when it's all said and done (will I see you?)

(I've been on a journey) I ain't tryna look back no more

When Yuqi wakes up, there is an alarm ringing that is not hers and the light her eyes receive tells her that something is wrong because she knows she closed the curtains last night before going to sleep She gets up confused and tired, feeling a terrible headache that does not belong to her — she hasn't had it in years, she wouldn't have it now — and looks around to check the bedroom she is in. Definitely not hers, by the way.

The bedroom has two large windows and the bed she just got out from is able to accommodate at least three more people; the elegant decoration does not fit her strident and restless personality, and there are certainly some objects there that she would take years to be able to afford.

She is a recently graduated kindergarten teacher, not a freaking gangster.

With her anxiety overtaking her, she approaches the double door of the small balcony and hurries to open it. She almost passes out when she sees a perfect view of the Arc de Triomphe, standing a few meters away from the building she is now, as majestic as in all the photos she had seen on the internet. She freezes because she only knows one person who lives in Paris in the present day, someone of who she is not even allowed to pronounce the name, and runs to the mirror on the other side of the room only to look at Jeon Soyeon's small, badly covered body, her blond hair touching her shoulders and her dark roots showing.

Yuqi widens — not hers — eyes for the fact that her soulmate is no one but her first love, the person of who she broke the heart years ago by the orders of her traditional Chinese family, and her mouth slowly closes again when she holds the cry.

Four years, this is the time she has been trying to hide that part of her past, of her, even; denying with all her strength that she already had someone as good and pure as Soyeon loving her in some point of her life, taking care of her, dedicating to her — for it is just easier to accept her reality and her mistakes this way. Someone she left by pure family pressure.

Guilt takes over her. Her heart aches with the memory of Soyeon's pretty face crying in front of her, right after she dumped her with some stupid excuse, and she looks away not to keep seeing the same expression through the mirror. It is precisely when she notices that there's only one thing out of place in that tidy room, and goes for it.

Yuqi approaches the bedside table and takes the cell phone off the paper, recognizing her ex-lover's handwriting in a letter whose content leaves her speechless with each new sentence.

Good morning, Yuqi-ah. You are surprised, aren't you? Well, I am not, for I always knew you would be the one I'm destined to love until my very end. And I have not stopped loving you for even a moment since the day we fell apart, this I promise. Although I can't deny that a few bad feelings and bad thoughts crossed my mind in during that time. It is all gone now, I assure you.

There is a lot that I want to tell you, but today is your birthday and I have planned a few things for you to do. I truly hope you have fun while meeting the sweet Paris for the first time. I wish I was there to witness your first experience, but we both know what I will be doing... Pretending to be you, of course.

My phone has no password, so you can use it as you wish. The alarms will guide you during the day and the routes have already been traced in the Google Maps application, you just have to press the start button and get ready to walk a little bit (even Paris' streets are beautiful, believe me).

Go get ready! My closet is at your service and the door will be knocked by ten. Enjoy!

After reading it, she leaves the note where she found it and heads for the opened door of the bathroom, her heart still beating so fast that she is scared that she might have a stroke. She takes a hot shower while paying attention to every single detail in the place to try to memorize it, and smiles when she enters Soyeon's closet and is welcomed by the girl's scent.