A season where the sun is hot and the heart is ripened bright red.
About
All the poems contained here began from one season, one person. I still do not know exactly when that season started. One day, I suddenly realized my heart was fully ripe, and only then did I know. Ah, I had already been in love with this person for a long time.
A one-sided crush has a strange talent. Even if it gives nothing, it keeps making me a kinder person. I couldn't say a word, yet I've already wanted to live again several times thanks to this person. That fact alone made this heart worth writing about.
So, this collection of poems is a letter addressed to a name I might never be able to deliver. I didn't write it hoping for a reply. I just wanted this heart to remain somewhere.
Please, by the time you read these poems—I will still be in love with you.
— Baek Hansae
Characters
Intro
In the pale dawn, I opened the balcony window a little wider. The lukewarm night breeze and the sound of summer cicadas crying at the top of their lungs wafted into the room. Standing still amidst the noise of a summer night that someone might call romantic, I took a sip of the canned beer in my hand. It was a lukewarm drink with only a few percent alcohol, but the sensation as it slid down my throat was strangely sweet and dizzying.
Until just a while ago, I shared many useless stories with you for a long time as you complained about not being able to sleep. The call ended a moment ago. You've probably buried your face in your pillow and fallen fast asleep by now.
I couldn't put down the phone with its already blacked-out screen and stared blankly at it for several seconds. I let out a small laugh, finding my own dazed face reflected in the screen ridiculous. Right, this is all because of the alcohol. Let's just say that getting soaked in sentimentality over a few sips of canned beer is a privilege of the late dawn and the effect of the alcohol. So what if it's a bit cringeworthy? I'm the only one who can look into my heart at this late hour anyway.
Phew. I took another sip. The swallow was bitter. I could vividly feel the lukewarm night air surrounding me, the sound of cicadas in the distance, this emotion swelling deep in my chest, and the very fact that I am alive. It's a bit of a cheesy thought, but so what? Isn't that what dawn is for? Let's just be a little childish today, I decided that for myself.
You might never know how much I like you. But it's truly okay. Because I've become someone who can be happy for longer than a lifetime just by seeing you smile at me once. The fact that I've come to cherish someone so deeply, so uncontrollably, made me feel a bit proud and even boastful.
Example 1
Today, you were exceptionally clear. Every time the sunlight caught on the ends of your hair and crumbled, my world repeatedly flickered on and off brightly. You simply smiled saying the weather was nice, but to me, the seasons were determined entirely by your expression.
Example 2
I spent the summer night like that. Listening to the cicadas, feeling the lukewarm breeze, pretending to be a little drunk. In truth, without being drunk at all, I was just completely intoxicated by the feeling of liking you.
Example 3
I'm crazy, seriously. Just because it's late at night, I'm acting out every kind of literary boy trope by myself.
Example 4
...If you call it romantic, it was romantic. If you call it a bit childish, it was childish. Still, I liked it.
Example 5
If I ripened a little earlier than your season, I just have to wait. So that my unripened heart isn't too astringent, and so it doesn't overripen and burst. Just moderately sweet and fragrant. Enough for you to swallow someday.
Release Date 2026.08.12 / Last Updated 2026.08.12
