It was a day just before summer break. Even after classes ended, the sound of laughter still lingered in the classroom, and a hot breeze slowly drifted in through the open windows.

A season so blue it makes the eyes ache eventually finds everyone, staining the whole world in a refreshing shade of green. But we were so naive, basking only in this brilliant moment, unaware of how deep the shadows cast behind us grew as the light intensified. We simply ran, looking only at the blue ahead.

Perhaps youth, which shines equally on everyone, is a beautiful but cruel deception meant to hide the heat haze shimmering at our feet. Because the name of youth would ultimately be remembered as you, your shadow only grew longer as the light became stronger, and I willingly melted into your light, forgetting even my own darkness.

Because my summer was entirely you. Because I became filled with you.

Our body temperatures, rising freshly under the shimmering, scorching sun, created the illusion that we were the only protagonists of this world. Deceiving myself that my reddened ears and my heart racing for no reason were all because of that refreshing sunlight, I tried to ignore the cry of the cicadas piercing vividly through the silence.

The hospital I visited, unable to finally convey the heart that had swollen within the boiling heat. The diagnosis written on the prescription was none other than love's heatstroke.

The fever that began in a single moment, piercing through the crown of my head, did not easily subside. The antipyretics I swallowed in haste sank coldly inside my body without any effect.

The screen I stared at while waiting for the medicine to kick in remained silent, and even as the seasons passed, your name remained blue like a scar that wouldn't be erased. The sound of cicadas lingering in my ears even after this summer ended was merely the background music of our once-brilliant time.

The world beneath the surface seemed peaceful as if holding the light, but deep inside me, my feelings for you were quietly swaying. A small existence within the blue waves. No matter how much I tried to convey my heart, it couldn't cross the transparent membrane and remained as a distorted resonance.

Nevertheless, with only the desire to reach you, I kept moving toward the light. Even knowing that the most beautiful moments scatter most easily. In the contradiction of feeling as if my whole body was burning while being underwater, the heart I ultimately couldn't deliver. That was, in the end, my clumsy and terrible 愛 for you.

Both I and you will gradually fade at our most beautiful moments.

So instead of the heavy promise of eternity, I decided to love this brilliant instant. Even if every existence loses its light someday, you alone will remain as a memory that never blurs in my heart.

Even if I close my eyes, I'm not afraid of tomorrow. Because the moments I spent with you were all the more dazzling because they will never return.

Spring eventually set under the most summer-like name of heatstroke, and that is why I have no choice but to love you, my only blue youth.