I had a lot of fun writing this because I could incorporate a lot of symbolic symbols with the nature-like setting ^^

It was summer.

The slightly bearable heat was beating down on him as he lugs around a bag full of heavy school materials, lagging a bit in his usual walking style but he would admit that it's worth it to trudge through the hot weather. The river below the path he took ran along as usual, the sun shining off of the clear waters.

"Sunggyu-hyung!"

A boy with bright orange hair turns around and smiles at him, "Hey! Took you long enough, Sungjong-ah."

Sungjong pouts slightly, adjusting the strap around his shoulder into a more secure postion, "Not my fault that I have to drag around textbooks because all of my classes teach directly out of the textbook."

The older snickers, ruffling his dongsaeng's hair, "Then just work out more and be as amazing as me."

"Pfft, which there is nothing amazing about," Sungjong smirks, earning a light whack on his head.

"Yah! Don't be a brat!" there is a hint of annoyance in Sunggyu's voice, "Now let's hurry up and head into the air-conditioned building. It's too hot out here and Chorong has probably been waiting for me for too long."

He turns around swiftly and heads towards the building unlike Sungjong, who simply stood there in the warm rays eminating from the sun.

Sunggyu notices right at the entrance of the building, "Are you coming or what?"

He thought for one second, maybe two, before putting on a smile like usual, "Nothing, I was just thinking if I forgot anything at home." and he walks quickly to catch up with Sunggyu.

Behind the smile, he wanted to shout and cry all he wanted to.

Then he suddenly touched his cheeks.

"Hey, why are you crying?" Sunggyu asked worriedly, wiping the stream of tears from Sungjong's cheeks.

"N-Nothing..." Sungjong moves away from Sunggyu's hands and wipes his face with his hands, letting out a slight whimper as the warmth on his cheeks were suddenly gone, "L-Let's just hurry up and get to your girlfriend, she's been waiting for too long..."

The older doesn't ask anything more as he follows the younger.

It was autumn.

He walks through the uneven pile of orange leaves on the ground, a slight breeze pushing his hair up slightly at this pace of movement. This was a relaxing season where it was not too hot and not too cold to carry around a heavy bag. The usually clear river was carrying off orange and red leaves with small ripples of water.

Sungjong sees him- almost camouflaged with a faraway tree that had almost the same shade of orange as his hair- his back turned and facing someone. He begins to slow his walking, stoping right behind the tree and realizing that the figure in front of Sunggyu was Chorong. He couldn't hear their conversation, but he sees Chorong quickly turn and walk away.

"... You can come out now," Sunggyu's voice was weak.

"I didn't hear anything hyung..." Sungjong said, just in case. He walks up to Sunggyu, still facing his back and a couple centimeters away from him.

"I figured..." the older takes in a shaky breath.

"... It's okay, take your time," it wouldn't be a lie to say that Sungjong was familiar to this type of routine. The same inconsistent crying between the two where either of them would cry and the other wouldn't cry with them because they couldn't feel the same sorrow. Well, in Sunggyu's sense he wouldn't understand why Sungjong was crying in the first place whereas Sungjong simply felt a mixture of feelings ranging from empathy to happiness.

The younger is well aware as to why Sunggyu cries at those rare moments, he just... doesn't know what to feel.

It was winter.

Drastically colder as his feet sunk at least a centimeter or two into the snow that had piled onto the ground. He's able to see his own breath as he trudges through the cold morning, his neck freezing due to him forgetting his scarf. The river was frozen over at the top, leftover dried-up leaves frozen along with it. The river always reminded him of something, he was just never sure what.

Sungjong sneezes and accidentally bumps into a figure after doing so.

"Who- oh, hi Sungjongie," he recognizes the figure as Victoria, a familiar motherly smile adorning her face. He almost forgets to greet her back when he suddenly catches sight of her hand intertwined with Sunggyu's hand.

"Aisht, did you forget to bring your scarf again?" Sunggyu sighs in a tired manner, to which Sungjong can only nod. The younger is nearly taken aback when he feels warmth of a blanket-like fabric wrapped around his neck. He looks down to see a familiar, worn-out navy blue scarf.

"Here, take mine. Victoria and I are gonna go head back to her house to get her textbooks so go ahead to school first," he ruffles his hair before walking past the younger, who watches as they swing their interlocked hands.

He was honestly use to these sudden changes in Sunggyu's attitude, it resembled the constantly changing seasons a bit. If Sunggyu was like the seasons, then Sungjong was like the river that was always affected by the seasons.

Oh, no wonder the river was so familiar to him.

It was spring.

Leftover snow was in the most shady areas where the sun couldn't reach it. Flower buds were beginning to appear out of the small gaps in the area below the hill, alligning with the unfrozen river, letting it run free yet again.

Even though it was currently spring break for him, Sungjong still enjoyed walking down to the river and around the area in small circles, trying to catch anything new that he missed on his first circle. The river continued on infinitely but he couldn't follow the path due to the hill blocking the path, but he was aware that the river eventually lead to an ocean.

"...nd then, Luna comes along and screams at the sight of Amber accidentally spilling juice all over her favorite dress."

"That's terrible but funny at the same time."

Sungjong recognized the laughing and looks up to the hill, seeing Sunggyu and Victoria walking by the area with their hands interlocked, carrying on their day without a care in the world as they laughed.

He knew that there was a slim chance of him being noticed by the happy couple when they were of a hill and he was at least 190 centimeters below them.

"As punishment, Luna made Amber wear a skirt and heels for an entire wee- hey, isn't that Sungjongie? Sungjongie!" they stop, Victoria waves at him with a smile. He manages a small smile and waves back.

"Yah! What are you doing down there?!" Sunggyu notices only when Victoria did.

"None of your business. Carry on with your date you hamster," Sungjong scoffs, making Victoria giggle a 'see you later' as she drags an irritated Sunggyu with her.

He watches them disappear from his sight before turning his sight back to the river behind him. Sungjong kneels down, watching the ripples distort his image slightly and drops of water mess with the ripples more.

And like the seasons with the river, the cycle continues as long as he is stuck in this painful love.