Part 1
Original Date: December 17th, 2024 (original text) December 27th, 2024 (revised text; Word)
One day, Yara was at Saphir and Melanie’s café in Germany, reading some newspaper, when suddenly, she saw a text on her phone, containing a Norwegian flag and two red heart emojis.
"What is he even doing?", she said to herself.
Saphir shows up, wearing a bunny boy costume, and said to her "Good morning, Yara!"
She greets him back, and they saw Joakim walking with advertisements for trips to Norway.
Joakim gives Yara the ad paper along with a love letter supposedly written by the guy who sent her the Norwegian flag and red heart emojis earlier that day.
She saw him walking by to deliver the newspaper containing the said ad to Saphir and his cousin Melanie before he left the scene.
She then thought to herself about what’ll happen to her if she were to travel to Norway for the first time in her entire life when Joakim noticed her and asked if she’s doing okay to which she told him that she was doing okay.
Yara then opened the love letter, which read the following below:
“Dear Yara, it’s me Niels from Norway.
I’ve always had a crush on you for quite some time now, since the day you told me that your dream was to become a game developer.
I would be glad if you could answer my letter declaring my heart and feelings for you.
If you’d like, we can talk to each other on the phone or by email or exchange letters with each other by mail.
I will gladfully wait for an answer from your side, and thanks.
Sincerely,
-Niels R.”
“What is this letter all about?”, Yara said.
Saphir told her “There’s a guy from Norway, who’s about 2 years older than us, who has a crush on you. His name is Niels, and he’s waiting for you there.”
“Oh really?”, she responded.
“Yes, it’s true. Joakim told me about him and if you really want to see him, go ask him or try calling or texting him if you want to.”, he responded back.
Yara decided to call Niels, who told her that he was in Hamburg and on his way to see her at the café in Cologne.
A few minutes later, while she was busy chatting with her mom through her phone, Niels showed up out of nowhere, wearing nothing but a black hoodie covering his white shirt and light blue jeans, along with a white cap covering his hair, sunglasses and a white face mask.
He then sits next to her, and orders two cups of coffee for the two of them.
Melanie showed up and gave them the two cups of coffee, before going inside the café.
Niels removes his sunglasses, revealing his blue eyes, before removing his face mask.
“Hello there, Yara. How are you doing?”, he said.
“Oh hi, Niels. Nice to meet you too, and I’m fine, thank you.”, Yara answered back.
“Where have you been before you arrived at this café in Cologne?”, she continued.
“I was in Hamburg, and I just arrived here in a taxi.”, he replied.
“Oh, I see.”, she said back.
They had a great time talking to each other and enjoying their cups of coffee, like as if they were on a date even though it was their first time meeting each other.
Saphir then showed up, putting the bills on the table.
Yara asked if she can pay the bills, but Niels offered to pay their bills on her behalf, and afterwards, just as they were about to leave the café, Saphir took a day off from work, and along with Melanie and Joakim, asked if they can accompany them to northern Germany, to which they agreed.
While at a place located at the border between Germany and Denmark, Yara and Niels held hands, before they parted ways with Saphir and Melanie, who wandered away.
As soon as they arrived in Copenhagen, Yara and Niels took the train to Stockholm, before heading towards Oslo.
Upon arriving in Oslo, Yara woke up and said to Niels “Wait, where am I?”
He told her that they’re in Norway.
“I see… Can I take some pictures of this place for my family to see?”, she said back.
Niels nodded and agreed to her request.
He then tells her that he lives far away from his parents, who lived somewhere near Trondheim and is a university student currently living in Oslo for his studies.
“I heard that there’s an island above us in the Arctic Circle, so what is it called?”, she asked.
“You mean, Svalbard?”, he said.
“Yes. From what I’ve heard and seen, giving birth and dying there is banned.”, she responded back.
“That’s true, from what I’ve heard from the people who went there.”, he said.
“Yara, if you don’t mind, would you like to meet my parents with me?”, he continued.
She agreed and the two of them started wandering north of Oslo, before they arrived at his parents’ house.
As soon as they arrived at his parents’ house, they were surprised to see her speak in Norwegian fluently even though she wasn’t from there, and Niels was more than happy for her to speak in his language.
