A/N: To really get the feel of this fic, I recommend listening to this first, and this second. Enjoy)

The first time you saw her she had dust kicked up at her feet and palms so tense that you worried that she had made her very own hurricane. Her eyes stared forward and her spine curved backwards, drifting back and forth from the swing set she sat upon.

     She payed you no mind when you approached her, not when you sat in the swing beside her, not when you cleared your throat, and not when you waved your hand in front of her face.

     It wasn’t until the dust beneath settled that she even blinked, the wind taking it away in plumes and it’s the first time you see her feet – they’re covered in tattered converse, little drawings in ink scrawled across the fabric and it’s when she kicks her feet again that you see handwriting on the sole of her shoe.

     “Jessica,” You breathe, the name rolls off your tongue and you see her turn her head. Brown – her eyes are brown.

     She raises a brow at you, but says nothing more, just reaches over and taps your foot with her own, dust raging between the two of you and you wonder if you’ve just been dragged into the eye of a storm.

     “I’m Taeyeon.”

     She nods, lips curving up in the slightest and you think that she might just be beautiful.

     Her arm moves from the chain of the swing, reaches out and points past where the two of you are sitting, past the dusty park and out towards tall blades of grass, swaying with the force of wind that you can’t even feel.

     Though when Jessica stands from the swing and takes your hand in hers and starts walking, you feel like you’ve been hit by a raging gust.

The water is cold, sinking into your pores and it’s not until you come up for air that you remember the sun exists. It’s soothing on your back, sharp tingles settling on you and you open your eyes when you feel a finger poke into your collarbone.

     You turn and there she is, standing in front of the sun, making her look ethereal and you nearly forget where you are. She smiles and pokes your collarbone again so you look down; a freckle, sun-kissed skin and you shiver when she runs her finger down the length of your arm.

     “Summer skin,” She says, takes a step forward.

     Her fingers lace with yours easily, seamlessly, and her head lands on your shoulder and your lips press into the crown of her head without even thinking.

     You’re worried, so worried when the water around the two of you calms, worried that maybe it deserved an explanation you weren’t yet ready to give but then you feel her smile against you, soft lips against your collarbone, against your freckle.

     The worry stops, everything stops.

     You wonder if a tidal wave has washed over you, because all you can feel is Jessica’s heartbeat against you and the water moving around you.

You’re walking out of your bedroom when you hear it, the gruff, demanding voice that belongs to your father. You peek from behind the wall, eyes cast on your aunt, who sits on the sofa, phone in her hand and exhaustion on her face.

     “I understand what you’re saying, but you don’t get it,” She says, and you inch a little closer to try and hear the whole conversation. “She’s better off here with me, she’s got friends now, she’s smiling and she’s – she’s happy here.”

     You feel your stomach sink, they’re talking about you.

     You want to show yourself, tell your father that she’s right, that you are happy here, that you’ve never been this happy and that he needs to just accept that because it’s not like he can accept anything else about you.

     “−Just for the summer,” Is all you can hear, his voice tight and you watch your aunt shake her head.

     “Fine, but−”

     You’d heard enough. You slink back into your room, shut the door quietly and wait until you hear the sound of your aunt going to bed before you even think of sleeping.

     But you don’t sleep. You scream into the pillow, you scream and cry and punch the mattress and blame everyone but yourself for feeling this way.

     You snatch your phone from the bedside table, type the number you know off by heart with blurred and foggy eyes, and listen to the dial tone.

     She answers after one ring, she listens to you cry and you hear her breathe when you tell her you love her.

     You think you stop breathing when she says it back.

You don’t remember much of the summer, just humid air and burning wind and her.

     You don’t think you’ll ever be able to forget her.

     She’s running her fingers through your hair, nails soft on your scalp and you hum at the touch, not minding when she giggles at the sound.

     You open your eyes, stare up at her from her lap and she stops playing with your hair just to look at you and you just feel so content and happy and blissful that the words just slip from your mouth.

     “I’m going to miss you.”

     She nods, and you watch her eyes get glossy so you sit up, kneeling as you hold her head in your hands, thumbs her cheeks and you wipe the first tear you see away and kiss her.

     She kisses you back, kisses you with everything she’s got and her hands go to your waist and yours rise to her hair. When she pulls away you know she’s going to miss you too, but she’s resilient and she’s beautiful but you’re both in denial.

     “You’ll be back next summer, right?”

     You nod, “Yeah.”

