Reunion [ORV Fanfic]

Final Chapter■■

...The door creaked noisily as it opened, allowing faint rays of sunlight to enter through the wide-open window. The pages of the manuscript, which she had spent the entire night revising, scattered around in the wind, their letters creating a blinding display. The story she didn't get to complete was right there, along with the sentences she had hoped to write someday, even if not now. While thinking about those sentences, Han Sooyoung grinned like an idiot.

⸢This story is for just that one reader.⸥

The sole reader of the story lay right in front of her with tears streaming down his face. Aileen fidgeted around, injecting the boy with the last of the story fragments left. Her eyebrows narrowed in concern as she tended to the boy.

The boy slowly looked up at his companions. He tried to smile, but it only ended up in sobs. Everyone gathered around him, but nobody touched him. They were afraid, as if the moment they touched his frail body, it would crumble down, and they would lose him forever once again.

"Kim Dokja..." Yoo Joonghyuk spoke softly.

He had an expression Kim Dokja could not understand. It was an expression never described in [Three Ways To Survive in a Ruined World]. Yoo Joonghyuk's eyes shook, and a faint smile graced his lips. It was the look of a man who has found the precious thing he had lost.

"The system's power seems to have returned a little. And I think he is no longer an avatar, so even if the powers don't return in full, he will be fine. But he needs rest; his body is still very weak," Lee Seolhwa spoke with a bright smile, tears brimming in her eyes.

It's been 4 years since he was rescued from the subway. Kim Dokja was 19 years old now.

At this, they no longer could maintain their composure and rushed towards Dokja like caged birds finally getting freedoms. Some broke into tears, while others couldn't hide their smiles.
It was the end of their despair. It was the sweetest fruit of their suffering. The ending of the story they all wished for, and the miracle they all hoped for, was finally within their reach.

If it was a dream, they never wanted it to end.

Kim Dokja scanned his companions. Shin Yoosung and Lee Gilyeong carefully held his hands. Yoo Sangah and Lee Jihye held onto his arm. Jung Heewon grabbed the other arm, and Han Sooyoung rested her head on Jung Heewon's arm. Lee Hyunsung and Yoo Joonghyuk stood at the end of the bed Kim Dokja was laying on.

If it was real, they wished to live in this moment forever.

Kim Dokja's heart was filled with mix of heavy emotions threatening to drown him. It was guilt, happiness, peace. Without the 4th Wall, he was crumbling within these emotions.

"You all regressed? But why? For someone like me? You all..." Kim Dokja's voice faltered, giving way to another round of sobs.

The room was filled with a faint scent of lavenders Yoo Sangah and Jung Heewon brought for Dokja for the past 4 years. There were notes and greetings scattered on a little table. They contained the things his companions wanted to tell him.