daybreak || minsung

Epilogue 3

"How's Billy?" I asked.

"He's good. How's Dr. Bang?"

"Great. Busy. He says hi."

Charlie smiled, just a little.

"Have you talked to Mom?" I asked.

"She'll be here. You gonna tell her?"

"Yeah."

I steeled my voice. I wanted to take a breath, but I wasn't going to take that chance. The human smell was painful in my throat, an itch, and it only got worse when I breathed.

"I've already said I'm sorry for... what I did," I said, "but I'm sorry. I feel terrible."

His greying moustache wrinkled up. He coughed a few times — reeled his line in, released it, reeled it in again. He didn't look away from the surface of the water as he spoke.

"I forgive you."

I slowly placed my hand over his, flat on the wood slats of the dock. He flinched when he felt the cold of my skin — but didn't pull away. Neither did I.

~ Part 2 ~

I watched the light dance off my skin. I still wasn't used to it, even after all these years. The sun was easy to find — a gentle leap would take me higher than the clouds — but there was something magical about the glow of it in our meadow.

I was on my back, starfishing, hoping the ants were staying out of my hood. Honestly, it was bittersweet to be here. My human memories had faded when I became a vampire, and I could no longer remember the day Jisung and I had spent here. Jisung described it for me — how I'd forced him to decide between me and his fears, how the day had been the beginning of the end. A good end, a perfect end. He recited every word we spoke, set the scene, acted it out. It was nice to know it had been such a beautiful day.

Jisung was crawling on the ground now, picking flowers. He was intent on making a daisy chain, ignoring that they were cosmos. He flashed over and dumped a batch of tiny pastel flowers from the front of his shirt.

"Minho, can you get me a leaf from the big tree?" he asked, throwing his thumb back.

"Diversifying?"

"You bet."

I got up — brushed my jeans off — and ghosted to the tree. I pulled down a low branch and picked an unsullied leaf. I whooshed back to Jisung.

He shook his head before I got a word out. "Can you get one from up high?"

"Why not this one?"

"I don't want that one."

"Why do I have to do it?"

"Because you're my precious angel and I adore you?"

I sighed until my lungs were empty, and trudged back to the tree.

"Thank you, honey bunches," he called from behind me.

I climbed up the tree easily with my vampire limbs. I wasn't used to that, either. I was stronger than I thought I'd ever be. I plucked a leaf off the very top of the massive tree, kept it safe in my hands as I dropped back to Earth, landed without so much as a thump.

"I got a high one for you, boo," I said, turning around.

He was there, on one knee, with a small velvet box in his hands.

He laughed. "Your face."

"You're proposing right now?"

"You could say that."

I sank to my knees, level with him. "Keep going."

"All right." His eyes ticked between mine. "You're my soul. I love you beyond words — words are useless." He smiled and shrugged. "Open the box." He held it out to me.

I took it, and peeked up at him before I looked inside. He was propping his chin up on his fist, his expression expectant. I popped the lid open.

There was a piece of ruled paper stuffed into the foam slip.

"What's this?"

"Read the paper."

"This isn't some kind of a scavenger-hunt-themed proposal, right?"

"Just read it."

I took the paper and gave the box back to him. He stowed it away behind his back. I turned the paper around in my fingers.

"Open it, open it, open, open," he said, pawing at my hands.

"Okay, okay," I laughed. I unfolded the paper and read the seven words written along the blue line.

Will you adopt a cat with me?

I dropped the paper.

He cupped my cheeks in his palms. "Wanna co-parent a cat with me, Minho?"

I laughed — it sounded like I was choking. "Yes." I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face in his shoulder. Happiness hummed under my skin, charged me from the inside out.

"Another thing," he said then, "will you marry me?"

"Freaking yes," I shouted. "I can't believe you made me wait half a goddamn decade to ask!"

"You could've asked me."

"But I wanted you to do it. The ring is beautiful, by the way."

"Very subtle, my love. I'll get you a ring." His voice was the quietest promise. "I will do anything for you."

"Just be you, Jisungie."

He hugged me tighter. All I could hear was the grass shifting gently around us, a choir of birds hiding in the tree branches, his hand stroking my hair. Just us.

"I love you," he murmured. "I'll love you forever."

I smiled. "I'll love you longer."

---------------------------------------------

so... the end.

idk what to say now, but i don't want to be awkward so i guess i'll just thank some people

i want to thank minho and jisung. you're my precious angel babies and i feel grateful that your likenesses captured my imagination in the way they did

i want to thank stephenie meyer. if you didn't write such a problematic, infuriating book, i wouldn't have felt the need to fix it

i want to thank my mom for editing the chapters with me. sorry i cried and yelled "stop attacking me" so much. i also want to thank my friend lisa for editing chapter 25 - epilogue 3. i kind of regret not having you on the editing team for so long. there's always next time🤠

and lastly, i want to thank YOU!! i didn't expect the attention it got, and i'm so happy and grateful to you for making it happen. i hope you'll continue to love it in the future :3

and i want to make one thing clear: this book is my baby. it's given me purpose, happiness, and confidence in my writing. (and a lot of stress. editing chapter 17 gave me godawful jaw pain that didn't go away for a week.) this whole process of writing, editing and posting made me feel like i knew what i wanted to do with my life. it gave me a happy place — with minho and jisung and their cat, in their little cabin in the woods. i hope it can be your happy place too

i'll try to become a better writer my friends 🤗

bye bye ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜💖🖤