Chapter Text
And with that, summer came to an end.
Campus is flooded with decorations, every class worked hard to contribute their part to this event. The summer festival is the highlight of everyone's year, a break from study and a highlight of the end. All of the corridors walked down and classrooms sat in are replenished and given other feeling asides from pure dread usually emitted. The day started to get a bit cooler as it slowly crept away.
For Goo Gunil, this was his last summer festival, his last ever day in high school. Yet the colourful decorations and cheery demeanour surrounding him couldn't distract him from the dread he was feeling. The corridors were packed to the brim with people organising their set ups and people moving about, so Gunil had trouble getting out. His legs kept moving without him telling them to do so as if he had the choice he'd be walking any other direction. This wasn't a night he could enjoy and never should've been. He stood by the front gate, until his waiting came to an end as a car came into sight.
With struggle he squeezed himself into the car. It's packed with bags of his own belongings. Adjacent to him sat his mother who wore a big grin, a signal for him that he should reciprocate such emotion. The drive was silent and Gunil felt like he never had before. His life has been pretty boring and he's always been good at handling change and not getting connected to things or rather people.
So why did it feel like his stomach was doing somersaults and his conscious was detaching from reality?
Why wasn't he able to let go of this summer?
"Gunil-ah, you know how proud of you i am," His mother chimed sweetly, "My talented son, all grown up and moving aboard. I always knew ever since you were just a little kid you were made for this."
He was unable to respond or barely even process his mother's words. His attention was stuck on the other passing cars outside the window.
"You're a bit quieter today, are you sad to be leaving? You can always visit and I'm sure you'll do just fine in America, so many Koreans nowadays study abroad. You may even run into some of my friends sons! This is massive, it's all you have been wanting Nil." His mum reassured him, rubbing circles on his shoulder.
All he had been wanting. His dream. It was coming true now.
No words or actions can shake the emptiness he felt in that moment. He snapped back into reality at the sound the car door opening, they had made it to the airport already. His mum had already gotten out all of his stuff, the second Gunil exited the car he was brought into a deep embrace. "I'm soooo proud my baby— you know I am," she said, ruffling his hair and cupping his cheek, "And you know your dad would be so proud of you too honey."
Gunil didn't say much, but for a moment everything feels better. Sure things will be hard at first but this was what he has always been wanted, this is what he had to do.
In the midst of this his phone started to ring, alerting his senses. He removed himself from his mother's embrace, quickly declining the call and shutting off his phone. She showed slight interest in his concern but easily shrugged it off— there were much bigger concerns in this moment. With a deep breath, Gunil took hold of his belongings, giving her a sweet smile. "Thank you ma" he said before pressing a small kiss onto her cheek.
It was obvious that she was holding back tears and attempting to uphold her composure. It was a big thing for her freshly eighteen year old son to be moving so far away. "Have a safe flight, and text me when you land," she spoke as her son began to walk away. He offered a small wave goodbye before entering.
This was Gunil's first time for a lot of things and there were many more firsts to come from here on. Was it silly of him to think how much it scared him, even if he didn't want to admit it. First time flying alone, first time going abroad. Then what? First time going to college, first living alone. There was still a little while until his flight, his mother got him there much earlier since it usually takes quite a while to get through security when flying international. Yet he had been killing time for the past hour, and now he was sat at his gate, staring at planes passing by.
Suddenly, he snapped out of his trance when his phone starts to ring once again. His face whitened, in fact he grew almost paralysed. The tranquillity he had been fighting for the past few hours escaped his system. He let it ring to those around him's annoyance. He only kept getting more and more calls. Shakily he made the decision to stand up and walk over to a more secluded area. He now took mustered the courage to take a hold of his phone and peer at the contact name
'Incoming call — Jooyeonie :)'
He stared cruelly as he let it ring. As the call ends he's met with his endless unread notifications, messages, calls, everything. Deep down he knew he fucked up. He knew he was hurting because of it. He knew he couldn't be truly happy, and he felt shitty that because of that he had caused others to hurt. An announcement played through the speakers, his flight was boarding.
Things will be much different from here on.
He searched through his contacts, blocking all of them before shutting off his phone as tears uncontrollably fell from his eyes. Not for long though as he sucked them back in— not letting his tears fall to the floor. With a deep breath he moved forward, dragging his luggage alongside him. Change happens, and he can deal with it. The person he was right now could be left in Korea— he can be reborn as a better version of himself. The warmth was coming to an end and summer was indubitably over.