     The lie is bitter on your tongue and you wonder if she can taste it when she kisses you.

She came to see you off, snuck through your bedroom window just before midnight, clumsily graceful as you caught her when she tripped into your arms.

     She hugged you tight, told you that it just wasn’t enough to see you today and that she wants to spend every minute being with you.

     You don’t know what to say, summer is one day from being over. In eight hours your father will be here to pick you up and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it.

     So you kiss her, you kiss her lips, her neck, her chest, her hips, her thighs, you kiss every single part of her on your bed and hold her close and you smile every time she sighs against you. Her nails rake up your back but you don’t complain, just throw your head back and try to keep as quiet as you can.

     She runs her finger along your collarbone afterwards, legs tangled in yours and your chin resting on the crown of her head, fingers threading through her hair and along her spine.

     “You’ll come back,” She says, so sure of herself that you almost believe her. “Right?”

     “Of course,” You nuzzle into her, breathe her in and try to imprint the entire summer into your mind and you just hope that if nothing stays the same that you’ll remember this – remember her, forever. “I’ll always end up back here, with you, don’t worry.”

     She hums against you, places a kiss on your freckle, and treks her hands up your arm and into your hair, pulls you to look at her.

     “Just – just don’t get lost, okay?”

     You shake your head, lean down and place your lips hers, run your teeth and tongue over her bottom lip and feel her shake against you.

     “I promise.”

     You feel her smile against you, and you know then and there that even if your father never allowed you to come back here next summer, you’d always find your way back to her.

She snuck out around an hour before your aunt came in to wake you, you know because it was suddenly cold and you haven’t slept since.

     When your father arrives he’s rough with his words and he makes promises that you can go somewhere new for the next summer, but when you argue that you want to come back here his hand firmly wraps around your shoulder and he tells you to wait in the car.

     On the ride home, he tells you that he doesn’t like what this place has done to you, that he doesn’t like the way you smart mouth him and that its all your aunt’s and this place’s fault.

     All you thought it did was make you smile.

You didn’t go back for the next summer.

     Or the one after that.

The strap of you bag was coarse on your shoulder, heavy, weighing you down on one side completely but it didn’t matter because the air blew around you and god, you felt free.

     You knocked on the door and you were greeted warmly, and you were told that it'd been too long. You nodded, agreeing, and asked the question you’d been aching to ever since you left.

     “Down by the park, I’d say.” Was the answer.

     You felt your face light up in a way you hadn’t in so long, dropping the bag and running.

There was no kicked up dust, no tattered shoes and no hurricanes. It was just her, sitting with her back facing you, hair now a golden colour that matched her smile and contrasted her eyes and you felt your chest cave in like a landslide.

     You crept up towards her, noticed that when she threw her hair back there was a freckle just on the edge of where her collarbone and shoulder meet.

     You poked it with your finger, watched her turn around slowly and collapsed to the ground when she pounced on you.

     Her legs were astride yours, a smile on her face like you’d never seen and you realise that your aunt was right, it had been too long, far too long.

     “You came back.”

     You nod; hands on her waist and you feel hers grip your shoulders.

     “Is that surprise in your voice?”

     She buried her face in the crook of your neck, eyes wet against your skin and you held her while she shook.

     “I didn’t think you’d come back.”

     You laugh against her, lift her face from you so you can look at her.

     She’s so beautiful, you think, she’s so beautiful and she’s crying and she’s here and she’s so beautiful and she’s yours and she’s smiling through her tears and her hair is a mess and you’re both dusty and all you can think is that she’s just so beautiful.

     “I always keep my promises, Sica.”

     She chooses then to lean down, to kiss you and you sit up so you can hold her properly, hold her with your arms wrapped so tight around her waist just to remind yourself that this is happening and that it was worth leaving home for.

     “I missed you,” She says, voice light and heavy at the same time and you kiss her again, just once, just to reassure her. “I missed you so much that I thought my head was going to explode.”

     You bite the inside of your cheek to stop yourself from laughing.

     “I missed you, too.”

     “You’re not going anywhere this time, right?”

     You shake your head.

     “So, you’re staying?”

     You nod.

     She laughs, rakes her hands through your hair and holds you in place, drags her lips over yours and you feel lightheaded.

     Somewhere between kisses you’re sure she tells you she loves you, so you make sure to say it back and this time you’re thankful this summer will end, just so you can spend every other season with her, spend every other year with her.

     Spend forever with her.