Chapter Text
Your eyelids fluttered as the gentle summer breeze ruffled your hair, sending leaves flying across the yard. You could tell it was almost time to run back home and join your aunt and uncle at the dinner table by the sweet, barely noticeable scent of chicken roast from a nearby backyard.
You allowed yourself to melt into the world below as the cool grass beneath your back relaxed your tense muscles from today’s soccer game, each delicate blade flattening under the weight of your body.
No words could even begin to describe your adoration for late summer afternoons, the only time you were simply allowed to exist without a worry in the world. You rejected the bothersome thoughts whispering to you that this will soon just be a droplet of the past, that you’ll have to go back abroad just in two days, that you’ll eventually have to leave the only living soul that seemed to resonate with you—understand you—behind. Instead, you turned your attention back up.
Pink, purple, and yellow hues mixed in the sky, covered in part by a transparent billow of cotton candy-like clouds.
Perhaps if you reached high enough, you could even manage to take a bite.
What do clouds taste like?
The more you zoned in on the feeling, the more it seemed like those same clouds you so craved were chanting your name, pleading with you to join them in their exhilarating, albeit short-lived journey.
Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
“(Y/N).”
That, and—where were you again?
“(Y/N)?”
Good lord, the skies are sure insistent.
“Are you even listening to me?”
A hand suddenly appeared, throwing shade over your face, swishing and swashing in the air for a couple of seconds, snapping you out of your fantasy.
Finally, you opened your eyes, fully this time, sitting up and taking in the sight of your childhood best friend hovering over you, his gaze a mixture of confusion and playful irritation.
Sigh, “Scratch that, did you hear anything I said?”
“You were saying something?”
You couldn’t even handle 5 seconds of his deadpan stare, nor could he handle studying your absentminded, confused expression before you both burst into giggles, only stopping momentarily to catch your breath.
Regrettably, this fleeting moment of happiness was soon torn away from you both by your aunt's booming voice a few doors away.
“(Y/N)! Dinner, hurry up!”
No matter how much you prayed to the universe to have mercy on you, to just spare you one wish, just this once, you knew that there was no such thing as forever.
In-ho eyed your disappointed expression with sympathy.
“Will I see you again?”
“Maybe.”
“I’ll miss you.”
You froze as his words settled into your mind. It was a simple phrase, but you could both feel the weight it carried.
“I don’t want to go,” you whispered, already feeling the tears welling up in your eyes.
“I won’t forget you,” In-ho mustered a sad smile, gliding down on his knees and positioning himself closer to you.
You noticed the strands of his short, messy, brown hair flung haphazardly across his face. You noticed his large, brown puppy eyes gazing back at you as if conveying a message you couldn’t interpret. You noticed his jawline and the way it flexed when he spoke. You noticed his white varsity sweater and his baby blue track pants, both now stained with patches of mossy green.
You noticed him in his entirety, and you still yearned for more. You wanted to see him, but not just with your eyes.
You wanted to know him inside and out, raw and vulnerable at his core.
You wondered if he was also thinking the same.
Neither of you could hide it anymore; you’d think that if you brought out a pair of scissors and snipped the air at this very moment, you might just hear the tension snap.
As the distance between you closed, you became more and more aware of your rapidly increasing heartbeat, the way your cheeks flushed with a heartwarming warmth, the way you also wanted to close that gap between you and him.
You leaned in, pushing the boundaries of intimacy further and further.
Because you didn’t want this summer to end with regret.
“Promise?”
“Promise.”