part three
summer wonder
p a r t t h r e e
(listen while reading: x )
Jongin only went downtown occasionally.
But that didn’t mean he didn’t know where the tallest building in the city, The Block, was located.
Soojung had told him the last time they were together to meet him in the lobby of the building. But when the automatic sliding doors opened to welcome him, all there was were the bustling of businesspeople and the hollow, meaningless chatter they all uttered from their mouths. Not one teenager was in sight.
As soon as he took a step into the building, a woman approached him. Her face was caked with heavy blue eye-shadow and a more than enough amount of red lipstick, and her poorly bleached hair was rolled up into a bun that sagged from the top of her head.
“Hello sir, and welcome to The Block,” she greeted. “May I assist you in anything?”
Jongin was too dumbfounded to think of a reply fast enough. “Er, no. I was just meeting someone here, that’s all.” He muttered.
“Do you have an appointment?” She added.
“No, I’m not meeting someone who works here,” he tried to clarify, “I’m just looking for my- “
Just then, a tiny ding resonated through the air. In the corner of his eyes, he could see two elevator doors opening up to reveal Soojung standing in the stall, waiting for him. A wave of relief rushed through Jongin when she motioned her hand to come to him and he immediately ran towards the elevator as fast as he could, leaving the woman behind.
When the doors were shut again and it was just the two of them together in the shaft, a little smile formed on Soojung’s pink, petite lips.
“So you actually managed to find your way here,” She brought up.
“Yeah. I mean, I’ve been in here before,” Jongin answered, leaning his back against the cold metal walls of the shaft. “It’s just a regular office building. What’s so special about it?”
Soojung stepped in front of him, explaining, “I know there’s nothing to show you inside The Block, dummy. So that’s why I’m taking you to the top of The Block.”
He raised an eyebrow. “The top of The Block? You mean the roof?”
Soojung just nodded her head with a small “Mhm.”
His eyes scrolled up, settling at the numbers at the top right of the elevator doors that were slowly escalating as they ascended up. “And how are you supposed to take me there?”
Soojung didn’t say anything back as a reply. Instead, she pulled out a pair of silver keys from her back pocket, much to Jongin’s surprise.
“Where did you get those?” He questioned her.
“They’re my mom’s. She works here, you know.” Soojung responded.
“And she doesn’t mind you taking them?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t really think she would since – um – she kinda doesn’t know I took them from her…”
Jongin’s lips then formed a small ‘o’. “You little thief.”
“Oh, whatever. She doesn’t even need these most of the time. All she does here is work the front counter. Sometimes they make her help out at the front door too.”
Jongin’s eyes suddenly widened to the size of the moon. “Wait, she was your mom? That woman with all the make- I mean, with the bun?” He stuttered.
“Yeah, that’s her!”
“Oh. She seems nice.” Yikes, he thought.
The ding reached his ears again and the doors slid open to a vacant, dull office hallway. Jongin didn’t even get to lift his feet and step out before Soojung grabbed his hand out of nowhere and dragged him out of the elevator shaft. She dashed down the hall so fast that Jongin was more stumbling and tripping than running, and she made a stop at a metal door at the end of the hallway.
“Well, well. This door is for authorized personnel only.” Jongin pointed at the sign posted on the door.
“I see. But surely that must apply to the authorized personnel’s daughter too, right?” Soojung joked.
She slid the silver key into the doorknob and before Jongin knew it, the door was swung open. Now what awaited them was a set of stairs made out of stone, escalating up to a passageway of sunlight. Soojung went in front of him, and he watched her make her way up step by step before eventually disappearing into the light. Jongin followed her, not quite sure about what to expect once he reached the top.
The air soon became clearer, the chilly, subtle breeze found its way through his hair and between his fingers, and the world he had known his whole life became an entirely different place.
The two of them walked up to the very edge of the roof together, Soojung’s hand gently and timidly intertwining with Jongin’s. In front of him was a bundle of trees, houses, and colorful, sparking lights coming from cars riding down the highway. To his left was the majestic Pacific Ocean, which was only a thin strip of blue from where he was standing. And off in the horizon, there were the faint outlines of mountains highlighted by the rays of the setting sun.
“Wow, I can see my school from here. That’s amazing. And over there is the sports stadium. My dad and I used to watch the games there all the time.” Jongin gasped in awe. “Oh, and you see that building way out there? Next to it is this really amazing Italian restaurant with the best meatballs.”
