One.

Mingyu had always loved soccer. During recess, he would skip out on the lunch his mother made for him in order to have as much time as possible to play ball with his classmates.
It went like this up to his second semester of sixth grade, when a new student named Jeon Wonwoo moved to Anyang, Gyeonggi from Changwon, South Gyeonsang Province. Though he was a year older, Wonwoo was a bit shorter than Mingyu. He had fringy black hair that would fall into his face when he shook his head and dark brown eyes which Mingyu thought were beautiful.

Mingyu had never appreciated his own brown eyes until he saw that Wonwoo had the same.

The younger boy quietly admired the older from afar for quite some time, something unlike him to do, before one day they were paired together for a project in their literature class that required the two to ask about the other’s interests. They sat across from each other at one of the little sand-colored tables in their classroom.

Wonwoo started the conversation.

“So”, he said quietly, dragging out the ‘o’.

Mingyu shyly looked up from reading the instructions on his paper to make eye contact with the other boy, picking up his pencil.

“It says we each need to come up with five questions for each other that will allow us to know the other better. Are you up for this?”, Mingyu said as he looked into Wonwoo’s eyes.

“As long as you are”, the other replied with a slight smirk.

They completed the assignment by the time class had ended but with no time to spare. As Mingyu was leaving the classroom he turned to quickly steal another glance at Wonwoo before he left to go home.

Later, as Mingyu walked home from his day at school, he couldn’t help but think of the older boy.

This wasn’t anything new to Mingyu; He had had crushes on boys before. And this didn’t seem any different.

So, yes,

Mingyu had a crush on Wonwoo.

Still, he couldn’t deny the fluttering in his stomach when Wonwoo looked at him like that. The other boy’s lips were a dark pink color that reminded Mingyu of one of the multiple flower bushes his mother had planted behind their house many years ago. It was his favorite, as he could see it from his bedroom window whenever he walked by and watch it grow more beautiful each day.

And his eyes.

Wonwoo’s eyes were the color of rich, dark chocolate and made Mingyu feel the same. They lit up whenever he would talk to him, leaving him with a feeling of nervousness mixed with excitement but altogether what he thought could have been a sort of love.

Mingyu soon found out that this was different.

Two.

What seemed to them like lifetimes later, now 17 and 18 years old, the two boys had been officially dating for two years, and Wonwoo wanted to do something special for Mingyu for their anniversary. With the help of his friend Seokmin, ever the romantic type, and Junhui, whose parents owned a small drive-in theatre a little outside of the city, Wonwoo was able to secure a date to rent out Junhui’s family’s theatre for just him and his boyfriend.

The night approached quickly as the three friends decided on the movie and all the little details that could make Wonwoo and Mingyu’s anniversary all the better.

Then, it arrived.

The cold, late February air was starting to make its way into Wonwoo’s car as he went longer and longer without the heat on, waiting by the curb in front of Mingyu’s house.

He saw the pillow-white curtain open just a tad and that familiar face pop out; it was nighttime, but Wonwoo believed Mingyu’s smile lit up the whole world as he connected his eyes with the other boy. Wonwoo thought to himself how much he really does adore that boy looking at him from across the garden.

After a couple of moments, the wooden front door opened up and revealed Mingyu's tall figure walking out, clad in black with just a hint of color in his red baseball cap He paused to lock the door behind him before he headed down the front steps, through the frost-covered grass and white fence, lifting his left hand to wave to Wonwoo as he quickly got closer.

Wonwoo smiled as he leaned over the black leather passenger seat and unlocked the side door, pushing it open for the younger one.

Mingyu turned his head up and to the left to look at Wonwoo once he fastened his seatbelt, his black hair falling all around his face like a halo.

“Hey, stranger”, he said, making eye contact.

“Shut up”, Wonwoo replied in a playful tone with a small punch to his shoulder.

Mingyu giggled and Wonwoo couldn’t help but recognize the fondness that covered him from head to toe. The engine began to make a huffing noise as the car started to sail down the dark street. Eventually, they ended up at the drive-in theatre after about a twenty-six-minute drive.

It’s not like Wonwoo was watching the clock, or anything.

The lot was empty, as expected, so Wonwoo pulled his smaller car into a space with ease. They sat in silence for some moments, but it wasn’t awkward. Nothing was awkward with them.

They began to share stories about their childhood and when they were just friends (okay… as if) and would come to the theatre together on the weekends to see the movies that had already been out of regular theatres for some times. After, Wonwoo tells his own stories about his childhood before he moved from Changwon, his hometown, to Anyang, where he currently lived.

Where he met his current boyfriend.

Wonwoo tells Mingyu all about when he was younger and the things he did, Mingyu returning the conversation with his own thoughts. As Wonwoo looked up to Mingyu for the thousandth time that day, Wonwoo couldn’t help but say, “Honestly, I've really never felt quite like this before. I’ve never been able to talk to someone so freely.

You’ve made me better at that”, he admitted, shyly looking down at his hands in his lap.

