Epilogue

The next year of Sora's life was a testing one, that seemed to fly by anyway. Christmas had been spent with all her family and friends. Everyone had gathered at the family home in Tokyo, not just her immediate family but her extended family too, including Yung and the guys. At first it had been nerve racking, just the idea of facing everyone whilst in a wheelchair was daunting if anything. She was afraid of the looks people would give her, or the whispers people would exchange between one another. But none of that had occurred. In fact, to her surprise, everyone had just treated her with respect, well the majority did, the rest just treated her as per usual. Which pretty much meant that her aunt still passed the odd smart arsed remark, and every so often a member of the family would hint at the fact that maybe, looking at her current condition, now would be the time for her to think about giving up being an idol and taking on the family business instead. But the normality of those remarks made her feel secure more then anything. Besides, her dad and Yung had always been right there beside her making sure she was okay.

January was the month of the first of many operations and physiotherapy sessions that came in-between them. The results were slow, but at least there were results, well that's what Masami, her doctor, kept on reminding her. Each operation came with risks, and it hurt Sora to see the strain that put on her family. They all knew the potential complications, and the reality that there was always the chance of her just not waking up again. After the first operation everyone kind of got into a pre operation routine. Her grandma and grandpa would stop by the morning of the operation, they would only talk about day to day things never about the actual operation. But Sora preferred it like that, usually they'd stay for an hour two before leaving her to rest, when saying goodbye they would never fail to say 'I love you'. Teru and Nao would always come by together to keep her company throughout the afternoon. Those were the jokes time, just the three of them hanging out. Mio and her dad would always be there right before the operation, just talking to her and keeping her calm. They would always be the ones to hold her hand until she had to go into the operating theatre and was put asleep. Sora had her own secret tradition too, every night before an operation she would say a little prayer whilst holding the 1000th miniature diamond crane her dad had brought her, the purple one, for some reason she was always able to sleep well after that.

And Yung, he was there when he could be. They had had a serious discussion over Christmas, despite Yung being totally against it, Sora insisted that he continue with his planned activities. After all she didn't want to be the reason why his career became non-existent. It was tough being apart, but it was what she wanted. They called each other everyday without fail, and skyped when they could. Her dad even surprised her in March by paying for Yung to fly over for a weekend, with the excuse that she 'looked a bit down'. She knew that it was no coincidence that it just happened to have been two days after she'd had a bit of a melt down in her Friday session of physiotherapy.

May was a month full of positives though, Yung launched his solo album so he was busier then he'd ever been. YunHwa and MinSo were both filming drama's. Whilst HyunShik took up a temporary position as an MC for SBS's latest variety show, and JaeMan started doing modelling work. Teru had gone on tour with another group and Nao's blog had become so popular that her career as a style and fashion guru was reaching new heights. Sora found that she no longer had to use a wheelchair and was becoming more active now. Her mind craved running though, it had always been her way to cope when stressed, but her body just wasn't at that stage yet. But that was okay because she knew she would get there eventually, but whether she would ever return to dancing again she couldn't really say.

Therapy was probably what helped her the most, Sora didn't know why that surprised her, maybe it was just because she'd had so many negative pre-assumptions about it. In her mind she just thought it would be some non caring doctor who would just sit there with a clipboard asking standard questions and writing down notes. But it wasn't anything like that, it was kind of like taking to a friend and a stranger at the same time. Mahiko was nice and just easy to talk to, and after just a month of therapy Sora could feel the relief of just having her there to talk through painful memories.

Despite this, not even therapy could have prepared her enough for the emotions that had overwhelmed her when finally, in June, Sora and Shiro had sat opposite Alicia's killer. Anger, hatred, sadness, confusion, depression...these were just a scratch on the surface. His name was Matthew Wells, he was in his late thirties now and he was just your average guy, 9 to 5 office job, wife, kids.... It was difficult at first, she probably would have walked right back out that door if her dad had not been there. But she stayed, and she listened. And as they both listened, she began to digest his words. Not accept, but it was a start. They weren't interested in pressing charges, all they wanted was closure. They learned that although he had not attended her funeral he did place flowers on her grave once every couple of months in her memory, he admitted he had been too much of a coward to face what he had done and had lived with regret since, the only thing that had kept him going was the fact that his girlfriend, the person who he had been on the phone with, was pregnant at the time and needed him.

It wasn't a justification but it was all he could say. And at the end of it, all Sora wanted to say was that he was forgiven, despite the anger and the loneliness and the hurt she had felt from the loss of her mother, she just didn't want to carry the weight any more. A part of her still felt that it was a bit selfish, but she wanted to be able to finally forgive and let go and just move on with her life. So that's what she did. Shiro too felt only closure walking out the room, he was ashamed to admitt that there was even a point, when Alicia had first passed, that he himself had suspected his own parents causing the accident. He had even go to the lengths of hiring his own personal private detective to trace their actions and whereabouts around that time. It was crazy, but he just had to be sure that it wasn't them.

And just like that a year had passed since she had woken up from her coma. A year of ups and downs, of set backs and progress. But by the end of it she was just happy to be able to run again, mp3 player plugged in, Beyonce playlist on replay, and headphones blearing. It didn't matter that her movement was not as it was before, or that the effort she had to put in was so much more. Neither of those things mattered to her because, it was just good to feel so weightless and free.

But the best moment came on Christmas eve as Sora walked hand in hand with Yung on the way to meet-up with everyone else, under the twinkling street lights of Tokyo. The moment when Yung bent down on one leg in front of her, quickly playing with the back of his cap, before taking out a small purple amethysts and diamond ring and proposed to her.

The moment she said yes.

The End