Soojung let out a giggle. “I didn’t know you knew this much about the city.”
“Nah, not really. It’s just easy to see where everything is from up here.” Jongin pointed out. “And it’s so weird to see the city this way. Like, the farthest we can see is up to that building near that restaurant I just mentioned. It seems so tiny and so far from here. In reality though, I think it’s only about a ten-minute drive. Kinda makes you wonder, doesn’t it?”
Soojung’s little smile still remained on her face, but Jongin couldn’t help but notice how it slowly began to fade away after a while and the way her eyebrows furrowed down with it.
“Soojung? You all right?” He asked.
She started her response with a heavy sigh as she pulled her hand away from his. “I guess, it’s just… the sun. It’s supposed to go behind those mountains at 6:30, but it’s – what time is it again?” Soojung took a moment to quickly check on her phone from her back pocket. “Oh, man. It’s only 6:00.”
“So?” Jongin replied.
“So it’s already the first day of August, Jongin. That means the sun is going to start setting earlier which means the days are going to get shorter, and that means we’re almost reaching the end of summer.” She explained. “And I don’t want summer to end. I’m not ready.”
This garnered a new spark of curiosity in his mind. “How come you don’t want summer to end so badly?”
As she looked out into the horizon, she began to explain, “It’s not the actual season that I’m going to miss. It’s the two months’ worth of freedom and discovery. It’s the feeling of finally not having to carry so many burdens on my shoulders. And once it ends, it’ll be back to seeing the same stupid people and making the same stupid mistakes and feeling stupid all the time.”
“It’s always been that way, Soojung. School, then summer, then school, then summer again. Eventually you just get used to it.”
“But what I can’t get used to is being an outsider. It’s not that easy,” she groaned in exasperation, taking a moment to organize her thoughts - but that soon proved to be useless.
“You’ve been here all your life, Jongin, but I’ve only been living here for two years. You don’t know what it’s like to trade everyone you loved and everything you’ve ever known for a completely different life. You don’t know what it’s like to move to a new home that’s across an entire ocean. You don’t know how it feels to constantly be neglected and underestimated because you’re half Korean and half of something else.”
Jongin was taken aback by her outburst. He didn’t expect such a response from her.
“I thought…but your friends…didn’t you say before that you had another name you went by?”
“Krystal,” she muttered. “And people do call me by that. They’re just not my…”
“…friends,” they said together in unison.
Jongin let out a big exhale, overwhelmed by all this new information. He stumbled over his words for a bit before hesitantly asking her, “Is that why you were so scared last time? Is that why you thought I abandoned you back at the house?”
Soojung nodded yes while trying to hold back the water forming in her eyes. “When you disappeared, I wasn’t just terrified of the house. I was mostly terrified because for the first time in years, I was with a person who I thought would actually stay with me this time, and all of a sudden he’s just gone like that.
“I was alone and defenseless, in a place I’ve never been before. I didn’t know the way back and I didn’t know what was out there to get me on the way. I felt so vulnerable and so lost. And then I realized that throughout these few years of being in Korea, that’s all I’ve ever felt. Lost. In that crowd of brown-haired, eye-smiling teenagers at school, I feel lost. Like I don’t belong there, like I’m supposed to be somewhere else. And I…I just don’t know what to do.”
He was at a loss for words. How was he supposed to reply to something so personal? For a few moments, his lips didn’t form any words and his eyes were just fixed on Soojung as she looked on at the skyline, absorbed in her thoughts.
“I-I didn’t know you felt that way about your life, Soojung,” Jongin eventually managed to admit.
“No one does,” she confessed with a trembling voice. “I’m sorry, Jongin. It’s just been bottled up inside me for so long and I guess it all just came pouring out of me. I’ve never told anybody about it before.”
Jongin’s lips were, ever so slightly, beginning to curl into a grin. “Well, I guess I’m not just anybody.”
And in that moment, something clicked inside Soojung’s mind and her heart sank in her chest. She hadn’t noticed it until now.
But he was right.
Jongin really wasn’t just anybody to her anymore.
The next week Jongin returned back to their tree in the park, just like any other summer afternoon, only to find that Soojung wasn’t anywhere in sight.
Huh. That’s weird, Jongin thought to himself. I thought she’d be here by now. But that’s okay. Soojung’s probably just running late. Yeah, that must be it. She used to always arrive at the tree after me. She’ll probably be here in a minute or two, nothing to worry about.
Except she never showed up.
