„Make that tighter, or else you'll get a cold," Mark said and tightened Hana's scarf a little bit before taking her hand. „Shall we?" He asked and entered the campus of the University of British Columbia. They had an orientation day for all their new college students and Mark and Hana took this chance immediately.

They've been in Vancouver for a week now. Mark was living with his family and Hana in her dorm with her roommate Rebekkah, a girl from South Africa who went to study Journalism as well. Rebekkah was loud and cheerful and reminded Hana a little bit of Soonbok, who was already busy studying Education in Seoul but kept texting Hana at least once a day.

Hana didn't feel lonely as the Lee's kept inviting her for lunch or dinner when the kids had no orientation or other appointments to attend to. Mark also showed Hana some spots in Vancouver that she could like and Hana had fallen in love with a specific coffeeshop close to her dorm, that sold all different varieties of teas.

The two of them enjoyed their free time so far, but Hana was eager to start studying.

Another thing that happened, that made Hana happy was that her medication got lowered and was on a normal level again. She didn't feel light headed nor sick anymore when she took her inhale in case she needed it. But the air in Canada was clean and fresh. Hana liked how it smelled like Pine Trees from time to time.

The two walked over the campus when a tall, muscular guy walked up to them. „Hi!" He greeted them in his funny Canadian accent. „I'm Darrel. I am organizing todays orientation. Here's a campus map for you two." Darrel spoke and handed each of them a map. „Club activities are found in this building and the Professors Lounge is in the second floor of Building C. Don't miss out on the band performance at three o'clock!" Darrel spoke before walking towards the next Juniors explaining exactly the same. Hana looked at the map.

„Shall we check out the Professors first?" Hana asked and Mark nodded. With their hands intertwined they walked over the campus to Building C, where they walked past Rebekkah who only waved to Hana from afar. Hana bowed and entered the building with Mark.

In the auditorium they found a seat and sat down, listening to one of the Professors talking about his classes. The Professor wasn't one Hana nor Mark would have but he sounded professional. They were excited.

After listening to a variety of Professors introducing themselves they walked towards the Cafeteria as Mark complained about hunger. Hana smile and tugged his hand, when they entered the cafeteria that smelled like coffee and cake.

They both ordered a small lunch and a drink before sitting down. Hana checked her phone as it has buzzed during the Professors Lounge and laughed. She turned it to Mark who started laughing as well when he saw a picture of Yoogeun, carrying all of Soonbok's books to her next class. „Lord, he does everything for her, aint he?" Mark asked and Hana nodded, resting her chin on her palm and looking at Mark intensely. „I'd do everything for you too, Mark." She pouted and Mark smiled. „I know that, Jagiya. You came to Canada for me after all." He said quietly and went to stroke Hana's cheek, which made the girl blush.

Both of them couldn't believe that only half a year ago they were still acting like kids, having dreams and crushes and childish thoughts. Now, they were almost grown up with new dreams, relationships and thoughts too big for their minds. Hana watched Mark stuffing his mouth with his sandwich and smiled. She couldn't believe that at least her crush turned out to be more than just a simple crush.

Together with Mark on her side, Hana knew that she wouldn't be afraid of living here in Canada. Far away from her parents and her friends she was in a country she never been. But she was with the person who was the first one to ever send her heart into a frenzy and made her legs turn into jelly whenever he would kiss you.

„Mark?" Hana said and Mark looked at her, his mouth full of food. „I love you." Hana smiled and watched Mark cough and almost choke on his food. Once he swallowed he leaned over the table and let his nose bump against Hana's.

„Guess what?" He asked cheekily and Hana already smiled. „What?" She asked looking at his lips before she looked back to his warm brown eyes.

„I love you too!" And with that he closed the distance between them and softly pressed a kiss on to Hana's lips.

끝.

—

A/N: We made it! We reached the end of <The Bends> after writing it for eight whole months! I am so glad I managed to finish this. This was the first story I had planned completely before writing it! It was a new experience for me trying out to write with a schedule and a plan what to write in which chapter and how detailed every scene should be. But it was worth a try!

This is the fifth and last book of my NCT Dream Series. Feel free to check out the other four Books in this series. Y'all can find them on my Profile or in the Reading List that's on my Profile as well.

I'm sure I'll probably write more NCT related stuff in the future. But for now, it's a goodbye to this alternative universe where Mark moved to Canada together with his Irish girlfriend Hana.^^

I hope y'all enjoyed this story as much as I loved writing it. 

Thank you for everything.

— Inês, 2017.10.03