Part 2No Migratory Birds in Antarctica

Summer opened the cake box and lit the candles.

Our three glasses touched with a soft chime.

My only best friend and the boy I loved said it together. "Happy birthday, Mia."

"Make a wish!"

And suddenly, for one foolish second, I heard voices from another birthday.

"Baby, I'll be beside you for every birthday for the rest of your life. I swear."

"Please. Mia obviously wants me at every birthday, not you. Whether you're there is honestly optional."

"Your Highness, be reasonable. I'm her boyfriend. Obviously I'm the one who should be celebrating every birthday with her."

"Mia and I are best friends. Best best best friends. The kind even a flood couldn't separate. Of course she wants me there forever."

I opened my eyes and blew out the candles.

Smoke curled upward, softening their faces.

For a moment, I had thought I was eighteen again.

I wasn't.

This time, there had been no teasing, no fighting over me.

They had simply raised their glasses, wished me a happy birthday, and gone quiet.

Summer seemed distracted.

When she set down her wineglass, her wrist struck the edge of the table.

She winced.

Ethan shot to his feet.

"Are you okay?"

The words came too quickly.

He realized it at once.

So did Summer.

Both of them looked at me with the same uneasy expression.

I stared at the cake instead.

Every year, Summer made my birthday cake herself.

This one was no different.

On top sat two little girls made of fondant and chocolate, holding hands tightly.

It reminded me of the day we met.

I was fifteen.

My period had started at school, and I had no money for pads.

A group of girls noticed the stain on my pants and laughed loud enough for everyone in the hallway to hear.

Summer had just transferred to our school.

She didn't know me.

She still took off her uniform jacket, tied it around my waist, grabbed my hand, and glared down every person staring at me.

From that day on, she came into my bleak little life like the first warm day after a long winter.

I remembered the wish I'd repeated three times in my head and smiled through sudden tears.

"Wow. Another year older. Time is brutal. Come on, let's cut the cake."

My wish had been simple.

May the people I love get everything they want.

May they always be happy.

As for me...

It was okay.

Really.

It was okay.

Seven days after my birthday, I received the acceptance letter for the Antarctic Glacier Research Program.

I was studying environmental science, and I had always been fascinated by field research — the idea of discovering something hidden inside ice, climate, or ecosystems.

But I had never imagined joining a twenty-year polar research program.

This time, I signed without hesitation.

My finger hovered over Send.

Then I froze.

Panic fluttered in my chest.

I closed the chat with my advisor and clicked around the desktop without thinking.

An old program opened.

A heart-shaped background filled the screen, scattered with little silver lights.

I stared for a second before I recognized it.

Ethan had built the app years ago, back when he was still obsessed with coding.

He called it Night Letters.

It was basically a private journal for things he wanted to tell me before bed.

Only I had access.

He used to write something every night.

He once told me that when we were old, we'd open it together and read everything from the beginning.

All those entries, he said, would form one long poem about how much he had loved me.

I smiled as I scrolled through the old posts.

"My wish is that my girl and I both crush our college entrance exams and get into the same university."

"I can't sleep. You told me you loved me for the first time tonight. You were so embarrassed, and I swear I've never seen anything cuter. I'm going to love you forever."

"I miss you so much, but I know you're asleep, so I won't call. Good night, my love. I hope I'm in your dreams too."

"That little diner we always went to closed down! Tragic. But don't worry — I learned how to make your favorite chicken and mushroom soup. I can recreate it perfectly."

"Mia, you've only been away at training for five days and it feels like five years..."