from august to december

chapter thirty eight

in the two weeks were shino was gone, the weather was disgusting. eden found it disgusting, he was more of a summer person, while yuri loved the cold and the rain.

it was pretty ironic since eden was born in december and yuri in august, but it is known that people always desire what they couldn't have.

leo would always say that eden and yuri were nothing like their assigned zodiac signs, eden a sagittarius and yuri a leo.
today was september.

it was leo's birthday today.

so yuri didn't know what to do with himself, should he bake a cake to eat it all by himself? or go to a bar and order two drinks and drink them both?

but eden knew exactly what to do.
throw a birthday party for the dead who he believed to be alive.

and so, at six pm on a saturday afternoon, eli, eden and yuri sat on a rooftop.
in a few hours the sun would go down and they would be able to see the stars.

"do you like your birthday?" eden asked and bumped his shoulder against leo's, who chuckled.
his eyes looked like they held a whole galaxy inside of them when he looked at the black haired.

eli quietly gulped and yuri looked down onto his hands.
"i love it, thanks eden," leo replied with a warm voice and a gentle breeze ruffled through the dark haired's clothes.

eden felt it as a warm hug from leo beside him.
and so he wrapped his arms around the air next to him.

eli was not mentally stable enough for this, he held back a stream of tears in his eyes and tried not to give in and to stay strong in that moment, however, it didn't take long before he broke down and excused himself.

"i'll be right back, i forgot something at my c-car," he stuttered and stood up on weak legs, yuri looked at him with a great amount of worry.

eden nodded.
leo nodded.

he sprinted down the stairs that led up to the rooftop of eden's apartment complex and nearly tripped at the bottom.

as he pushed open the glass doors he just let out the most violent scream that was trapped in his lungs.
people stared at him as if he was a psychopath but in that moment he couldn't care less about it.

he ran down the street, his hands on top of his head.

then, he stopped.
abruptly.

he turned his head to his right, there was someone standing against the brick wall, it was a girl.
her legs were long, her hair was a mix of bright brown and dark blonde strands and she looked into her hand mirror to put on some lipgloss.

the woman quickly noticed eli quite obviously staring at her and raised one of her eyebrows confusedly. her eyes were mostly brown but around the middle of her pupil, there were green sprinkles.

the aura she gave off was mesmerizing, it was somehow so beautifully elegant and at the same time so patchy, as if there were a lot of layers about her.

he walked up to her.
why?
nobody knew. eli didn't know and nobody else.

"hi," he greeted with a shy smile which the woman returned.
she hid the hand mirror in her red purse.

"hello, stranger," she giggled and held out her hand.
"i'm poppy," she introduced herself while shaking eli's hand firmly, the smile never left her face.

he already knew that he wanted to see that smile for the rest of his life.
and if somebody had told him four years ago that eden was not his 'love at first sight' but poppy was, he wouldn't have believed him.

yet here he was, just looking at her and he felt complete.

not like yuri on the rooftop with eden.
but the dark haired was strong, stronger than what he thought he would be.

"you know, eden, i think it's great you're throwing a birthday party for him, you get the chance to say goodbye to him," he stated and turned his head to face the younger.

the expression said person returned was doubtful, he turned his head to the other side to look at leo.

"are you leaving?" he asked the empty space next to him.
leo sighed but yuri interrupted him.

"h-he told me he was going back to hiroto," he threw in and eden could see leo's gaze light up at the mention of the name.
leo nodded.

"it's true, i'm moving away. i'm not sure if you'll ever see me again, but i'll try my best to come visit you whenever i can," the youngest replied with a soft voice while wrapping an arm around eden, stroking his shoulder.

eden wrenched underneath the grip of the other.

"you're leaving me," he whispered in a dangerously calm voice and he could see the illusion of leo starting to fade.

"we'll see each other," leo replied for the last time and now there was just the wind.
as if yuri had just destroyed another dimension.

eden was so furious. his comfort was gone. his coping was gone, his whole mindset had been ripped apart.

leo wasn't dead. leo wasn't gone.

his mind was hectic, his fingers started to tremble with every small move.

he breathed out before looking at the dark haired.

and the amount of wrath in his eyes made the other flinch in fear, that he moved away a few steps.

"you fucking idiot," eden hissed.
"he left."

"he left?"

eden's whole gaze was so sharp it could've ripped yuri apart into smithereens if he wanted to.
but if he did that, the pain would not be long lasting enough.

so instead of using his gaze to tear him apart physically, he used his strongest weapon.

his words.

"and it's your fault. he left because he hates you."

and yuri knew that what eden was saying in that moment was for a fact the truth, because he had never been good to leo whilst he was still alive.

"don't worry, i'm sure you're sick enough to make him come back." yuri spat at eden with the equal amount of anger in his words.

but yuri's anger was cold.

and so he just turned around on the back of his foot and walked away.