,, tanabata days, bring me back to you (김도훈).
── 𓏲 ๋࣭ ࣪ ˖🎐This hands had to let it go free, and this love came back to me.
synopsis! you are leaving soon, too soon for your own good. you'll be moving to Japan to study, leaving all you know in Korea. you and dohoon have been dating for a long time now. but you have a secret, that is. before you are gone, you are going to say goodbye. goodbye to your relationship. goodbye to dohoon. genre! bf!dohoon x fm!reader. kinda angst. one-shot. based in South Korea and Japan. Tanabata mention. requested! (thank u hehe). inspired by this love by taylor swift. Mention to Jiwoo (from h2h). (hajimemashite = nice to see you again). warnings! not proofread. reader is scared of long distance relationships. misscomunication. (nothing mature, i think...). wc! 3.3k a/n: not me telling myself this was going to be under 1k-. also, i suck at writing synopsis, sorry… TT but, anyways, have fun reading!
It was July 6th, your last day living in Korea for at least the next four years of your life, while you finished your degree. A really long time in comparison to your short life. Although you’d obviously visit your parents during the holidays, it was still a very long time away from your hometown. You’d miss all of that—spending all your time with your family, walking along the river, or the hustle and bustle of the city where you’d grown up, late nights with your best friend Jiwoo…
And above all, even though it would be hard for you to admit as a teen, you would miss Dohoon. You’d miss eating with him at the cafeteria, you’d miss how his hand sensed against yours, you’d miss looking at him during your study sessions because you (indeed) can’t focus... He was your boyfriend, after all. And you knew he would leave a mark in you. Even if the following day he will no longer be your boyfriend. That’s what you had agreed on. It had been a quiet, serene winter afternoon when you had decided on it. Dohoon was playing with your fingers while you watched another romantic comedy that you both enjoyed more than ever. He laughed carefree, and you thought to yourself how much you just wanted that happiness to last. However, for you, that happiness didn’t include you. Not if you were dozens of miles away. That’s why you planned to break up with him, on July 7th at exactly midnight. He didn’t know, of course.
Back then, when it seemed like a distant future, it had looked like a great idea, and even though your heart ached, you’d still have time to prepare yourself mentally. Now, as you stroked the hair of a half-asleep Dohoon on the park grass, lying in your lap, it didn’t seem that good. Not easy, nor normal. And you didn’t have time to prepare mentally either.
It’s for his own good, you told yourself inwardly for the thirty-fourth time. You needed to convince yourself too.
His fingers intertwined with yours, breathing steadily, his chest rising and falling calmly. A smile spread across your lips almost without you realizing it, and before you knew it, you were playing with his hair, trying to twist it into little hearts. He was awake; you knew it. But you also knew he was pretending to be asleep so you’d keep paying attention to him.
“Dohoon, Dohoon…” you hummed with a smile, for no apparent reason other than that you felt like it.
“Mmm… what are you doing?” he asked, squinting in the light.
“Making little hearts. Don’t you think it’s cute?” you told him, teasing him a bit.
He frowned, but let out a soft laugh. “Do I look cute?” he asked, looking up at you. You smiled.
“Cuter than ever.”
Dohoon grinned at that, kinda faking superiority. “Of course I do. Aren’t I cuter than Cherry?” he asked, comparing himself to your orange kitte, with whom he had been having a competition to know who you loved most. You were going to miss Cherry too. A lot.
“Pfft,” you snorted, widening your eyes, exaggerating it a bit. “I don’t know, huh… cuter than Cherry? You should know your limits, Hoonie…” you replied.
“Hey!” he complained, nudging you from the floor.
You laughed, and he, in the end, moved more gently. He lifted his head from your lap and sat down beside you, your fingers still intertwined. A tender smile returned to his face; how much he loved you, he thought. And how much he was going to miss you. Unlike you, he didn’t care about those dozens of miles; he just wanted to be with you. He didn’t mind trying, as long it was with you.
He leaned in close to your face, mischievous as ever, to give you a quick kiss and make you blush just as red as always.
“Hey!” you complained, and now it was his turn to laugh. He cupped your cheeks in his hands and gave you another kiss on the nose—gentle, slow, and full of tender love. There was another on your forehead, and another on your cheek. And yet another at the corner of your lips. And another, and another, and another until your face was covered in kisses.
