Copper leaves fell, stripping trees bare to give way to winter. Snow melted, the frosty air warmed and days grew unnoticeably longer to welcome spring. Crickets sung lazily, clear and cloudless periwinkle skies appeared, long awaited melodies of ice-cream trucks chimed to signal the beginning of summer.

It's a pointless season for Kris, though, as he laid sprawled in the grassy banks of the neighbourhood stream beneath the shady branches of a willow tree with its lush green blades swaying in time with the fleeting relief of a late afternoon breeze.

Everyday he would wait for the sun’s proud rays to bid farewell and dip below the horizon, the sky to fade from crimson hues into midnight blue, the silver moon and twinkling stars to be scattered into the heavens above.

It was on one of these days that Kris likened Joonmyun’s smile to the golden beams flitting through the willow leaves – precious, fleeting and unexpected.

The imagery lingered strong even as he rode his bike home that evening, even as he collided into a boy and opened his mouth in shock to exclaim, upon recoginising the fair-skinned youth, "Joonmyun?”

And sure enough there on the gravel with his jeans torn, palms bloody, face scrunched in pain sat Kim Joonmyun.

But without acknowledging Kris' presence, the petite seventeen year-old ran over to the smashed white cake box he had been carrying and tentatively opened it to reveal his worst nightmare.

“Kris! You’re an idiot!” he exclaimed at the said ‘idiot’ who now crouched beside him, peering over his shoulder at the atrocious mess of icing, cream, chocolate ganache and sponge within the box.

“It was an accident!” Kris yelled back in an attempt to defend himself only to be greeted with an exasperated sigh and the dismissal of Joonmyun’s waving hand.

“That’s not the point right now. This means that one five year old boy is missing out on the of his birthday party, something that everyone looks forward to…”

Joonmyun groaned when Kris only blinked blankly at him. His shoulders slumped in defeat as he cursed fate for dealing him these bane cards branded loud and clear with the name ‘Wu Yifan’.

A guilty conscience was what prompted Kris to exchange his carefree bike ride home for an evening of cake decoration under the artificial glow of fluorescent lights. Standing in the sweltering kitchen of a café where Joonmyun spent his summer days with a piping bag in his hand was not his idea of fun. But somehow, having Joonmyun beside him seemed to make this whole ordeal worth it.

“We can make probably make it in time if we decorate a pre-made cake,” the injured boy, who smelt distinctly of freshly ground coffee and vanilla, mumbled.

However it turned out, to Joonmyun’s mirth and Kris’ red-faced chagrin, that Kris was hopeless at the art of cake-decorating. His so-called dinosaurs translated into ambiguous blobs of forest green icing against a white canvas of cream. And Joonmyun enjoyed a good half-hour of pure amusement and entertainment from Kris’ failing attempts before he reassigned him to cake-box assembling instead.

It was well into the night after they finished delievering the cake to disheveled (but grateful) parents and a hoard of screaming kids, gone high on an excess amount of sugar, adrenaline and artificial food colouring. And as they walked Joonmyun home in silence, their minds were only filled with the image of five candles illuminating elated faces and the chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’. 

The only sounds breaking through the warm summer air were the lulling clinks of Kris’ bike as it was pushed along the ground, the gentle hum of crickets and the steady tempo kept by the crunch of gravel against the rubber soles of sneakers.

It could be described as comfortable but Joonmyun felt anything but. Sure, he was appreciate of Kris' help but his memories prompted him to be wary and warned him of pretense.

Words tumbled out of Joonmyun’s mouth as they came to a stand still outside his humble abode, “Well, this is me. Thanks…but then again no thanks for today,”

Kris could not pinpoint exactly when, but some time between the thought of Joonmyun’s smile and their current stance beneath the star-filled sky, he reached an epiphany over the ambrosial and irreplaceable nature of coffee infused with vanilla.

It was a revelation that caused Kris’ towering figure to willingly fold forward and atone for Joonmyun’s lacking inches, bringing their faces a mere breath apart. His slender finger reached out and prodded a quivering boy, who had grown cherry red and breathless, square in the forehead.

“I’m sorry. I don’t expect you to forgive me…but please don’t ever forget that I'll be seeing you around,”

Kris’ voice was hushed yet those words still managed to resound deep within Joonmyun. It was worded like a threat. But for Joonmyun, it did exactly the opposite, repressing all reproach held against him and eliciting a faint upward tug of lips.

Even as Kris was but an unidentifiable shadow receding in the distance, Joonmyun stood as Kris had left him – blushing and smiling like a complete fool.

And perhaps that was the track he was plummeting towards when he began to reconsider the image he had of Kris because everyday spent with him, Kris seemed gradually less like the fourteen year old insolence Joonmyun had met three years ago.

A/N:

Mood: Wandering

Music: 'Tears' ; Leessang

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The struggle that I have with this fic (and life in general) is that I give up way too easily.

But I just NEED to finish this so thank you for all of your encouragement I really appreciate it! I truly and utterly do

♥