Seconds turn to mere hours upon the utterance of those three words. You feel nothing but the sand that lie beneath your bare feet and you hear nothing but the serene whirls and waves that the shore almost clashes upon your hearing.

You don't even regret telling Yixing, all the more reason for you to even just love him back. Deceptiveness eats you alive, nowhere does it lead you to comfort but you need to, somehow. Now that you'll be living your life as two. "I'll take responsibility for it," says Yixing, but he doesn't really need to. You don't oblige him, you never would want it. But he takes your hand to make you remember you are not alone. Never, just like Kyungsoo does.

Everything of him reminds you of Do Kyungsoo, and to such point it impels the emotions you have for Kyungsoo. It hammers your heart to shards of broken promises but Yixing fills it out, and gradually the mishaps will eventually disappear into your unconsciousness, now won't it? 

It may seem as mishaps when fates and reality clash at the most superfluous of times and it's your downfall. 

"Don't be afraid that it hurts, and even though I may now know how it shatters you inside," his heaves a sigh, only tightening the fingers that lace within yours because he feels as if you'll break away, or you're just basically afraid, not to mention the chilly air biting your skin and both of it and what he says shudders you from within but he slips his warm arms around your tight-fitted waist, which would long be missed from its firmness. He embraces you so tight you might even break down, tears almost stray down your weary lids but it persist when he says: "But all I know is that in time, all the scars will heal." 

His warmth encompasses your being and you're left with doubts, but he never fails to answer the uncertainties. You're only ambivalent at the time, because Kyungsoo still shoots you down right in your heart. It still stings, all the more that the two of you had made the living soul inside you. Will it still hurt nine months from now? "But scars don't heal, Yixing." 

He brings himself closer to you, tucking a stray strand behind your ear from your unruly hair. "Shh, maybe it does, or doesn't. But you are enveloped in fear, in agony, or whatnot. So worry not, gainsay, I will soothe everything." Yixing presses his lips on yours, all chaste at its first, gently thumbing at your faint cheeks and it is in seventh heaven you're taken to. 

