Mark yarned for seventh time in the span of five minutes. And unsurprisingly, Donghyuck who had the lowest endurance one could ever get had reached his limit.

The young teenager who recently got his hair dyed bright red prior to his arrival in Japan turned around and asked with an unhidden tone of annoyance: "Dude can you at least pretend you are not having the most boring time of your life with us?"

"Sorry, sorry" apologized Mark try to swallow another yarn "Just didn't manage to get much sleep last night."

"Where are we going anyway?" asked Mark sheepishly since he didn't manage to catch much of what was going on since he was brutally dragged out of bed by none other than the dude that has fire for hair in front of him and forced to swallow down some toast and milk before being thrown into the bus.

"To experience the countryside with one of grandpa's friend! You city kids just stare at your phones and TV all the time" Donghyuck pinched his throat to imitate Grandmother's voice.

Squeezed between the window and an overhyped Jisung chatting with Chenle, speaking in a voice too loud for a tired Mark, but nevertheless, the elder shifted on his seat and tried to find a comfortable position before closing his eyes.

The vehicle finally stopped waking Mark from his short nap in the middle of a field.

A tanned tall man with broad shoulder was waiting for them at the bus terminus and gave them a warm welcome with his heavily accented Korean.

There was a girl in a light blue dress behind his back that shyly peeked at them with big doe eyes.

"Mark, you must remember Hina? You two used to play so much together last time you came here when you were seven." The man who presented himself as Mr.Nakamura turned towards Mark once he saw his daughter's gaze.

He simply smiled towards the young girl with her long hair attached into two adorable pony tails and tried to hide the fact he didn't recall that at all since it was more than ten years ago.

It turned out the plan their grandfather made for their initiation to nature was helping his friend's strawberry farm business.

The sky was clear blue with a few scattered cloud high up which would have been wonderful if they didn't have to stand in the middle of smoldered ground sending up heated disoriented haze.

Mark felt he would soon melt into a puddle of sweat in his completely soaked shirt as he felt the burning rays of mid-July radiating on his head.

His mind automatically thought of how nice if he could transport himself to the winter wonderland of his dream right now, but again, he'd probably be wailing there as well, his life seems to be always at one extreme or another,

His younger siblings and friend were no better, Jisung had been making faces since they started the strawberry picking work.

"I was told it is going to be fun! That's not fun at all!" whined Chenle throwing a freshly picked fruit to Jisung's back.

Jisung attacked back by shaking rapidly his head landing all the sweat drops unto the people around him and soon a dolphin yelp broke through the field and all the berries they picked were used as fighting tools.

Mark felt as the oldest he has to take the charge, but Donghyuck beat him to it and shouted:

"Stop playing and complaining you two! The faster we finish, the faster we get out of this hell hole and into a magical world of air conditioning"

Wiping away the last sweat away from his forehead, they finished the whole task around noon.

The two youngest were slightly grumpy being forced to work, but Chenle and Jisung soon forgot all the hassle at the sight of cooled watermelon and sodas waiting for them in the nicely cold dining room.

After lunch, Mr.Nakamura offered them a ride on his small boat around the lake which got Chenle and Jisung excited once again at the idea of fishing and swimming.

Limbs still sour and heavy, Mark told Donghyuck to go with them instead to keep an eye on Chenle and Jisung.

He sat under the shade of a tree next to the water once the boat disappeared from his field of vision.

Listening to the monotonous singing of cicadas, Mark was dozing off under the light wind blowing on his blonde strands.

"Can I sit next to you?" Mark looked up to meet Hina standing up next where he was settled. Her chubby cheeks slightly sunburned red added a cute charm to her overall appearance.

"Of course." answered Mark, gallantly moving away slightly, leaving her the best spot possible under the shadow.

There was a few exchange between them about the weather, until Mark bite his lower lips for a moment and started uncertainly:

"Can I ask you something?"

Hina shifted her gaze from the water back to him waiting for him to go on.

"Did something strange ever happened around here? Or have ever heard anything of that sorts?"