And suddenly an hour passed him, then another, and then somehow the sky was already dimming down so much his mother had to call him on his cell phone to order him to come home.
The week after that, the thought of Soojung not coming that day still plagued his mind, but he knew she would have a good reason for it. He wondered, maybe she wasn’t feeling good last week. Maybe her bike somehow broke or had a flat tire. Maybe she was occupied with other plans and couldn’t make it earlier.
So later in the afternoon, he didn’t wait at the tree again – this time, he planned to have a nice, casual stroll past the park instead to take a quick glance at the tree. But Soojung was still a no-show, and that quick glance became a long stare.
“She’s got to have some explanation for this… right?” He muttered.
When he headed back home, he took a good look at the calendar hanging above all the clutter on his bedroom desk. He counted three more weeks until the school year would start again, and Jongin could feel his stomach tie up into a knot. They didn’t have much time left anymore.
Then out of nowhere, a knock appeared on his front door, snapping him out of his thoughts.
Puzzled, he walked out of his room and down the hallway once he heard it. When he placed his hand on the doorknob and opened the door, he saw two boys standing in the middle of his front yard. Two boys that he had unknowingly neglected this entire summer - until now.
“Taemin! Kyungsoo!” He exclaimed.
“What’s up, man?” Taemin replied as they both ran up to the front of the doorway, their smiles beaming and their laughter as lively as it's always been. “We haven’t seen you all summer. You wanna hang out?”
“Uh, sure. I guess that sounds good,” Jongin replied.
“All right! So what do you wanna do?” Kyungsoo joined in.
Just then, a petite girl with brown waves of hair brushing against her shoulders and a loose sleeveless top flowing in the breeze popped up from behind Jongin.
“Boo!” she shouted, and Jongin slightly jumped.
“Wha- oh.” He stammered, and he broke out into laughter. “It’s just you, Sulli.”
“Hey, guys!” Sulli greeted. “So are we doing something together or what?”
“Well, it’s already eleven,” Kyungsoo pointed out. “You guys wanna just hang at the pier and then get some lunch there?”
“I’m up for that,” Taemin commented, and everyone else in the group agreed in unison.
So when everyone was gathered together, they all left Jongin’s house in a big group and started their walk to the pier. But Jongin remained mostly quiet for the rest of the way there, only speaking up if someone said something directly to him.
He was glad that he was able to be with the three of them again. Or at least, he wanted to feel glad. The whole time, he kept asking himself, why doesn’t all of this feel the same as before? Then he told himself that he wasn’t the same person that he was at the beginning of summer, that he changed – or maybe it was his friends who changed during summer. Maybe it was both, or maybe it was neither. Maybe it was the distance, the time apart. Maybe they were only close before because they were forced to see each other five days a week.
“…Jongin!”
He was brought back to reality when Sulli tugged on his arm so they could cross the street. He looked around his surroundings and spotted crowds of teenagers cruising past him on their bikes and skateboards, as well as surfers with their long, shaggy hair and their surfboards almost slipping from their fingers.
“Oh hey, we’re at the pier already,” Jongin muttered. “That was fast.”
“Yeah. We’ve been here for like the past ten minutes,” Sullii pointed out. “What’s up with you? You’re so out of it today.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he pleaded. “It’s just- “
Something else caught his eye before he could finish. Way in the distance, so far from Jongin that it took him a good minute or so to actually notice it, was a girl standing on the pier and looking out at the ocean over the railing. A girl with piercing brown eyes and ashy brown hair with caramel streaks that glistened as they moved along with the ocean breeze.
It was her.
It had to be her.
And despite his friends’ pleas to come back to them, he sprinted down the street and started heading towards the pier without a second thought.
He ran and ran and ran, down the pier that was hundreds of feet long. It felt as if it was never-ending as he continued to sprint down it, and he was just so close, yet still so far away from Soojung. Eventually he reached the end of the pier where she was, heaving and breathing heavily as he blurted out her name.
“Soojung?” He panted out.
She turned her head at the sound of her name being called out, and once she saw him, her face immediately lit up and her eyes twinkled with joy.
“Jongin,” She uttered.
“What are you doing here?” He questioned.
“Well, I came to have lunch here with my parents,” she began to clarify. “They’re still eating down at the restaurant at the end.”
“Yeah, I just came to eat lunch too, with those other guys.” He pointed over his shoulder to Sullii, Kyungsoo, and Taemin, who were sending him confused looks on the other end of the pier.
