Sungyeol wanted his Americano and Myungsoo, realizing money didn’t grow on trees, worked in a small, cliche cafe. They met in a flurry of limbs, hasty apologies and flushed cheeks.

Sungyeol blinked and Myungsoo blinked and they fell in love.

They couldn’t explain it. But the feeling was there, they knew it was and being young, they pursued it.

They weren’t stupid or blinded by love. Sungyeol knew he’d have to leave in two months and he made sure Myungsoo knew it too. They were positive they knew what they were getting themselves into.

Or so they thought.

-

Sungyeol wasn’t going to lie. He had fallen in love before, countless of times. It was inevitable, with his trusting, easy-going personality. Myungsoo wasn’t, shouldn’t have been, new to him.

But at the same time he felt it was. Maybe it was because he knew that, no matter how much they loved each other and wanted to be together, they couldn’t. Sungyeol would always have to leave. And he wasn’t a cruel nor selfish enough of a person to do that to someone else.

So they stated their terms and agreed to them, forming a contract of sorts. No matter how deeply the other’s feelings went, they were going to let go at the end of summer.

And so they came to be. Their relationship was by no means ordinary, they were males of course. Yet it wasn’t that earth-shatteringly special either. It was comfortable, effortless. Myungsoo and Sungyeol together were pieces of a puzzle no one could explain, yet when together everyone could understand.

There was one thing that baffled the people about the couple’s relationship. Why did mature Myungsoo stay with the choding Sungyeol? Even Sungyeol himself wondered sometimes, and randomly brought it up one lunch date.

Myungsoo answered simply, with his trademark half-smile. “I’m too serious and you’re too childish. We’re perfect for each other because of our balance.”

Sungyeol smiled, understood, then forgot about the matter entirely.

--

Their first fight was destructive. Neither could even remember why they fought in the first place.

Both could only recall the screams and the tears, the slamming of doors and the cold night which wrapped around them instead of each others’ arms.

Then there were the searching, needy hands in the night, the butterfly kisses that stood for their apologies and soft smiles that sealed the problem and locked it away.

“What if we fight like this again?” Myungsoo asked, surprisingly vulnerable, the ice in his heart thawed by the heat of Sungyeol’s lips on his neck, heartbeats as one, beating our love, our love, our love.

Sungyeol whispered against Myungsoo’s skin. “Nothing is meant to last forever, you see. That’s why you don’t need to worry about the future, especially when the now is much better.”

And just like that, they were back to being the town’s perfect little couple.

---

The last week of the second month was hard on everyone.

All the people could see the desperate air around Myungsoo and Sungyeol, the forced smiles and the hasty kisses and the tight, torrid embraces that screamed of “let’s never let go”.

They kissed under the stars, they danced beneath the moon and they finally made love next to the water.

Myungsoo had asked Sungyeol whether he truly wanted it and Sungyeol had said yes and neither regretted what they did.

They fell into each other’s arms, surrounded by a bright cocoon of love and exhaustion, never wanting to let go.

It was too late for either of them.

They had fallen now, harder than before, their love growing instead of diminishing with the looming promise of The End once fall came and stole the warmth of their summer love.

The end of them was as simple as their beginning. It ended not with loud, frame-rocking sobs and screams of their pain but with quiet sniffles in each other’s embrace and passionate drags of burning lips they just couldn’t get enough of.

Not with a bang but with a whisper.

Murmurs of love soon to be forgotten, forsaken, the knowledge that they were never meant to be in their deepest of hearts.

Myungsoo escorted Sungyeol to the airport and promised to write, to call, to keep their love alive.

Sungyeol however knew that there was no point.

“Just remember me,” he said, kissing the lips he loved more than anything else. “Just remember us.”

Myungsoo’s grip was iron, but Sungyeol was air, and he couldn’t hold on much longer before Sungyeol slipped away.

Wiping their tears away in sync, the fresh scar in their hearts throbbing in unison. 

That was how they said Goodbye to Their Summer.