[ ❄️ ]
"WHERE ARE YOU taking me?" Aera asked as Beomgyu stood behind her, covering her eyes. he was walking the sidewalk with her as he waved goodbye to his taxi driver.
"you'll see." he laughed from behind her, making sure she didn't stumble as they entered the sand.
"i'm so scared, plus the snow is getting all over my hair." a chuckle left her lips as they entered the sea front. Beomgyu wiped away the snow off of her hair with one of his hands, his other one occupied with covering her eyes.
"okay, we're here." he gently lifted his hands from her face as she slowly opened her eyes. to her surprise, they watched the waves colliding with each other, missing her shoes by an inch. she watched the snow fall ever so lightly and soon become melted water. she looked at the boy behind her, stars full in her eyes.
"you remembered." she uttered under her breath as she continued to look all around her. her pink dress flowing with the wind as she twirled around in excitement. she couldn't help but smile at the thought that he remembered her dream and he made it all possible. she didn't know how or when, but he did.
"Beomgyu, you're—" she looked behind her, only to see nothing but sand and a home. "Beomgyu?" she questioned, looking all around her, placing a winded strand of hair behind her ear.
"happy birthday to you..." Beomgyu slowly walked out of the beach house with a cake and a lighter in his hands. Aera's hands clasped around her mouth as she made eye contact with the boy who came closer until he was only feet away from her, the cake creating the distance between them. he turned the lighter on and ignited the candle on the cake, the wind attempting to blow it out and beating Aera to it.
"but it isn't even my birthday yet." she smiled, a tear escaping her eye. she furrowed her eyebrows once she saw Beomgyu's consistent smiling, pulling out her phone from her coat to see the time
midnight.
"Beomgyu.." she sobbed happily.
"make a wish!" he exclaimed. the raven haired girl clasped her hands as if she were making a prayer, a long one, as she took a deep breath in and blew out the candle. she opened her eyes to see the boy looking at her fondly. he hadn't stopped, but somehow he had an even brighter smile. as if starlight itself had immersed its being into a boy who Aera could now call "mine."
i wish you and i could last a lifetime.
Aera smiled once she made her wish as they walked back to the deck of the beach house, placing the cake on top of the table.
"oh my gosh, even the cushions are pink." she exclaimed.
"that was all Taehyun's doing." Beomgyu held his hands up as if he were surrendering. "i hope everything is like you dreamed."
"you made it perfect, Beomgyu." she smiled, staring into his eyes deeply. they stayed there for a while.
how did she get so lucky? how did she find somebody as loving, caring, and impeccable as Choi Beomgyu? he articulated her every thought and created them into something even more magical. this was everything she could have ever asked for, even more. she wanted to kiss him again, let him know just how much she loved him, let him see that the stars aligned to set the two of them together.
her thoughts were interrupted as she watched the brown haired boy walk down the steps and back on the sand, taking off his shoes.
"what are you doing?" she questioned, laughing at his behavior.
"Kang Aera," he held his hand out to the girl. "would you care to have this dance with me?"
Aera's face flushed as the blood rushed into her cheeks. she watched as the vibrant red string from his hands reaching out to her stood out and stopped at her finger. could this really be happening now? she didn't just dream that moment weeks ago?
she stood up and removed her heels, walking down with the boy. as if it were a scene in a film, they stood in the middle, slow dancing. their eyes staring deeply into each others then avoiding, then catching glances yet again. Beomgyu smiled at the girl's red cheeks as he led the steps of the dance. the snow fell on top of her hair as his delicate hands wiped the snowflakes away.
right and back then left and forward, they danced as he twirled her around and caught her in his arms, her back facing his front figure. she saw from behind her the boy looking down at her. as she faced back front, she leaned in before landing her lips onto his, feeling his hand placed on her waist. she felt snow fall onto her eyelashes as she held his cold hands warmly. they pulled apart, as he pulled back in for a deeper kiss.
"thank you for everything, Beomgyu." she smiled. "this was everything i could've wanted."
he smiled. "i haven't even given you my gift yet, it's still at home." a chuckle escaped his lips. Aera checked her phone, seeing the time was close to when their taxi was supposed to arrive.
"should we head back?" Beomgyu said, holding the girl's hand and lightly swinging it back and forth. his other hand occupied holding the straps of the bag with the cake box, her other hand holding the balloons he had given her. his eyes darted to the beach house, double checking to make sure he had closed all the lights and locked up as Taehyun had directed.
"you said this was Taehyun's house?"
"his parents'." he looked at her. "they let me stay for a bit since they're on vacation but they come here every once in a while." he smiled.
"you decorated it so beautifully."
"gosh, if only you knew the hassle everything was. let's just say it took a lot of time and a lot of hot cocoa."
[ ❄️ ]
day one
it was the next day, Aera's real birthday. the sunlight creeped out from her windows as her mother creaked her door open, checking if the girl was awake. as she was beneath her blanket, she opened up one eye to see her mother holding a cake in her hands.
a smile plastered on top of Aera's face as she sat up in her bed, made another wish and blew the candle out, embracing her mother soon afterwards.