“Really? Then why aren’t you over there with them?” Soojung asked back.
“Why? Because I haven’t seen you for two weeks and I need an explanation, goddamn it,” Jongin demanded as he stepped closer to her. “If you were going to stop meeting up with me, you could have at least given me a heads up- “
“It’s not your fault, Jongin,” she claimed. “It’s just my parents. They found out how far I traveled with my bike and they thought it was dangerous, so they made me stay home.”
“Uh-huh. Now what’s the real reason why?” He responded.
Soojung raised an eyebrow. “You think I’m lying?”
“Oh no, I completely believe you. But I know that’s not the only reason why you suddenly backed out.”
She let out an aggravated sigh from her lips and grabbed onto his wrist so she could lightly drag him closer to the railing. “Fine. The truth is, I’m afraid,” she quietly confessed.
“Of what?” He replied as he pulled his wrist away from her grip.
“Of becoming attached to you,” she explained. “No matter how nice it may seem to feel like, I can’t let my feelings for you develop any further. I think we both know that soon, we’re going to have to go our separate ways. It’s inevitable. And you should know that once the school year starts, I’m not coming back here.”
Jongin didn’t respond to her for a brief moment. “What do you mean you’re not coming back? You mean to the park?”
Soojung’s head began to droop down as she averted her eyes away from him and out to the ocean again.
“I have no choice, Jongin,” she muttered, with tinges of regret in her voice.
“Well, why?” He questioned. “How are we going to see each other then?”
“We won’t. That’s why I can’t get attached to you,” she clarified. “I do want to see you during the school year, I really do, but there’s never going to be any time. There’s going to be all this work waiting for me at home, and then there’s after-school activities and clubs and I need to try out for a sport this year and I’m going to have to get a job too in order to save up for college and- ”
“Whoa, whoa, slow down.” Jongin gently rested his hand on her cheek, but even then she still refused to look at him. “Relax. What are you trying to say?”
“I’m saying that once the school year starts, I’m selling my soul away to my studies. I really need to focus this year, Jongin. I won’t have any room for you in my life anymore. I’m sorry.” Her voice began to tremble as she slowly pried his hands off of her.
“Well, can I at least have your number so we can keep in touch?”
“What’s the point?” She burst out, finally raising her head up again so that the pupils of their eyes were finally able to face each other. “Long-distance friendships are hard to maintain, Jongin. We can only do so much together through text messaging or video chatting. How long could we keep that up?”
“I don’t know. But there’s got to be some way to stay in contact with each other. I mean, it’s not like your house is thousands of miles away from here. We live in the same city. It isn’t big enough for us to be apart from each other.”
“Yes it is,” Soojung rebutted, and Jongin was almost baffled at how much she was discarding what he was trying to suggest. “Almost 200,000 residents live here. That’s not including the tourists coming here every day to go to the beach. And you’re telling me that somehow, among all those people, you’re going to find a way to have us reunite together?”
“We found each other once before. Who’s to say we won’t find each other again?” He pleaded.
“Jongin- “
“Shh, just listen to me.” He grabbed hold onto both of her shoulders, and she was so surprised by how sudden it was that she had no choice but to look straight into his eyes and listen.
“I care about you… a lot.” Jongin finally confessed to her. “I know that’s completely pointless because like you said, after this summer we’ll probably never see each other again. And I don’t know, maybe that’s okay. It’ll make all our time together a lot more meaningful. The summer after ninth grade, that’ll be our summer. How does that sound to you?”
Soojung was left completely speechless at his request. For a while, the two just stood still and gazed into each other’s eyes, as if they were the only two remaining on the pier. Not a single word dared to slip past their lips. Nothing else mattered within that moment.
“I – um – I guess it does sound kind of nice,” Soojung quietly spoke up. “But I thought you were afraid that one day, you’ll forget. About all of this. About me.”
Jongin loosened his grip from her shoulders and lifted his hands away, but their eyes remained fixed on each other.
“I am afraid of forgetting you, Soojung, and eventually I will. You will too. But after we go our separate ways, you’re going to stick with me for a long, long time. I can feel it.” Jongin exclaimed, not paying attention to the people surrounding them that might have heard him. “You gave me a lot to remember, and by God, you have absolutely no idea how amazing you are. It’s astounding how grateful I am to have met you. Summer is embodied in you, Soojung. You’re my own definition of summer. You are my summer. And you’re my friend to the end.”
