his gallery, poring over the photos and clips he had of his summer break with his friends so far. the plan was to meet up at the little café a few blocks from where they had split up but jeongguk had given up on sightseeing early when jimin disappeared on him.

he was already assembling a montage of their trip together. the cup of café mocha he had ordered sat on the table, untouched. jeongguk enjoyed making videos. they were memories. the sort that lasted for years and he could replay over and over if he ever forgot.

"jeongguk?"

his fingers hovered over the keyboard of his laptop, the pulsating of his heart rising in tempo. and even before his eyes gazed up, he knew who stood in front of him. that voice. the way his name rolled off her tongue warmly. it could only be one person. summer.

as his eyes met hers, everything else seemed to still. not because they had, but because jeongguk could only focus on her face and that smile that snatched the air out of his lungs. her mass of curls, as seemed to be usual, were left free to billow in the breeze. her dark skin glowed like glazed doughnuts fresh out of the oven.

again, jeongguk realised a bit too late that he was gawking and saying nothing.

"summer." he let a smile pull the corners of his mouth up. her smile became even brighter. "i thought it was you. may i?" she gestured to the seat across him. his head bobbed in a too enthusiastic nod and he had to play it off by ruffling his hair.

a small chuckle left her lips as she seemed to notice his actions before she slid into the chair. gold brown eyes regarded him in silence for a few seconds, causing jeongguk's latent self-consciousness to make an appearance. "busy?" she finally spoke up.

"no, it's just something i do in my free time." he replied softly, reaching to shut the laptop. her hands moved to stop him, fingers grazing his skin lightly. all the nerves in jeongguk's body seemed to rush to the points of contact and his skin might as well have been on fire. he forced himself to disregard the reaction. "clearly, it's something you enjoy doing. don't let me stop you." her smile was small, head tilting one way.

"it's rude if we're talking and i'm just on my laptop." he stated, making sure she knew she had all of his attention. she shook her head in disagreement. "it's only rude if i think it is." she told him softly.

"fine then. want to see what i'm working on?" he offered, allowing one of his adorable smiles to part his lips. "if you don't mind, sure." she nodded.

without hesitation, jeongguk scooted his chair next to hers, moving the laptop around so she could see the screen. "a video?" she glanced at him as she took in what was displayed. another excited nod caused a smile to grace her lips once more.

"they're my friends. i like to record them doing their thing. you know so i can look back at them and feel like i've been taken back to a time, a moment in the past that i can't exactly relive." he explained, eyes on the screen as he played a short clip for her of jung hoseok laughing at kim namjoon tripping and nearly faceplanting over the couch.

"that's very thoughtful, jeongguk. i wish my friends and i thought of that much earlier." summer shifted her gaze from the video that had stopped playing to jeongguk's face. "well, you can start now. it's never too late." he replied sweetly.

her gaze casted downwards, hands wringing in thought. "maybe. but there are moments in life when it is too late." she mused. jeongguk frowned, tipping his head to see her face, wondering what she meant by that.

her head lifted and she had that blinding smile on like she hadn't seemed sad just seconds ago. "but i believe in living in the moment, whether it's too late or not. so if i decide it's high time i learned how to ride a bike then i'll do it. even though everyone else did when they were six." she told him.

he chuckled in response. "if you do decide to, i can teach you." he replied without much thought. "then you'll be the first person i come to." she grinned. "i'll be waiting for that call."

"now, to something that's been bothering me." she rubbed her chin with the tip of her index finger. jeongguk thought she looked like a cheeky child at the action and had to stifle a laugh at the mental image of a seven-year-old summer pissing adults off because she could. "what?"

"how long till you decide you're going to drink that?" she pointed to the cup of coffee that had probably gone cold. "oh, never." he replied nonchalantly. "hm?" her brows dipped in a frown. "i don't drink coffee."

the way her jaw dropped and her mouth formed a perfect o made him belt out a laugh. "then why the hell did you order for one?" she queried. "the workers look at you funny when you just sit and not order anything!" he chuckled, raising his hands defensively.

"why didn't you just order something you actually like then? like cake or muffins... or you don't like those either?" her head tilted as she waited for him to answer. he paused, not knowing how to reply. "i didn't think of that actually."

summer laughed at the slightly embarrassed look on his face. it wasn't a perfect sound like he had, for some odd reason, imagined. it wasn't anything like soft wind chimes in a garden of daffodils on a cool spring day. it went from a high pitchy sound to squeaky low to nonexistent so that it seemed like someone had muted a scene of a laughing girl on the television.

and jeongguk thought to himself, that he wouldn't mind seeing her laugh like that everyday.