Yara got stunned and suddenly ran away from the house in shame, with him running after her and telling her “No wait! Come back, Yara!”
Soon, they ended up in Tromso, where she was comforted by a close relative, and Niels walked up to her, telling her that his parents had already apologized to her for what they’d done to her, and she agreed to reconcile with him.
“Can we go to Svalbard?”, Yara said to the operator, who agreed to let her and Niels to go there on a helicopter, with the condition of them bringing suitable clothing to survive the Arctic cold and some bear spray.
Soon, they arrived in Longyearbyen, said to be the northernmost settlement on the Earth.
“Wow, what a beautiful place… I never went there before…”, Yara said.
“Same…”, Niels said to her.
“This is our first time being in Svalbard, even though it’s far away from where we arrived in mainland Norway.”, Yara said.
“For sure though, but we better pay attention to the bears that might lurk in there while finding a place to live in for the rest of the night.”, he replied.
And soon, Yara and Niels started finding a place for them in Longyearbyen, until someone offered them a place to live in for free.
Later that evening, the two of them were sitting in a bathtub, staring at each other in the eyes, like as if they were finally alone with each other.
Eventually, they went out to eat dinner before going to sleep that day.
The next day, Niels woke up and offered to cuddle Yara on the side.
She then wakes up to his cuddles, before cuddling him in return.
The two of them started to prepare themselves to travel across Svalbard, before thanking the stranger who offered them a place to live in for the night and heading outside to a shopping mall to buy essential things to bring with them back to mainland Norway.
And soon, they started wandering around the area until they saw a woman almost giving birth being transported by helicopter to Tromso, that they rushed to the helicopter to help her out.
Eventually, everyone made it safely and the woman ended up giving birth to a daughter 5 days later.
After the girl’s birth, the woman’s husband thanked Yara and Niels for saving and looking out for his wife and daughter.
On the other hand, Yara and Niels made it back to Oslo, where they kissed each other for the only time, causing him to realize his dreams of asking his crush out, only for her to reject him.
“I’m sorry to say this, Niels, but I have no intentions of becoming your girlfriend.”, she said, in a stern tone, before continuing with “If you’d like, we can still be friends.”
“Of course, we can be friends, Yara.”, he replied.
And so, Yara and Niels became friends.
Soon, they took a train to Stockholm and Malmö, before heading towards Copenhagen and Hamburg.
Back in Cologne, Joakim sat next to Yara’s table and said to her “How’s things going in Norway with your secret lover?”
“No, he’s not my secret lover, but rather, a friend.”, Yara replied.
“Oh, my bad, I thought you guys were dating.”, he said back.
Suddenly, Niels hugged her from behind and the three of them started having a great time, with Saphir and Melanie joining in as well.
And so, Yara took a selfie with Niels and ended up putting it in her house, before leaving it in her room, and writing their names with a blue pen.
She then writes to Lael on her phone “Meet me at the barge on July 10th, 2025.”
He replied “Ok, I’ll be waiting for you on that day 😊”
“Now that my trip with Niels in Norway is done, I think that I’ll go to a trip to Finland with Lael for next time.”, she said.
Suddenly, she received a call from Lael, in which he asked if she could meet him outside of her house and discuss things about the trip to Helsinki with him in advance.
They met outside of her house and discussed about their trip to Finland before he accidentally kissed her, even though this was the first time that they had met.
The two of them ended up hugging each other goodbyes before parting ways with each other, with her going back to bed and him walking all the way to his house.
The next day, Yara was now on a train in Stockholm, bound for Oslo.
She then said “Oslo, here I come.”
Soon, the train arrived in Oslo, and everybody who went on the train there started to leave one by one.
Yara arrived in downtown Oslo, and was on her way to a nearby café, when she received a call from Niels, who was waiting for her at a place near the café.
She then headed to the place and saw him, this time with round glasses, a maroon turtleneck sweater and black jeans.
“What were you doing with Lael last night?”, Niels asked her.
“We discussed things like our trip to Finland in advance.”, Yara answered back.
“I see. What an interesting place.”, he said, before continuing with “I would love to travel there with you and him someday.”
“That’s great.”, she said back.
“Remember the day we went to Longyearbyen?”, he told her.
“Of course, I remember going there with you before.”, she replied.