A deep shade of red flushed across her face. She didn’t know how to respond, but her eyes said it all for her already. “You really mean that?” She timidly asked, the corners of her lips beginning to curl up and form a smile.
A cheeky grin appeared on Jongin’s face. “Just come here.”
And suddenly his arms were wrapped around Soojung’s waist and she was brought into his warm embrace, leaving her speechless. Everything, every one of their surroundings froze to a standpoint at that very moment. There was no telling how long they stood together in each other’s arms that day on the pier. The only thing they were certain about was how much they didn’t want to let go.
Close your eyes, and lose the feeling that’s been sinking.
“There’s one more place I need to show you, Jongin. Could you promise to remember this one thing?”
“Sure, what is it?”
“Next time, meet me at the end of the bike trail. We’re going to Treasure Island.”
Kim Jongin and Jung Soojung could agree that summer days were the best kind of days.
They were now in the second to last week of August, and summer was slipping through Jongin’s fingers so carelessly, so effortlessly like a handful of fine sand grains. But when he looked around and saw the towering palm trees surrounding him, the fluffy, white clouds floating in a clear blue sky, and of course, Soojung’s radiant smile as she walked across the damp, rocky sand with him, everything seemed like the start of June all over again. That was how magical every moment felt with her.
The two of them were on a farther, more secluded part of the beach, where crowds of tourists were less frequent and the waves were smaller and gentler with the shore.
“So where’s Treasure Island again?” Jongin spoke up.
“Well, it’s not really called Treasure Island. That’s just kind of my own personal nickname for it.” Soojung explained. “It’s this secret little park located at the top of those hills up there.”
Jongin took a glance up the sandy hills in front of him, squinting from the sunlight in his eyes. “Well, .” He replied. “That’s really high up. How are we supposed to get there?”
“That’s the secret part,” Soojung revealed.
She refused to say any more about it as they began to approach the jagged rock pools. The wet puddles of sand stuck to Jongin’s ankles like mud, and the surface of the rocks felt smooth, almost slimy against the bottom of his feet. There, hidden among them, was a cave implanted deep within the hills.
Soojung and Jongin simultaneously looked down into its deep abyss once they arrived. “Whoa,” he gasped out. “You sure this is the right way to go?”
She eagerly nodded yes as she slid her hand into his and grabbed onto it. “Just make sure you watch your step while we’re in there,” she informed him.
As they walked in, the sun’s golden rays began to dim down as they began to enter the looming darkness of the cave. The gleaming ripples of water and the smooth grains of sand swirled together under his feet, making a sloshing sound as Soojung dragged him further down and became engulfed by the dark. Soon he was submerged deep into it too, and the entrance of the cave was now just a tiny arch of light far out from his reach.
“Soojung, it’s kind of hard to see in here,” he pointed out. “It’s like pitch black!”
“I’m right here, Jongin. You know that.”
Just hearing those seven words from Soojung’s lips, even though he couldn’t actually see her say them, were enough to make the unnerving, almost eerie darkness inside the cave seem a bit more bearable to Jongin.
After a few more steps across the cold and watery puddles of damp sand, Jongin was able to notice a single beam of light shining through the top of the cave far on the other side. As the two of them inched closer and closer, he realized that there had to be something over at the end. Something, somewhere in the cave, must have led to that stream of light.
That something was a rocky, muddy staircase carved into one of the cave’s walls, forming a hidden exit.
“What the- “ was all Jongin managed to say when he first arrived in front of it.
Soojung began to step towards the staircase as she lightly pulled on Jongin’s arms, their fingers still intertwined together. “So? Are we gonna go up or what?” Soojung spoke up.
“Where is it supposed to lead to?” He asked back.
Soojung simply replied with a small, timid grin, “If I told you beforehand, it wouldn’t be a secret anymore.”
Jongin heaved out a sigh as he took a glance up the set of evenly carven steps. “Uh… ladies first?” He nervously requested.
But Soojung shook her head as she let go of Jongin’s hand and pulled it away from his. “How about you go first this time?” She offered.
He gave her a hesitant look as he placed his foot on the first step. Its coarse and bumpy exterior felt slippery under his feet, with its thin glaze of salty sea water and small but slick patches of moss growing on the sides. Step by step he tried his best to walk up carefully and slowly, with Soojung not far behind him. A sinking feeling lied in his stomach and his mind filled up with anxiety over what could possibly be waiting for him at the top.
