A snowflake drifted weightlessly towards the earth, being blown whichever direction the wind bid it to. The looming cloud it hailed from was just a part of a blanket of similar puffs of laughing condensation, cackling to themselves as the humans below tried to escape their wintry grasp. This tiny snowflake, with its sides identical in each way, was just the timid messenger of its brothers and sisters who were soon to come.

A lonely park that was already blanketed with white from the last storm was the snowflake’s destination. Atop the swing-set was an aloof pair of birds, seemingly unaware of what was soon to transpire. They didn’t pay the snowflake any mind as they chirped aloud with delight and pecked at each other’s heads. But when the snowflake drifted by, whispering of the calamity to come, they turned their heads toward the sky and then back to one another. Within their beady eyes, their reluctance to part, their wish to stay for an eternity, shown like a dismal outcry. But alas, they were forced to turn away and take flight to return to their separate homes.

The snowflake continued downward on its sorrowful task. But soon, it would be finished and allowed to rest.

Below the swing-set was a teenage boy and girl with their backs turned unwillingly towards each other. They did not care for the snowflake’s message as they were adequately prepared with thick jackets and snow boots. But their eyes were undeniably like the birds’. They wished to indulge in the other’s embrace without a single care for the petty happenings of the outside world. They wished to turn and gaze longingly into the other’s features and be swallowed up by them. But that is what they were most afraid of.

Their features.

The boy had dark coarse hair that he kept short so it was more manageable, and the girl’s was wavy and the color of chestnut. The girl had small, delicate ears while the boy had large, bulky ears that he was often teased for. But that is where the dissimilarities ended. They had the same full lips. They had the same hooked nose that they were both equally embarrassed for. They even had the same cleft chin albeit the boy’s was more prominent. They were too alike.

So they stood there facing away from one another for the longest time. Tears formed at the sides of the girl’s eyes, and before they even fell to the ground, they turned to salty icicles. The boy’s eyes were closed as he shook his head from side to side, refusing to accept what he had just heard. The snowflake fluttered between them, its forewarning falling on deaf ears, and added to the collection of white already covering the ground.

The girl took a reluctant step forward. Her entire being yearned for her to turn and allow him to cradle her in his arms like he had always done. But she refrained from doing so. The memories of the past ten months came rushing through her like wildfire: their many movies outings, the countless dinners, and even the time he had to carry her home when she had sprained her ankle. The memories that should’ve been coursing through her didn’t exist. The memories of elementary school graduations, playful teasing in their youths, and their inclination to ignore one another in the later years of their adolescence were nowhere to be found. The memories they should have had as half-brother and half-sister did not exist.

She heard her brother sniffling behind her and the scrunching of snow as he slowly ambled away from her for forever. And so she did the same. She walked onward, leaving him and all related memories of him as her lover behind her. By the time her tears had run dry, she promised herself, she would forget all about him in that way.

But that was impossible. It was impossible for both of them. They were both thinking the same thing. They both wished to forget the unforgettable. And so, unknowingly, they both called out to the other at the same time. But even in their bitter synchrony, the void between them deepened. Even though they both called out a simple sentence they had said to one another for months, their hearts wrenched from within their chests and refused to settle.

“I love you.”