The page wasn't just an expression of Jun's emotions but for the journey that they walked together, this page was the first chapter of their story. Chapters first released on novel·fire·net
Ai's heart fluttered with joy and the day they first met felt like it just happened yesterday. She placed the first chapter in the hook of the empty cover and the thrill of their love story being written really like a story brought a wide smile to her lips.
"Our first meeting was just as special to me," Ai said with warmth in her gaze as she gently moved her palm across the page. "I recognized it was you the first time I saw you. I could never forget the dark brown eyes that were the last that I saw as I died. I didn't understand what twist of a fate it was that you stood before me. I was almost about to say that it was you. But I thought that only I was reborn and you won't recognize me."
Jun smiled and kissed her forehead. The tender glow from the lanterns illuminated above them.
At the very last on the page, there was a note written.
'PS - The should be around the place you woke me up hard from a never ending maze of darkness.
Ai blinked for a second and then her eyes widened upon realization.
She hurried towards it with a gleam in her eyes and saw a bucket of water on the floor near the window. There she noticed a beautiful, colorful page just like she found the first one earlier placed upon a pretty case and floating on the water.
'I remember the day you poured a whole bucket of water on me and cruelly opened the window to let the cold air in when Jin came to meet me. It was after a long time that I saw him and the moment I did, the past haunted me once again. I thought I was moving on. But I was wrong. The hatred and animosity inside me was bubbling again.
If you hadn't splashed the water on me at that time, I knew I would have lost myself then. If you hadn't stayed by my side, then I might have hurt Jin once again. It was you who stopped me from embracing my villainous side. It was a moment that marked the connection between us of slowly becoming more than just strangers.'
She added that page in the book too and with two pages already inside it, she felt like she was floating on the clouds. But a trickle of water drops on her cheek made her snap from her dreamy stupor.
Jun chuckled as he sprayed a few drops of the water on her face. "My tiny revenge for that day. It's not the whole bucket, but it still counts."
"How can you take revenge from me?"
"If I remember correctly, I had fallen sick the next day."
Ai coughed. "Don't forget that I took responsibility and care of you too."
"Yeah…" he cocked his brow up, "You took great care of me. Till the point of changing my clothes. Tell me honestly. Did you take advantage of me while I laid weak and helpless on the bed?" He walked towards her, trapping her between his arms at a bookshelf.
Ai gulped with the proximity. "I told you that I had closed my eyes. I didn't take any advantage."
"Really now?" He narrowed his eyes.
She bobbed her head, but gasped with the space within his arms constricting. "But I am not feeling so virtuous right now."
"T-That's bad. I still have more chapters to find. I want to complete this book," she shakily nodded.
He snorted. "You do realize you cannot escape for a long time, right? Especially after you finish making this book."
To his surprise, she tiptoed and pecked his lips. "I wouldn't want to escape either."
And then she quickly ducked and escaped from under his arms and ran away at a safe distance.
Just like that, she kept finding the next pages that entailed the special moments they shared and brought them closer to each other.
The first accidental kiss they shared outside the cafe, the book signing event where Jun met her as MissImperfectlyFine, the special Christmas evening where Ai came to live with Jun in his condo - He recreated all those moments in the library and as forms of pages of their story.
Ai was captivated by the small Christmas tree between two rows of bookshelves which Jun decorated and where she found the next page of the story hanging from the star from the top of the tree.
"You brought a Christmas tree…" she whispered under her breath.
"Do you like it?" Jun popped from behind her and asked.
She slightly turned her head, sniffling. "At this point, you shouldn't ask me this question. I love the Christmas tree but more than that, I love how much effort you have put in for my surprise. It must have taken a lot of it…"
No wonder Jun used to come late and seem distracted. To plan this scale of a surprise is indeed something…
Jun kissed his cheek. "It's your birthday. It's my Ai's birthday. This is still the least I have done I feel. I could have made it more special-"
That earned him a glare from Ai and a nice scolding. "Don't you dare say that this is less! If this is less, then I don't know your definition of grand."
Ai grabbed the letter from the star and read.
'I thought that it would be a lonely Christmas evening for me. But it wasn't. I had made plans to drown into alcohol and forget about the night but you filled it with laughter and the passion that we shared for books. It was an amazing night of debate and banter that I never thought I would share with anybody. I didn't know I could even talk so much.
But Zhou Ai can make everything possible. It was the first time that I felt I genuinely laughed from my whole heart ever since I realized I was reborn. The past stuck behind me but you were always there in the front, shining your presence before me and never making me look back at the tragedy.'