When Jongin finally reached the final step of the staircase, what greeted him was a pathway made of tiny, polished marbles. Lush, green bushes with little pink flowers blossoming from them lined up against both sides of the path, and the sound of palm trees swaying their leaves above his head reached his ears.
“Is this it?” He asked Soojung once she came up.
When she arrived, she looked down at the marble path. “No, of course not,” she replied. “We gotta walk up this trail first. The park is at the top of the hills, remember?”
“We’re not at the top yet?” He responded, which made Soojung burst out into laughter as she lightly patted her hand onto Jongin’s shoulder.
“Oh, Jongin. You’re really funny sometimes,” She chuckled, and he raised an eyebrow.
So they made their way up the rather steep pathway, the soothing sound of the ocean waves crashing into the rocks echoing below them. The autumn chill was beginning to come in and replaced the warmth of the mid-summer sunlight from their last time at the beach. Now all the warmth he had was from Soojung’s hand intertwined with his as she led the way.
When they were halfway up the hill, Soojung spoke up again and ordered, “Close your eyes.”
“Uh… okay then.” Despite being a bit taken aback, Jongin closed them. “Why do you want me to-“
All of a sudden, he felt a yank on his arm as she broke into a sprint up the rest of the trail. He hastily grabbed on to her wrist with both of his hands, struggling to keep his balance.
“Soojung!” He called out. “Slow down!”
“Just keep your eyes closed!” She yelled back.
If he wasn’t so focused on not tripping over his own two feet while running up, he would have responded back in protest.
Eventually he could feel her running start to decelerate, and she made him come to a halt by turning around and pressing both her hands onto his arms. “Stop, stop,” she whispered, and their running was brought to a standstill. “We’re here.”
“Can I open my eyes now-“
But Soojung interrupted him with a shush as she moved her hands up to his shoulders, then to his neck, and then onto his flushed, rosy cheeks on his face.
“Open your eyes,” she muttered, and the first thing Jongin saw was that same cheeky grin he would do anything to keep on her face. They stood there for a moment while his face was cupped in her hands, looking into each other’s eyes, and his heart was beating so vigorously he swore it was close to bursting out of his chest. Their faces had never been this close to each other before.
“Jongin,” she uttered as she pulled her hands back, “welcome to Treasure Island.”
As she stepped away, a feeling of amazement swept over him. He had seen great views from different locations before, maybe from a simple window or above in a plane.
But he had never seen anything like this.
From where he was standing, he could see the entire sea horizon. The big, blue ocean seemed to span on for miles and miles in front of him as the waves rolled back and forth against the white hills below him. He stared out over the cliff, admiring the way it seemed endless. He stood in awe of its vastness and depth. Then he averted his attention over to Soojung, and realized that he was equally in awe of her as well.
Taking one step forward, he shouted out into the world, “This is our land!”
Soojung turned her head and looked at him with eyes that were electrified with delight before yelling out, “Yes it is!”
Their spirits soared as their screams of joy echoed through the air. Jongin cherished every moment he had with Soojung, but every time he would decide to look back and reminisce over them, he always found this one to be the most magical of them all.
There were multiple maple trees surrounding them, with a few orange and brown leaves occasionally falling off and gently drifting down onto the ground. White, little flowers were scattered through the grass, and Soojung plucked off some of them to weave them together into a nice crown. The only thing remaining the same from their last visit was the small, shimmering pond of crystal clear water, its reflection glistening on her hair.
As Jongin watched Soojung sitting at the edge of the pond, holding the dangling chain of flowers and placing it on top of her head, he requested, “Can you make one for me too?”
Soojung turned to look at him and giggled. “You really want to have a bunch of flowers sitting on your head?”
“Sure. Why not?” He replied. “We’re only here briefly, Soojung, and while I’m here I want to allow myself joy. So it.”
That garnered a vibrant laugh from Soojung as she stood up and walked over to where Jongin was standing. “Here. You can have mine for now,” she offered as she removed the flower crown from her head and stood on her toes so she could put it on his.
“How do I look?” He asked with a confident grin once she was done.
“Aw. You look like a cute little puppy, except you know, with a sharper jawline.” Soojung commented. “Now you’re literally a flower boy.”
“Shut up,” he chuckled as he shook the crown off his head and gave Soojung a light shove in the shoulder.
After that, Soojung kneeled down, took a seat on the ground again, and laid her body down on the thick grass. “Come on, Jongin. Lie down with me,” she invited as she patted the patch of grass right next to her.
