The eleventh day of Christmas
Luckily, Jae-Hyun had lived his life in a way that made the story of his ultimate demise easy to believe. It only takes a few hours to report him dead to the proper authorities. And upon seeing the apartment filled to the brim with boxes of comics, no one blinks an eye at our story about finding him here crumpled on the floor.
At least no one blinks an eye at Hayato’s and Norio’s story. I stay mum as Hayato and his brother apologize for moving the body from the floor. But I guess nobody thinks two billionaires would bother to harm an obviously sick comic book artist. The police simply jot down their story and go along their merry way.
It feels so crazy. There will be obituaries about Jae-Hyun’s death, because of his work on Nobles and Samurais. But no one will ever know how truly epic a life he lived both before and after he died the first time.
After his host body is taken away and there’s no one left in the apartment but Hayato, Norio, and me, I’m not sure what to do next.
It’s after midnight, I notice. The eleventh day of Christmas. It’s officially been a year. A year since I met my true love in a sushi restaurant.
But instead of saying that, I abruptly ask Hayato, “You were just telling him what he wanted to hear, right? You didn’t mean all that stuff about wanting to get married.”
Hayato stills. “Would you like me to have not meant it?”
I want to say yes. It would make things so much easier if I could just say yes.
But elves can’t lie.
So I tell him another truth. “I have to get back to the workshop.”
Hayato clamps his lips. But then he turns to his brother and says, “I’ll need the car to take her home. Can we drop you off on the way?”
About twenty minutes later, we drop Norio off at the same hotel where Hayato and I spent our first night. The same hotel where we struck our crazy bargain to spend ten days together. Ten days. It was just for ten days. It shouldn’t have changed anything for either of us.
But I feel like an entirely different person as I bid Norio good night.
“Will we see you next New Year?” Norio asks me. “Lilli tells me you’re an excellent singer.”
I laugh, but it sounds weak. Just like the word that follows it: “Maybe.”
Norio glances at Hayato. “I hope so.”
After Norio’s departure, the backseat of the town car fills with my silence. Silence Hayato mistakes for indecision.
“We don’t have to get married,” he says quietly. “Just come with me to Japan.”
My heart twists at his words. “Hayato…”
“We can have a normal relationship, see how it develops,” he says before I can finish. “And then we can make a marriage decision without a ghost breathing down our necks.”
I shake my head. It feels like I’m drowning in regret and sorrow, and I can’t breathe.
“Hayato, I can’t return to Japan with you. There’s not enough time.” Then I gently remind him. “Tomorrow is the last day of Christmas.”
“Who cares what tomorrow is,” he explodes. “Why the hell are you insisting on going back to your job?”
I close my eyes. The pain of this conversation is almost too much to bear. “I have to go back.”
“No, you don’t! You don’t!” he yells, seeming not to care if the driver overhears. “You told me yourself a year ago on this very day. You don’t have to go back. Not unless you want to. So if you’re insisting on going back….”
His face falls a little bit as if he’s only now realizing, “If you’re insisting on going back, it’s because you’re a coward, even worse than me.”
I shake my head. “Hayato…”
“I get that you’re scared. I’m scared too. I almost went home to Japan to escape what we had. But I came back. I told Norio everything. I risked it all to be with you.”
His words stab at me like a knife, but I force out a whispered, “Thank you for doing that. Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me,” he answers with a harsh look. “Be with me. Stay with me. That’s all I’m asking.”
He’s breaking my heart. He doesn’t understand what he’s doing, but he’s shattering it to pieces. “I can’t. I can’t stay with you.”
“Why not?” he demands, his voice course and guttural.
And this time, I’m the one who explodes. “Because I promised Santa another year of service in exchange for him making sure Jae-Hyun held on until you could meet him or next Christmas—whichever one came first!”
Silence.
My words hang in the air, falling slowly like ashes from a bomb.
Then Hayato whispers, “What?”
Oh no! Say it isn’t true?
Now that Hayato has put himself out there,
is he going to lose Kristal anyway?
Find out in the final episode of
TWELVE MONTHS OF KRISTAL