He was there, standing in front of the river. The sun was setting down and as it hit his eyes, his fingers slowly vanished into the thin air – next was his face, then his body, then his legs followed by his feet. Soon all that there was became inexistent, straight down the valleys of oblivion, deep down the seas of those that have been forgotten.

The next day, he was standing inside the subway. The same face, the same hair, the same clothes with that same look in his eyes – a stoic expression. He wishes he could erase it but ever since it happened, he could no longer paint another smile. The circumstances for Baekhyun were different. He was used to his nothingness that he always welcomes as the sun came down. He has witnessed one too many sunsets to be unfamiliar of his condition. Some people might call it power but to him, it was a curse. It robbed him of the life he always wanted – and that is to simply live. Some called him a wizard but he likes to call himself, the sunsetter, someone who fades out of existence as dusk starts to envelope, only to return by daybreak. At first he thought, it was okay. Like some kind of magic he wished for as a child but he soon realized that as he dissolves out of this world – the memories he created vanishes through time as well. He comes back like a blank book – empty, waiting to find the words written on the pages he once lived. He, however, remembers everything but, those whom he met? They forget it – every bit of it. Permanency is out of the question; everything that Baekhyun creates, the sunset takes away. 

“Until the next sunrise.” Park Chanyeol whispered to Baekhyun’s ear, holding the little guy’s neck. He knew of the places to hold him, he knew the words to say.

“Until the next sunrise.” Baekhyun repeats – he knew that somehow, there was a possibility for it to be real.

-

5:28 am

The sun starts revealing itself amidst the thick fog, Baekhyun starts to feel human again. He sees he is nowhere near his apartment so he takes a stroll – a typical routine for someone like him, if ever there were others. He takes time to breathe in the fresh morning air later, he rides a bus going back to his home. He places his hands in his pocket only to find the keys to his apartment, with him is a notebook. He walks into the building, only to be questioned again by the guard.

“Excuse me, do you live here?” The guard asks.

“Yes.” He smiles out of courtesy, he shows his ID, the address same as where he is heading to.

“Okay, then. Have a nice day, sir!”

He takes a bath and puts on a fresh set of clothes. Almost the same as the one he was wearing, he checks the time. It’s almost 9:00; too early to fade out, he decides to go to the coffee shop and spend his time people-watching – hoping to find someone like him, with a birthmark shaped like the sun on their wrists.

The coffee shop is action-packed this morning. He sees, a woman who ordered 5 drinks and tried to hold them all delicately, he sees the woman run towards her car outside, almost bumping to a young lady. The young lady wears a navy blue blazer, carrying a notebook on her left hand, with a pen trapped between its pages. It reminded him of the one he keeps – filled with numbers, times which the sun will rise and times in which the sun will set. The lady, walks towards the counter, she examined the food closely until he realized that she was looking at someone else – she was looking at the barista. This tall, lanky guy with ears too big and eyes quite wide; his skin was of porcelain and his smile revealed a set of pearly white teeth. He did not need to wonder why the young lady was looking him. The young lady called him,

“Oppa!” She shouted. The guy looks at her and smiles then says,

“The same order?”

“Of course.” The girl giggled. The guy, who looked like he was enjoying the admiration, smiled once more, this time, he wasn’t smiling at the girl – he was smiling at him.

Baekhyun looked at him quizzically, thinking how he must have caught the guy’s attention because, he believed he was never good enough to attract anybody at all and with the kind of life he has, it was the last thing he needed but today, he smiled back and the guy smiled for another time. This time, he was sure it was him. He soon took a sip of his coffee and looked outside the window, in deep thought that this might just be trouble. He hears the lady thank the barista,

“Thank you, Chanyeol.” The girl said as she left the coffee shop.

Baekhyun was finished with his coffee and went to writing on his notebook, the light was somehow shadowed by a tall figure in front of him,

“You’re done with this sir?” Chanyeol asks.

“Yeah, yeah. Thank you.”

“Is it your first time here?”

“Yeah, it is.” He lied. He couldn’t think of any witty words to say. Living the kind of life he has limited his interactions with people so he toyed with the edges of his notebook awkwardly as Chanyeol took the seat across him.

“Do you write?”

“No, not really. I mean, okay, I do...a little but I sketch most of the time.” He answered quite shyly.

“Well they must be good.” He said.

“I hope they are.” He looked at him.

They were cut off a few seconds later, Chanyeol needed to get back to his job and Baekhyun needed to get back to his writings.