Meeting the other's bewildered look, Mark precisded furthermore:

"Like paranormal phenomenon, things like that? Maybe something to do about dreams?"

"I guess?" responded Hina after contemplating for a minute "This village is quite a famous destination for people that are into Japan occultism and folklores after all"

Seeing the incited curiosity in the other's eyes, the girl continued:

"The mountain surrounding the lake is a known sacred place since the Edo period. There are many stories circulating around of people meeting and getting into troubles with all sorts of divinities and creatures"

"There is that shrine next to our cottage that I went to the day I arrived, does that have anything to do with it?"

"Yeah, that shrine is quite popular for devotees as well, they are quite a few... special presences residing in there"

"I see..."

***

"Yuta hyung our foreigner guest has arrived again!" greeted cheerfully seeing Mark standing in front of his porch.

"Can you stop calling me that?" asked Mark pretending to be annoyed.

"Alright, Yuta hyung, the boring Mr.Mark has arrived again" complied Nana "I forgot to ask last time what brings you here all the way from Kanata?"

"My parents send me here for summer vacation." Mark also kindly explained to his host the concept of of school and vacation.

"So you will be studying your whole life?" asked innocently Nana

"No" chuckled Mark before jokingly mentioning "I'd have to work at some point because some of us actually need to eat to survive."

Nana hit him in the arm for the pleasantry and asked:

"What kind of work do you want to do in the future?"

"I am want to be a music producer" Mark tried his best to explain such an alien word to the latter "It is someone that basically write melodies and rhymes, you know like music."

"Like haikus?" Nana was quick to associate the new words to things he knew.

"Kind of, I only write them in English though."

"Ahhh, that language of the West you told me about before." nodded Nana.

"Do you want hear it?" suggested Mark carefully.

"I'd love to!" Nana clapped his hands together happily.

Among all the raps he has written, only one came in Mark's mind without hesitation seeing the being in front of him.

Large eyes staring at him full of anticipation, Mark felt quite nervous for once to perform in front of a single person audience (two, if you count Yuta hyung dozing of in a corner) before starting:

"You can be my moonlight and sunshine and
Morning day
They’re all names that suit you
Angel, that’s you
Let’s go up to the clouds let’s fly"

Nana smiled as he finished and asked: "What does that mean? "

"It means thanks for having me here, and it's nice meeting you and your cat." Mark has never been a good liar and Nana squinted his eyes at the redness creeping unto the other's ears before replying:

"That's a quite long sentence for saying just that."

But it had not bite in it and Nana praised on:

"Well, I don't even know what they mean and I like it, I am sure others that understand it will like it even more."

"My parents think it is silly to pursue a career in something that is so hard to succeed in"

"Nothing is easy in life" said Nana pouring Mark another cup of tea "Even in a static world as here, everyone is fighting to live for a reason or another."

"If I'd really follow my dreams, I'd have to move to a completely different city, start everything by my own " Mark found himself pouring his heart out, revealing the more fragile part of himself that he has never shown before.

"And it is scary" Nana finished his sentence for him and added "Trust me, I know, facing things you have never experienced previously is hard, but the only constant in any world is change"

"And that's coming from someone that has been stuck in winter wonderland for years?"

"Yeah" chuckled Jaemin, "even a monotonous place like this is forced to move on."

Those dreams went on each night, and little by little, Mark got to know Nana a fraction more than the previous day. Nana would always be so fascinated about all the mundane anecdotes of Mark's daily life. He'd listen and laugh at Jisung and Chenle's pranks and jokes, Donghyuck's savage comebacks and Mark's suffering in all of that chaos. He was eager to learn new words and foreign concepts from Mark, genuinely impressed by the most ordinary life style of humans. The envy in his eyes whenever he heard of the outside world were hard to hide, to the point that Mark said one day:

"I wonder what summer is here, do you guys go swim as well?"

"If you haven't noticed yet, we are in winter here" Mark was taken aback for sarcastic words coming out of such a docile kid, yet unlike Donghyuk's, Mark found Nana's not only bearable, he almost would call it cute.