You won't leave the scars behind nor you will stay in the abyss you're bound with Do Kyungsoo. 

~~~

You're back in this place, air balmy, skin cold against the cool wave at the shorelines. But there's nothing lovelier every time Yixing comforts you during your utmost sleepless nights. So he takes you here. He's lain you on bed, giving you every single thing you need. This is so unfair, you think. Yixing's kindness is so unfair, and you might be falling in love with this perfect man in front of you. He caresses your cheeks, the dried salty pearls from your eyes kissed away by him. He's taken the role of what you presume should be Kyungsoo's. But you don't bother, you're more likely to hurt than to tell Kyungsoo. Before you know it, he's begun whispering all the solace he can offer.p

His touches burn, it prickles somewhat behind your consciousness that it's Kyungsoo, but he's not. You close your eyes in an attempt to stop the surge of nostalgic and longing touches, and Yixing kisses every inch in you. Timorous yet prompt touches along your arms that weaken you, because it's all Kyungsoo in your mind. 

You fidget a little, remembering it's Yixing and he holds your face in his, the weight on the bed shifting to his. "I love you no matter what, alright?" He shies away from you, hesitantly releasing you from his tight embrace. "I love you too, little buddy." He plants a gentle kiss on your now slightly bigger tummy. "You're silly, Yixing." 

You two play father and mother, but Yixing knows he will never be the father whom you loved. Even if you mask it, he knows you better than you've known yourself whole life. 

"Honey, let's take a walk." 

You walk through the nostalgia you've been having lately, and it's been of five great months with Yixing. The love you have for him will never be as much as he has for you two. "Yixing, why are you doing this? Sometimes.. I think it's too much for you. Sometimes it's unfair." 

He takes you by the end of the shore, by the stilted bridge, his arms safely tangled on your waist, almost too afraid of letting you go of his grasp. "Yixing..? W-what's wrong..?" You question him, something behind your mind breaks you out in cold sweat, and it's all not too well. You're suddenly nervous. He runs his hands on your hair, supple lips pressed on your forehead. You furrow your eyebrows, your orbs change from worry and fright. "Hey.. remember what I told you? I'll always be here. Always," he clutches his chest, his expression serious.

"Heal, and you will feel the tenderness and genuineness of love again. Maybe this time, you've healed enough," he closes the gap between you, taking in your hands against his lips, "so in the near future, I hope you forgive me," and he kisses them, his kisses ever so yearning than they were before. 

He leaves you hanging, takes a step back until he's some feet away, but you can hear his faint I love yous. His endless I love yous. 

"Please take care of them for me, Kyungsoo. Please don't waste this chance again, not now, not ever," and he vanishes with the ocean ripples because now, all you see is

"Do Kyungsoo," you barely choke on your words, torn upon the sudden departure of Yixing, and the arrival of the guy who caused you to cascade on love, Kyungsoo. 

You freeze, all the allusions Yixing have been giving you was this, and you don't know how to react. Kyungsoo gazes at you with an elusive glint of apathy in his eyes, full of emotions you can't even put into discernment it almost impels you. You back away, legs weakly giving up and gravity doubling in heaps of seconds. Everything's so obscure, so sudden, so plightful to even hold him back because by now, he's holding you so close, incarcerating the scars away from you. 

You can't move, you want to fly away yet you don't break as well. The touch has never been the same, it has always been missed. You're so afraid to even take a risk to give him a chance. No words are even needed for his showing here, and you know exactly why Yixing has done this. You're suddenly so tearful, so confused, but Yixing has always told you, follow your heart as you lead a rightful mind. 

"Don't go.. now.. no," By now, Kyungsoo's wiped your tears, and you've unknowingly leaned in to his touch because your body's too tired to even support your doubled weight. There's something in Kyungsoo's voice that has always eased a special part in your heart and it makes you understand how you're holding him so close now, your hand tangling into his locks.

"Please.. forgive me. Forgive me for being such a careless idiot. Forgive me for leaving. Forgive me for leaving you wounds and to only replace them with a light less hole after it's scarred, I-" his breath hitches, his voice unstable and he brings his forehead against yours, clutching your waist. 

"I was a coward. I am still a coward, Nielle," he swallows the left sanity he has, the lump only spreading as he blurts out softly with sobs. "I was so scared I ran away, I am still scared but I would give up living if you had gone away. You, you've been the one who's so strong. You've been the one who strayed fear and took consequences," he presses an open-mouthed kiss by the edge of your lips, because now you're both just sprawling out tears, and his lips linger for awhile brushing away the salty remnants of tears made by him. ".. and now, you're still taking chances, with me. Hearing me out.. just. Do..do you still love me?" He asks rather conscious, tensed, but still hoping. 

It's a rhetorical question, but your mind still persists to answer what your being knows. 

But love is not unfair. Love gives and takes, and it's all up to your discernment. It just needs time.

It needs healing, it needs forgiving. Because scars are the light to which you're reminded of who you are and whom you'll never be again.

And this is what Kyungsoo wants to show.

"I do, Kyungsoo," you say, voice hoarse and breathing against his neck, you could almost feel yourself collapse. "I never stopped. But I'm scared, Kyungsoo. It's not just all forgiving, it doesn't end with just all those damned scars, Kyungsoo."

He kisses with all his passion, his emotions pouring out. "I'm not expecting anything in return. I just want to give everything back. I want to ease my way to you back.. knowing that you trust me enough to tell you I'll never leave you. Again. I might still be a jerk, for a hundred times, but no, I won't leave you."

You stayed in his embrace for the rest of the night, until such time he carries you in his arms, setting you down on the same spot you've always reminisced, where you and him had always watched the rising and setting of the sun beams and shines.

Kyungsoo and you sit by the now beige sand as the sun rises upon the horizon, filling in the dull skies of the morning. It illuminates everything, even Kyungsoo's orbs that direct only to you as he your auburn locks, his other hand on your stomach. The waves swiftly trample on your tangled feet with his, and the warm crystal granules settle the rippled spaces. 

"Say no more, baby, for my sun shines for you that'll be in countless memories from now on." 

Zhang Yixing. Thank you for being a part of my everything. 

For bringing back Do Kyungsoo to me.

For enlightening me.

For loving me.

Thank you.

------------

This is unedited. I'm mostly writing improptu stories right now :c I don't have much time anymore. But I'll continue writing and I'll work harder! I hope you wait for the next surprise! Nielle umma, how was it? Till then! Don't forget to COMMENT AND SUBSCRIBE! (and be excited for the last part, I promise.)