Happiness flooded your heart, and you allowed yourself to forget for a moment that it would all be over tomorrow, focusing on the present. You let out a little giggle.
“I love you,” you murmured against his lips when Dohoon kissed you again. Face to face.
“I love you too,” he whispered back.
This love is good, you thought to yourself, with a silly smile.
𓏲 ๋࣭ ࣪ ˖🎐July 7th. 0:03
It was July 7th. The clock read midnight. You couldn’t put it off any longer. No matter how much you wanted to, you couldn’t. You had made a promise to yourself. You had promised yourself that you would let him be happy, even if it wasn’t with you. Even if he was with someone else. You had always known that Dohoon deserved better; maybe it was time to let him find that person.
You let out a shaky sigh.
In reality, you didn’t want to do this. But what else could you do? You liked the alternative even less. Not because staying with him would make you the happiest person in the world, but because the thought of a sad, depressed Dohoon was unbearable for you.
You liked to read. In fact, you read a lot. And in none of those books did this kind of long-distance relationship end well. You were just rushing things, weren’t you?
Or maybe you were just too afraid to try. You’d always been a coward, after all.
You let out another breath, trembling, sitting on the toilet (because you’d decided to go to the bathroom; yes, a slightly odd place, but no one would suddenly open the door on you there). Put yourself together (yn), you told yourself as you dialed his number, one you’d memorized even before you started dating. Good times.
You called him, and it took him a while to answer. He was probably sleeping until his phone rang. Or maybe not. Maybe he was nervous too, just like you. Who knew.
“(yn)? What are you doing awake…? You’re leaving super early tomorrow. You always complain about how you look like a monster when you don’t sleep…” you heard him scolding him on the other end of the line. His sleepy voice, the familiar tone he used… all that just made you want to cry. You stayed strong, though. You needed to stay strong.
“Dohoon.” You cut him off, swallowing hard. By then, your mouth was moving faster than your heart. “I want to break up with you.”
There was a silence on the other end of the line before his question became audible. “…What?” He sounded incredulous.
“I said we have to break up,” you told him, hugging your legs. Your stomach turned. Silence was heard, and no one spoke for the next seconds.
It’s for his own good.
“I’ve heard you. But, why? Did I do something wrong? I don’t understand…” He finally said. His voice broke mid-sentence, desperate. You knew he was surprised; you could tell from his voice that he was about to cry, and you also knew that was why he stopped talking. You knew him all too well it hurted.
“You haven’t done anything.” Pause. “It’s just that I don’t have feelings for you anymore,” you told him. It was a lie. The biggest lie you’d told in a long time. You knew it. And you sensed that Dohoon did too.
“That’s a lie,” he retorted, confirming your thoughts. You were a terrible liar, after all. He sounded desperate, and you couldn’t blame him. “I saw you this morning; you still love me. You told me you loved me, and I knew it was sincere. So I still don’t understand what’s going on.”
You swallowed hard again, and the first tears began to roll down your face. You couldn’t tell him the truth. You just couldn’t. You knew he wouldn’t agree with you, but you needed to do it. For him. For you.
Seeing that you didn’t respond, he let out a breath he didn’t even know he’d been holding.
“Let me at least see you, (yn)… Let this be the last time,” he pleaded. “Then we won’t see each other again, if that’s what you want for us.”
And you, foolishly in love as you were, wanted to listen to him. To go, to see him, to let him hug you and wipe away your tears while you wiped away his. But you wouldn’t go, because you also knew that if you went to see him, you’d change your mind, and you’d never want to let him go.
And then Dohoon would be unhappy.
“Dohoon.” you said with that last thought in mind, and you tried to ignore how sharp and broken your voice sounded in comparison with your normal tone. You knew that on the other end, he was holding his breath, waiting. He waited for you to say yes. However, with great regret, you still had your own plans. “Dohoon, goodbye. Please be happy.”
And with that said, cutting Dohoon off mid-‘wait,’ that was how you and Dohoon ended that beautiful thing you had between you, the one you called a relationship. One day, it was your everything. Now, it had ended up in nothing.