But he tried to not let the corners of his lips curl up too much and reformulated his question:

"I meant is doesn't it stop snowing and get warmer with the coming of spring?"

"It is always snowing here." Nana let out a small sigh.

"Can't you go somewhere else than?" asked carefully Mark.

"Do you really want to know?" Nana's tone was changed from cheerful to serious "There is an immense price to pay by learning such a deep secret."

"Ok! Maybe not." sheepishly refused Mark.

"I am just kidding" laughed Nana seeing the other's dumbfounded expression, before going back to pat the cat on his lap "I am trapped here because of Baku-san"

"Who's Baku-san?" asked Mark taking a bite of his mochi, frowning a little at the overly sweet taste spreading on his palettes.

"You are a true foreigner aren't you?" joked Nana before explaining "He's commonly called as the dream eater but belittle known to your humans, he is practically the divinity of dream, I stole one of his books one time, and got caught. And then I got banished here."

"Isn't there a way to get out?"

"Not if he doesn't let me" shrugged Nana carelessly and whispered with such a low voice, as if he was speaking to himself "or if the snow melts."

***

Mark was dozing off again and Donghyuck did not appreciate being the only one looking through the instructions to set up the tent:

"Can you even pretend to be a little useful your brat? I could literally plant a stick in the ground and I am pretty sure it would be doing a better job at helping us."

"Sorry" apologized Mark trying to swallow back another yawn making his eyes watery in the process "I have been having trouble sleeping the past days."

He stood up and started assembling the pieces. The fresh smell of the forest has helped boost up his energy a little, yet he was nevertheless, tired.

"Yeah, then maybe watch less anime or whatever gross stuffs you are pretending that you are not doing at night and get some fking sleep."

"Donghyuck!" cut off Mark abruptly eyeing him to not curse as his younger brother and his friend approaching them.

"What's wrong with you anyway? Insomnia has never been your thing, even when you called me sobbing over the phone about how much work you had to do" pointed out Donghyuk throwing another branch into the campfire.

Mark played deaf ear and pretended to be focused on listening to Chenle reciting how Jisung almost fell into the pond as they tried to catch the fish.

Camping has always been a pleasant activity to Mark ever since he was little thanked to living Vancouver and surrounded by quite a number of nation parks. However, this time, he found himself having trouble sleeping at night because someone was missing from his dream. Indeed, after the three-day trip, Mark couldn't wait to get back to his own bed again.

***

"Aren't you tired of it?" asked Mark looking at the growingly occupied tree in the garden and clarified his question to the confused gaze of the latter "Making paper flowers and all."

Nana simply hummed in response, his fingers continuing at the folding of silk paper into a delicate plant and attaching thread at its end. As Mark thought he wouldn't get able to get a real answer, the latter spoke again:

"It is a promise I have to keep with someone, someone quite dear to me."

The last mention shouldn't affect him, it really shouldn't, Mark couldn't but ask:

"Who is it?" Mark tried his hardest to play it cool and sounded overly casual "someone you like?"

Nana gestured him to lean closer with a mysterious expression, before murmuring in such proximity that Mark can feel his cold breath on his ear:

"Maybe?" Before quickly shifting away as he stood up and walked away, but not before turning around and blinked twice playfully his large adorable eyes leaving the latter in a blushing mess behind trying to cool down the heat of his ears.

"Also, apparently you can make a quite tasty sweet with that type of flower" continued Nana.

"How do you know it is tasty if you can't taste it?" sulked Mark hearing Nana's the mention of someone else.

"That's why I said apparently." Jaemin hit his guest's shoulder with a rolled sheet of paper "I have my sources alright?"

"Are they credible?" Mark crooked one eyebrow.

"I'd like to hope so." chuckled Jaemin.

"No, but seriously, since there is nothing else to do." suggested Mark "You might as well take advantage of the winter and build snowmen and stuff."

"What is snowman?" Now it was Nana's turn to be curious.

"Dude!" yelled out Mark "you have never built a snowman before?"

