That Summer

Prologue

I heard metal chimes singing in the wind while I laid lifelessly on my bed waiting from something I couldn't even imagine. Summer break just started and it was my last one before I would graduate college and became a normal, unhappy adult like everyone else. Since I returned home, I aimlessly stared at the walls with no motivation or sense of purpose. Breaks were always like this since I started college. Compared to the high amount of stress that built up from exams, professors, people, and other things, I felt hollow at home because there wasn't really anything that brought the same level as stress. Every day was different in college, classes on certain days and social hangouts on others. At home, every day was the same for me. Unable to find an internship or need for a summer job, I woke up late every day and went to sleep even later all while hearing the same chimes blowing in the soft wind.

Going into summer vacation, I knew that I was going to be bored. It made sense that I became insecure about myself and the future with all this time for self-reflection on my hands. Having no deadlines or nagging stress from college made it easy for me to get depressed. Whenever I was left alone with my own thoughts, I always came to the same conclusion. I was unhappy with my current life and I wanted to end it as soon as possible. There was definitely something missing in my life that made me so unhappy. But, even with these dark thoughts, I was always brought back to the light when I thought about the world that would be waiting for me in the future. It was like I was saved every time I fell into the darkness. But it felt like someone else saved me.

College had nothing to do with my dark thoughts. All of this started after an incident that happened to me when I was a child. It was so traumatizing that I didn't have any memory of it. So, my childhood memories were fuzzy and I only remembered bits and pieces. I couldn't even recall if it was because I was injured, someone died, or something else. Whatever it was, it changed my view on life and ruined the person I was supposed to become. My family didn't know that I couldn't remember my childhood and they never asked anyway. It was hard to tell if I was the only one traumatized by the incident because my family seemed fine. All I really knew was that if this didn't happen to me, I was sure I would be happier. It was better to bottle up these thoughts so no one would know and worry about me. No one needed to know because it's not like anyone wanted to know in the first place.

"That's a very dull view you have on people. Tell me, do you think this lowly about everything?" I heard a daunting voice.

I turned my head towards the window and there was a young man sitting on the sill. He was wearing all black while holding a white chrysanthemum. He laughed while gently rubbing each petal against his fingers. His silver hair made him look even more mysterious. On top of that, he had such a big smile on his face I couldn't even see his eyes. I was too shocked to say anything. I didn't even hear him come in much less notice him sitting there. But, he noticed I was looking at him.

"Ah, looking towards the window again. You think that your world is out there?" He laughed again.

He jumped off the sill and slowly walked towards my bed. Maybe I was actually so bored that I started to see things. I never had an invisible friend as a child but maybe I was a late bloomer. So, I tried not to look at him. If I pretended that he wasn't there, he would go away. But he walked right up to my bed and kneeled down towards my face. He was still smiling so hard I couldn't see his eyes.

"Very interesting. Having eyes so glazed over that you look dead. I didn't know people were capable of such an expression." Before I could stop myself, I touched the side of his face.

"Smiling so happily that it hides your eyes is also an expression I didn't know people were capable of." Quickly, we both realized that we were aware of each other.

He jumped back towards the window sill and I backed up towards the wall that my bed was on with a blanket. Both of our eyes were wide open and we were breathing hard. The white chrysanthemum he was holding was on the floor between us. As time passed, the chimes quietly blew again.