The scenery was slowly changing, he could see it from his window: from the gray buildings and the smoky air to the green valleys and the scent of summer and salt running in the wind. He hadn’t slept for almost a week, only when the doctor had forced him to take his medicines, but that didn’t count. Is it really sleeping when you don’t dream?

He had almost always remembered his dreams: sometimes they were surreal and impossible to describe, sometimes they were a beautiful collage of his past’s memories, sometimes they were just nightmares. Night was his favorite escape from the life he had to lead while awake; go to college, do your homework, cook your meals and then go to sleep. Sometimes there were friends in between, sometimes there were none, it wasn’t such a big difference in his eyes.

The thing he liked the most in the wake was listening to music and trying to create choreography following the notes. He had always envisioned the music as a form of spell, leading his body like the moon leads the waves of the sea.

Ah, the sea… it had been such a long time since he had seen it.

Jongin looked at his hands clutching the inhaler and closed his eyes. It was going to be better, he was sure of it. No more grey days spent at the hospital, no more breathing in and never out, no more lonely nights in white rooms for the poor dancer.

-Breath in. Now breath out.-

The colors behind the window pane, the greens, the yellows and the blues, were so much more vibrant and alive than what he had been getting used to in the city. Everything was mesmerizing, so beautiful it was almost impossible to think it was not something escaped from a painting, straight from the artist’s brush.

The train started slowing down and Jongin knew that it was time to stand up and take his luggage outside. There weren’t many people at the station and he certainly was the younger passenger to get off and that made him smile: he truly was coming home.

His aunt was there, waiting and waving at him with a bright smile. She was a tiny lady, yet she was the strongest woman Jongin had ever met in his life. ­­­­­­­­ She had her long silver hair up in a chignon, making her silhouette sterner so that you could outline every single wrinkle in her face, but despite all of that she was still the image of the delicate lady she once had been. Bloomed and decaying like a true queen of the sea.

-Nini, it is so nice to see you after all this time. Look at you, you have become a rather fine man- said the woman, taking his suitcase from his hands like it weighted nothing.

-Thank you Chara-san-

The truth was that the Japanese lady wasn’t really his aunt, it was his mother’s best friend, but to him she was part of the family just as much as his parents. They had decided to send him to her house in the seaside because the air was fresher, cleaner and the days were peaceful for his poor heart. Everything to help him with his heavy asthma.

He couldn’t wait to go dip his feet in the water, to feel the sand running through his hands, to finally start his new life there. So many memories were attached to that place, so many beautiful days he had spent daydreaming at the tiny beach right under their house. He remembered feeling the happiest eating watermelons by the sea with Chara-san while she tried to sing him a song and eat at the same time. She had looked very ridiculous that time, but he knew she had done it to make him laugh after a gloomy day.

-I’ll carry your things to your room, so why don’t you go and have a look at the sea. Today is a very beautiful day-

Jongin didn’t have to be told twice: he shot her a kiss on the cheek and started running, following the footpaths through the cane thicket he knew since he was little. Such freedom, such happiness, such… clumsiness. Running like a little kid with your college shoes still on over the sand isn’t always the best idea when you are a tall and clumsy person like Jongin. In fact, the poor man slipped and, after a series of somersaults, found himself with his shirt and his hair full of sand and shells and his feet dipping in the sea water, just like his shoes and socks.

Normally he would have gotten mad at his situation, but that was a special day, so he just took everything off, remaining only in his black pants and smiled at the beautiful scene in front of him: a desert of sapphires had formed a sea in tiny little droplets, shining brightly under the sunrays.

-I love it here- he said, still smiling.

Shoes in one hand, he immersed his bare feet in the cold water and deeply inhaled: the air tasted like salt and seaweed, like sunshine and shells. It tasted exactly like home. Shielding his eyes from the sunrays with his slender hand, he looked up at the top of the cliff, his favorite hideout when he was a kid, the place he wanted to visit after that splash in the sun, but… someone was already there.

