Dear Sadie

7: What's 82 Miles For?

Finally, she slumps down on the couch, letting out an exhausted, disappointed sigh. "Well, thanks a lot, Ethan."

"You're welcome," a voice says from behind the door, just a few steps away from the ladder. She immediately stands to check whomever it was outside the door, only to find a boy her age—tall, tan, wavy hair, and with a nose of splendid form. "...Sadie?"

Only the chirps of birds, the breeze, and the rustling of leaves were heard in the silence. After months of writing, of hoping, and weeks of heartbreaks; her pen pal stood just a few inches across her, wearing a mixed-up emotion on his face; a look of amusement, joy, and enthusiasm. "...Sadie."

"Ethan?" she says, barely even a whisper. "You're uh, you're here...inside the..."

"The Kubo," he lets out a smile—and damn, says Sadie, deep down—that is probably the most handsome smile she'd ever witnessed. "I'm not mistaken. You're Sadie."

Once again, let Sadie be reminded that Ethan mentioned in one of his letters that his family owned a few hectares of land on the very same location as Sadie's uncle; and now she comes to realize that only the bamboo barricades hindered her and Ethan from meeting in the past. Fate does work in amazing, uncanny ways, doesn't it?

"Oh, uh, how are you so certain? I might be some other girl."

Ethan laughs, and for her, it sounded all but holy. "Sadie-Sunflower, you're very cute in person."

"Aside from you calling my name, looking like a 5'4", with black hair that reached your chest and dark, exuberant eyes..." he says, his grin never disappearing. "You're wearing a sunflower pendant."

"You're a very detailed person, Ethan," she smiles, but stops when she realizes that she's here to get her diary back, and after this, there will be no reason for them to write to each other again. How could she ever live with that? Can she ever live in solitude?

No one dared to speak, and as the dusk approached, remind Ethan and Sadie to thank the light bulb for saving them from the pitch-black evening. Still, Sadie was too ashamed to even talk to him, while Ethan was too astonished, seeing Sadie for the first time; but it was his plan, all along. 

To tell Sadie he agrees to end their relationship, but she has to get her diary from the Kubo that his family owned. That way, they'd stop writing to one another; they would talk and laugh instead. Or maybe share a kiss, if fate would allow...

​When Sadie gathered the courage to speak, Ethan cut her. "Ethan, I am so sorry—"

​"Don't," he draws closer to her. "Don't talk. Don't even think."

​He hooked an arm around her waist and hauled Sadie to his chest in one swift motion, as Sadie gave in to the boy. Her arms blazed around his shoulders as if it's the last time she'd see him, and a smile plastered across Ethan's face as she did. "If this is the hug you promised me..."

"What?" chuckles Ethan. "If this is the hug I promised, what?"

"Then it only means you are a really great hugger. And you'd make a really soft pillow."

"I'd say the same with you, Sadie."

"The sunflowers," she says, her voice muffled against his chest. "Are they yours?"

"The sunflowers? No, they're not mine," he shifts his gaze to meet hers, "As far as I know, they're Sadie's."

"No way!" she playfully smacks his arm. "Ethan! Really?"

"No, really," he tucks a strand of hair away from her face. "Those are yours."

"Wait," she says, wiggling out of his touch. "The letter..."

"Yes?"

"Your letter. You said you agreed to return my diary and that, we..."

"That we will no longer write to each other?"

"Yes," she responds, silently hoping for him to change his mind. "Do you mean it?"

"I do," he says, and Sadie feels like she was just hit by a train. "There's no reason for us to write anymore, Sadie. Like what you said."

"Oh..."

Upon witnessing Sadie's disappointed eyes, Ethan lets out a genuine chuckle. He brushes a stray hair across Sadie's face. 

"We're literally across one another, Sadie," he smiles. "There's no need to write because we can talk, just so you know. Inside this Kubo, with iced coffees. Or outside so we can stargaze, if you like."

"Ethan..." she almost whispers, her hand making its way to his arm. "But..."

"Sadie?"

"But we're not staying here. We're only here for a few days."

"Well, what's 82 miles for, Sadie?" he winks at her.

"Writing letters."