-

12:31 pm

Baekhyun felt a little bit tired; this morning he found himself in a province four hours away from the city. He searched for a train station and got lost eventually finding a bus that takes him to the next province that actually has a train station. He arrives at his apartment around noon and fixes himself a bowl of instant ramen. He soon realizes that he did feel tired – something, he hasn’t been feeling since it happened. He decided to get some rest. He lied on his bed face towards the window, the sun’s light was seeping through the thin curtains of his room until they all faded only as he fell asleep.

He missed sleeping.

-

4:15 pm  

Baekhyun decides to go back to the coffee shop to write once more and also, to see Chanyeol. There was something about this guy’s smile and the way he looked at Baekhyun that made him feel that he does exist, at least, in a more human way. As he enters the coffee shop, he finds that Chanyeol isn’t there so he goes to buy a drink and immediately walked away. He went to the park just a few minutes away from the coffee shop, there he found him – lying on the grass, curiously looking at the sun. He walks just a little closer to him and plopped on the grass, writing the schedule of his everyday existence. Today, the sun will set at exactly 6:00 pm so he has an hour and 45 minutes to make a move or run away. To his surprise, Chanyeol, spoke.

“Do you think the sun’s beautiful?” He asked

“Indeed it is but it also has another side, a side it doesn’t show to us. A side that ran out of beauty – the side which it keeps safe, hidden as the night comes by.”

“Don’t we all have that side?”

“Yeah, I guess. We do.” Baekhyun chuckles a little as he hears Chanyeol do the same.

“Well that was deep, I’m Park Chanyeol by the way.” He introduces himself, as he sits up and looks at Baekhyun, smiling once more.

“I’m Baekhyun.” He reaches out his hand as he accepts the warmth of the other’s hand and continues, “Just Baekhyun.”

“Okay, Just Baekhyun.” Chanyeol laughs a little.

“So what are you doing here? Aren’t you the one who works at the coffee shop?”

“Are you one of my avid customers?” He asks teasingly.

“Nope, just a random person who goes to the coffee shop all the time.”

“Then why don’t you say hi when you visit.”

“You won’t remember me, so I’d rather not.” He smirks and he felt a little thorn prick inside his chest.

“I would. I’m not the one-shot-forgetful-type of person.”

“If that’s what you say so...”

Chanyeol, glances at Baekhyun’s wrist and sees the sun shaped birthmark. He takes Baekhyun’s wrists and slowly traces it, Baekhyun feels a marching band of ants in his palms.

“What are you doing?” He asks nervously, taking away his very own hand from Chanyeol’s hold.

“Why are you being too defensive?” He laughs. 

“I am not.” He says, now tracing the birthmark with his own fingers. He comes in defense and says, “This isn’t a tattoo, it’s a birthmark. Most people think it’s the former because it’s too vivid and fine. I wish I didn’t have it though – it’s been causing me a lot of trouble.”

“Why wouldn’t you want to keep it?”

“Because it hinders me from living – it makes me live like I’m a temporary person, existing in the day, gone by the night. I’m really used to it but at the same time, I’m sick of it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m just tired okay and probably scared too; that one day I’ll be gone and no one will remember even smallest thing about me like the color of my eyes, or the way my lips form into a rectangle when I smile or even this stupid birthmark.”

“I think it makes you special.”

Chanyeol almost couldn’t understand what Baekhyun was talking about but he felt the vulnerability in the little guy. It’s like he wanted to shelter him and save him from whatever he must have been feeling. He continues, “Only a few can bear such struggle and you’re one of them.” Again, he takes Baekhyun’s hand. He traces the birthmark on his wrist and places Baekhyun’s hand on his cheeks. Baekhyun looks dumbfounded – he eyed his watch and it’s already 5:55 pm, a few minutes away until this very moment gets thrown down in his memory lane but not in Chanyeol’s. Baekhyun feels the warmth and softness of Chanyeol’s cheek until Chanyeol’s phone starts ringing.

“Oh ,it’s my shift again. Well, I hope to see you in the coffee shop tomorrow, or here or anywhere, really.” He stood up, running backwards as he faced Baekhyun. Chanyeol’s smile was plastered o his face, he seemed very happy – the happy when one sees the beauty of a sunset. Maybe Baekhyun is Chanyeol’s sunset.

“Off you go.” Baekhyun says – time check: 5:59.

Off I go as well, he whispers.

Chanyeol runs, now facing the direction of the coffee shop soon; the p