AN: I told I would be back soon! This is the quickest update I've done since the first two chapters, haha. I... really don't know how I feel about this, actually. It didn't quite turn out how I imagined it in my head, but the words just came out from beneath my fingertips in a way that I couldn't just stop in the middle. That's how it always is whenever I write. The words just flow. But whether or not they flow well is up to you guys, I suppose. Vernalagnia is the romantic mood brought about by spring. Read, review, enjoy!

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Mai stared vacantly out the window of her dorm room, the occasional bird calling to its kin, and the more-than-a-little-frequent sakura petals swirling through the warm air. He room happened to overlook a park, and seeing the young couples walking together, laughing, and generally spiting her very existence, made her wistful for something more. Since Naru- er, Oliver Davis- had left Japan to go back to his home in England, Mai had graduated from high school, and was now working towards her double majors in Occupational Therapy and Parapsychology. And to be honest, for the entirety of the first semester and third quarter, she felt she couldn't have been happier. She had friends, she was doing well in her classes, life was fine and dandy for the young psychic.

But now that spring had arrived, Mai was beginning to realize how long she had been in denial. She knew it bugged her whenever her roommate's boyfriend would come by to take her on a date- Mai knew she probably wouldn't ever be able to find that sort of happiness for herself. Naru had only returned to Japan three times in the two years since his original departure- once to close up the SPR office, once for Yasuhara's graduation, and then again for Mai's the next year. Although he didn't stay long for hers- in all honesty, she wouldn't have known he'd come unless Bou-san hadn't dragged him over to the group.

But since then, she hadn't seen hide nor hair of her former boss. Often, she would catch herself zoning out and thinking about him, but she would always pinch her forearm to remind herself to focus on her studies. Yet still, the memory of his occasional smile lingered at the back of her mind. Without even realizing what she was doing, Mai rose from her position near the small window, and drifted towards the desk crammed between the bunk beds and the wall. Retrieving her laptop from her bag, she quickly pulled up a search engine.

Blink.

Naru's face stared back at her on the screen, different photographs from over the years of his life. One with the people she presumed to be his parents. One on a stage, giving a lecture. One from a newspaper article- it was in English, and she couldn't understand a word of it. The comfort of his face only worked for thirty seconds before Mai realized how pathetic she was, to resort to image searching her old boss.

Why do that, when she could talk with the real deal?

Mai clicked one of the bookmarks on her web browser, bringing her to her e-mail inbox. She had Naru as a contact, but she had never actually e-mailed him before. She supposed she had been too absorbed in her melancholic misery to actually consider that she could do something about her pain.

After five minutes of typing, backspacing, sighing, and more backspacing, Mai still had only sentence typed. Nothing else she could think of could possibly explain the severity and yet the simplicity of her sorrow. Not knowing what else to do, she clicked 'send', and turned her head to look once more at the dancing petals in the air.

Across the world, a narcissist wearing an outfit ill-suited for the warmth and delight of spring glanced over to his laptop when the ping of a new email emitted from the speakers. Tired and sullen, expecting it to be from the annoying new intern who had managed to get his e-mail and was constantly pestering him to go out with her, he lethargically walked to his laptop. But the sender's name shocked him, filled him with hope.

Dear Naru,

I miss you.

When he realized that was all the message contained, his eyes softened at his former assistant's straightforwardness. She was always one to let her emotions be made known to anyone and everyone who would listen, whether they actually did or not. That was something about her that made the psychic regret not telling her that he was planning on returning to reopen the office, this time becoming an official branch of SPR. But he knew she had to focus on her studies- every email he received from Yasuhara that contained news about Mai made him unbelievably proud of the brunette who had somehow, managed to warm his icy heart, much like the vernal sun began to melt the snow on the ground.

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