It was freezing, and the sun had set hours ago, but the boys had barely noticed. Without saying, they both swore the other could light up the whole sky if he wanted.

Mingyu noticeably shivered a bit in his seat and Wonwoo offered him his extra coat he had in the back, though he shook his head no.

After the movie, Wonwoo started his car back up as they agreed it was probably time they left. Mingyu reached to turn up the heat a couple notches as Wonwoo watched knowingly. He just laughed, agreeing that it was most definitely needed.

They drove back towards Mingyu’s house and got there more quickly than before.

Still, Wonwoo was watching the clock.

Mingyu opened the passenger door and had one leg out before Wonwoo was opening the opposite door and rushing to the other side to walk with him to the door.
The pair made their way back through the white fence, through the yard and up the front steps, as Mingyu had many hours before. The cold air was evident and Wonwoo pulled his coat tighter around his torso.

Mingyu looked up at the starry night sky and Wonwoo turned his attention up as well.

“See that?”, Mingyu asked, pointing up at the sky.

“What am I supposed to be seeing?”, Wonwoo replied as he looked up into space.

“The Cancer constellation!”

Wonwoo looked at him with a confused expression.

“Your zodiac sign? Cancer? Does this sound familiar?”

He had to think for a moment before it came to him.

“Oh… that. I guess I’ve just never noticed it in the sky before.”

“That’s because it’s one of the faintest of the constellations. You can only see it on really clear nights, and tonight is the perfect time”, Mingyu said as he directed Wonwoo’s gaze to where he was pointing.

“It’s between two of Gemini’s brightest stars, Castor and Pollux, and Leo’s brightest star, Regulus. It looks kind of like the end of an arrow. You’ll probably be able to see it better in a couple weeks, though”.

Wonwoo stared in the direction of Mingyu’s index finger for a couple seconds before he finally saw it, up in the dark sky.

“Hm. And how do you know this?”, Wonwoo asked.

“Hey! Don’t doubt me! I took an astronomy class last year.”

“Okay then, Mister Astronomy Expert, where is yours? Aries, is it?”

Mingyu smiled. “Correct you are there. It’s over there”, he said, moving his arm slightly to the right.

“It’s really hard to see right now since it’s most visible in December, I think, but you get the point.”

Wonwoo squinted his eyes to try and see the other constellation, and he did, a barely faint crooked line of stars in the sky. They continued to walk up the rest of couple of stairs right to Mingyu’s front door. Mingyu bit his lip softly, turning his head downward a bit to look the slightly shorter boy in the eyes.

“Thanks for tonight. It was great, I’m serious”.

“Well, thanks for coming. I know I can count on you for that.”

Mingyu’s hand came down to touch Wonwoo’s cool skin before he abruptly turned his head back to the door and went inside, looking over his right shoulder and offering the older boy a genuine smile before closing it behind him.

Wonwoo whirled around on his heels before he started walking back down the steps and on the way to his car. He couldn’t help but think about the other boy and how much he may possibly love him.

And he had to agree with himself.

Maybe he did love Kim Mingyu.

One.

Two years later, after a total of four long but amazing years of dating, things began to change. Mingyu and Wonwoo had moved to Seoul together and now shared a loft apartment in one of the most beautiful cities they had ever seen. Mingyu could quote what Wonwoo had said the first day they moved in: “It’s just magical. Oh Mingyu- it’s everything I’ve ever wanted, and I get to experience it all with you.”
But, over the next couple of months, Wonwoo started staying out later and began to not answer the younger boy’s urgent calls and texts at three in the morning when he would wake up and look across the bed, expecting Wonwoo to be there, right beside him.

He wasn’t.

It was unusual; Mingyu had known that. It was unusual that Wonwoo had grown distant from him and wasn’t quite his old self. Eventually, it turned into Wonwoo stumbling through the door at five AM and refusing Mingyu’s questions about the previous night.
About the previous week.
About the previous months.

Then, Mingyu made the decision to leave. He made the decision to order a train ticket online and go back home, back to Anyang, where he had first met Wonwoo. Maybe he could spend time there and figure something out and come back to his boyfriend when he was ready.

His boyfriend?
When he was ready?
He didn’t even know what all of that meant anymore.

His heart had belonged to Wonwoo but Wonwoo’s belonged to the city and he didn’t know what to do with himself and this white, taunting travel ticket before him with KIM MINGYU printed in bold letters across the top.

He remembers it all too well. He remembers the dark eyes he used to love staring at him from across the table and he remembers looking around the room to avoid contact and he remembers the cold hand on his wrist trying to stop him from leaving.

Mingyu remembers the black fringy hair falling into Wonwoo’s confused face when Mingyu told him he couldn’t do it anymore. He remembers his heart beating so fast he thought it might actually explode.

He had wanted this feeling so long ago, but in a completely different way. He had wanted his heart to explode in the sense that it would cover him and his boyfriend of four years in love and maybe wash away everything they tried to keep on the back burner of their relationship.

But things like that just don’t always happen, and the two boys both knew that all too well.