As if he was displeased with the loudness of the latter's voice, Nana pursed his lips:

"Not everyone grows up in that sweet and perfect life of yours, mister"

"I'll teach you then, come on." dragging the younger by the arm outside.

It was always so cold so Nana wrapped a few layers of blanket around his guest which made Mark's movement quite difficult, but Mark felt he was having the best time of his life in quite a while.

He would have never thought at his age he'd have so much fun teaching another boy something he found too childish years ago, yet there he was smiling stupidly as if no satisfaction can be greater each time he heard Nana gasped at any small detail he added in his short snowman building 101 crash course.

"And then you can take some branch and rocks and add it like arms and eyes" explained the blonde boy as his fingers placed to small peddles in the position of his snowman's pupil.

Mark wouldn't hesitate to tell Nana he's doing well and being supportive once it was his student's turn to try, because if he'd been with anyone but him, he knew he could never have that kind of patience. The twinkle in the latter's eyes and the crescents they turned into each time, if he could, Mark just wanted to do nothing but stay here and praise him for every small progress he made to see the proudness on his tone when he told Mark it was almost done.

Nana applied what he learnt impressively quickly (at least to Mark's biased mind) giving his own snowman eyes, and even added his own little touch taking two short and slightly curved branches and placed them on top of the peddle orbs used as eyes.

"Doesn't he reminds you of someone?" asked the brown haired boy with a smile so bright that Mark could almost ignore the mischief in his tone.

"I can't believe you are making fun of me, that kind person who taught you so kindly of how to make it" Mark put on an offended face before asking with a serious voice "Do my eyebrows really stand out that much to you?"

"You said it, I didn't" Jaemin tried to keep his serious face before breaking into a laughter once he saw Mark couldn't find a better argument back.

"Oh wait, it's missing something." said Jaemin standing up and rushing back inside.

His familiar figure soon came back, Mark recognized as the paper flower inside the garden.

The younger bended and spread the yellow pieces on top of his snowman's head as hair.

"Now it is complete!" yelled Nana and brought the snowman next to Mark's face before nodding in approval to his own work of art.

Mark chuckled at Nana's excitement, at least he wouldn't feel so exposed being the only one who built it with someone on his mind and looked down to his own snowman with the roundest eyes and the wide grin he traced with his finger.

But Mark wouldn't want to let him of so easily, he discreetly formed a snowball with his hand and threw it at the younger's back.

Despite being slightly bewildered at first, a smile swam to Nana's face who quickly guessed what was going on before forming a snowball of his own and throwing it at his opponent.

They went on for so long that Mark lost track of time. Once his coats and blankets were covered with sticky snow, Mark reached his hand out as a sign of peace treaty, but not before Nana threw another to the latter side.

The younger helped his guest to get up before saying:

"You look like you are freezing, I'll make you some hot chocolate that I received the other day as a sign of gratitude teacher Lee!"

***

Summer always seem to pass so much more quickly than any other seasons for students. Between bickering with Donghyuck and Donghyuck 2.0 also known as Chenle and participating in group activities that he was forcefully dragged into, the fondest part Mark had was still when everyone falls asleep. Mark always thought can never get boring with Donghyuck around which happened to be true until his days began to appeared dull compared to his nights. If his friends back home ever heard him saying that, they would probably have whistled loud enough for the whole school to turn their heads adding to a few harmless yet dirty jokes.

Mark knew his odd behavior has become more than noticeable, not only Donghyuk and his grandparents were questioning his constant lack of sleep, even Jisung looked concede. He tried his best to act normal as if nothing has changed; therefore, when Hina asked him whether he wanted to go to the festival together he accepted in a blink to appease the growingly suspicion.

Donghyuk pushed Chenle and Jisung to the opposite direction once they arrived onsite even if the youngest first wanted to follow Mark, but not before his eyes wander between the pair and flashed his cousin a suggestive wink.

Once left alone, Mark scratched the back of his head, lost on what to do next.

Hina grabbed his hand first and said cheerfully: "Let's go?"

