spirit. Billie's husband didn't seem to be in any of them.

"Do you want to see our garden?" Ella asked.

Yohan curiously looked up, they were in a second floor loft apartment with a balcony so a garden would be hard to maintain. Ella led her out to the balcony and she lightly gasped, she should have known. The balcony was still adorned with some fresh and some old wilting flowers.

It looked just like before, when Billie and Yohan lived together besides the addition of mason jars holding old petals spaced out with little lights in them too. Those were new.

"Those are the ones that mommy bought you for your birthdays and your 'versaries when you were asleep" Ella pointed to the ones that decorated the railing.

"And mommy said those were the ones you bought her before you went to sleep," referring to the wilted petals that where now sealed inside the fairy jars. I guess the mason jars made sense now. With the weather the way it is in Seoul-there is no way a wilted flower would have lasted 6 years on an open balcony without breaking apart.

Yohan never failed to be surprised at how many memories Billie had collected of their time together. How many of their old traditions she continued doing with Ella.

"Wait here," Yohan ran to get the wilted flowers she had been saving that Ella had first given her when they first met and added it to the collection.

"There, perfect."

Ella beamed. It made Yohan itch for her camera, she might have just found another muse. Ella standing there with the wilting and fresh flowers adorning the background just made Yohan think about her favorite portrait of Billie all the more. The similarities were too striking.

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Every time Billie dropped Ella off for the weekend those next few weeks-Billie brought enough homemade food for Yohan to last her the week. Yohan always protested to which Billie would say, "it's already made Yohan. Do you want to waste food." With a challenging look.

"You're gonna make me fat."

"As if that were possible." Billie would retort. Billie never brought the take out menus back.

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Yohan felt restless. It was a Thursday and she knew Ella didn't have school for some reason or another and she missed her. She wanted to get out of the apartment. She hadn't stepped foot outside since she moved in. She wanted to call and ask to borrow Ella but she was nervous about asking for too much. Eventually her restlessness got the best of her and she decided to call and ask Billie anyway.

"Hey Yohan, is something wrong?" Billie tried not to sound anxious as she answered the phone. Yohan tended to only call in the early evenings so she could talk to Ella. This was the first time she's called so early.