Kim Sunggyu was stressed.

The pool was going to open for the season today, and it was very stressful. The first day of the season needed to be good for the members, leave a good first impression for new pool members, and invite them to come back again. The opening day was going to have a barbeque buffet, and it was expected to have a high attendance. The staff needed to be ready for this influx, particularly the lifeguard staff, as the pool water was still freezing cold, and people wouldn’t realize this and jump in and need to be saved. He didn’t understand why they had to open so early, when the main point of the pool--the pool--wouldn’t be enjoyable, but the management demanded that it open today, and today it would open.

It was seven thirty in the morning. The pool opened at ten, and guards would come in at 8, but he had a lot to do to get ready for the lifeguards who were coming in early to help set up, and the lifeguards themselves had a lot of work to do themselves, so he had come in at seven. Sunggyu had to unlock the grounds, clean the pool (something he always insisted on doing) and check the equipment. The loungers were stacked up on the pool deck, ready for the lifeguards to set up. The bathrooms needed to be cleaned and stocked. The grounds needed to be spotless.

Sunggyu rubbed his face with his hands. Why did he agree to work here another two years? Sure, it paid well, but sometimes, the stress just wasn’t worth it.

“Boss!” A cheerful voice called from over the fence.

Looking up, Sunggyu saw one of the opening guards, Lee Hajin, wave energetically at him as she entered the pool grounds, a grin on her face, her short, spiky hair jerking back and forth around her head as she walked.

“Hajin-ah,” he greeted. “Welcome back.”

Without another word (though with another few energetic waves) Hajin walked into the supply shed, came out with a plastic bucket, and began heading for the various skimmer buckets scattered around the pool’s edges, pulling up the lids and and began dumping the buckets’ contents into her big bucket. It was reassuring for Sunggyu to see one of his employees knowing instinctively, even after nine months, how to open properly, especially today. He felt a little better. A little.

“Sunggyu-hyung!” Another guard came in, hand raised.

Ah, Sunggyu knew that voice. The guard coming in fit the hot lifeguard stereotype perfectly, though, to be honest, Sunggyu knew that whatever he did, the young man in front of him would fit any “handsome/hot-stereotype” there was. The beauty genes were gracious with the lifeguard, which actually almost cost him the job. Sunggyu had had to deal with a lot of “fake drownings” because of him. If he wasn’t a good lifeguard, he would’ve lost the job by now.

“L-ah!” He called back. “Long time no see!”

“Oh, really? Didn’t I see you at my exhibition last week?” L replied easily.

“Why would I be there?” Sunggyu retorted.

“Yah, stop bantering and help me, Myungsoo-ah!” Hajin interrupted them. “Today’s important.”

Right. The pool opening. Sunggyu shook his head as he continued to use the pool cleaner to remove any dirt on the pool walls and floors. With the two of them, Myungsoo and Hajin easily cleared the skimmer buckets, moving onto cleaning the male and female locker rooms, which were mostly clean, but still needed to be cleaner for the opening.

At 8:30 promptly, the last of the three guards who would be opening came in. She was brought in purely to get most of the outdoor furniture ready. While Sunggyu usually relied on the boys to do all the heavy lifting, simply because they were more willing to do it than the girls, this particular guard was often more reliable with this kind of work, and was less likely to goof off. Her face was emotionless and stoic, though her face was youthful and round. Everyone here was used to this strange paradox, however.

“Boss-sshi,” Her voice was low, but carried through the grounds fairly easily.

Sunggyu matched her solemn tone, calling back, “Hello, Chae Seon-ah. Can you set up the furniture?”

“Yes, Boss-sshi,” she replied, heading straight for the tall piles of plastic loungers, picking up the end of one stack and lugging it onto the grass.

He finished cleaning the pool and began heading for the office to set up the sign-in papers.

The day hadn’t even started, and Kim Sunggyu was stressed.

Lee Howon was annoyed.