Limited amount of hiragana that he could read, he managed to figure out that the banner on top of his head to reads "Tanabata".

It hits him the reason behind Donghyuk's strangely wide grin when he told him that Hina invited him there, it was the festival celebrating the reunion of a separated celestial couple.

Bamboo tree sticks where set up at the entrance for the occasion letting passersby write down their wishes on a piece of paper before hanging it on a branch.

As Hina bowed her head down and hide her paper while she wrote down her wish, Mark was wondering what he should wish for. He was lost in his thoughts about the thing to write down for so long that the couple waiting behind them were starting to cough subtly pulling him out of his thoughts. Embarrassed, Mark quick scrumbled down a few words in English before being pulled away by Hina.

From the tasty takoyaki to the booth games, Mark was mostly too preoccupied to think of anything else, but he couldn't help but think from time to time watching Hina trying to catch a red goldfish with a paper net, how excited Jaemin would be if he ever saw so many new gadgets and stands and games, and how dazzling that proud smile would be once he managed to get catch one.

"Mark?" A familiar female voice pulled him out of his daydream.

"I am sorry" apologized the blonde boy for missing what his companion just said with sheepish smile "What did you say?"

Hina didn't seem to mind and repeated:

"We should probably get moving if we want to find a seat for the fireworks."

Since Hina explained that she has previously found a secret location with a perfect view on the river that was mostly unknown to others.

It was indeed much quieter and less crowded than in the place reserved in the festival, so much less people that it was just the two of them.

The highlight of every Japanese summer festival was undebatable the fireworks at the end of the evening, yet it was even more impressive than Mark thought they would be.

Flowers of fire bloomed vividly through night into unique and breathtaking patterns of light before fading away in a multitudes of stars like painting the sky of its milky way.

"I like you" said Hina suddenly in the midst of the show "Like more than a friend."

"I-I" stuttered Mark, too stunned by the view and too startled by the sudden confession.

He had to take a deep breath before manage to stammer a "I am sorry"

The disappointment in her eyes were undeniable, but most of it was relief, as if she finally took of a heavy weight of her shoulders and expected that answer all along.

"Is there someone else that you wish you were watching it with?" asked Hina after a short moment of silence.

Mark found himself speechless once again at that question. Is there any? The face that immediately popped up in his mind upon hearing the question was definitely clear, but does the one he wanted to watch it with has someone else in mind that he'd want to share the best of the world with? Most probably yes as well remembering from his answer of last time.

Hina didn't pressure on for an answer and simply hummed some notes of a song that Mark doesn't recognize.

"I don't know if he likes me that way" blurted blankly Mark out of the blue.

"Have you tried asking?" suggested Hina and once she saw the shy shaking of head as response from the latter broke into laughter:

"Maybe indeed, we won't make a good couple"

"I think he already likes someone" defended weakly Mark

"Why does it matter?"

At Mark's questioning glance, she continued and said word per word: "I like you, but why does it matter if you like me back?"

"The most beautiful part of falling in love is that irreplaceable warm feeling inside you whenever you think of them. It is that itch on your skin, that urge of understanding and accepting their fragility, their weakness. Loving someone is not necessary has to be reciprocated with being loved. Of course, it would be the best of both worlds if the love was requited, but if it isn't, the memory of you wanting to become a better being just for the soft feelings of another, in itself is rewarding and wonderfully magical."  

Mark suddenly found himself lost, as lost as the first time when he stepped into kindergarten entering such a new world or when he was asked by the school counselor at the end of the semester what he wanted to become in the future, the overwhelming emotions tormented inside and he suddenly felt the urge of break into tears.

They sat there long after the last firework faded in the sky.

"I just want him to be happy and I wish to be the one that would make him happy" Mark managed to say.

"Fair enough" nodded Hina "Then why are you scared? If you have made up your mind of break all walls and fighting all obstacles that will show up, why are you so afraid?"

"What if" Mark swallowed back his saliva "The one he likes is much better than me though, I'm probably not that good an