BEGIN ;;

take this (x) and this (x) first 

/cries & i hope you don't decompose on your way through, if you do, i'm sorry okay

prelude // "the stars scream unbalance"

Myungsoo has been stealing time. [He’s a time thief; and his power lies in a tiny silver ring he wears around his finger]

(The stars scream “unbalance” as they protest in meteor showers raining down.)

There are 208 days left in his ring. Meaning Myungsoo has 208 more days to live and someone else has 208 less days to live.

Meaning Myungsoo is supposed to be dead (quite a long time ago actually). Meaning someone else is supposed to be alive.

Meaning that certain someone else is Suzy, but Myungsoo doesn’t know that quite yet.

cassiopeia // "he conjured surrealism on the moon"

Myungsoo fell in love with stardust and he wants to be alive until the last star falls. But life expectancy averages around sixty seven point two human years so he made a deal with the moon and conjured surrealism in the form of a silver ring.

There’s a sapphire star on Myungsoo’s ring. 5 points, 5 constellations.

[5 eras to this story, 5 constellations rooted in his decomposition]

* * *

10pm is when Myungsoo first meets Suzy. Its past curfew and (so apparently) they’re both rebels.

Suzy is black hair merged into the black skies and a white dress that is a part of the stars. She is a buried in cicada hymns and grassy hills. Her face arched upwards, her eyes swallowing, devouring the midnight skies. It’s a Monday night, and she has a high school exam tomorrow morning, and she shouldn’t be here, past curfew, 10pm, lusting after things she can’t touch.

Myungsoo, five feet back, takes six steps forward, his face arched towards the skies, eyes just as hungry, sits down next to her. They don’t need introductions. Their eyes meet in the sliver of a reflection set back across the moon and they sit there, strangers, seven sins, lusting after things they can’t touch.

* * *

Tuesday isn’t a good day for Suzy. She flunks her chemistry exam and throws up in the girl’s bathroom. There’s blood tangled on her lips and in her flimsy hair strands dangling off her forehead.

The faucet runs for twenty more minutes.

Tuesday is a good day for Myungsoo. He sealed a wish to the moon (that he could stargaze for a few decades longer) and now there are 20944 days left in his ring. Meaning Myungsoo has 20944 days left in his ring and someone else has 20944 less days to live.

Meaning Myungsoo is the time thief.

(And the stars scream “unbalance” as the skies re-blanket themselves in a gulf of red).

aquarius // "posed with kaleidoscope eyes grazing the sky platform"

The night re-washes itself in a coat of lucid ebony as Suzy and Myungsoo sit on the grassy hill, 10pm again, Myungsoo, 1 foot in front and Suzy posed with kaleidoscope eyes grazing the sky platform, as always, trying to distort the stars into her own little fairytale.

Their friendship starts with a bar of chocolate that Suzy keeps in her pocket. Myungsoo trades his smile for ¼ of the bar and Suzy munches away on the rest. It’s a fair trade, Myungsoo decides as his ring glows neath the restless craters of the moon.

(A friendship built on chocolate is bound to last long.)

They both spell out their name in constellations across the sky. As the stars, shipwrecked between the spaces of black holes, fall into place.

* * *

The classroom feels like captivity. Suzy’s bones ache under the silence of chalkboard screeches and rustling chairs. So she stares out the window, counting down the hours until the midnight sky can release her in freedom.

Myungsoo is in his own classroom, seven periods in, oxygen comes in little flashes when he closes his eyes.

He spells out the girl’s name on his desk. Suzy. (It’s a cute name he decides.)

delphinus // "the stars murmur about slumbering suns"

“Do you come here every night?”

Suzy asks Myungsoo from the bottom of the hill staring up, hands hitched around the straps of her backpack, eyes not accusing, simply curious. It’s the 96^th day in a row that they’ve seen each other.

Most of the time they’ll sit in silence, on rare occasions they’ll spell out conversations with the stars until their fingers get tired.

“Yeah. Do you?”

“Yeah” Myungsoo says, his ring, careful not to let it slip off his finger.

They sit down and watch the stars murmur about slumbering suns and rhythmic ocean tides. From afar, city lights flicker in hues of neon green requiems as electricity pulses through the thick fog of meteorites.

There are spectrum showcases and black skies folding into cerulean blue (and brief shatters of celadon like summer radioactivity) and Myungsoo with his camera and Suzy with her cellphone and something else timeless that couldn’t be captured on film.

* * *

“Do you always wear that ring?” Suzy asks at 1am when Myungsoo’s camera runs out of battery. (The grass below them saturates as another flash of light falls their way.)

“Yeah”

“Where did you get it from?”

“The moon”

“Oh”

“Can I try it on?”

“No”

* * *

Myungsoo is asleep by the time the meteor shower ends. Suzy rolls her eyes and stuffs a chocolate bar in his hood before she leaves. (Myungsoo later finds it in the middle of the classroom; melted).

