It was the cold 8pm air that harshly sliced through her delicate skin, but Sooyoung could've sworn nothing stinged more than the stomach piercing fact of having to cotton to the last of Jiwoo's touches. Nothing more could ever make her feel so unfilled inside despite of her fingers in between the gaps of Jiwoo's own, arms vining around each other, and the awfully infectous smile inching to either sides of Jiwoo's cheeks. Although Sooyoung doesn't feel like it, she smiles at the sight of her girlfriend feed onto the cotton candy she got her earlier, and when Jiwoo hums in indulgement whenever the sweet little fibers land onto her tongue.

"Sooyoung!" Jiwoo calls, clenching the fabric of Sooyoung's shirt and excitedly pointing up. "Look, ferris wheel! Let's go for a ride." She squeals.

As if already knowing Sooyoung's answer, Jiwoo raced to the line of people waiting for their ride. Sooyoung laughs, following her.

Thankfully, the line shortens fast, and the two has hopped into their cart in no time. As the ferris wheel rotates slowly, they rise up in their cart looking below at the very busy street. Until it became a busy boulevard. Until it became a busy city. Jiwoo was elated, seeing this while holding the hand of someone who makes her as happy, if not more.

Of course, with the cheerful carnival music ringing in one's ears comes the miserable screams of the internal voices ringing in the other's. It was against her will to not feel right within Jiwoo's touch, it pains her that she can't be with Jiwoo anymore. She wants to live. She wants to be with Jiwoo forever, or at least for a lifetime with the same worth. She wanted to be with her for as long as possible, but alas, she hated the way nature must have to act, how it has to mercilessly rip her away from Jiwoo after it synced their heartbeat in harmony. The way this would hurt Jiwoo without any warning but smiles indicating the last of her days.

This would've been a mundane date to the boardwalk carnival but Sooyoung's mind thrown in flurries makes it hard for her to part take of the reality. She wanted to tear away from her own high speed worrying thoughts, even desperately so, but time has time has to do its duty no matter how denial she'd be to her condition. And she felt so sick inside her from the thought of running out of time for them to be together before she leaves astray from Jiwoo's grasp for the rest of eternity.

"Jiwoo," She starts, now seated on a blanket resting in the sandy shore with her hand placed onto Jiwoo's who's seated right next to her. She took a long pause, inflating the courage to tell Jiwoo about her unwanted fate. But alas, silly Sooyoung fails to find the heart. Especially under the anticipating stare shooting from Jiwoo's eyes. Her eyes sparked, just by merely looking at Sooyoung, and the sudden mention of her very unlikely demise could crush the girl into fine matter. In the end, she had to go for a light hearted topic. "How's the sweet stuff?" Sooyoung asked, refering to Jiwoo's cotton candy that she's just finished, since she's a slow eater.

"Filling." Jiwoo almost unmindfully answered upon looking at the serene view of the nightsky. She tapped her tongue on the roof of as she savors the last of the sweet taste. "Strawberry. My favorite."

Sooyoung laughed inwardly. "I knew you'd say that." And Jiwoo slips out a small giggle.

It falls quiet between the two, only the sound of the careless waves crashing the shore and the faint music of the carnival sliced through their hearing. Jiwoo leans onto Sooyoung's shoulder and fits her head into the crook of her neck, and like that of a tetris block, perfectly so. Sooyoung also rested her cheek on Jiwoo's head as they both look at the horizon that gives the them the serenity they would forever dwell in. With the calming dancing of the offing and pretty nightsky ending just above it. Sooyoung sighed, letting the scenery spellbind her off from the unforgiving reality.

"The sky is so pretty." Jiwoo announces, and Sooyoung hums in approval.

"It sure is." Sooyoung said in the softest and most fragile form of her voice as if talking loudly can hurt Jiwoo. She could feel the younger smile and snuggle further into her body, so close that Jiwoo could feel her heartbeat. She smiled at the thought that only her can make it race, that Sooyoung's heart truly belonged to her. She's so lucky to have someone like Sooyoung by her side she'd never know what to do without her. She's just like that awfully in love with Sooyoung like she's seen her hang the moon and all the celestial bodies one by one, that she's immensely thankful to the heavens that Sooyoung reciprocated her feelings.

Sooyoung loved Jiwoo the same way. She'd shield her away from everything that had the slightest potential to hurt her. She loved Jiwoo with every atom of her being that it overwhelms her, that how did she get so lucky to successfully steal such the purest a heart can get, and within that thought, she started questioning if she was the best Jiwoo could be worth of. Jiwoo didn't deserve someone like Sooyoung, who could easily leave her— who has her number of heartbeats measured from the day she started having one. Jiwoo didn't deserve Sooyoung.

"Jiwoo," She removed her head's contact with Jiwoo, which the latter felt discomfort from. "I was just thinking..."

Sooyoung holds her breath, and three waves has hit the shore.

"What is it?" Jiwoo asked when she noticed Sooyoung's hesitating pause.

Sooyoung sighed with the weight of millions. "Will you ever love anyone more than me?"

"I will never." Jiwoo answers, almost instantly, without thinking twice. "I can literally never."

"What if I tell you... that that time will have to come?" Sooyoung looked at Jiwoo with eyes packed with a lot of love and care she holds for her and her only like how a mother looks at her child, so delicate and thoughtful— but at the same time so vulnerable and weak.

"Sooyoung, no." Jiwoo sensed the gloom in her tone and felt the necessity to tangle herself to Sooyoung more, "No, no, Soo. I'll never love anyone but you. You're everything I pictured my happiness to be. Let's be together for as long as I live, please?"

Sooyoung has a lot of words, but they end up getting caught in no matter how she forces herself to say them. She can't guarantee Jiwoo an eternity, not even a full lifetime. For Jiwoo's longevity of life isn't equivalent to Sooyoung's.

The red hair beneath her head was growing impatient for a response. "Promise me, Sooyoung."

Sooyoung swallowed thickly, but there was nothing to swallow away. Nothing. Just the enlarging guilt that clogs , phasing out the walls of her neck and invincible from Sooyoung's own control of her body.

"I promise." Then just like that, Sooyoung knew how thorns tasted like.