Nina sent the email at seven in the morning. She sat at their kitchen table with her laptop open, coffee going cold beside her. Kofi was still asleep in the bedroom.
"Dear Fellowship Committee," she read aloud to herself. "Thank you for this incredible opportunity. After careful consideration, I have decided to decline the fellowship."
She hit send before she could change her mind.
"You did it?"
She turned around. Kofi stood in the doorway wearing pajama pants and nothing else.
"You were supposed to be asleep."
"Hard to sleep when your girlfriend is typing aggressively in the kitchen."
"I don’t type aggressively."
"You absolutely do. Especially when you’re making big decisions."
He walked over and looked at her laptop screen. The sent email was still open.
"You turned it down."
"Yeah."
"Are you okay with that?"
Nina closed the laptop. "I spent all weekend thinking about it. The fellowship would have been impressive on my resu. But that’s all it would have been. An impressive line that led to more impressive lines."
"And that’s not what you want?"
"I want to write stories that matter to people I can see. I want to build sothing here. With you, with our friends, with this community we’ve sohow created."
Kofi poured himself coffee. "Your parents will have opinions."
"They always do. But they’re not living my life."
"What will you do instead?"
"Kevin’s graduating this year. The campus paper will need a new editor. I’m going to apply."
"That’s a big step down from the New York fellowship."
"Or it’s a step toward sothing I actually want. Running a publication, training new writers, covering stories that affect our community directly."
Soone knocked on their door. Kofi looked at the clock. Seven-thirty in the morning was early for visitors.
He opened the door to find Jake and Ruby standing there. Ruby was crying.
"What happened?"
"Yuna’s flight got moved up. She’s leaving tomorrow instead of Thursday."
They ca inside. Ruby sat on the couch still upset.
"Why the change?"
"Sothing about the program schedule in Japan. They need her there earlier."
Nina sat next to Ruby. "Tomorrow is really soon."
"We were supposed to have more ti. I was going to make her a going-away present. Jake was writing a reference letter for her future instructors."
"We can still do those things. We just have to do them today."
"It’s not enough ti."
Kofi’s phone buzzed. Text from Yuna: "Training room. One hour. Important."
"She wants to et."
They all went to campus together. The dojo felt different knowing Yuna would be gone in twenty-four hours. She was in the smaller training room, packing her equipnt into boxes.
"Sorry about the early eting. I have a lot to handle today."
"We heard about the flight change."
"Yeah. The program director called last night. Soone dropped out, so I can start imdiately if I get there by Wednesday."
"That’s good though, right? You get to start your training sooner."
Yuna folded her practice uniform carefully. "It’s what I wanted. But leaving is harder than I expected."
"You’ll be back to visit."
"Not for at least a year. The program is intensive."
Ruby stepped forward. "I was going to make you sothing. A drawing or maybe a small sculpture. But now there’s no ti."
"You don’t need to give anything."
"I want to. You’re important to us."
Yuna stopped packing and looked at them. "You’re all being very sentintal."
"Soone’s leaving for Japan tomorrow. We’re allowed to be sentintal."
"I guess."
They helped her pack. Each piece of equipnt had a specific place in her luggage. Everything organized perfectly.
"Who’s taking over your spot on the team?"
"No one. I wasn’t officially on the university team since I was auditing classes."
"But you were our best fighter."
"Kofi’s good enough now. He doesn’t need to push him."
"That’s not true."
"It is. You’ve developed your own style. You don’t copy anyone anymore."
The morning passed quickly. They had classes to attend, responsibilities that didn’t pause for goodbyes. But everyone’s mind was on Yuna’s departure.
At lunch, they gathered at their usual table. The conversation was subdued.
"We should do sothing tonight. A proper goodbye."
"I told you, no parties."
"Not a party. Just dinner. Our core group."
Yuna considered this. "Where?"
"That Korean barbecue place you like."
"That’s expensive."
"We saved the dojo. We can splurge on one dinner."
"Fine. But no speeches or crying."
"Ruby’s already crying."
"I’m not crying. My eyes are just watery."
That afternoon, Kofi had his Arican History seminar. Professor Chen was lecturing about immigration patterns in the early twentieth century.
"People leave their hos for many reasons. Opportunity, escape, adventure. But the act of leaving is always significant. It changes both the person who leaves and the place they leave behind."
Kofi thought about Yuna. She was leaving for opportunity, to pursue mastery of her art. But her absence would change their group’s dynamic.
After class, Professor Chen stopped him.