He didn’t hate his job. He was good at his job, it paid well, and the staff were pretty friendly and unintrusive. It just held no interest for him. Most of the female members liked to flirt with him, which always made him uncomfortable and quiet. He didn’t do so well with the rambunctious kids that ran amuck around the pool. Most of the staff sometimes struggled to understand him or hold a conversation that went beyond work and the weather. The only perk was that his childhood friend worked there as well, often spending breaks alongside him in a comfortable silence that benefitted both of them.

So his reaction to having to work the opening day was... less than enthusiastic, though he wasn’t exactly dreading it. Still, he showed up to work at 9:55, walking into the sign-in office where all the guards were relaxing.

“Hoya-ah!” Hajin waved energetically, even standing up, arms outstretched to hug him, before she changed her stance, remembering Hoya’s reluctance towards physical affection, and instead patted his shoulder enthusiastically as he clocked in.

“Noona,” Hoya said calmly, unphased by her exuberance.

“Hyung,” Myungsoo greeted, a content smile on his face.

Hoya simply nodded his acknowledgment.

The last guard in the office barely looked up to acknowledge him, and yet Hoya felt the most comfortable with her. “Oppa.” The word was said rather nonchalantly

“Chae Seon-ah,” he replied calmly, before going to the guard room to drop off his bag.

Sunggyu came into the office, just as the last guard rushed in at 9:59. The boss looked wearied and haggard already, having run himself to the ground in the set up. “Are you all ready? Dongwoo will be here soon, the snack bar has its staff, and everything is in good condition.”

“We’re all ready to jump into the freezing cold water several times, hyung,” Myungsoo joked, but Howon--and everyone else--was thinking, I wish it was a joke.

He couldn’t help but rub his face tiredly before the pool even opened. Lee Howon was annoyed.

Whistle, whistle, whistle!

The three short whistle blasts broke through the sound of chaos happening at the pool, and there was a brief lull in the chatter as people turned to witness a lifeguard jumping into the pool, before quickly returning to their conversations, unbothered in the slightest.

The head chef, Woohyun, however, looked up from his work in the kitchen. “Again?” He asked, pausing to look out of the snack bar window.

“Yup,” Park Areum, the employee at the window, said, unamused. “What number is that again?”

“Six,” Sungyeol, the chef working beside Woohyun, piped up. “Who is the guard this time?”

“Looks like Chae Seon,” Areum replied. “I forgot how good that girl is at being a lifeguard. She looks too small to be one.”

“We all thought that,” Sungyeol shrugged carelessly, “but she’s really strong for her height.”

“Looks are deceiving,” Woohyun replied. “Now get back to work.”

As Sungyeol and Areum returned to their spots, Woohyun stopped briefly to get a glimpse of the tiny, shivering girl, oblivious to the approach of a handsome guard, carrying a thick, fluffy towel.

Chae Seon dragged herself back on her guard chair, freezing cold. She silently cursed Sunggyu-hyung (yes, she called him Sunggyu-hyung like most others, but only in her head. She still couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud) for allowing the pool to open today, when the water was still so cold. She had been away the last few years on opening day, but even the first time she’d worked opening day, it certainly hadn’t been this bad, had it?

Thankfully, her musing was cut off by the arrival of her childhood friend, who had a towel in his hands. “Thank you, oppa,” she sighed gratefully as he wordlessly gave her the towel, not waiting a second after grabbing it to wrap it around her body.

“Cold?” he asked rhetorically.

“Like being stabbed by subzero icicles,” was her morbid response.

“Sounds like fun,” he said dryly.

“The kid kept hitting me because he was freaking out so much,” she said absently, “and he was screaming so loud into my ear, I thought I’d go deaf.” She tugged the towel closer around her body, then stopped. “Is this... your towel?” She asked, belatedly realizing the color of the towel was not that of the one she had in her bag.

He didn’t say anything.

“Oppa, really?” she said. “Stop giving me your towel. You know perfectly well where my towel is in my bag. You don’t have to be so gentlemanly all the time. No one will care.”