“But… dirt.” He muttered.
Soojung looked up at him from the ground and rolled her eyes. “Goddamn it, Jongin.”
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding.”
Jongin crouched down and rested his head beside hers on the ground. There the two teenagers laid alongside the edge of the pond, side by side, the long tips of grass blades itching at their cheeks and tickling their fingers. The sun was smiling down at the two with the brightest shine, the infinite sky had puffy, white clouds scattered across the horizon, the warm air danced on their skin and flew past them. All of it engulfed in this peaceful, beautiful silence.
“It’s such a beautiful day today,” Soojung muttered. “It’s so nice out, I almost forgot that I start school tomorrow.”
“Yeah, I start tomorrow too. I'm just trying to forget about it, to be honest.” Jongin suggested. "We've still got today, right?”
“I know we do. It's just... I can’t stop thinking about it,” she sighed as she turned her body to the side and rested her head on her folded arms. The sight of Jongin lying down on the ground next to her, sharing these last few moments of her summer together, made her heart ache a little.
“I don’t want summer to end," she suddenly decided to tell him. "I don’t think I’ll ever be ready for it to end.”
A chuckle escaped through Jongin's lips. “Me either, Soojung. I guess all we can do is really make this day count,” He pointed out.
With a smirk beginning to form on her face, Soojung turned to lay on her back once again and asked back, “And how do you suggest we do that?’
Jongin slightly pivoted his head to his left and snatched a little glance of her from the corner of his eyes. Her long, disheveled hair was spread out into the grass, and her deep, brown eyes were lost in the clouds that were gently drifting away, high above in the sky.
She was beautiful.
And the beauty she possessed was a kind that Jongin knew he would never find again in any other teenage girl.
“I think this is enough,” Jongin decided.
All Soojung did as a response was a slow and ever so subtle pivot of her head to meet her gaze with his. That smile of hers, he ing loved that smile. He never got over the way it made her cheeks light up and her eyes twinkle every single time it appeared on that lovely face she had.
He loved her smile, but more importantly, he loved her. He was sure of it.
But it was a different kind of love. He didn’t know what sort of love it was supposed to be. All he knew was the feeling of his stomach sinking down as the clouds rolled in front of the sun until it was out of sight, and the thumping of his beating heart accelerating in his chest when he saw Soojung raise her head up as her smile curled down and her lips uttered, “I should go.”
"Wait, what?" Jongin immediately jumped off from the ground, but their gazes remained unbroken. "Already?"
The twinkle in her eyes was dying away and her smile had almost faded completely as a silence fell over them again, the kind of dull, miserable silence that felt anything but peaceful.
Soojung broke it off with a nod, replying, "Yeah, Jongin... already."
It wasn’t long until they were back on their feet again, shuffling across the dirt and through the trees as they approached the park on the other end. Their expressions were static, and the air around them was kept silent. The breeze was more chilly than cool this time, brushing against the leaves and blowing Soojung’s hair in front of her face. But she didn’t notice. It was the last thing on her mind.
“We’re almost there,” Jongin spoke up, and before they knew it, they emerged from the bushes and the all too familiar sight of the local park greeted them.
Soojung took in a deep breath and snatched one last, quick look at Jongin as she tightened her grasp on the handlebars of her bike and stepped away from him. Suddenly, he could feel it. The pain, the bittersweet pain of watching her back facing him as she walked away and placed her bike on the concrete path, just like all the other times they were together. His thoughts were racing, his fingers were twitching, his muscles were just aching to do something – but what?
Then out of nowhere, Soojung felt the warmth of Jongin’s body pressed against her back and the tight clasp of his arms as they coiled around her waist.
“What are you doing?” Her voice was only at a whisper as it dissolved and echoed away in the air.
Jongin’s lips lowered down to her ear. These words were only meant for Soojung anyway.
“Thank you,” he murmured.
Heat rose up to her cheeks as she asked back, “For what?”
He lightly rested his head on her shoulder as he ever so slightly tightened his embrace. His head seemed to fit into the crook of her neck so effortlessly, so naturally.
“For making this summer count,” he finally admitted.
They remained that way for a little while longer before Jongin managed to pull his arms back. But before she was about to take a seat on her bike and ride back home before it got too dark out, she uttered a few words that stuck in Jongin’s head for what seemed like the longest time:
“Until next time, Jongin.”
And within the blink of an eye, she had vanished.
My sweet summer is gone.