The figure was tiny, short dark hair with heavy undercuts and glass marbles instead of eyes. The guy looked lost in his thoughts, sat on the summer-kissed grass of the cliff, letting the wind caress his skin free from the clothes on the ankles and upper arms. He almost didn’t seem to belong to this world, more like an angel passing on Earth for a visit, ready to spread his wings again and fly up in the clouds. At the end of what seems the longest minute in Jongin’s life, the mysterious boy stood up and held out his hands toward the sky, as if to take it and put it in his pocket, then turning around.

He was too far off in the distance to see it clearly, but a shiver down Jongin’s spine could tell him that the boy was looking at him. For several moments, everything seemed to be frozen in time, wrapped in the golden hug of the sun going down in the horizon, but then the boy slowly turned his head to the opposite direction, gently waving at someone Jongin could not see and began walking toward him, leaving the confused dancer all by himself.

What a strange encounter, he thought.

He picked up his shoes, gently shaking them off from the sand and began hiking up the footpath.

His aunt’s house was like he remembered it: full of the Japanese style Chara-san had brought back from her native town, but also full of history. Every object had not been placed there at random, it had a purpose and a meaning, a very powerful memory attached to it. Many of them they had chosen together, many they had found in their little tours of the town, many had come from the aunt’s past, carrying the weight of her first love.

Chara-san loved to tell the story of her first encounter with the man she had loved all her life, her now deceased husband, who still made her heart flutter with every photograph of him that she took out of her closet.

-Somewhere there is a person just like him waiting for you- she always said to her little grandchild –Someone who will make your days shine and your heart full. -

-Does it mean I’ll get a husband too? - he had naively asked one day.

-If this is your desire, I don’t see why not-

Lovely little Chara-san, with her too much broken of a heart and her too bright of a smile. Jongin loved her like a second mother. She had been the first to know the fact that her little grandchild had not a woman in mind but a man, she had been the first to simply look at him in the eyes and smile.

-If you love, everything else doesn’t matter. This old woman here only prays for your happiness-

He entered the kitchen and found her frying some fishes she had probably caught by herself. The smell was the same you could find attached to every single item of clothing that his aunt possessed because fishing truly was her favorite thing to do now that she lived alone. To him, it had become the smell of tight hugs and tiny reassuring words, the smell of warm family love.

-Sit down, lunch will be ready in minutes-

He did as he was told, looking at the colorful room: they had painted it together, composing a mosaic of glassy squares all over the walls, like in an impressionist painting and he loved every inch of it. Still lost in his childhood’s dream, a question popped in his mind.

-Say, Chara-san, there was a kid I didn’t recognize up on the cliff. Do you know who he is?-

The woman looked at him in surprise, then turned to her fishes which were almost burning, puffs of grey smoke beginning invading the kitchen, but she paid no attention to them.

-There is a new family in town, they have a son if I remember. Weird people, the Do family, but the fishermen said they are also very kind. Their kid is rumored to be mute or very shy because he doesn’t talk with anybody, but also very handsome, even though I’ve never seen him-

A new kid… maybe they could become friends. If he was going to live with his aunt until he recovered, it was going to be very boring and lonely without anyone to talk to. Next time, he was going to try and smile at him, maybe…

Nights in a city built upon the sea are spectacular: the stars shine right above the water, transforming it into a mirror full of fireflies. So many things were lost in the grey smoke that wrapped the big cities like his hometown, so many thoughts and feelings just disappeared in the grey fog.  Dreaming under that sky was an experience he wanted to treasure in his heart forever, but an even better idea sparked in his mind: why not go and dream under the stars for real, sleeping on the beach?

Chara-san, a woman born for adventures, thought it was a beautiful idea and gave him her summer sleeping bag and some mosquito spray.

-To protect you from those blood-letches- she had said with a laugh.

