It was exactly three years ago when I stepped a foot inside this neighborhood, faraway from the streets and city. There wasn't much of a difference aside from the hidden memories that were buried together with the thick snow, carved against the body of pine trees, melted together with the falling snow flakes, and blew by the icy wind.
This was probably the coldest winter out of all. Daylight was absolutely dim. The oozing sound of the wind was hell of a creepy one, as if a hailstorm was about to come.

The cold directly pierced unto my pores, deep inside my system, which only suggested pain and numbness. I kept my tracks along a certain trail, where I found new winter marksㅡor shall I say, footsteps engraved on the snow cover. Keeping tracks with the winter marks has lead me to different places and it once brought me home. It's some sort of a lucky direction for me, since I've enjoyed most of my experiences that these winter marks had lead me.
I followed the foot trails, fitting my winter boots which was about three inches smaller than these marks. A sight of an isolated walnut tree caught my eyes from a far. The leafless twigs were covered with thick snow, causing it to bent down the ground. Snow has started to fall gently from the sky, tickling my nose with its glistening flakes. I snapped a photo of the breathtaking sight and immediately snuggled my hands back to my coat. I heaved out a puff of smoke caused by the negative-zero-dropping temperature.
The place was treacherous, for who knows when will the sky decides to drop the hailstorm. But I still insisted to figure out the end of these marks.
A man, wearing an eye-attracting red beanie, caught my eye just from where the isolated walnut was standing. He was seven feet tallㅡideal for a basketball superstar. Just kidding. He seemed old for that. And, how did I know? He was obviously twisting his joints from simply picking the huge axe, which he used to cut twigs. 
"Uncle Johnny?!" I cracked a yell.
The man followed the echo of my voice. He met gazes with me from a far. It was indeed Uncle Johnny. Our Santa Claus, but without a beard and bouncing belly.
I struggled to walk towards him, almost staggering. The snow cover was about a knee tall, and it honestly felt like I was walking through the cold water.
"Look, who we have here? Is it really you Jin Young?" he dropped the axe and fiercely tapped my shoulders. I snorted with his pronunciation. He usually calls me Jin-Young, making me feel forever young. 
"What are you doing here, uncle? It is about to rain," I said, stammering with my own english. Goodness, it's been three years since the last time I've been here. 
"It is. And I needed these twigs to warm me up later. Thick layers of clothing weren't really helpful to survive the night."
"Let me help you then, uncle." I offered.
"Uh no, Jin Young. I can handle."
"I insist," I reached for the axe and crooked a smile, "Besides, I've heard your breaking joints from a far."
"Silly. I am still strong, young man!" 
We both laughed. He bent down to collect his things, as I walked towards the tree to break its twigs.

ㅡ

I lived beside Uncle Johnny's place. He's not my uncle. How I wished he really was. We were neighborhoods and really good friends. He's living alone ever since I got to know him. His wife died in her middle 50's, leaving him without giving him a son or a daughter to raise. Uncle Johnny was a great carpenter, he moved from city to city to fix their big houses, but in a cheap price. I once said that he's never going to be rich if his talent and efforts would be only paid by two to three dollars. I suggested that he needed to demand more. Yet, Uncle Johnny said that it wasn't for the money, it was for service. He's such a big man with a big heart. 
"So, Jin Young. What brought you here?" he inquired, pouring me a cup of hot coffee.
"I came to get my things which I left before."
"Are you really not planning of coming back?"
"I will, at some point. This place has been my sacred place." 
He grimaced from the strong bitter taste of our coffee. I wasn't really going to complain, but gladly, he figured it out to himself and stood up to get some sugar. 
"Thanks," I muttered with a smile when he passed the creamer and brown sugar to me.
"Ah! Before I completely forgot, I have something to give you," he proceeded towards his bedroom to get a wooden box," I found this two years ago at the shed beside the lake. It was really hard to open so I decided to break its lock."
I stared at the wooden box, wondering why is he giving this to me. It didn't seem to look like a treasure box.

"Open it," he commanded, sipping from his coffee, "It's for you from Mark."

Trigger Warning: A friendly story to read. No detailed but there are heated scenes. Heart breaking? Read and decide for it. Not proofread. 
Prompt: Friendship. Falling in love with a friend, not knowing that they're both in love. No commitment attached. 
Disclaimer: I live in the country that has no winter as one of its seasons, so there must be flaws with the description about winter.
A/N: Um okay so I was being hard headed, writing a long story with pending stories. I have to write this or I'll go crazy from carrying a bunch of plots in my head. What is life. Punch me. Ok so I've written this in the midst of cold days, not because of the snow but because of the rain. Cold days felt emptiness, like there's a suggestive sadness from the atmosphere, isn't it? And there was a markjin cuddling vid, it made me feel warm. So yeah. The story was based from my nonsense interpretation of cold days, and that markjin spooning vid (what)
Planned to write a markxreader but this markjin trash used Jinyoung's name so basically it ended as a markjin fanfic.
If you loved the concept of summer blossoms, the writing style is the same as this- first person's pov, long and build-up. Aye! From summer blossoms to winter marks, ANTICIPATE A BOOK OF SEASONS FT. MARKJIN HAHAHAHAHA