Ruby Red Threads

#40 Epilogue

I anxiously bite at my lip, attempting to peer over the crowd as students pour out through the gates of H university. "Rubi," Irina says, and I realise with a start that I've been crushing her hand in mine again. Sorry, I mouth, letting go as I continue to scan my surroundings for Akito. "Hey." She pulls at my cheek, turning my face towards hers. "I'm sure he did fine. Don't worry your pretty head over it."

Reluctantly, I let my eyes drop their rapid search. "It's just...this exam is really really important to him, so I'm..." I stare up at Irina, and she looks so utterly relaxed and happy that it throws me off for a second. She's beautiful, and when I take in the red strings flanking her sides, the stab of pain I feel isn't as strong as it used to be. They've started to look more like an accessory to me these days, the strings, shimmering under the sun as they flow after her. They suit her quite a bit.

She looks down at me as she pats me on the cheek now, a faint smile on her face.

"Why are you smiling?" I grumble.

"He's worked hard for this," she says instead of answering me, unconcerned. "He'll be okay."

I sigh, quickly shaking my head as if to shrug off the doubt. "Okay. You're right, I'm sure he did fine. This is Akito we're talking about after all, and-"

"There!" I hear Ren say, and abruptly pull away from Irina, whipping my head in the direction he's pointing towards. Ren and Kurumi-senpai have already taken off towards the gates, a water bottle and Akito's lunch in tow, when I finally spot him. I grab Irina's hand again and tug her along as I quickly hurry after them.

The first thing Akito does when we approach him is to steer us towards a more secluded corner of the campus.

"So?" Senpai demands without wasting any time. "How did you do?"

He smiles brightly in response, and I'm flooded with an acute sense of relief. "I think I did good," he says slowly. "I don't know how the results will turn out, but I...I tried my best." Senpai and I tackle him in a hug, and he laughs, telling us to calm down. "Good job," Irina says once we finally let him go, ruffling his hair a little, and it makes him blush. When it's Ren's turn to step up, he pulls a lollipop out his pocket and holds it out before Akito's face.

"Grape today," Akito observes, pleased as he plucks the candy from Ren's fingers, and Ren grunts in response.

I frown. "What about the rest of us? We don't get one?"

"Hah? Did you just take an advanced level entrance exam?"

"N-No," I stammer.

"Then you don't get one."

I gasp, exasperated. "How could you-"

He then takes one look at my face, and decides the he's not in the mood to deal with whatever I'm about to say. "Oh for fucks sake," he breathes, tossing something towards me, and I scramble forward to grab for it, but the lollipop bounces off my head. Irina still somehow manages to catch it, looking impossibly graceful as she does so, and she takes my hand, closing my fingers around the wrapper. I smile. It's toffee flavored. My favorite.

"Where's mine?" Irina asks next, and Ren tosses a bubblegum flavored one to her. Senpai gets a green apple one, and after taking a second to unwrap our candy, the five of us start towards the exit, lollipops poking out of our cheeks.

Senpai complains about her college course work on our way to the station, and to my left, Irina tells her to quit whining, but in a fond sort of way. Ren and Akito are walking in front of us, their shoulders pressed so close together that the string between them isn't visible to me anymore, and the sight makes my chest feel warm. It suddenly seems like a small miracle, the fact that the five of us were able to get together like this today. Here and now.

Fate. A supernatural power. The will of the universe. Or is it?

Akito seems to think that destiny is fluid, that it's just the opportunities we're given, the possibilities we're presented with, and what we choose to do with them.

Senpai says that's it's the deeds we do that bind us to their consequences and decide our fate.

Irina is convinced that there isn't anything pre-determined that's out of her jurisdiction. She decides what time she's going to wake up that day and what book she's going to read next and whom she's going to share her time and energy with.

Ren on the other hand, doesn't bother with forming an opinion on the matter at all. He's always more concerned about the next lunch break or trying to teach us to play baseball or getting home early because he promised to have dinner with his mom that day.

But if there's one thing I know for sure, it's that the universe doesn't fight for two people to be with each other.

We do.

END OF RUBY RED THREADS

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Afterword

And that's a wrap XD. Three years ago (yikes, I know), I set out to write the perfect, swoon-worthy BL story, with just the right amount of angst, fluff and pining to get your heart to beat fast. But after hours of daydreaming in class and writing and re-writing and writing some more, I think it's safe to say that although RRT is still far from perfect, it ended up being far more than just a BL story.

To me, Ruby Red Threads is a story about friendship. About how a few tender moments shared with the right people could alter the course of your life.

Before we reach the end of this page, I have something I'd like to say to my readers. I started this story off for myself, a happy place for me to escape into when I didn't want to think about my exams or the uncertainties in my future. But before I realised it, I was writing for all of you too. You guys have given me such joy and fulfillment and validation. You made writing incredibly fun for me, and so I hope you had just as much of a good time reading this too.

Thank you for sticking with this book until the end. ♡