A 12 year-old boy sighed, chucking a pebble into the lake. Nothing like starting the afternoon with frustrated pebble chucking, but he couldn't really help it. His audition to start training as an idol went terribly wrong after the judges rejected him.

Was his dance skills not good enough?

Should he have improvised to a different song?

"Whatever..." Dongwoo muttered under his breath. He felt like crying but he was trying his best not to let those tears drop.

"...aaahhhhhh he's SO annoying!"

Dongwoo blinked, turning his head to the right see a rather pretty boy kicking a pile of rocks into the lake. He had to do a double-take again: a pretty boy?

"URGH!" the boy soon gave up out of frustration and sat down on the grass, puffing his cheeks up in an annoyed manner. The act was cute, making Dongwoo stiffle a laugh, but apparently he didn't stiffle it well enough, seeing how the boy glared at him with his doe eyes.

"What are you looking at?" he asked sassily.

"Er- sorry. I'll just get back to sulking," Dongwoo panicked as he looked back to the lake. The shuffling from his right made him look back to see that the boy had moved over to sit by him, searching for something in his jacket pocket.

He saw the boy take out two pieces of candy wrapped in bright yellow wrappers, "Here." The boy handed him a piece before unwrapping his own, "Lemon candy always makes me feel better..."

Dongwoo concluded that the boy was interesting to say the least, seeing how the boy was humming happily with an innocent smile as he ate his lemon candy piece after the boy had just sassed him. Probably just unintentional redirected anger...

"So what are you sulking about..." the boy asked absentmindedly.

"Audtions to become a idol... they didn't go well..." Dongwoo murmured, playing with the wrapper rather than eating the piece of lemon candy.

"Oh, rejection, got it," the boy sighed, then pouted, "Honestly, if they can't see your talent then maybe someone else will."

Dongwoo couldn't help but laugh a bit, making the boy look strangely at him, "You know, you're surprisingly nice...!"

The boy blinked before getting what he meant, "Ah sorry, I didn't mean to come off as a sassy diva, the sass usually happens after I get angry. You know, stupid second cousin problems after just getting here..." he then groaned, "That reminds me, I need to get back to his house or else my mom will panic...!"

"W-Wait!" Dongwoo suddenly shouted before the boy ran back, "How about... a tour around town while you're staying here? You know, s-since you just said you're fairly new here... We could probably meet at this lake tomorrow at noon..."

He stared at him for a moment before he slowly smiled innocently, "Sure, that sounds fun..."

Only then did he almost forget that they still haven't told each other their names, "Dongwoo."

"Sungjong," he then ran off.

The next day, they met, just like promised, and would always promise the same thing for the next day. Maybe eating at the restaurants was Dongwoo's way of stalling the tour each time to learn more about Sungjong, but the feminine boy didn't seem to mind.

Bit by bit, Dongwoo noticed that something was different with how he felt about Sungjong every time they met.

Soon...

"I know that I'm a guy, and maybe we should spend more time as friends, but summer break is almost over... so please go out with me!" Dongwoo squeezed his eyes shut, but curiosity made him force an eye slightly open enough to see Sungjong's facial expression.

Obviously, the boy seemed shocked, then tried to calm himself, then looked troubled, "I... I... like... someone else..." he murmured awkwardly, "I-I dunno, it's sort of hard to tell whether I like that person and whether that person likes me back..."

"Please give me a chance at least!" Dongwoo stayed stubborn.

"Aha... do you really think that you could make me fall in love with someone else after five years of chasing after an idiot?" Sungjong laughed bitterly.

Dongwoo reached out and held Sungjong's hands, giving him his best smile, "You never know until you try...?"

Sungjong laughed after a moment of shock, seeming as though that broke his previous resolution, "I... Alright."

He knew the day would come soon.

He knew the promise was too weak.

He knew the boy he liked might never have liked him back as a lover.

Yet why didn't he know that Sungjong would tell him now?

"I'm sorry... but this won't work out..." Sungjong forced a smile, "We should break up."

Dongwoo felt his heart constrict as tears flowed uncontrollably.

"Dongwoo, please don't cry. We're at that age where we think that we'll last forever but... you know how love at this age ends, right? If we meet again... I'm sure that I'll be over my five years crush too..." Sungjong reached over and hugged Dongwoo, who in return clung onto him tightly.

"I love you... but you don't realize it..." Dongwoo cried into Sungjong's shoulder, "Please reconsider...!"

Eventually, Sungjong had let go, pushing Dongwoo away softly, "... Sorry..." The younger turned around and walked away.

Oh how badly Dongwoo wanted to reach out for Sungjong or just do anything to bring him back, but he needed to recover first before facing the boy again. And so, for two weeks he stayed in his room, trying to do anything that would help his broken heart.

After his heart was somewhat healed, he went to Sungjong's second-cousin's house, having memorized the address due to him constantly visiting the younger when they were dating. He rung the doorbell to see a barely familiar woman opening the door.

"Excuse me, but may I ask where they've went?" Dongwoo asked awkwardly, due to never really talking to the woman. He peeked into the house but couldn't see if at least Mrs. Lee was in there.

"You must be one of Sungjongie's friends that he made here," she murmured in assumption, then realized something, "Oh, have you not heard? They moved back."

Only then did he realize that that day was the last day of his summer break.

Dongwoo awkwardly laughed at the five's gaped expressions, probably never expecting him to spill all of his feelings. The story conveyed all of his emotions towards their break up... but he left out one crucial detail.

Sungjong's crush.

Throughout the story, he never mentioned that Sungjong had a crush, even though the boy would always mention his crush whenever something at their dates reminded him of his crush.

He felt bitter- or more specifically jealous- when he had found out who Sungjong had a crush on when he came to their school.

A secret was replaced with another secret.