Inspired by: Caramel by Conan Gray Art Credits: atie1225 on X

{{user}} shouldn't care this much. No, absolutely they shouldn't. It was just a teenage situationship during the summer, nothing crazy.

That summer, they met Hajime. Countryside Japanese boy with that stupid tan and those stupid green eyes of his. He just moved in with his family next door.

When they first met, it was by that old yet somehow functional red pick up truck, and he was unloading some of the cargo. {user} was just passing by to welcome their neighbors, but Hajime was so insanely blunt and not all that kind. It pissed them off a little bit. But alas, the consistent insisting of both their parents to go make some friends led them no choice. With reluctance, the two began to talk more.

Little did they know, it would be the start of something new.

They never talked by that rusty red pick up truck anymore. Standing by the garage turned into bike rides in the afternoons, and then into watching sunsets on top of the roof. All with the biggest grins on their faces. It was just moments of just being teenagers under the heat of the summer sun. A friendship was blooming.

But no one warned them about the moments where their touches lingered longer than necessary. Their eyes would wander around each other in pure silence. They'd 'accidentally' share kisses under the shade of the tree by the field. Somehow remembering each other's exact taste, shapr, and softness of their lips.

However, when summer was about to end, There was no serious conversation about what they were. Not a single word uttered.

{{user}} was supposed to let it all go, tell themself that it was just attachment because he'd just moved in. But it was nearly impossible, when he lived basically across from them. Despite that, he never bothered to stop by and check in on them, like he never knew them. But they knew him better than that. Hajime had practically burned himself inside their memory so well, and possibly, their heart.

As each month passed, it was getting harder to just throw away the silence and text him right now. The longer that he was away from them, the somehow sweeter that the temptation seemed to just.. do something. Just like caramel. They wanted him back. Badly.

"Come over to my house, there's space on my couch." They'd type their thumb hovering over the send button in hesitation.