Its 5am. Two hours before school begins and Suzy winces at the thought of her parents finding her bed empty. She gives Myungsoo another nudge and scoffs as he unconsciously shoves her back in return.

There’s a glint of the ring on his finger and shadow that fades with the rising morning sun. Suzy stares a little longer, curiously, before running down the hill.

telescopium // "the moon churnns away silently"

Myungsoo notices Suzy doesn’t come on the 299^th night. The skies are quieter as if respectful of her absence and night a bit longer.

There’s no chocolate either. (Myungsoo misses the chocolate) And the company

The moon churns away silently as the stars smoke cigarettes and smokestacks piling nicotine into broken ribcages and the bruised purple sky transcending into depravity.

(Myungsoo realizes soon after his ring isn’t glowing anymore)

* * *

Suzy is comatose, saline breath, and tangled bed sheets. The doctors stop by, swallowing medicine books and throwing up diagnoses.

“How do you feel?” “Are you having a hard timing breathing?” “Can you open your eyes for a moment?”  

Suzy falls asleep to their voices and wakes up to a sonnet of glow in the dark stars taped on her ceiling, filling in the empty spaces, and exhaling moon dust.

“A boy came to visit” her mother smiles from the doorway, “He seemed nice, so I gave him some chocolate on the way out

monoceros  //   "nothing left except two star-lusting delinquents"

​"Do you like the stars?" Myungsoo asks they walk up the hill together (he gives a small smile at the glow of his ring). It’s the 320th^th night.

“Shouldn’t you first ask if I’ve recovered yet?” Suzy scolds “And yes. They were nice. Definitely not close to the real thing but thank you. Otherwise, I don’t know how much longer I could stay in that room without suffocating”

“How is your condition then?”

“I don’t know really” Suzy pauses, looking up at the sky for an answer “But I’ve when I’m out here I feel fine – the same, actually – I feel infinite”

* * *

The galaxies spin stormbound, inertia loose, wrapping rings of Saturn into lullabies as stardust explosions ignite and devour the cities in cold hands.

There’s nothing left, 10pm, another Tuesday night, except two star-lusting delinquents hanging onto colors (bleeding purple scars and lunar blue waves across a black canvas), peeling layers of the atmosphere until their skinny wrists entwine with space fabric. Until their souls reverse solar ellipses and obscure the universal truth and find their reason for choosing to live.  

* * *

On the 375^th night. Suzy is no longer with him.

* * *

Suzy is pale skin shaking beneath the florescent light bulb of the hospital wing. Myungsoo holds her hand (as she talks about the stars and moon and if only she could understand their language).

“Tomorrow’s her last day” he hears the doctor whisper in the corridor of the hall. The lights flicker a bit more and Myungsoo looks down at his ring and knows what he has to do.

“Goodbye Suzy”

ending monologue//   "she dreams of a boy from the moon"

Suzy’s is a stargazer. She doesn’t know why but every night at 10pm she feels the lure of stardust and echoic brine tide pulling her closer in towards the sky.

Sometimes at when she falls asleep on that grassy hill, 10 pm, school night (definitely delinquent behavior) she dreams of a boy from the moon  with constellations in his irises. They talk about chocolate and stars and finally his ring.

“Here is payback for all the chocolate” the boy points at his ring

“Your ring?” she laughs weakly

“You have a problem with that?”

She shakes her head and smiles “Seems like a fair trade”

The boy slips off the ring and puts it on her finger.

“It’s heavy” she notes as she stares down on its sapphire stars. (There are 5 points, for 5 constellations – 5 finished eras)

“All important things are”

(The moon begins to tremble as its clockwork rewinds and the sky coalesces into a hue of Persian red.)

“Tomorrow night, 10pm?” the boy offers

They pinky promise.

“You better be there” she says (she can’t remember why but there are tears in her eyes)

“Definitely” he smiles, finally letting go of her hand and taking a step backwards, closer to the open window.

“Bye Myungsoo” she whispers as a layer of transiency covers the hospital room and the boy decomposes into star dust.

(And the stars stop screaming as they finally sink into equilibrium)

* * *

And then when Suzy wakes up, she’ll look down at her fingers curiously, at the sapphire ring with a star in the middle that glows restlessly neath the craters of the moon.

(The ring seems to read 19230. Suzy doesn’t know what that means, but it sounds like a comfortable number. And she decides to settle with it.)

“The stars are beautiful today, aren’t they?” she whispers, looking the empty space beside her. There’s no one else there but she doesn’t feel so alone.

Because she made a promise with a boy made of stardust and friendships built under starry night skies last for long time. (infinite – the moon corrects)

And after all, tomorrow is a new day and a new night, and you don’t need to live forever to appreciate the beautiful little things in life.

               (Because maybe in the end there is nothing except beginning.)