He went down to the beach in his usual spot and laid down the sleeping bag, putting himself over it and looking up: there were so many more stars visible from there, like a full explosion of a galaxy. He couldn’t even begin to count them, but he could trace some constellation that were familiar. A finger up on the sky, he tried to remember some names: The big Dipper, the Scorpion, the Hunter… each one of them had its story and its meaning. He would have loved to know them all.

His arm lowering, he was slowly slipping into the realms of dreams when something fell in the water, instantly awaking him. He stood up, scanning the black water in front of him and…

The boy, the same boy from that evening, had jumped from a rock to his right, the same one he always used for dips when he was younger, falling in the dark water with his clothes still on and was now standing, looking at the moon. His short hair formed almost a halo in the moonlight which shone brightly upon his pearly skin. For a moment, he kept his eyes closed, but then he opened them, letting them absorb the beauty of the landscape in front of him.

He looked like a mage performing a spell and Jongin couldn’t take his eyes off of him. There was something profoundly wrong in that picture, maybe because it reminded him too much of a painting, or maybe because the boys lips were a shade darker than violet and his hands had started trembling. Finally, the right word came into his mouth, pushing upon his lips to come alive.

-Hey, you in the water! - he shouted.

The boy instantly turned his head to meet his eyes and Jongin could feel his heart pounding three times faster: he had the most enthralling eyes he had ever seen, pitch black but with a pearl of light reflecting from the water. He almost regretted disturbing that peaceful figure, despite the blueish tones his skin was turning into. It looked like a flower had bloomed under his skin, shedding its petals in his blood.

-It’s dangerous to swim at this hour. You could get frostbites at your feet if you stay in the water too long-

The boy looked at his feet, moving them swiftly, creating circled waves around his waist, then he began walking toward the shore. He dragged his feet on the wet sand with too much effort to be normal, letting his body give in to gravity and falling down hard on his back, breathing hard.

Jongin immediately got up and got closer to him, kneeling next to him: he was definitely near hypothermia but it was not the water’s work, it was too hot to bring him that close to that dangerous state.

-Hey, can you still hear me?-

The boy gave him a small nod and coughed up some water. He could have looked like a deep sea creature if only flakes had been there instead of blue spots blooming on his neck and arms like tiny petals.

-Don’t worry, just… have you got anything to keep me warm?- murmured the boy, coughing salty water.

Jongin, still in shock, looked around him: it had been a warm day, so he didn’t even bring a sweater, he only had his sleeping bag, but it was one of the new one, created to keep you very cool at night, so he took off the only shirt he had and covered the poor boy’s body with it.

-I’m sorry, I have nothing else to give you-

The young man looked at him, his big dark eyes scanning his slim figure, then smiled. Jongin had to thank the night being so dark because he was sure he was blushing: his lips had a very peculiar heart-shaped conformation and, even if he wasn’t in the brightest condition, it lit up his face like a warm candle light.

He had gotten so used to being alone it really had been a long time since he had observed a person so up close as he was doing with the young stranger. There was something melancholic about it, something he could taste on the tip of his tongue, something he could feel only at the base of his nape… a memory maybe? His throat began itching, but he imposed on himself to remain calm.

-I’ll be okay in a matter of minutes, no big deal- said the young man, his skin slowly returning to a healthier color –Thank you-

Gradually, the blue from his lips and neck disappeared and the shaking hands found peace anew on the sides of his corpse. Clutching the borrowed shirt, the young man stood up, shaking his head to push his hair aside from his eyes, dark irises surrounded by dark circles.

-Thank you- he repeated, looking at his wet and wrinkled fingers –I think if it hadn’t been for you, I’d be a corpse in the water-

Talking about death seemed like an everyday topic for him, like the weather outside or his plans for the day, but, in his voice, Jongin sensed something off: a subtle note of sadness, concealed from anyone who didn’t have the talented ear he possessed, trapped between his kind words.