He, who never thought something like this would happen —he hadn't even had a bad dream about this.
You, who were ready for it even if you didn’t want to be.
Tears began to stream down your face; hiding your face between your knees, you began to sob. Weeping over the loss of the one you had pushed away. It hurt: the guilt, the not-knowing… It all made your chest burn. It all made you feel bad. You were alone now.
'Is this love bad now?'—that was your thought this time. No silly smile on your face.
𓏲 ๋࣭ ࣪ ˖🎐 July 7th. 6:45AM
Dohoon turned off his phone for the hundredth time since you’d called him. He hadn’t slept a wink all night. He couldn’t stop thinking and overthinking every little gesture he’d made, searching for something that might have led to the situation you were in. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he remembered everything your relationship had been. He didn’t sob now, he just mourned calmly. For Dohoon, this relationship had been beautiful — his favorite — full of hope, possibility, and love. Perhaps, for you, it hadn’t meant the same thing, seeing how things had turned out.
‘I don’t have feelings for you anymore’ was the phrase Dohoon had repeated most in his head all night long. He didn’t believe you. He didn’t believe you one bit. He had seen how you looked at him, how you smiled at him… it was impossible. It was true that you’d been a little more down as July 7th approached, but he simply attributed it to your trip abroad.
Not to this.
And the worst part? He already missed you.
Dohoon closed his eyes tightly and let out a soft groan; God, how pathetic he was. And now even the excuse of being in love didn’t work for him anymore…
With dark circles under his eyes, but without any sign of tiredness, he finally got up. It was 7:00 AM. He showered, got dressed, and yes, he went to the airport. He wasn’t very sure if he’d find you, nor did he know what to do if he did. But he had to see you. One last time.
Once at the airport, he hurried around, searching, looking, and even asking people where you were —something he would never have dared to do before, given how shy he was. And just as he was about to give up and go home resigned to his fate, he caught a glimpse of a red scarf that stood out from the rest. He knew that all too well. He had seen it on you too many times. In fact, you didn’t really know why, or how, but Dohoon knew your wardrobe inside and out. Therefore, the boy had never been more grateful for his weird obsessions, because when he turned around, the person he saw was you.
You were smiling. You were crying, too. You were doing both at the same time, while your mother wrapped you in a gentle embrace, crying just as hard. Jiwoo, your best friend was there too, sobbing and crying too. They were saying goodbye.
Deep down, he wanted to go. He wanted to go hug you too, to tell you he’d stay by your side, that whatever it was you weren’t telling him, you could get through it together. He wanted to ask you to stay. He had been wanting that for a long time now. However, his legs turned to lead. He couldn’t move, couldn’t even get a word out.
Time passed. Just a few minutes. Painful, but brief. Dohoon watched you grab your suitcase more tightly, kiss both your parents goodbye on the cheek, give a quick hug to Jiwoo, and walk away, glancing back and waving your hand. Their kiss, your cheek, and he watched you leave.
He didn’t think you’d seen him. Maybe it was better that way.
Because he was left with his heart in his hand.
And you were just gone and gone.
𓏲 ๋࣭ ࣪ ˖🎐. Three years later. July 7th. Tanabata.
It was July 7; Tanabata, the festival when dozens of Japanese people strolled through the festival streets and hung their wishes on bamboo trees. Legend had it that they came true.
You’d been living in Japan for a while now, ever since you went to study at the university, and no matter how many times you hung a wish on the tree, it never came true; to make a lot of money, to find a boyfriend, to pass all my classes next semester… There was always something that went wrong. That’s why you’d stopped believing in Tanabata. However, you’d grown fond of going there, seeing the rows and rows of wishes and the soft tinkling of the bells, combined with the bustling streets of the park. You liked the atmosphere that developed, where individualism faded away and everyone seemed to come together as one.
You strolled through the festival streets with a smile on your face, watching the children play with the little fish and the adults eat, drink, and drink. You loved the happiness that filled the air.
You paused for a moment to watch the pond where the carp swam in circles, stepping on each other’s tails because the tank was so small. There were other children peering into the pond, admiring the little fish as if they were made of gold. It took you back three years. It took you back to Dohoon, your last partner, a boyfriend you hadn’t been able to forget completely yet. Sometimes, your mind played tricks on you and made you dream of him, made you wonder what your life would be like if you had never left Korea. If you had never let him go. And always, after thinking that, guilt would come to say hello.
