burning the midnight oil
Aino grew up privileged. As the gifted son to a prestigious family– his mother, a scientific author, and his father, once the chief researcher for a private observatory– it was only natural for him to follow their footsteps.
He burdened himself with their expectations from a young age, stunting his social skills even further due to an already reserved nature and constant moves. It’d be a long time before Aino could settle down in the port town where he made longlasting connections.
As much as he forced himself into focusing on his studies, though, a sun-kissed faced couldn’t help but come to mind.
you, who lived by the sea
It happened accidentally, at first. Aino had come from a trip over the river while Jinhua worked as a longshoreman for his ferry when they first met. The story goes that Aino had lost a pendant, and Jinhua brought it upon himself to return it in due time–– by knocking on his window in the middle of the night.
In spite of its monetary value, the pendant wasn’t particularly important to Aino; that alone should have made him apologize for the trouble of returning it. Yet he felt drawn to- fascinated, even- to the boy sitting on his balcony talking about the sea.
Interchanged whispers across his window sill eventually turned into twilights spent on the beach, and the two grew unimaginably close.
It became a precious familiarity, and Aino couldn’t get enough.
castle in the sky
Time is cruel, however, and Aino was forced into his father's observatory to fufill an unwanted legacy.
They shut themselves away, becoming mute and cold- not much unlike the eternal winter they were now trapped in. Their studies intensified, their nights becoming impossibly longer, and a crippling insomnia began to replace their dreams once they failed keep their guilt at bay.
It wasn’t long before their memories intertwined with a certain boy faded, too.
Aino finds himself drifting into a wishful daydream from time to time; walking along a winding harbour, hand-in-hand with someone he could only amount to the stars themselves.