Since it was starting to rain cats and dogs in Oslo, Niels offered to give one of his coats to Yara for her to wear.
“This will make you feel warmer and comfier.”, Niels said, after he saw her wear one of his coats.
The two of them went to his apartment, where he shared some of his snacks with her, who did the same with him.
Later, she saw a map of the country and noticed some cities in Norway that they never went to before.
Son, they discussed about their trips to the unvisited cities in Norwegian, until Yara decided that they’ll go to Stavanger.
Arriving there, they saw a migrant being taken advantage of by a tour guide, and Yara said “Ah shit, here we go again.”
Suddenly, the photographer came to the rescue by saving the migrant from the tour guide.
“Who are you guys?”, Niels asked.
“I’m Markus, and the girl who I saved that day is Anja.”, the photographer said.
“Where are you guys from?”, Yara asked.
Markus told her that he was from Sweden and that Anja spent most of her life living in the slums of Moldova, under a different name, until she was smuggled out of the country by smugglers who got arrested a long time ago.
Anja thanked Markus for saving her life, before she left the scene.
Meanwhile, Yara and Niels started looking at each other with confusion, until Markus offered them Norwegian folk costumes.
The two of them looked great wearing the costumes, and after Markus took a picture of them, Yara took a selfie of the two of them with her phone.
Not long after, Markus’ photo of them went viral online, with most of the comments shipping them even though Yara had no intentions of being with Niels and overall positive.
The next day, Niels gathered up the courage to ask Yara out and this time, she agreed to be his girlfriend, only for a day, accidentally fulfilling his wish to be with his crush.
Meanwhile, the two of them went to a secluded forest to gather strawberries for them to eat and use for their cooking.
Suddenly, after gathering the strawberries, Niels started to have an urge to take things to the next level with his new girlfriend, to the point she stopped him by telling him to stop.
He agreed to her wishes, and then asked her what’s wrong, only for her to tell him that although she doesn’t mind the 2-year difference between them, she finds it uncomfortable to kiss in a forest full of bears.
Soon, Niels saw a bear, to his horror that he told Yara that she was right about the bears.
As the bear was approaching them, he told her to pretend to be dead along him in front of them so that the bear would focus on something else, and their plan worked, as the bear disappeared in the middle of the night.
“Now that the bear is gone, shall we head to my house?”, Niels said to Yara, who agreed to follow him there.
While at his apartment, the two of them washed the strawberries before eating some of them and using the rest of them to cook some crepes and a cake for them to eat.
After they were done eating, Yara then asked Niels if he can kiss her to sleep, and to her surprise, he agreed to make out with her, even though this wasn’t the first time they had kissed each other, in the couch.
This soon escaladed to them dancing with each other in their sleepwear for a while, until they went to sleep in his bed.
The following day, Yara woke up and told Niels that it’s been only a day since she became his girlfriend, and she wanted to keep the promise of her being his girlfriend for a day.
However, Niels told her that she was very kind to him and the others around her and saw her as the love of his life, to the point he wanted to marry her by the time he had a stable job and so did her and become a father to their children.
Upon realizing his feelings for her, she then backed down on her promise and told him that she has no intention of becoming his wife and a mother of his children, but in the meantime that he’ll always be there for her no matter what, even as a friend.
As soon as she told him the last proposal, Niels agreed to become her friend instead of being her boyfriend for good.
Later, Lael came to the apartment and told Yara if she and Niels can discuss more details about the trip to Finland, to which she agreed.
And soon, the trio talked about the trip there, all in English, so that they can easily understand each other regardless of their differences and native languages.
After talking about the details of the Finland trip, Yara, Niels and Lael proceeded to prepare themselves to leave the apartment.
After leaving the apartment, Yara, Niels and Lael were now in downtown Oslo, and just as they were about to head to the train to Stockholm, she took a selfie of the three of them together, with their names being written in blue pen after the photo was printed, along with their signatures on it.
In the end, the three of them hugged each other before parting ways with each other for several months.
On the other hand, Yara was now back in her room and thought to herself “I never thought that my trip to Norway would become that fun than I expected, not to mention, creating a love triangle.”
“Oh well, time to focus on other things while waiting to go on a trip to Helsinki with Lael for now.”, she continued, before moving on to other things.
To be continued...
