Another Fairy Tale /Ateez

Epilogue

The sound of light steps echoed through the hallways as a lonely student walked to the exit. On the way there she stopped by at a familiar wall, looking at the pictures on it. A smile made its way onto her face as she reminisced the memories she had made with them. Still, she couldn't help but feel sad when she had to say goodbye to them. 

The woman walked further to the exit, the warm rays of sunshine hitting her face. One last time she watched the doors closing behind her, a sad feeling inside her body. She wouldn't miss the school days, those had mostly been a bad memory, but she'd miss the people. The students complaining about exams or the lousy food in the cafeteria, the happiness everytime she felt when the bell rang or the excitement when they had a free period. 

All of this was now over. 

Rory walked down the familiar path to the park. With a smile she put down a bouquet of flowers next to the memorial. Most of these people would've graduated with her, but they didn't have the chance. For them Rory had put in her best effort and was regarded with mediocre to good grades, something she was very proud of. But she knew grades weren't everything. 

"See you next week.", she said and looked at the name of her former best friend, who was in another place but not out of her heart. 

Unlike usual, Rory didn't continue her walk to the local kindergarten she was working at right now. She walked into another direction, almost as familiar as her way to the memorial. 

Excited she almost ran the last few metres up to the house. When she spotted the people talking and laughing in the garden, she felt her heart ache. In a good way. A banner had been hung up at the entrance of the house and Rory smiled at the names of her and her friends, who were graduating, written onto it. 

For a while she just stood there and watched the people. Her mother hugging Lennie, now her official daughter-in-law, Ms. Choi patting Wonbin's head or Eunjoo playing with her son in the soft grass. Her gaze wandered to Changbin, Haknyeon and Yeonjun who were helping Mingi's aunt with the food. Rory looked at her brother and Jisung who were talking with Ms. Han. 

A scream tore Rory out of her thoughts, when an excited Wooyoung ran towards her. "We did it! The others already waited for you!" Without waiting for an answer, Wooyoung pulled Rory inside the house where all of the boys already waited. 

When Rory spotted Yunho, she gave him a short kiss as a greeting, before hugging the rest of the boys. Even after one year their friendship hadn't changed. Of course they had went through arguments, even fights in the dreamworld but in the end, they had each other. 

"A toast to you-", Hongjoong started and gave them a wink. At some point the group had been able to distinct his wink from his normal blinking, which was a lot more difficult than expected since he only had one eye left. "You're gonna start a new part of your life. There may be hardships but as long as we rely on each other and trust each other we'll get through them together."

"Just yesterday you tried to stab me because I forgot to tie up the sail." 

"Anyways-", Hongjoong said, ignoring Wooyoung's words. "Let's celebrate." 

They cheered and drank. Then most of the boys went outside to the other guests and when Yunho noticed Rory wasn't coming with them, he stopped.

"Are you coming?" 

"Yeah, just give me a second to collect myself." 

Yunho put a soft kiss onto Rory's forehead and softly caressed her cheek when he pulled away. "Don't take to long, okay?" 

"Okay." 

Rory watched him leave, a big grin plastered onto her face. For a short moment she closed her eyes, taking all the sounds and voices from outside in. 

When she opened them, she went outside as well, knowing she had finally found her home again.

All that thanks to a dream. 

I feel like dreaming a dream
I've never seen even in dreams
It's too vivid
to conclude it as just a dream

- Inception, Ateez