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Gleaming sun, shimmering ocean, birds chirping merrily — the liveliness and vibrancy of summer fills our senses to their every nook and cranny.

The silver screen behind our closed eyes flicker before it shows the reel of our shared memories: fragments of our past summers that we spent running barefooted on lush meadows, renting beachfront bungalows, and feeling the soft beach sand under our feet as we watch the sky turn into a honey hue before it melts into deep blue. I like to think that if there was a map of us, it would be filled with traces only us can see adorning it all over – they mark all the places we have traversed together.

A garland of amber drapes over you. Under its glow, you look right at home with its golden rays that I dearly hoped this isn’t a mirage. The rhythm of my own pulsating heartbeat underneath my fingers a reminder of how alive you make me feel, and you never cease to nurture the wilting flower in me blossom back to life.

I still remember the day where we sat together before a vast landscape several summers ago; the day our hearts intertwined for the first time. I learned from your gentle touches of encouragement on my shoulder and soft strokes on my hair as you lull me into slumber, you are warm. The way your smile grows from a small bud to a beautifully blossomed flower, you are radiant. How you make me savor every fleeting moment and realize how meeting you in this lifetime means my youth spent with you, I know: you are summer.

Time usually erodes memory, but it appears to not be true whenever it comes to you. I know that even when the clock ticks and this season passes, our summer nights spent apart won’t matter – for we will once more stand at places wherever we let our wishes sail, and we will let them listen, again and again, to our tale.