For the remaining time we have, I told Light to take us to the closest 24/7 convenience store. It's the only place where I can buy everything I need—cake and beer for the celebrant.

"Happy birthday, pervert."

He laughs when he sees me holding the cake, with an unlighted candle, as I walk towards our table. "Oh, dummy..."

"It's still your birthday." I grin and place his cake on the middle of our table alongside the cold bottles of beers. "I'm no expert in throwing some twenty-first birthday celebrations but as per tradition that we have in our family, we shall celebrate yours like this."

He chuckles but then smirks to tease me. "I guess beggars can't be choosers."

I jokingly reached and punched him on the arm but then laughed with him too.

He asked me to sing him the happy birthday song and before I did, I asked him to lean a little forward. I also brought a little band-aid for his lip wound. I already apologized for punching him but I'm still a little guilty for it.

He's still smirking and I know he'll say something witty to tease me more but he didn't. Instead, he demanded me to sing the song, now that I placed the band-aid properly.

"If you laugh at my bad singing, you can't have a bite of this cake."

He chuckles and nods. "I won't laugh."

I sang him the song and this guy did what he said. He didn't laugh but he sure looked the most amused and entertained person in the world. I can imagine how silly we both look.

"Happy birthday to you!" I finished the song and even clapped for him before lighting his candle. "Blow now, pervert."

"Blow you or blow the candle?"

"Light!"

He even had to throw his head back from laughing out too loud! Damn this guy for being this pervert, seriously! When he calmed down from laughing, he had to wipe his happy tears, and finally blow on his candle.

I was about to ask what he wished for... but I'm not ready to ask him anything about his wish nor talk about everything that has anything to do with a wish. He looked at me like he knew what's on my mind but I'm glad he didn't ask me about it.

Instead, I said, "Sorry we had to use your money for this. I mean, this should be my treat to you but I don't have my money with me."

He chuckles. "Nah, you can use all my money."

I said I didn't want to think about it but damn. I know and understand the side meaning of what he said. He's filthy damn rich.

He drinks from his bottle and changes the topic. "You said something about family tradition? Is this how you celebrate birthdays with your older siblings?"

"Nah." I shake my head. "I don't have any siblings but I have older cousins—" We shared a sudden knowing look. "—all are female."

Placing his bottle down, he looks at me then we both look at the wall clock in front of us. "We will have to touch that subject, you know. We don't have much time." He looks at the cake then smiles. "How did you know that I like strawberries?"

I didn't notice that I finished my bottle fast with my continuous gulps. I also placed my bottle down. "It's easy, you know. I'm good at observing and trust me, I can say I know you now."

I wished I was lying but I'm not. With the thing... that somehow flashback that he showed me, it was enough for me to know him. He really gave me an answer to who he is and I don't know if I'm glad about it.

He grins, challenging me. "You sure about that, dummy?"

I rub my palms together, grinning on my own too. "Try me."

He's right. We don't have much time to waste for ignoring everything that we just both learned and realized together. I can't go on ignoring the information that he has given me and keep denying us the time to talk about it. Especially that I have to tell him that I really know him now—and I am glad of it. I can't deny anymore the fact that I'm the happiest now that I know him.

I told him the very first thing that I learned about him. He loves Physics and Mathematics and other sciences that make up everything for astronomy. He is given the intelligence for it, and what he really wanted to do is travel the space. His childhood room was decorated with glow-in-the-dark stars and posters of anything that has something to do with astronauts—it wasn't that hard to put things together and know that he wanted to become one himself.

He loved sweets like any other children do. But his favorite was strawberry-flavored everything and chocolates and bananas. On his sixth birthday, his cake was strawberry-chocolate with the oddest toppings of candied bananas. His hotel room has a bowl of real bananas and strawberries alongside the bars of chocolates. Every time we ate the whole day, it was subtle but from his pancakes from breakfast to his dessert for our dinner—they all have the three.

He learned how to play a lot of instruments not because he wanted to but he didn't have much to do indoors. His favorite is his guitar. He sings, too, and he's awfully good at it.

His disease is still unknown and the doctors don't even have a name for what's happening inside him. Just like—

He tries to work out as much as he can. Nothing too crazy that will cause him to have a hard time breathing. But he takes his slow walks on his treadmill and sometimes, if it's a good day for him, he will use weights.

He loves his Uncle Marcus so much, or should call him his Dad Marcus. He loves him dearly and they are both vocal with it. I'm actually amazed by them not hesitating to tell each other how much they love each other.

His family...

"Come on, dummy." He smiles, a bitter one now that I mentioned about his biological family. "You can't leave me hanging here, you're doing better than I expected."

