Beyond the End (My Landlady Noona)

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Short chapter. I hate short chapters. I'll post the next one later, which wraps up Nari's interlude.

Thank you for reading!

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On with the chapter!

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Nari poured her emotions on every neat letter that inked the paper.

Forget dots; her 'i's wore hearts like it was the latest fashion. Childish? Perhaps. But Nari—now in the blooming threshold of teenagehood—was in love, and that neat, heart-capped lettering was one way to express it.

Writing down those fluttery feelings onto paper felt like threading a needle with shaky hands. It was her first time confessing to someone, and she didn't know what to do but replicate what she'd seen in one of Hari's k-dramas.

They were just a bunch of words she was too shy to say out loud. And the fear of rejection had started to creep up on her mind, its tendrils spreading like a virus.

Nari's heart beat with each cursive letter she drew, until she dotted the last line. She was heaving deep breaths now, her eyes moist, and her cheeks glowing a cute, rosy red.

She carefully tucked the letter into an envelope, and sealed it with a heart stamp. 'To my future husband…' A bit pretentious, but she had to stake her claim. With an earnest smile, she lingered her lips on the lid of the envelope, transmitting the warmth of her love from her heart into the paper he'll hold close to his chest.

Preparation complete. Now, the letter needed a home—Leandro's pillow, in plain sight. With a flutter of her skirt, she hopped up, determined. Unnie and Leandro were out, but their return was imminent.

She needed to be swift.

Nari rushed out of her room, her steps quiet and cat-like despite the absence of everyone else in the house. She gulped as she drew nearer to her target—Leandro's room. She balled her hands into fists, fighting off the urge to turn on her heel and scatter back to her room.

'I have to see this through.'

Whether Leandro reciprocated her feelings or not, Nari needed some sort of closure.

She opened the door and swiftly tip-toed in. Leandro's room was characteristically bare of decorations or any gadget that denoted a teenage boy was living there.

Everything was spotless. And it was no doubt because of Hari.

Nari approached Leandro's bed before she gingerly placed the letter on his pillow, right at the center. She hadn't forgotten to sign it, which meant that by the end of the day, she'd have her answer.

Leandro and Nari, a few years back, sleeping together right in that bed. She was sure Hari had secretly taken a picture of that episode and fondly conserved it somewhere.

Naturally, it was not the only memory she had of that room; she could spend an entire day sorting through the cherished moments of her time with Leandro, and each one of them would always bring a smile to her face.

All the times he protected her, consoled her, swept tears off her face, tied her hair in twintails, or simply brushed it because she was being a brat.

'Maybe it's just a crush…' Nari thought as she stared at the letter, bathed in a curtain of sunlight. A dreamy smile stretched across her face. 'Maybe this won't mean anything in a few years, but it's worth to see where all of this will lead to…'

A knock at the door interrupted her. Like a startled cat, she turned around, heart hammering in her throat. The door slowly swung open. 'Unnie?'

With her usual grace, Hari stepped in. She locked eyes with Nari, her expression scrunching up to one of confusion and curiosity.

"Huh, Nari? What are you doing here?"

"Dusting... the floor..." She muttered nervously—and, in her opinion, quite lamely.

Hari tilted her head, eyes flickering over Leandro's room.

"But... I've already dusted it early this morning."

"Uhh..." Nari blinked rapidly, biting her bottom lip. "W-Well... you missed a spot."

"Missed... a spot?" Hari slowly said, her smile skeptical and somewhat amused by Nari's odd behavior.

"Yes, Unnie, you... you missed a spot!" Nari angrily shot back before she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Hmph! Thank goodness that I was here to clean it!"

Her voice slowly petered out from fake anger to feigned indifference. With downcast eyes, she pouted, puffed her cheeks, and clicked her shoes on Leandro's immaculate floor.

"Umh, where was this spot?"

"Unnie... why are you asking me all these weird questions?" Nari snapped. She felt a little guilty for talking to her older sister like that, but her feelings had been a convoluted knot since earlier.

Hari tilted her head, lips quirking into a concerned smile. She slowly approached Nari before she gently took her sister's hands into her own. "You know you can tell me anything, right?"

"Unnie, I just wanted to tidy Leandro's room…"

Why couldn't she believe her?

Hari's lips parted in surprise. "Really? But I do it everyday..."

Nari quickly replied. "It never hurts to clean again, don't you think?" She could feel her eyes starting to get moist. 'Please, don't bring up the letter, Unnie... I'll die.'

"You're such a sweetheart, Nari. I'm sure Leandro will appreciate it." Hari's smile was bright enough for the sun to avert its gaze. "Though… I don't see any cleaning prod—huh, is that a letter?"

'I've got to get out of here!'

However, in her haste to retreat, she forgot to take the letter with her. Never leave a crime scene without clearing it of any evidence.

With quick and swift steps, Nari scuttled past Hari and out of the room. However, she failed to notice how her older sister had seemingly frozen on the spot as she stared intently at the envelope on Leandro's pillow.

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With a hesitant stride, Hari delicately reached for the envelope. Her fingers gingerly traced the neat cursive handwriting on its lid.

'Leandro...' Hari furrowed her brows, and slowly heaved a deep exhale, as if to get a handle on her rising anxiety. 'Nari... did she do this?'

She wasn't stupid enough not to realize what was going on. Nari's furtive behavior only added to her growing suspicions.

'Is she... crushing on Leandro?'

"She's at that age… isn't she?"

It was perfectly normal…

Hari's nails dug deep into her palm.

… yet, for some reason, it didn't sit particularly well with her.

Worst of all, she didn't know why.

It wasn't a feeling she could properly look at and put a name to.

All she knew was that it was a foreign emotion she didn't want to analyze any further.

For the time being, Hari pushed it to the back of her mind. 'I should give this letter to Leandro.' And following that thought, she couldn't help but wonder what his response would be.

Would he gently turn her sister down, or… reciprocate her feelings?

Hari chewed on her bottom lip. The anxiety of earlier reared its head again.

The mere thought had her heart skipping a beat.

Despite her best attempts not to think about it, she did, in fact, think about it.

'I shouldn't be like this… I should support it!'

 Leandro was no child; Hari trusted him enough not to let things get out of control.

'I shouldn't keep Leandro waiting. He must be hungry.'

Like a soldier headed to battle, and with a determined sparkle in her eyes, Hari trudged away. However, she made the mistake of absent-mindedly placing Nari's love letter into her sweater's pocket before leaving the room to go and find him.