Still, he said nothing.

“Besides, everyone’s going to think purple’s my favorite color! You always bring a purple towel to work, and give it to me! People will think I have an obsession with the color purple! You need to stop having so many purple towels!”

“What is Chae Seon and Hoya’s relationship, does anyone know?” Woohyun couldn’t help but ask. He kept glancing up to see the two talking still, eyes never leaving the pool, but mouths moving rather animatedly.

“No one really knows,” Sungjong, a snack bar employee, shrugged. “I’ve asked before. Hoya just shrugs, and Chae Seon ignores the question. Not even the guards know.”

“She calls him oppa, isn’t that all we need to know?” Sungyeol replied. “They’re close. Chae Seon doesn’t call anyone else oppa.”

“It’s just that... they talk a lot to each other, but not to the rest of us,” Woohyun persisted.

“Just because you like to talk the ear off of anyone doesn’t mean they do,” Areum teased lightly. After a pause, she added, mischievously, “why do you want to know about Hoya and Chae Seon’s relationship so badly? Is it because you’re... jealous?”

“Of Chae Seon? No, why would I be-” Woohyun stopped when everyone in the snack bar began cooing at him. “Wha-What did I say?”

“You’re jealous of Chae Seon,” Sungyeol grinned, “not Hoya.”

“Which means you like Hoya, not Chae Seon,” Sungjong finished.

Caught completely off guard (and blushing a little too hotly) Woohyun couldn’t say anything as his co workers cackled at this new revelation.

“Why are you all laughing?” Sunggyu’s voice broke through the laughter, causing everyone to immediately quiet down, though a few snickers still echoed. He was at the snack bar window, reminding everyone of the the pool members outside. “Get back to work.”

“Yes, Sunggyu-hyung,” everyone chorused, a little more somber.

Whistle, whistle, whistle!

Everyone groaned as another guard jumped into the pool. “It’s Myungsoo,” Areum commented.

“Myungsoo? He’s on the baby pool!” Sunggyu whirled around, and sure enough, Myungsoo was cradling a little kid in his arms, bringing him to the lip of the pool to perform a primary assessment. He rushed to the scene, pulling out his phone. “Myungsoo, I’m calling 911!”

Everyone watched in silence as the guard quickly pulled on his gloves and gently push the little boy’s jaw upwards, one hand on his forehead, another on the boy’s arm, checking for heartbeat and breathing. “No pulse, no breathing,” Myungsoo reported.

This was definitely a more serious situation than the other rescues, and people weren’t easily lured back to their previous conversations. “Please, everyone, stand back!” Dongwoo, having arrived on the scene, began ushering patrons back, giving the lifeguard and the little boy plenty of room.

Without prompting, Hajin approached the two with a first aid kit, gently but firmly pushing aside the bystanders to help with CPR. Myungsoo efficiently switched from a one-person rescue to a two person rescue, administering chest compressions while Hajin placed the breathing mask on him and waited to give ventilations. Hoya, the other guard off duty, rushed to usher everyone out of the baby pool and monitor it while Chae Seon and the other guards on stand monitored the big pool carefully.

Sungjong glanced out the window and scoffed. “People are recording the whole thing on their phones,” he commented. “It’s sick.”

“The only consolation is if Myungsoo and Hajin save him, and the videos go viral,” Areum said. “But even that’s superficial and meaningless.”

“Just keep working for now,” Woohyun ordered. “And hope that this all turns out okay.”

After a few minutes of tense, quiet minutes, punctuated only by the sounds of the guards counting, and the occasional “switch,” the little kid coughed up water, immediately to his side by Hajin, while Myungsoo began checking the kid over again for any other symptoms or side effects. People began clapping while the kid’s parent ran over, having been held back by Dongwoo to prevent her from distracting the guards while they worked, and clutched her son to her chest, whispering apologies, before hugging the two guards, sobbing and thanking them for their help.

“Thank god,” Sungyeol said quietly.

