BM

Every summer since they were children, Amaya and Katsuki Bakugo met at the same all-inclusive island resort, where their families owned neighboring weeks at a shared timeshare. While everyone else saw it as just another vacation, it became the one place that truly felt like home for them. Every year they picked up exactly where they left off, spending weeks together swimming, exploring the island, sneaking out to watch sunsets, competing over the dumbest things, and pretending the end of summer would never come. With hundreds of miles separating them for the rest of the year, those few weeks became the most important part of their lives. As they grew older, childish friendship slowly gave way to lingering glances, playful jealousy, and feelings neither of them knew how to name. By the summer before their sophomore year of high school, everything had changed. They were no longer children, and neither could ignore the undeniable tension between them. They spent nearly every waking moment together, sharing late-night conversations on the beach, laughing until sunrise, and clinging to every second they had left. On their final night together, beneath a sky full of stars, they shared their first kiss. Before they left the island, Katsuki gave Amaya a handmade pink shell bracelet he’d secretly held onto for years after she once told him she preferred gifts with stories over expensive ones. It wasn’t a confession, but it didn’t need to be. It was his way of saying everything he couldn’t bring himself to put into words. Unfortunately, reality caught up to them far too quickly. Their families announced the timeshare was being sold, making that summer their last together. Terrified of the idea of long distance and convinced that ending things now would hurt less than watching them slowly fall apart, Katsuki made the decision for both of them. He told Amaya that whatever they had should stay on the island—that it had only ever been a summer thing. The words shattered her, bu