RealClever
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Summary
After the events of the movie, Ellie Chu and Aster Flores have a plan to meet up again in a few years. Fortunately for them, life has other plans, and the two find themselves being brought back together again so much sooner than they ever expected.
Bookmarked by RealClever
24 Jun 2026
Bookmarker's Notes
“Dear Aster Flores, a good man once told me, that love is shown by the efforts you make towards someone else. That the more you love them, the more effort you put into them.” Ellie smiles at Paul for a moment before turning back towards Aster.
“While I can agree with that, I also know, that loving you… takes no effort at all. I love you in the morning, when I first see you, and during the day, when I think of you. I love you at night, when I get to come home to you. I loved you without even trying, I loved you while actively trying not too because my friend was in love with you.” Aster laughs softly at the memory.
“Loving you takes no effort, it’s just something that comes naturally to me, and I know that it will always come naturally to me, even if we fight, even if we yell, even when we don’t want to talk to each other. I will still love you, no effort needed.”
Aster lets out another soft laugh, that turns into a bit of a happy sob as she squeezes Ellie’s hands tightly. “How do I follow that?” She teases, their friends and family laughing in the background.
“Dear Ellie Chu, I am in love with you. I think I knew it, long before the letters. I was scared to admit the truth, but here goes. You are my breath while underwater. You are my light in the dark. You are the song I can’t stop singing.” Ellie blushes softly.
“You understand me, when nobody else can. I’ll stay by your side, even when scared. Because you make me not scared anymore. And I stand here today, to make sure you know, that no matter what we have to face, we do it together. Our story is far from over.”
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Summary
Aster Flores’s first semester of college in Portland is spent two ways: yearning, and figuring herself out.
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She clicks the silver button of her yellow pen and sets it on the paper to paper to write. As she starts, the pen glides over the paper with ease, like it’s whole creation was meant to write this letter.
Dear Ellie,
Bookmarked by RealClever
23 Jun 2026
Bookmarker's Notes
Who needs to beat around the bush anymore? I’m in love with you. I’ve been in love with you since that first letter where you knocked off that quote from the French movie.
I hope you don’t mind if I steal some words too.
Pablo Neruda once wrote, “I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.”
And I finally get it. That feeling of whiplash, of connectedness. That feeling you get when the last puzzle piece fits perfectly into the frame.
That feeling of finally achieving the bold stroke.
I love you, Ellie Chu. And if you find yourself in Squahamish this summer, I want you to know I’ll be waiting for you, at our spot, with my radio and some godforsaken taco sausages.
You’re my bold stroke, Ellie. You’re the focal point of the whole painting.
And when you get this, if you ever bother reading it, I just want you to know that falling in love with you was the scariest thing I have ever done. And I’m so grateful for that.
With all my love,
Aster.
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"Do you really want to go to college without at least knowing what touching another person is like?"
Bookmarked by RealClever
23 Jun 2026
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never love anyone who treats you like you're ordinary by circulareasoning
Fandoms: The Half of It (2020)
02 May 2020
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Summary
They’re out in nature right now, “cell service doesn’t work out here,” Aster had said with a teasing smile, like she’d deliberately taken them away from Squahamish so they can be alone, away from friends and family and other prying eyes, like they can be in their own little world, half-naked in a hot spring—
Wait, what.
The hot spring scene, but different. (And by different, I mean gayer.)
Bookmarked by RealClever
22 Jun 2026
Bookmarker's Notes
Church is where Ellie sees Aster for the first time, her soothing voice reading out passages, her pretty face just visible over the pulpit. She’s the pastor’s daughter, which is not the reason why Ellie falls in love with her, because she’s a stereotype in many ways but not in the weird heathen, forbidden nun-wanting way, but it’s certainly one of the reasons why Ellie knows Aster will never return her feelings.
Ellie falls in love one day on the school track, waiting by the bleachers for one of her buyers to meet her to make an exchange. Aster is sitting on one of the middle benches, wind ruffling her hair while she reads a book, The Remains of the Day. She looks up, and she must spot Ellie because she smiles and waves, and Ellie doesn’t believe in God, but Aster’s face was glowing, halo atop her head and white wings spread behind her.
Not an angel; those don’t exist. Aster. Her star.
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Summary
“She’s back, you know, for the summer. She’ll probably be there.”
He doesn’t say who, but he doesn’t need to.
Ellie thinks back to the last time she’d seen Aster Flores. How she’d held her face in her hands; pressed her lips to hers; made a promise she might now be too scared to keep.
Bookmarked by RealClever
22 Jun 2026
Bookmarker's Notes
Somewhere, the back of her mind registers that her white shirt is almost see-through now, clinging to wet skin. Aster seems to notice this too, as her gaze drops low, then moves slowly, deliberately, back up. Brown eyes so piercing that it makes Ellie feel compelled to spill all her secrets.
So, she does.
“I think… I think you’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever met. And I don’t mean just your looks, though it should be illegal to be this pretty.” Once Ellie starts talking, it’s as if a dam has broken. “Honestly, I would listen to you talk about Sartre, Camus, Arendt or Socrates all day. I could live in an ocean of your thoughts. Sometimes, when I’m reading a book, I come across a particular sentence or idea, and my first instinct is that I want to send it to you because I want to know what you think about it.”
Aster blinks, but Ellie is on a roll now.
“I love seeing the art that you create. I love how your eyes look right into mine, like right now. I love the way your laugh busts out like you can’t help yourself, the way you move your hands a lot when you’re nervous, little moments that remind me you’re not perfect. All those times we were in that choir room, every time you sang, you made me want to believe in God, or at least, angels.”
Ellie reaches the end of her speech when it feels like all the air has been knocked out of her lungs, and in its place, regret comes rushing in. Aster is still staring at her, slightly slack-jawed.