His bedside alarm clock was what jolted Jongin out of his slumber the next morning (as if he was able to actually get some proper shuteye during the night), and suddenly he realized that he didn’t want to go back either.
But who in their right mind would, Jongin wondered as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and groggily forced his body up to a sitting position.
Once his eyes adjusted, he noticed something peculiar. Why was his bedroom so dark? He turned his head to the right, and his eyebrows furrowed down in bewilderment – he was supposed to wake up at precisely 6:30 AM, but the illuminated numbers on his clock had only reached 5:30. He had accidentally set his alarm an hour early.
His bewilderment turned into relief, and he plopped his body back down to his nice and comfy bed with a gratified sigh.
“I still have another hour to sleep,” he muttered to himself. “There’s still one more hour of summer.”
Just then, a single golden ray of light shined through the window shutters above his head and fell onto his sheets. He raised his head up from his pillow just a tiny bit, stretched out his left arm, and elevated his hand into the beam of light, gazing at it intently.
(“Hey, have you ever watched the sunrise early in the morning?”)
The sunrise.
Without thinking, Jongin flipped the bedsheets off of his body as fast as he could and hurriedly jumped out of bed. He stepped out of his room and into the hallway, trying his best not to make any noise. The white walls had been colored a soft shade of red by the dim sunlight, and step by slow, gentle step, he made his way towards the front door.
He didn’t know what had gotten into him all of a sudden. Why was he even up? He could have gone back to sleep. He could have savored all the time he had left in his warm bed. He could have spent that time dozing off and dreaming about the ocean, about the infinite blue sky, about the towering palm trees and the hint of salt in the air – his last taste of summer.
But the thing was, he didn’t want his last taste of summer to be in his mind. It was going to be something real.
Jongin took in a deep breath once he reached the door. He closed his eyes shut as he lightly placed his hand onto the doorknob and unlocked it, so that he could see what was waiting for him on the other side.
When he opened his eyes again, Jongin could feel an immense weight he had never even noticed suddenly lifting off his shoulders. As he inhaled the crisp morning air that caressed and drifted past his skin, he took a step out of his doorway and placed his two bare feet on the cold concrete below him. He had experienced it all before – the orange-hued sunlight shining on his face, the clouds floating by in all these vivid pastel shades, and the palm trees in the distance that were only a black silhouette against the golden sky.
Jongin took a moment to think back to that one day on the beach. Soojung had been right. It did feel different after all.
He spent the remaining hour of his summer in the middle of his front lawn, gazing up at the sky, sitting there with nothing but the sound of birds chirping above him and the rustle of his hands as he the dewy grass. All of this was familiar – too familiar. Yet he managed to curl a slight grin on his lips as he slowly leaned his head back and placed it on the grass, lying on the ground just like how he would back at the park.
This was his last taste of summer, he decided. He felt almost at ease as the sun slowly rose up the morning sky. That same comforting warmth rushed through his veins once more, but he was certain that it wasn’t because of the rising sun or the colorful sky. It was because he knew as he watched the sunrise that somewhere out there, miles and miles away from him, there was a girl who looked like a breath of fresh air and had a smile so bright it could make flowers blossom. And she would be sharing the same sky to see the same sun rise once more, knowing that he too will see it with her.
The summer after ninth grade, that was the summer of Jung Soojung.
(”Sunsets feel like the day’s coming to an end, but sunrises feel like a new beginning.”)
Ah, yes. A new beginning. At last, Jongin had finally understood.
☼ ☼
A U T H O R ' S N O T E:
Hello, readers! Sorry it took me so long to post this part - I had actually finished this months ago, but I never bothered to try and edit it until now. Then I realized while trying to edit it that I had absolutely no idea what or how to rewrite anything, so I decided to just post this unedited. Hopefully you enjoyed it anyway?
There are so many references from movies and songs in here that I don't even remember the exact number. I thought I'd mention that in case you didn't notice them. I put in references from movies such as Her, The Hunger Games (I think), and one of my all-time favorite movies, Moonrise Kingdom. Also, you know those italicized lines that sometimes showed up between paragraphs throughout the story? Yeah, they're all song lyrics. In this part, at least. I'll give an internet high-five to anyone to can tell me which songs they're from.
Last but not least, this might not be the end just yet. There was an alternate ending that I was originally going to put in until I decided to change it, and one day if i ever feel like it, I'll write it up and post it as an epilogue. So keep your eyes out for that, and thanks for reading! :)
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