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Kihyun likes to pretend he’s not alone, like he is center-stage of the world. Because when he’s on his own, a little theatre goes a long way.
He brings with him a patter of rain that sticks to the windows, droplets yet to scatter the nascent of rays of the rising sun that follows him everywhere. He brings the morning made singer-birds that chirp their way through the air. And the coolness of the early morning is deceptive, because this time Kihyun brings Summer, too.
Summer. It drops from his fingertips in warm pockets of sunshine that glisten and change the air, change the flowers, and call the birds. It mists in his breath and makes the atmosphere just a little warmer. It shines, the way his brown eyes do, the way the yellow and pink glitter on his cheeks does. It’s bright, like Kihyun. Because Kihyun is the day.
He walks the Earth, sometimes in a skip. He passes the forests, the oceans, the people, the cities, the animals. And they pass him, too, unaware that he’s the reason why they’re up and about.
He’s alone. He’s alone for long periods of time. But when he remembers to look back and stare, he sees it, just a few feet behind; the night.
Changkyun blows the clouds around, makes the wind gale stronger as the end of the day approaches. He flutters all the way through the night, skin glistening dark blue and white like the galaxies in the sky. In his eyes? He holds the Perseids inside.
Keeping the midnight stars held high, Changkyun is the fireworks in the velvet dark, the blaze that dares to light up the night when he kicks the moon up high. And in this serenade of black, the stars are choir for the melody of the crickets; they are the lights that sing in infinite patterns and sometimes fall down to the earth in the form of fireflies.
The road is midnight under the clouds and Changkyun looks up and beyond and sees dawn in a smile. As the sun sets and he rushes forward, he knows the brightest star is already promised to rise somewhere else, but he knows he has time.
Just a little bit of time.
The orange of the sunset spreads its largeness into a grateful sky. The rich hues of red blend with oranges, purples and crimsons as the black of night surges forward. And when Changkyun giggles and throws himself into Kihyun’s arms with a kiss to his yellow and pink cheeks and another to his red lips, the sky is a canvas of their dancing everlasting love.
Midair, they change the skyline, the shadows on the ground. They descend down with the wind in a breeze of laughter that makes leaves and skirts flutter, caps fly with the wind.
It’s Summer. And they’re the captains of the sky, waving goodbye.
“Hello down there!” they say to the world that will never answer back. But it’s alright, because they’ve got each other at sunset and sunrise.
It’s summer. And they’re the captains of the sky, kicking the moon so far it splatters in the middle of the day, all round and full of craters.
It’s summer. And day gives way to night.
“See you on the other side, sailor?” Kihyun asks with a smile as he points onwards, towards the morning.
Changkyun gives Kihyun a kiss, purple bright lips against red ones, and points towards the opposite side, into the blackness of the night. “See you on the other side!”
And the night sky is how he came to wish to fly. Which he does, in the most beautiful form of raw energy that he is, an aurora borealis in a spectrum of colours, a song for the eyes down below.
The blue haze of day he leaves behind reveals the sprinkled sky and he flows, knowing that Kihyun is just skipping towards morning, where they’ll meet again.
It’s summer. And they’re the captains of the sky.
Once, they were walking through the trees, swimming through the seas, falling through the air, feeling tired and alone, and they didn’t even care. But now they sail above the frozen lands, toes above cold cathedral roofs. And they know, they know, they’ll always meet again. They have that to look forward to.
And maybe someday, if Kihyun wants to, all he has to do is ask and Changkyun will take him along into the night. They’ll leave the sun to die, but the Earth won’t care anymore by then, if it’s summer, fall, winter or spring. And though they’ll never return, they want you to know, that they did it all for you.
Look up. Never forget to look up. Because it’s summer, and they’re the captains of your sky.