I don't want to but I can't stop myself now. "I hate your parents for what they did to you. Nobody—no child—deserves what they had done." I breathe deeply and clear my throat. "I-I'm sorry."

Shaking his head, he smiles more genuinely now. "You don't have to be. I'll be a hypocrite if I say that I don't hate them. Of course, I did, but I guess not as much as before. My dad, Marcus, has raised me to become a better person and karma did good to me."

I know what he is talking about. His grandfather pushed through his plans to give him everything, that's why I said that he is filthy rich. Despite knowing about his health, the old man risked it for him and said he can do better for the company than any other healthy person can. Of course, he worked from home when he immediately finished his units for business administration in his home-schooling at age of fifteen. It wasn't easy but it doesn't mean that it was impossible. He proved the old man that he is right and has made their family business the most successful one in the country.

"Can I ask something about t-them?"

"Of course."

"It's about your brother..."

I know that I already hate his parents even though I'm not in the place to be but damn it. I need that sign where it said 'my expectations were low but holy fuck'. What he said next enraged me more especially towards his biological father. His mom can only bear one child, that's already him, and his brother is actually the love child of his father to his mistress. He forced her to take the kid as their own.

"But he is still my brother and it wasn't his fault that he got tangled in this messy world." He smiles as if remembering something good. "He's still the brother that I wanted." He then shakes whatever in his mind off. "But enough of them because, to be honest, I really don't know where they are now or how they are doing. Now, your turn."

I told him everything else that he didn't get to ask before and as I was talking about my family, it only sunk into me everything. I mean, everything.

All of those times where he asked me all those questions, where he said to me those ridiculous answers...

"You look like you just hit the jackpot, dummy."

My hands are shaking. "Y-You were sad when I told you that I wanted to travel the world because you wouldn't be able to join me."

He nods.

I can feel my tears slowly threatening to fall again. "I am your first kiss even before I kissed you in the ocean park."

He winks. "And I am yours."

I laughed my tears away. "When you tell me that you're waiting for the right person..."

"Come on, dummy. I know you want to ask about it."

I told myself I should stop crying but I can't seem to stop. I can't even speak again.

He leans in to cup my cheeks and wipe my tears away. "I didn't know about Dark and Alina until we heard that story. But believe me or not, I dreamt of them the moment I asked for my birthday wish."

He told me almost the same thing that I dreamt about. He told me he was like watching a drama that he didn't know where it came from—much like what I also thought about it. But unlike me, he heard everything. He heard the undying love of Dark to Alina and all the promises he made to her. He figured it out, being the smart one he is, that Dark has finally kept all his promises to her now—through us. Dark and Alina live in us.

He said he's happy that I'm not the one to say goodbye this time.

My heart feels as if it is on its heaviest. I finally had the courage to ask, "W-What was your wish?"

"I wished for my soulmate now knowing that I was wishing for you." His voice breaks. "Y-You are my dying wish, Winter."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Eleven. Eleven more minutes before this all ends.

I don't want this to end and I've already told Light that I will wish for him again—for us. I told him that I'll do whatever it takes to not let him leave. I told him all these things and yet we both know that there is nothing we can do.

Finally lying in my bed, we weren't talking anymore but we remained staring at each other. We stopped crying but my heart still feels like it's bleeding. It hurts but I know now the reason why—the pain is much more tolerable than before. This pain proves that everything is real.

This is not a dream.

"T-This is why I couldn't sleep. Nobody cursed me. It was Him making all the excuses for us to meet."

He smiles. "Do you hate it? Do you hate that this isn't a dream?"

"I thought about it." I honestly answered.

I thought about spatting all the bad words in the world at him. I want to blame him for the pain that I didn't ask for. I want to say that it would have been better if we didn't meet at all—but all of them will be the biggest lies I will make to him and especially to myself.

"But you didn't." He chuckles. "Why not?"

"Because all my life I thought I was just a nobody—a filler in a group, a part of a crowd. I didn't want to be alone because I'm afraid I'll just fade away. But meeting you made me realize that I'm not alone and I will never be just a nobody. That I still have my family, that I have you. That I am me, dummy and all that."

We both laugh at that.

"Remember the song in the convenience store?"

I nodded.

He sang, "Hummingbird, somewhere in me singing, wish we could rewind... don't leave me alone..."

Sixty seconds left.

"I d-don't want this to end, Light."

He blinked his tears away and pulled me into an embrace. He felt warm and safe and I felt like I'm home.

"I want to say just call my name and I'll be there."

I ugly cry-laugh at that.

"You own my heart in all the lifetimes that we will have."

"And you own mine."

The second hand strikes twelve—it's eleven-eleven once again.