She Was Happy - NCT Dream's Jisung

Epilogue - The End...Not Quite

Six months later...

The last months of my senior year were spent in recovery, while I also worked hard to finish up my last year of high school. Despite the many days I missed since I was focusing on getting better, I was still able to catch up with the rest of my peers and graduate in gold. I was even able to retake the Anatomy/Physio exam, but it was a long process that took lots of deliberation from the program's official board. I'm pretty sure my psychotic break was able to be classified as a medical emergency, so that helped my case a lot. Mental health for the win.

Dr. Yi put me through lots of treatment and talk-therapy, which I didn't realize I needed. My mom even continues to see him from time to time. Her and I are working on it together.

The delusions still creep up on me from time to time along with the panic attacks, but my mom is good at catching me before they take a toll on me too hard. The only difference with them is that I don't see Happy anymore. Just my scruffy father in a scene based off my dark childhood.

All I know is that I'm fine as long as I'm no longer creating whole human beings in my head to help me cope with my trauma. That's a joke. Laugh.

I even opened up to Chenle one day about what I'd been going through and my past and he accepted me completely. He's been super supportive of me through everything and he's been a true friend to me since the beginning. We talk everyday at school and even hang out afterward. In fact, my mom loves it when he comes over to hang out, since we never have any new company over. We're no longer just lunch buddies that only play basketball in silence.

The summer went by swiftly too and I'll be attending Weston State University as a nursing major in three weeks. I wanna help people like how my mom and Dr. Yi helped me.

As the months went by, I started to venture through life with my promises to Happy in mind. I began to see the world in a brighter way like Happy taught me and take each day lightly. Though I've accepted her loss of existence, deep down I'd like to believe that my meeting her wasn't just an accident as a result of my poor mental health, but some kind of event of purpose in my life. To do better for myself. To pursue true happiness.

Lots of things have changed for me and I'm thankful for it. Even though I concede that I still have a long way to go.

I guess...one thing that hasn't changed is my love for my favorite coffee shop, Cafe de Reve. I was on my way to meet Chenle there right now.

Since I was still newly driving, my mother had yet to buy me a car, so I drove our shared vehicle to Reve. Once I was parked, I walked in and found Chenle already sitting at a booth in the corner.

"Hey!" he greeted me as we made eye contact from across the small space. I waved and walked over coolly to him.

"What's up? Did you order already?" I asked, taking the seat across from him.

He shook his head. "Nah, I was waiting for you."

"Okay, okay, let's order."

Chenle and I got up from the booth and slowly walked over to the counter, eyeing the menu before we took a spot in line.

Iced chocolate, strawberry mango smoothie, pumpkin bread, everything was looking good today. And for once I felt like not going with my usual. Strawberry shortcake, caramel fra--

"Shit, I'm sorry," I gasped, as I bumped into a girl while I was simultaneously walking toward the line and staring at the menu. I'm an idiot.

I bent down to grab her things for her while she was also scrambling to pick her stuff up off the floor. Her belongings consisted of a notebook, pencils, and—wait. Those hands. They look familiar. Short, slim fingers, soft palms, scraped black nail polish...

Heart beating fast, I immediately looked up to face the girl I had bumped into.

At the same time, she looked up and made eye contact with me amongst all the confusion. Were my eyes deceiving me? Again?

"Happy?!"