On summer nights like these, Yuta had trouble falling asleep. The air in the town was too hot, and the air conditioning made it too cold for his comfort. Thus summer meant long runs at the break of dawn in the suburbs and a lot other things; longer hours of football practice at the playground and stopping at the ice cream parlor to try a new flavor every day, downing chilled lemonades on late movie nights alone in his room, long cold showers with music on its loudest. Summer brought many things into Yuta’s life, but the last thing he had expected it to bring him was a lost childhood memory in the form of a certain outlandish, blue haired boy.

Yuta’s morning runs were governed by one general rule which was not stopping until he 's about to collapse, unless compelled by traffic lights which were mostly not functional at so early at dawn. Some days it was tree lined roads in the suburbs, on other days he ran his way downtown past alleys of coffee shops and eateries. Every time, he made a silent wish to no one, to be able to visit each and every one of them someday. This morning too was no exception to the drill. Well, most of it.

A strong gush of sweet strawberry scent outrageously broke the moist spell of the morning air past him. That was all it took to make him violently halt on his track. In his defense, it wasn’t entirely his fault that his curiosity was overwhelmingly powerful and that the smell was alarmingly familiar. It took him entirely 5 seconds to focus his vision on its source, 2 more to realize it was a boy. And it took him no more than a nano second to recognize him. He knew that face. All too well so.

"Lee Taeyong?" , his voice shook.

The said "Lee Taeyong" looked up with surprised eyes from whatever business he had going on, conversing with some invisible object on his wrist. Yuta felt like burying himself. Clearly, when he summoned him he hadn't expected the guy to look at him with the eyes of a kicked puppy.

Oh. .

"I'm...sorry- I didn't mean to int-"

"Na Yuta!"