"thank you, mom, i love you." she smiled as her mother kissed the top of the girl's head, sitting at the edge of her bed.
"what are your birthday plans today, sweetheart?" her mother asked, placing the small cake up upon Aera's desk.
"Ji-Na wants to call since she's traveling." Aera thought. "and i'm hanging out with my boyfriend today." she mumbled, hoping her mother wouldn't catch that.
"oh yeah, the boy who took you home yesterday after you didn't tell me to pick you up when it was well past midnight?" she asked passive-aggressively. "you're lucky that boy's sweet and brought over flowers." her mother stood up and started to walk over to the door.
"wait, you accept him? like, you don't secretly hate him like you hated Jun-Ho?"
"well," her mother turned back around. "he seemed really sweet but if he hurts you, it's over for that boy." she laughed. "happy birthday, sweetheart. i made breakfast, wash up and come downstairs."
Aera smiled as her mother shut the door. the girl got out of bed with a small smile plastered onto her face. as she went to rub her eyes, the smile went away. she looked at her hands as one of her fingers had soon become completely transparent. she let out a loud gasp and sat back down on the bed, clasping her mouth as tears began to fill her eyes.
what was happening?
[ ❄️ ]
it didn't take long for Aera to realize she could see through all of her fingers, even though nothing could slip through them. it was like she was a ghost. her fingers were transparent now yet completely solid. just, see-through. what was craziest of all was that the red string was still solid red on her finger—not transparent at all.
her eyes had become extremely puffy and red from sobbing for hours. she was so scared but couldn't find anything online that talked about this. she hadn't responded to any of Beomgyu's calls or texts. she knew he must be worried.
in order to stop that, she got changed and covered her hands up with mittens. there was nothing she could do about her fingers, so it was best to just tolerate it until this hallucination goes away. that's what she had hoped it was; a hallucination.
Aera was completely clueless. she didn't know that the first person that said "i love you" would be the person who has a countdown until they completely disappear. for good. Aera was only on day one.
she took off one of her mittens and sighed, dialing Beomgyu's number with her transparent finger.
"Aera, are you okay? i was so worried!"
"i know, im so sorry. i just overslept." she wiped her nose, clearing her voice.
"are you okay, you sound like you've been crying."
"oh no, i'm completely okay. my mom just planned a surprise for my birthday so i was a little emotional." she lied, smiling behind the phone as if she were trying to convince herself.
"okay, well i was walking to your house because i was worried. come outside."
"what—" she was cut off by Beomgyu hanging up the phone. she put her mitten back on and walked downstairs, opening the door and closing it behind her. she saw the boy in front of her at her doorstep, holding out a bouquet of flowers for her. peonies.
"Beomgyu." she smiled, clutching them closely to her body and walked down the steps with him. "you didn't have to, thank you."
"i have a present for you." Beomgyu smiled as Aera glanced at the guitar on his back.
[ ❄️ ]
Beomgyu sat on the sand of the familiar beach. it was now daylight and it wasn't at the beach house anymore. it was at a lake nearby, one of Beomgyu's favorite places to go to clear his mind. he looked at the girl who admired the beautiful sight of frost on the rocks, the sand underneath her feet and the flowers blooming slightly.
Beomgyu took the guitar off of his back and swung it in front of him, placing it on his lap.
"i wrote this for you."
Beomgyu strummed the guitar strings as he sang a small melody. the harmony was blessing the ears of his lover, a soft tune echoing the quietness of the atmosphere. the snow glistened as he looked at Aera while singing. the snow fell to her hair as she tried to catch it on her mittens.
Every time I lose sight of it
I think you're out there somewhere
I've been thinking about
The you that I still haven't seen
he was in love and he couldn't deny it. he was deeply in love with the girl of his dreams. something just felt so magical about her.
I'm sure that we'll meet eachother
We'll be tied together, so that we won't separate
You and I meet so that we can't be unravelled
Our love, wе will weave it togethеr
he finished his song as he strummed the last note.
he cupped the girl's teary face as he wiped the salt away from her face. he placed a kiss on her cheek, watching her face fall to the mittens on her hands.
"happy birthday, Aera." he smiled.
"i love you." she placed her arms around his figure, sobbing onto his shoulders.
"i never, ever want to see you upset. i only want to bring you happiness. please tell me if there's something bothering you. i want to be there every step of the way with you for the rest of my life." he held out his pinky, asking her to do it back.
she used her mitten to pinky promise as Beomgyu furrowed his eyebrows and chuckled.
"that's not how it works." he laughed.
"i'm too cold to take my mitten off." she held it closely to her body. it hurt lying to his face, but how could she tell him? even she didn't understand what was going on.
"okay."
she nuzzled into his shoulder and looked at the sea ahead of them as he placed an arm around her shoulder.
six more days.