You remembered his black hair, always as black as coal, well-groomed and straight, very straight, just the way he liked it. You remembered his silly jokes that you swore you’d heard your uncle tell at Christmas, and his shy laugh that, over time, grew louder and louder. You missed him.
Tanabata reminded you of him, because three years ago, on that very day, you broke up by saying goodbye. You lied a bit too, but you were starting to forgive your younger self.
You had family in Japan, so your grandmother recommended you go to the festival (according to her, it was mandatory) that very day, as soon as you arrived from Korea. However, because of the pain of having left Dohoon, of having lied to him, and the sound of his broken, sad voice, you just wanted to stay home and wallow in your own misery. You really didn’t want to go, but your grandmother was so insistent that you finally agreed to take a walk in the park.
Your first wish on the bamboo tree was: “I wish for Dohoon to be happy.” And a little further down, in small letters, you dared to write despite your guilt: “I hope to see Dohoon again someday.”
It didn’t come true that year, nor the next, nor the one after that; so, as you know, you eventually ended up losing hope.
A cry from the boy in front of you snapped you back to reality, and with it, the memory left a bitter taste in your mouth. Maybe Dohoon was partly to blame for your fondness for Tanabata. Who knew? Sometimes you didn’t even understand yourself.
You tore your gaze away from the pond and decided to keep walking among the stalls and the countless strips of colored paper. In fact, you were so focused on them that you completely forgot how difficult it was to walk in the stilts and the yukata. So much that you tripped over your own foot and fell right onto the person in front of you. He let out a little yelp of surprise.
“Oh my goodness, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” you said, quickly pulling away from his back. Oh my goodness, how embarrassing.
“Ouch!” you heard him say as they turned around. “Don’t worry, I’m…” he said as they looked up from the ground and turned their gaze toward you. He didn’t get to say anything else, however, before he was left speechless.
And, oh. My. Gosh. There was no way. It couldn't be... What were the odds of running into him? Zero. He didn't even live in Japan. You'd never even mentioned Tanabata to him, and he was Korean, for heaven's sake. There was no way you had met there. But there he was.
Kim Dohoon.
Right in front of you. It was Kim Dohoon.
His hair was a little messier, and he looked a few years older. He was taller and wore more expensive clothes, as far as you could tell, but at his core, he was Kim Dohoon. The one who had once been your Kim Dohoon. With his shiny, beautiful hair that had made you so jealous so many times, and his big, black, deep eyes that sparkled in the sunlight. Guilt churned in your stomach as you remembered that phone call, but the excitement—or surprise— of seeing him (you hadn’t decided yet) was greater, once again.
Clear blue water, dozens of colorful papers, Tanabata had come and brought him in.
“Dohoon…” you murmured, a name you hadn’t spoken in years. Suddenly, it felt like you were seventeen again, on the grass, playing with his hair and laughing with him. When life seemed so easy. Just for a moment in your mind, you were kids again at that high school in Korea, but kids who loved each other. Even though sometimes you didn’t know how to handle it.
At first, he hadn’t recognized you in that old yukata and with just a touch of makeup. However, your voice would always be the kind of melody Dohoon could never forget. Your hair fell casually, a little shorter than he remembered, but just as untamed as before. Your eyes, shining like stars, reflected the orange glow of the lanterns. You were beautiful, and Dohoon’s heart skipped a beat, even though it had been so long since you’d seen each other, since the airport. He didn't hold a grudge against you. In fact, once he saw you, everything around you ceased to matter, and in the boy’s mind, only you and he existed. Him and you.
“(yn),” he murmured to you, and a smile spread across his lips. It was nostalgic, but somehow it made your heart flutter. “Nice to see you again.”
You smiled too, softly. “Hajimemashite, Dohoon.”
And this love, the one you felt every time you were with him back then, came back to you. Glowing in the dark, between lanterns and laughter, like the most beautiful star.
© jellyluvsjihoon 2026. do not copy or repost. ask to translate. (cr for the dividers to @dollywons).
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