Summer Love

The sun dives deeper into the azure lake. Hues of red and pink stretching across the pale blue sky in a pastel collage. The summer is ending and with its end comes the saddest part.

Farewell.

Jiwoo wraps her fingers around Sooyoung's, gives them a little squeeze. Sooyoung glances at her with soft smile and pulls her closer to herself, propping her chin on Jiwoo's head.

They're sitting on a pier, their bare feet dangling above water. It's the last day of holidays and Jiwoo wishes Sooyoung would give her answers to the questions that have been left hanging between them for some weeks already.

What's next? What happens to us?

But at the same time, Jiwoo isn't stupid. She maybe younger than Sooyoung but she is not stupid. She knows that all that was between them was a summer love. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Sooyoung is an university student. Jiwoo graduates from high school next year. It would be too complicated. A week from now they both will be swamped by tests and exams.

So Jiwoo doesn't even voices out those questions, seeing no point in making their farewell more painful than it already is.

She buries her face in the crook of Sooyoung's neck and inhales the sweet scent that lingers on her skin. It's the scent of summer, Jiwoo thinks.

The scent of daisies and strawberries. The scent of sunsets and lukewarm rains. A dizzying mixture that Jiwoo wants to keep to herself for a little longer than she's allowed to.

But in the end, she supposes, she should consider herself lucky.

Sooyoung came to her sudden and soft like a sunshower. A chance meeting by the same lake that now witnesses their silent goodbye, prompted by Jiwoo's dog stealing Sooyoung's t-shirt when the girl was swimming.

And from the very beginning, it became obvious to Jiwoo that she was in for the most memorable summer of her life. The promise written into Sooyoung's dark eyes and her mischievous smile that seemed to have known exactly how fast it made Jiwoo's heart beat in her chest.

Sooyoung opened a whole new world to Jiwoo. Gently and slowly, she colored her summer with innocent kisses among meadows and breathless nights under the starry skies. And for that Jiwoo would be eternally grateful to her.

Now these colors are fading away like the pastel sky on the horizon, turning into monochrome memories.

“Jiwoo-yah...”

Sooyoung's soft voice brings Jiwoo back from her thoughts and she blinks away her unfocused gaze. Looking up at the girl, she wills herself to smile.

Sooyoung returns the gesture before placing a soft kiss on Jiwoo's lips. A kiss that soon tastes of strawberries and sweet apples.

A kiss that soon turns into something more when Jiwoo wants to commit to memory as much of Sooyoung as she can before they'll part their ways and leave this pier.

* * *

The months after the summer pass by in a blur. Jiwoo spends her time on studying and preparing for the final exams like the diligent student she is.

Sometimes she dreams about the bright summer days and wakes up with flushed skin and tears in her eyes. She misses Sooyoung more than she would like to admit. Because it was just a summer fling, and she should know better.

Maybe that's why Jiwoo never tells her friends. And even though she finds Sooyoung on facebook, she never sends her a friend request. Too afraid to stain the fragile memories with rejection and disappointment.

So she buries the memories under the piles of schoolwork until the graduation day comes, chilly and bleak like the rest of the winter.

Jiwoo graduates at the top of her class. Amidst heartfelt congratulations there are tears and laughter and promises of evening celebrations. Once the farewells are exchanged, Jiwoo leaves the school's building with her closest friends. For the last time she passes through the school's gate and cannot help but feel a bit nostalgic about it.

But that is until she notices a girl in a maroon coat, standing under the gate and waiting for her with a bouquet of roses in her hand.

“Sooyoungie...” the name slips past Jiwoo's lips unaware.

Not thinking much, she breaks away from her friends and rushes to the girl as her world explodes into hues of maroon and red.

Sooyoung wraps her arms around Jiwoo, holds her tight against her as if afraid Jiwoo would disappear, and it's the first time Jiwoo sees tears in her eyes.

“Congratulations, Jiwoo-yah...” Sooyoung murmurs, cupping Jiwoo's face in her palms as she leans in to kiss her.

Soon snow begins to fall from the grey sky, but neither of them cares as they continue to kiss, both wrapped in the warmth of their everlasting summer love.

A/N: Just a random story inspired by SID's Natsukoi and the rest of their soft love songs.