A/N: I found this in my drabbles folder. I wrote it a year ago and just now finally finished it off. I originally wrote it to challenge my style of focusing less on details and more on dialogue, but oh man was it a challenge. I doubt I'll do anything like this again, haha. Plus, the original plan was no dialogue at all, but I kind of cheated... Haha, oh well. Anyway, I can't guarantee this will be good because it's so different from how I normally write, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless!

One thousand, five hundred and sixty four words exactly are written on this once clean sheet of paper. One thousand, five hundred and sixty four words that he'll read and hopefully think of me and how much I miss him when he's gone.

Isn't distance a funny thing?

I hated it when he first told me he had to leave. All it took was one season to fall for him, and I was honestly afraid it would only taken one for him to forget about me, much less the three he'd be gone for. I was certain that the next time he'd come back with a girl on his arm for sure – and why wouldn't he? He could get any girl he wanted. With that messy brown hair he kept tame with his purple bandanna, smooth tanned skin, and his handsome brown eyes that could just melt anyone's heart... He was a heart-throb just from first glance, and that was before you ever even talked to him.

I was positive that he probably just considered me a summer fling. After all, it was perfect. He wasn't here for three months of the year and nobody ever left this dinky little town. What happens in Mineral Town stays in Mineral Town. If I was in his place, I would have probably done the same thing. It made perfect sense.

The way that we sat on the wooden dock and dangled our feet in the water together, or the way I curled into him during the fireworks festival and pretended to be asleep just so I could stay with him past the time everyone else went home probably didn't mean anything to him.

That was how I rationalized everyone else's thoughts, after all. What would I do if I were in their shoes? Definitely not wait for some girl I would only see for the summer.

But even though that thought lurked in the back of my mind, I couldn't stop. I hadn't had someone in my life like this since long before I left the city. I hadn't felt so happy and eager every morning just to see someone's face in ages. So when he brushed my blonde hair out of my face and pressed his lips to mine, I didn't protest. Not even when I woke up one morning next to him, his limbs tangled up with mine and my blonde hair splayed out against his pillow. I knew by then I was far too deep in to stop this submarine from sinking any lower, so I figured I'd just ride it until I hit rock bottom.

But rock bottom must have been far lower than I expected, because I never touched the ground when I was walking on cloud nine. Not even the worst day, which was the first day of fall, was enough to sink me all the way down. It was lonely, all three months were. But he made it better.

Because I got his first letter on the 7th of fall.

At first I laughed because it just seemed so primitive and cheesy-love story like. Snail mail? Really?

But it was just so tempting. His handwriting, the "With so much love it's unbearable, Kai" at the very end of the note, the return address being right there... I lasted a whole three days before I grabbed the nearest pen and scribbled another letter back to him.

I read that first letter so many times while I was waiting for a reply back that I had it memorized. I would say parts of it under my breath while doing daily farming chores. I probably looked absolutely nuts. I probably really didn't care. Hard to say, thinking back on it.

I waited a long, long time for his reply back, each and every day checking my mailbox anxiously. Would it be today? Tomorrow? 3 years from now?

It felt like 3 years, although it was truly only one season. Fall went by slowly and painfully, dragging me lower and lower. I could tell that I was worrying a few of the locals - ones that I had managed to become close enough to call "friends". Karen, Ann, even quiet Maria would send me concerned looks or stop by occasionally, just to check up on me. I was living for tomorrow, clinging desperately onto a letter I wasn't sure would even come.

By the beginning of winter, I had almost lost all hope. He wasn't writing back. He hadn't yet. I blamed myself. Did I say something weird? Rude? Did I offend him? Was he getting stalker vibes? I ran every scenario through my head, over and over again, and each and every time it got worst. Maybe, maybe he had gotten hurt. Shipwreck? Had he gone to the city and got mixed up in something bad? Shot by a gangmember?

