Epilogue
A year later.
“Grace!” Zoe waved at her from across the courtyard as school let out for the day.
They were sitting on one of the stone planters with Yuhwa, leaning affectionately into her.
The way people stared at Yuhwa, one would think she was still a goddess.
But Grace supposed mortality hadn’t really dampened her beauty.
She passed Lincoln, leaning against the brick wall of the library talking to some of his teammates.
He nodded his head in a silent hello. Grace gave a smile and a nod back but didn’t stop.
Her relationship with Lincoln had cooled to friendly acquaintances, the way many childhood friendships did over the years as you grew into different people.
It had been sad at first, another seeming hole in her heart.
But soon it had healed over into comfortability.
And Grace had realized there was a way to move on from things without letting them create shadow monsters she had to lock away.
Grace hurried to Yuhwa and Zoe, pulling her jacket a little closer. It had been unseasonably cold for early spring in Florida. She glanced warily at the cloud-covered sky, trepidation filling her stomach before she told herself that wasn’t necessary. It was just a cloudy day, nothing more.
“We’re going to get something to eat—wanna come?” Zoe asked.
Grace knew most second-semester seniors were phoning it in at this point. College admissions were rolling in, and they didn’t have to worry about grades and extracurriculars for that anymore.
Grace had already gotten acceptance letters to half of her schools.
Including BU. She’d be going there in the fall.
Undeclared major. It’s something she’d been working through with her therapist. That Grace didn’t have to follow a set path.
That eighteen was way too young to decide what you were going to be for the rest of your life.
She’d sign up for both science and art classes. Maybe some creative writing, too. Explore everything that made her happy.
It offered a new kind of freedom she’d never imagined for herself. The kind that was just a little bit scary, but in a good way.
“I should stick around here. I volunteered to help organize senior week.”
Zoe rolled their eyes. “The perpetual overachiever. No matter what I do, you insist on doing the most.”
“I like volunteering for things,” Grace insisted. And it was true. Even after she’d realized a ten-step life plan wasn’t necessary, she’d decided she really did like all the things she volunteered for.
“You’re one to talk. You’re one of the most extra people I’ve ever met,” Yuhwa pointed out.
Zoe grinned. “I thought you liked a little something extra.”
They leaned in to give Yuhwa a smacking kiss, making the girl blush.
Grace laughed, still regularly surprised by how sweet Yuhwa and Zoe could be together. She’d worried at first that the ex-goddess would break her best friend’s heart when she realized how ordinary and boring being a human could be. But she’d been pleasantly surprised by how well they fit.
Though sometimes it did make her sad. To see how well they worked together. It made her think of Hae, and all the things they couldn’t do together.
After Grace’s meeting, her car was the only one left alone in the middle of the senior lot.
When she approached, she noticed a piece of paper under her windshield wiper.
Was it some kind of flyer? She opened it absently, already starting back to the school to throw it in the trash, when she froze mid-step.
It was a frame of one of the latest episodes of Sun God.
The plot had changed drastically in the last year, from epic contemporary fantasy adventure, to more of a romance.
And while it had lost her some readers at first, a new wave had arrived.
The kind that swooned over Hae’s attempts to win the heart of the skeptical mortal girl in his class, the only one who’d figured out his true identity.
Grace knew it was kind of a self-insert story, but she’d stopped caring. Her webtoon had always been something she wrote for herself first. And once she’d embraced that, the writing of it had become more joyful. A joy she hoped Hae could feel too.
The panel she held in her hands was Hae telling his human love interest that he wasn’t going home with Yuhwa. That he wanted to stay here with her.
She scanned the lot. Who had left this? She still wrote under a pen name.
Grace turned toward the copse of trees bordering the edge of the parking lot, half expecting a shadow to step free. But she shook her head. No, that was over. She’d written no new gods into the webtoon. Just the one that mattered most to her…
The clouds overhead shifted, letting rays of sun finally warm her skin. And her pulse took off despite herself.
Don’t. It’s just a coincidence. Don’t let yourself hope.
Too many times in the last year, she’d thought she’d seen signs.
Too many times in the last year, she’d been disappointed.
Still, instead of throwing the paper away, she folded it and put it into her pocket. She’d ask Zoe and Yuhwa if they’d done this.
But when she turned back to her car, there was someone leaning against the driver’s door.
His back was to her. But his black hair brushed the collar of a dark blue blazer, and Grace let out a strangled sob as she stumbled forward.
He turned at the sound, the sweep of his cheek, the arch of his nose, achingly familiar. And he smiled when his golden eyes met hers. Grace choked out his name as she raced right into his open arms.
Hae wrapped her in a hug so tight, it half lifted her off her feet. She squeezed him, refusing to let go, burying her face into his chest, breathing in his scent. So familiarly like summer.
“You’re here. You’re back. It worked.”