Frigid air bites into your cheeks and the moon hides behind her silver curtains. The weight under the confines of your bones sits heavy and throbbing, aching with every step. It’s all cold—impossibly frozen and unmoving like the permafrost on the ground. Where has the sun gone?

He appears, warm and shimmering as ever. But his eyes are dulled, dampened by the pain. He doesn’t offer his warmth this time.

The sun has forsaken you.

Hyunwoo speaks, a cloud of moisture billowing from between his lips at his word. “Why?”

You have no answer. What excuse can you give for abandoning the safety of the sunlight?

“I was willing to give you everything.”

That’s what you were afraid of. Being too close to the sun results in singed wounds that will never heal.

“Come back to me,” Hyunwoo breathes. He is close to you now, his cheek brushing lightly against your own. His heat is overwhelming, but it fails to saturate your layer of frost.

Your body is locked in place, joints and muscles alike tied up with thick bands of ice. Tears spill from your eyes to crystallize on your cheeks. Move. God, you want to move. To shatter the snowy particles that permeate the fibers of your muscles and wrap your arms around him. Your sun.

Hyunwoo steps back, searching your eyes but you cast yours downward. He stays a moment longer, fighting with himself. Eventually, his footsteps crunch against the snow as he leaves you to be buried by the dark.

Move.