It was sad, but I was more willing to accept that than the thought that maybe he just didn't love me anymore. Maybe he never did, maybe all those whispers were just careless nothings, enough to get me to open my legs and heart enough to let him in. But I was too far gone with my own delusions to accept that, and so I continued to check every single day.

But on Winter 1st, there was a letter in my mailbox and never before had I ripped an envelope open so fast. It was freezing out, and snow was falling all around but I couldn't have cared less. It really was him- he really had replied. He explained it all in the letter. He'd gotten caught up in life, but never, not once, was there a day he didn't think about me. He'd write more often, from now on. He'd write once a week. He promised. He swore. It would never happen again.

It was like, even though he was hundreds (or thousands?) of miles away, he knew exactly how I had been feeling, how I had been waiting for this letter with bated breath ever since I sent off the last one.

My hands shook as I held the letter, and I would later blame the smeared words on the snow, not on my own tears.

The next day, I had a renewed sense of hope. I brightened up, everyone in town could see it. I sent off my reply and prayed that it would reach him, that his letters would reach me, that he'd keep his promise and write to me every single week.

He did. Even when I thought he would run out of things to tell me, he continued to write. Week after week. He'd fill up the spaces at the end with doodles, and he never, ever failed to sign his name.

With so much love it's unbearable, Kai.

I was like a schoolgirl. The days didn't matter, unless it was the day that I expected his next letter to show up. Winter went by extremely fast. No seeds to plant, no crops to water, only animals to feed and letters to write. My letters back were never as good as his. I didn't have any cool adventures to tell, or any funny jokes to crack. But he seemed to love them anyway, never failing to reply. It more than made up for the lack of letters during fall, at least in my mind. I was happy. I was falling even more in love with someone I had only spent a summer with. The power of his words were strong, and the only thing that could have made my life better was if he was here, in the flesh.

And then one day, he was.

I wasn't expecting it - of course, it was a huge festival for the townsfolk, but it wasn't necessarily a romantic one. He hadn't shown up for the Full Moon festival, or any other holiday, so why would I ever had been expecting him to come on New Years?

But when someone came knocking on my door at 6am, and I opened it groggily, I almost fell over from shock.

I gaped at him, one hand still on the door and the other hanging limply by my side as he scratched the back of his head. It was silent, but not uncomfortably so. Just two people who hadn't seen each other in a long, long time.

My lower lip quivered, and he frowned. Sweeping me up in a hug, he was the first to break the silence by whispering into my hair and telling me how glad he was to see me, how long it had been, how much he missed me. I thought I was dreaming. There was no way. It was an entire season too early. Even Popuri had told she had never seen him come back early. So why was he here?

For me. For me and for me only. He had come back early to see me, because the letters just weren't enough and he wanted to hear my voice, smell my shampoo, feel my arms curled around his neck once more. I was ecstatic, so happy that tears spilled out from my eyes, making him panic. That only made me laugh, and I must have looked like a complete wreck, with my bedhead and morning breath, blubbering through my tears as I tried to tell him no, I wasn't upset, I was happy, you idiot.

We went to the edge of the cliff later that night, just the two of us and the rising moon as a new year began. When I heard the distant cheers from the town square signifying it was midnight, I looked at Kai and broke the silence. Can we run away together? I couldn't imagine another season without him. Not now, when it was too real. The letters were nice... The letters were wonderful, but not as wonderful as sitting next to him as the moon rose above us.

He gave me a strange smile, and grabbed my hand, squeezing it. I was already preparing for the letdown, but before I could shake my head and apologize for asking such a strange question, he dropped my hand and I noticed a strange tickling sensation.

A blue feather.

Marriage!?

I stared at it in bewilderment. I knew what this signified around here. Was he serious? Did he know what it signified?

Kai sensed my hesitation, and quickly started backpedaling. No, no, not that he wasn't serious, but maybe it was too early, we should wait a little longer, probably, or something-

He didn't have to babble long before my mouth covered his own, and the words were lost.

We married on Summer 1st, and never had to write letters again.