Mike Wheeler "Back Home"

After the events in Hawkins, life finally returned to normal. Everyone went to university: Dustin went to Massachusetts, Max and Lucas stayed closer to home, and Will enrolled in art school in California.

Despite the distance, the group still had a common group. Every day, it was alive with dozens of messages: Dustin sent weird memes, Lucas complained about school, Max sent photos, and Will sometimes sent pictures of his drawings or California sunsets. Mike was always the first to open his messages.

As the Byers' house emptied and summer gave way to fall, Mike began to realize he missed Will far more than he should have missed his best friend. He caught himself rereading their messages, waiting for notifications in the group, and smiling at every message from Will.

After months of separation, he finally realized the truth.

He fell in love with him.

And that's when the friends wrote in the general chat that everyone would come to Hawkins for the summer holidays.

From that moment on, Mike counted the days.

When Will finally showed up on the doorstep, tanned, with longer hair and paint stains on his fingers, Mike realized his feelings hadn't gone away.

Now there was a whole summer ahead.

A summer during which he might finally find the courage to tell Will everything.