-Yeah, about that, what were you doing? I saw you deliberately jumping in the sea and almost had a heart attack-

The young man looked at him surprised, blinking a few times with his gentle eyes. Jongin could swear he could see water marbles inside them, like two big pearls.

-You were worried? I’m sorry. I just had a very big argument with my mother and had to cool myself down. Considering it now, I wasn’t thinking at all about the consequences, but fortunately, you were there- he stretched out one pale hand and smiled weakly –I’m Do Kyungsoo. May I know my savior’s name? –

Jongin looked at the hand, ready to meet his, still wet from the jump and shaky. That boy was very odd and, he was sure, a reservoir of surprises. Placing a hand upon his heart, he wondered if it was strong enough to carry the weight of an additional person, but looking at Kyungsoo’s smile he couldn’t help but just shrug. He just needed to remind himself to breath and everything would turn out fine.

-Nice to meet you Kyungsoo, my name’s Kim Jongin-

Still wrapped in Jongin’s t-shirt, Kyungsoo sneezed. Behind him, like an ink ocean, the waves lit up by the soft moonlight were rocking back and forth on the shore, creating a sweet lullaby that, Jongin was sure, would have brought him in the realm of dreams in no time if it wasn’t for the raven boy right in front of him.

-I’m an insomniac- he said, taking sips from his cup full of warm tea –A heavy one. That’s why my body temperature is lower than the average person. I have to be careful of how I dress or I could end up burnt or like a brick of ice.-

Jongin almost gave in to a laugh.

-So it is a very logical thing to launch yourself in the freezing water, sure-

He remembered, back at the hospital where they had taken him for checkups, there was a tiny girl that had been diagnosed with insomnia. She was no taller than his leg, with long fluffy hair to her knees and the deepest dark circles Jongin had ever seen.

-I’m afraid of the dark, that’s why I won’t sleep- she had confessed to him with a little pout –My mom says she’ll always protect me, but I know it’s not true. She doesn’t even have a sword, how can she do that?-

Tiny memories like the tiny girl, they were so precious to him. Every person he had met, every new food he had tasted, every smell he had sensed; for quite some time he hadn’t been able to tell things apart: when had that happened, where had he gone that day… daily questions for him, but the medicines he was taking didn’t allow him to fully recover in his mind. It was either breathe or remember.

That is why he was ecstatic to be living with his aunt: it meant he was getting better and he did not need those heavy medicines anymore, just to be careful. When he had watched Kyungsoo fall from the rock into the sea, his heart had pulsed too hard for his ribs to contain it, a sharp pain shock up his chest to his throat, but it had been just a shard of a second. He was fine now, or at least, he wanted himself to be, because Kyungsoo was talking to him and laughing and really it had been such a long time since he had talked to anyone outside the hospital.

-So I guess I’ll see you around Jongin- said the raven boy, taking off his shirt and giving it back to its owner, pointing at the cliff with his right hand –I have to go back home or else my mother will have me sleeping in the garden-

And then it hit Jongin: Kyungsoo house wasn’t only near the cliff, it was the old villa built upon the cliff, the one used to explore when he was a toddler because nobody had been living there for years and everyone thought it was haunted. He had only found a bunch of spiders weaving their webs with their little legs and a lot of dust, sprinkled upon every old piece of furniture. That was the house he had dreamt about so many times, the one he was going to buy when he was old enough, so when had it been bought?

-Yeah…- he mindlessly replied, still lost in his memories –See you around-

He looked up, too late to actually wave him goodbye, but just in time to catch his silhouette in the night, slender and still dripping from the salty water and he noticed for the first time something weird: leaving tiny footprints in the sands, barely visible, his feet were .

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Yeah, I know... back at it with the fluffy stuff. I can't help it. I thought something with a Jongin point of view would be nice, since he's such a precious child. Hope you enjoy it ^__^