Then Yumi grabs my hand, and my nervous system settles.
They call people eliminated right before the final three “the fallen angels,” in reality TV. And everyone loves a fallen angel. That’s why I’m not surprised at the thunderous applause greeting us as we enter the spotlight and make our way to the edge of the stage.
Yumi releases my hand, turning to face me. With a cheeky smile at the crowd, she sinks down onto one knee and stares up at me lovingly. “Noelle,” she starts dreamily.
The audience goes crazy, their frenzied screams echoing throughout the theater. Behind Yumi, I see JSP’s jaw drop, and I wonder how much of his reaction is because this season is supposed to be abouthisengagement.
I know that this all has something to do with the paper Yumi sneakily reaches for and sandwiches between her palms to disguise, but my body hums with electricity when she opens her hands like a ring box.
I cackle, bending over with laughter at the lined paper, complete with freshly tattered spiral notebook holes. In large, sloppy letters, it reads,Will you loseThe Adventureversewith me?
The audience erupts in a chorus of laughter and groans as the camera focuses in on her note. I compose myself because she’s watching me expectantly.
“I would absolutely hate that. Yes.” I pull her to her feet and into a kiss.
The crowd goes wild. As they should.
“Noelle,” JSP starts, and most of the cameras filming the reunion swing my way. “We saw you struggle a lot this season with your dad’s illness, and infamously you did not get to see him during the family visit episode. Can you describe what that was like?” He raps his handful of index cards in an open palm to punctuate the question.
My throat is tight with all the things I can’t say. I clear it with a small cough, but I can’t stop tapping my foot. Yumi is worse, her knees bouncing so violently that I can feel it through the floor. Luckily, KC and Gabriel are seated in front of us, hiding our legs.
“Yeah, it was really…” When I trail off, Yumi’s grips tightens in mine. “It was really hard. My mom passed when I was a kid, and my dad is the most important person in the world to me. I thought about him the entire time I was out there, because we always watchedTheAdventureversetogether. So, it was really heartbreaking to not get to see him and know he was okay and share this experience with him, yeah.”
Someone in the audience screams, “Love you, Noelle!” And I duck my head to hide my reddening cheeks as the cheering grows.
JSP laughs, gesturing to the crowd with his cards. “Yumi, you two were last-minute additions to this season. Did you expect this sort of response from the fanbase when you agreed to do the show? What have these past few months been like for you and Noelle during the airing of this season?”
“Oh, the response has been overwhelmingly positive, which Noelle and I are deeply grateful for. We’re lucky that so many fans saw themselves in us.”
“You two are probably the most meme’d team we’ve had on the show. How has that played into your enjoyment of the season?”
We can’t answer until the audience stops their whooping, some of them calling out “Yumi!” through laughter.
The funniest thing about the memes, which started after Episode 1 and didn’t stop until we were eliminated, is a secret only Yumi and I know. A common thread of virality has been the moments of Yumi looking at me intensely and my complete obliviousness.
Her face has become almost synonymous with simping and she couldn’t be more thrilled.
Meme accounts in particular love one popular night vision shot of us walking through the cave. While I’d been thinking about how I wished Yumi and I had the kind of connection that Matt and Morgan had (the fanbase doesn’t know that, of course), Yumi had been staring at me withundisguisedlonging.
Astrology accounts had a field day with that one.
Blocky default-font captions likeLeos When They Lie for Attention and Nobody Notices.
Almost every single meme-able moment was like that, some meta-game communication that the TV screen distorted to mean something different than what it was. It’s made me rethink my entire perception of reality TV, and, to be honest, getting to rewatch old seasons with that framing in mind has changed theshow completely in a very cool way. It’s just another unexpected thing I get to walk away fromThe Adventureversewith.
I lace my fingers between Yumi’s.
“It’s been so funny,” Yumi answers, smiling at me. “And it’s nice that now everyone else also knows how oblivious Noelle can be. It’s not just me!” she calls to the audience, drawing a peal of laughter from them.
“Hey, I notice some things!” I protest jokingly, and the audience laughs again.
“Going back to my earlier question, Noelle, how is your dad doing now?”
The audience goes deathly silent, like they know I’m going to deliver bad news. I’m happy to subvert their expectations by pointing out into the first row, where my dad sits recording the reunion show with his phone even though it’ll be on streaming in a few hours.
“He’s good! He’s sitting right there.”
JSP had been waiting to ask me that, because there are already two camera operators focused on my favorite man, broadcasting his image to the big screens meant for the studio audience.