"I heard Ms. Yuna is departing for Japan."
"Tomorrow morning."
"That’s a significant journey. To study traditional kendo?"
"Yes."
"I spent three years in Beijing for my doctoral research. Leaving was difficult, but the experience shaped everything that ca after."
"Did you regret going?"
"Never. Growth requires movent. Staying still is comfortable but limiting."
Kofi went to the dojo for afternoon practice. The team was working on forms, but everyone seed distracted.
"Focus. Yuna’s leaving doesn’t an standards drop."
They tried, but the energy was off. David kept glancing at the door like Yuna might walk in. The newer mbers whispered about whether practice would change without her intensity pushing everyone.
After practice, Kofi found Tanaka-sensei in his small office.
"You’re concerned about tomorrow."
"Yuna leaving feels like the end of sothing."
"Endings are also beginnings. She goes to Japan to learn. Eventually, she’ll return to teach. The cycle continues."
"But our group is breaking apart. First Jessica, then Ren, now Yuna."
"Groups don’t break. They evolve. New people will co. Different dynamics will erge."
"I liked how things were."
"Attachnt to the past prevents growth. You saved the dojo to preserve opportunity for future students, not to freeze ti."
Tanaka-sensei was right, but it didn’t make losing people easier.
That evening, they t at the Korean barbecue restaurant. Kofi, Nina, Jake, Ruby, and Yuna. The table had a grill in the center where they cooked their own at.
"Rember freshman year when we didn’t know how to use these grills? Jake nearly set his sleeve on fire."
"That was one ti."
"You also dropped at directly onto the heating elent."
"I was learning."
They ordered too much food. Plates of marinated beef, pork, vegetables. Side dishes covered every available surface.
"This is excessive."
"It’s a special occasion."
They cooked and ate and talked about nothing important. Ruby told a story about her art history professor’s terrible toupee. Jake explained a new optimization theory he was developing for course scheduling. Nina complained about her journalism ethics professor who had never actually worked in journalism.
Normal conversation. The kind they’d had hundreds of tis.
"I’ll miss this."
Everyone looked at Yuna. She rarely expressed emotion so directly.
"The food?"
"The normalcy. In Japan, I’ll be the foreign student. Everything will require effort and attention."
"You’ll adapt. You always do."
"I know. But this was easy. Comfortable."
"Since when do you like comfortable?"
"I don’t. That’s why I’m leaving. But I can still miss it."
They stayed until the restaurant started closing. The staff cleaned around them, clearly wanting them to leave but too polite to say so directly.
"We should go."
They split the bill five ways despite Yuna’s protests. Outside, the night was cool and clear.
"My flight’s at eight in the morning."
"We’ll drive you to the airport."
"You don’t have to."
"We’re going to anyway."
They walked back toward campus together. At the point where their paths diverged, they stopped.
"This isn’t goodbye. You’ll be back."
"In a year. Maybe longer."
"We’ll still be here."
"Will you though? Nina turned down New York, but other opportunities will co. Jake and Ruby will graduate. Things change."
She was right. By the ti she returned, everything could be different.
"Then we’ll stay in touch. Email, video calls, whatever."
"I’m bad at long-distance communication."
"We’ll make you better at it."
Yuna almost smiled. "You can try."
They hugged, awkward and brief but genuine. Then Yuna walked away toward her apartnt.
"That was very restrained. I expected more drama."
"The drama cos tomorrow at the airport."
They went ho. Nina imdiately started writing an article about students pursuing international opportunities. Kofi read for his classes but retained nothing.
"You’re worried about tomorrow."
"Everything’s changing."
"That’s not necessarily bad."
"It’s not necessarily good either."
Nina closed her laptop and moved to sit next to him. "Rember when your biggest problem was being alone in your parents’ apartnt?"
"That was simpler."
"It was also miserable. You were isolated and purposeless."
"Now I have purpose but everyone keeps leaving."
"So people leave. Others stay. New people arrive. That’s how life works."
"When did you beco philosophical?"
"When you started needing philosophy."
They got ready for bed. Tomorrow would co whether they wanted it or not.
"Set the alarm for six. The airport’s an hour away."
"Already done."
They lay in the dark. Outside, they could hear drunk students returning from parties.
"Nina?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for staying."
"Thanks for being worth staying for."
It was sentintal and cheesy, but sotis that’s what people needed.
Tomorrow they would drive Yuna to the airport and watch her leave for a new life in Japan. Another goodbye in a series of goodbyes.
But tonight they were still together, and that had to be enough.
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