[oceans] | a txt imagines book

[huening kai] • midnights

Your favorite part of the day was midnights. To put it simply, you were free.

Midnights were the times that you were able to let yourself walk the quiet streets with tears in your eyes.

Similarly, midnights were the moments you laughed the hardest because you were with someone whom you could laugh with.

You were honest during midnights because you were with someone whom you trusted.

At midnight, you met your first and last love.

On a silent bridge in the middle of Seoul, with lights that glimmer in warmth and feeling, you were walking behind a stranger.

They leaned onto the bridge railing as they took pictures of the view beyond it.

You thought that was quite unique. Sure, the view was beautiful, but commonly, people would just pass by and ignore it.

But it seems that this stranger was more focused on the view as he set his phone on the flat surface of the railing.

He stared beyond the city of reflections, and after a few seconds, he just walked away into his own world, forgetting his phone on a solemn night.

You were quite appalled. You smiled a bit at first because you thought it was funny. The fact that someone poured more of their attention on a view than on their belongings.

People could be quite interesting at times.

Out of concern, you grabbed his phone and ran after him.

"Excuse me!" You called out as you ran.

"You forgot your phone!" You yelled out again, your steps approaching him closer and closer.

It took about three calls for him to finally look behind him and see that you were chasing him with his phone in hand.

Instead of walking quickly to get the phone back, he laughed hard, perhaps in disbelief that he had forgotten his phone.

You continued walking towards him, and as his laughter died down, he then walked towards you.

From that encounter, you exchanged numbers. You talked for nights on end. He would tell you about all the places he's been to while doing concerts, while you told him about everything that happens in your workplace.

When he was in the country, you two would go on walks at the bridge where it all began. At midnight, you two were like the birds that freely sore the sky. At midnight, you two loved each other more and more.

The way he smiles baffles you. The way the wind carries his hair never fails to implore you. The way he listens to the things you say, and the way he gave you simple expressions of his affection made your heart weak in flattery. You two loved each other deeply. You shared touches of laughter and pain, and even the stars in the sky could never separate and break the bond you had.

So what went wrong? Where did everything start falling apart?

That was the question that kept you up at night ever since the day it ended. Your thoughts had gone wild, wondering what changed. You wondered why.

And soon enough you came to a conclusion. It's a sad one, but it was simple.

You knew how many reasons your brain can make up to explain the things you experienced, but simply, there was only one reason.

He just fell out of love.

And now every midnight when the skies are free and streets are empty, he no longer held your hand.

At midnight when the silence sings its song, yours was no longer that laughter he laughed with.

At midnight, no longer did you walk the streets with him by the bridge where it all began.

At midnight, time stopped, but it wasn't because you were free, it was because you lost someone that made you feel free.

At midnight—This midnight, the realization sank as you saw with your very own eyes how time stopped for you, but went on for him. He was holding another girl's hand with a laughter drawn on his face.

The night was perfect. The bridge was clean. It was a midnight deja vu, but he was no longer with you.