“So,” Seungyoon lies down on the soft, damp grass and stares up at the twinkling stars, “you’ve heard the news, I guess?”

 “That a mind-blowing war’s about to happen soon?” Mino responds, sitting down and hugging his knees. “So I’ve heard.”

Seungyoon laughs dryly. “The way you say it—you make it seem like it’s the end of the world already.”

“Looks like it,” Mino mutters. “I wonder what’s going on in their ed up minds. As if the war ends everything that they consider as problems.”

Seungyoon hums in agreement.

The two enjoy the amicable silence between them until Seungyoon speaks. “What are your plans, then?”

“I’d probably end up being enlisted,” Mino mutters. “Our laws are getting just as strict as yours. You?”

“I’ve been enlisted already,” Seungyoon whispers, “before I even planned my life out.”

Mino takes a strangled breath, but keeps quiet.

“So that means,” he mutters, “I’ll probably see you at the front lines.”

Seungyoon smiles bitterly at him. “I won’t shoot you, don’t worry.”

“You stupid Northerner,” Mino hits his head lightly. “Do your job for your own freedom!”

Seungyoon laughs out loud. “Yeah, sure. Just don’t hesitate if you see me aiming my gun at you.”

Mino laughs, rolling his eyes. He then lies down beside Seungyoon, but he never meets Seungyoon’s eyes as he says, “So, tomorrow or for the next few days . . .”

“We will be each other’s enemies.”

“Enemies because of some unnecessary war . . .”

“A war that’s actually inevitable from the start,” Seungyoon sighs.

“If we had the chance to run away from all this, what will you do?” Mino muses.

“Me?” Seungyoon asks. “Uh, I don’t know, maybe ride a bus or a train all the way to the Chinese border and live on a Chinese province on my own?”

“Lucky you. It only takes a ride for you to go to the nearest Chinese province,” Mino says wistfully.

“How about you?” Seungyoon asks.

“I’d jump at the first ship towards Jeju or maybe to Japan,” Mino replies. “Or maybe just go straight to Japan and be a manga artist.”

Seungyoon snorts. “Your Japanese is .”

Mino shoots him a glare. “As if your Chinese isn’t.”

They burst out laughing, the sounds echoing off in the meadow.

Soon, too soon, they see the first rays of the sun peeking from the horizon, and they sigh.

They turn their faces to look at each other, as if memorizing each other’s features. Words—words that suddenly feel so right for him yet so wrong for others—fill Mino’s throat and bubble in his mouth, his heart bursting in his chest. Seungyoon, on the other hand, is quiet, but his eyes reflect a million emotions he may or may not recognize at all.

“Will I see you again?” Mino whispers, his voice betraying him.

Seungyoon smiles sadly. “I . . . have no idea. Maybe, I guess—but not this way.”

His words echo in Mino’s head, and he feels his heart getting heavier. “Is this a goodbye, then?”

Seungyoon blinks, and for the first time in his life, he feels the tears sting in his eyes. He never cries—he’d always refused to let his tears flow—but seeing Mino like this . . . It was enough to break his heart.

Seungyoon doesn’t reply—instead, he brings his face closer to Mino’s, one hand cupping the latter’s face. Seungyoon gazes at his eyes for a moment before he lets his lips touch Mino’s.

It was soft, it was light, like a breath on Mino’s lips, but it was enough to send his heart on a haywire.

Seungyoon breaks off a few seconds later, his face only a mere inch from Mino’s.

This time, Mino doesn’t hesitate.

He kisses Seungyoon fully, and Seungyoon’s lips are too soft, too full, too perfect for him. Too sweet, Mino thinks, and his tongue dances across Seungyoon’s lower lip, begging for an entrance. The latter complies, and soon it is nothing but pure pleasure and bliss—and bittersweet things.

Seungyoon pulls away, panting, and he realizes that they ended up tangled in each other’s limbs with Mino on top of him. Meanwhile, Mino leans his head on Seungyoon’s clavicle, breathing hard. He’s confused and befuddled and happy and sated and sad—he feels too much, and his tears dampen Seungyoon’s shirt.

Seungyoon’s arms tighten around Mino and his lips are on top of his head. “I refuse to call it a goodbye,” he breathes huskily. “I think I’ll consider this as a temporary parting.”

Mino feels Seungyoon rising up, and he lets out an involuntary whimper. Seungyoon sits up, his arms still around Mino, but he shifts their bodies so Seungyoon can tuck his head on Mino’s shoulder.

“We might have to separate now,” Seungyoon whispers, “but we’ll meet again, I’m sure of it. Maybe not soon, but we will.”

His words, somehow, lift Mino’s spirits up. “I’ll come and find you,” he promises, his lips on Seungyoon’s hair. “After all this is over.”

“I’ll wait,” Seungyoon murmurs. “Or maybe I’ll just find you myself.”

They stay in that position until daybreak. By the time the sunlight touches the blades of the grass, they disentangle from each other and stand up.

With a final kiss they part from each other, and Mino wonders if Seungyoon will ever know the words he’d always wanted to say.

*

He knows it is a soldier’s fate to die unburied, to be never left with any marker to know where he died. A dead soldier may be honored by his own country, but there’s a chance he’ll never be given a proper burial.

After all—especially now—his body will rot before anyone can find him.

But he wonders, as the light closes upon him, if somebody will still try to find him.

If he will ever find him.

“I’m sorry,” he breathes, and closes his eyes.

*

The war is over, and people are celebrating.

It’s over, they repeat again and again. No more deaths, no more suffering—it has ended.

Yes, it has ended—even the reason why he kept on fighting for so long.

Everything has ended, leaving nothing but ashes, rubble, and an aching, longing heart.

*

It doesn’t matter, he thinks as he struggles to walk up towards the meadow. Whether he died under heaps of rubble or was dumped somewhere, he didn’t care

He knows he will be there, waiting for him, no matter how many years—or decades—have passed.

After a few more minutes, he finally arrives at the meadow. It’s just the same as how it looked like to him before they parted—but with a slight change.

The grass blades are a little taller, and there are small shrubs scattered around the meadow.

He smiles.  He’s here, he thinks.

 “I told you, I’ll come and find you,” Seungyoon whispers, his gravelly voice slightly breaking. “Even in my last days, I’ll always look for you.”

He lies down on the grass, taking time to let his creaky bones get used to it, and sighs in contentment as the predawn spring air touches his face.

“I’m sorry it took so long,” he whispers. “I couldn’t go past the border—I had to wait six and a half decades so I would be able to cross over.”

He sighs and smiles to himself. “It doesn’t matter now though, I guess—time has meant nothing to me now.”

He plucks a blue flower from the nearest shrub, and he kisses it softly. Any minute now—by the time the sun rises—the officials will look for him, but he doesn’t care.

He has waited so long for this, to come to this place where his world made sense and had no wars and conflicts.

He is here—in his peaceful place, where Mino’s presence surrounded him, through his favorite blue wild flowers.

Closing his eyes he whispers, “Meet me this time, Song Mino—like you’ve promised me.”

And he lets go.