The sentiment was shared with everyone.

“Thank god,” Kim Myungsoo breathed as the last patron left the pool grounds. He slumped in his chair in the sign-in office. “Thank god it’s over.”

Dongwoo patted his shoulder comfortingly. “I’m sure you’re tired,” he told him. “You can just clean up the office and head home, if you want. I can talk to Sunggyu.”

He shook his head, standing immediately. “No, I can’t do that. I’ll be fine, hyung.” As if to prove his point, he began eagerly shuffling the sign in sheets and the guest slips and cleaning the office.

“You did a good job today,” the assistant manager said firmly, though his eyes were watching the suddenly energetic guard with amusement. “You saved little Jai’s life. His mother will always be grateful for today. Focus on that, and not your fangirls.”

Myungsoo wanted to groan at the mention of the fangirls. “Don’t talk to me about them,” he said. “If I didn’t like my job so much, I would have quit already.”
“What’s this about quitting?” Sungyeol asked as he walked into the sign in office, out of his work clothes, and carrying his bag.

“Fangirls,” Dongwoo replied by way of explanation.

“Ah,” Sungyeol breathed. “Don’t blame you there. Those girls were ruthless. I forget how they don’t leave you alone” Then, without a single hesitation, he changed the subject. “I’m gonna head to the restaurant now. Do you want me to order your usual?”

“Uh, yeah,” Myungsoo replied, a soft blush rising to his cheeks.

“Cool, see you later, ‘Soo,” the tall chef grinned at him before clocking out and leaving the sign in office.

The “hot guard” had to take a few breaths to compose himself, but he forgot who else was in the room.

“You guys are going after this?” Dongwoo said, a big grin on his face. “Like, a date?”

Myungsoo’s composure went completely out the window. “Wh-What? N-No! It’s not a d-date!” He spluttered. “We’re just h-hanging out!”

“Sure you are,” Dongwoo said, disbelievingly, finally heading towards the pool. “Maybe that’s what’s Sungyeol’s thinking, because someone doesn’t want to clarify.” He shot Myungsoo a knowing wink before heading out the door.

The lifeguard known as L leaned heavily on the sign in counter in shock. “How did he know?” He muttered, eyes watching the bright, happy assistant manager bound over to Sunggyu.

None of the guards batted an eye as Dongwoo darted to the scary manager’s side and swiped at his : no one knew the two’s relationship, but considering the assistant manager never got yelled at for his affectionate behavior, it was safe to assume the two were fairly close.

“How are things going, Sunggyu-hyung?” The cheery man asked.

“Pretty good. The girls are cleaning the locker rooms, and the guys are doing a trash pick up and a trash can check,” Sunggyu replied.

“And you’re doing the delegating, as always,” Dongwoo added.

The manager rolled his eyes. “The best part of my job is that I don’t necessarily have to do all the work the guards do.”

“But it’s still an option,” he pointed out.

“Sunggyu-hyung,” Hajin called as she approached the two. “We’re done the locker rooms. Anything else you need us to do?”

“Maybe you could wipe down the snack bar--” Sunggyu began, before he saw Chae Seon already cleaning up the area, Sungjong taking the supplies they had put outside for the patrons to use from her. Glancing at the boys, he saw that all the trash cans were empty, and there was a guard with clean garbage bags, ready to replace them. “Oh.”

“Why don’t you check the grounds for trash again?” Dongwoo suggested. “Make sure everything is in order.”

She shrugged. “Okay,” she agreed easily, before she trotted off.

Long after the guards had clocked out and went home, Dongwoo and Sunggyu were sitting at one of the tables, eating some takeout they had ordered, and talking about their day. “Today wasn’t that bad,” Sunggyu admitted finally. “Besides Myungsoo saving Jai and the fangirls who fawned after him afterwards, but that’s normal--with the exception of the near drowning.”

“Yeah, today has been pretty normal,” Dongwoo agreed. “Pretty good for opening day.”

At last, Kim Sunggyu could breathe.