“What were you thinking?” Sana hissed at Mina in the smallest voice possible so that Jun would not hear her. “Why did you invite him to play with us?”

Her boyfriend sent Jun a sideways glance and found the playful young man preoccupied with spinning the volleyball on his index finger. Leaning close to the frowning nurse, he whispered, “Do you think Momo is handsome?”

Alarm bells rang in Sana’s head the moment the words left his mouth.

“Did he infect you already?!” she screamed for the third time that day, causing Mina to falter in his steps and Jun to drop the ball.

Poking his pinkie into his ear, Jun grimaced, “Gee, your girlfriend is such a screamer. Do the neighbors complain?”

Mina who had just regained his footing almost lost his balance again. Clearing his throat as though tripping on sand was the most common occurrence in the world, he set the record straight, “We are not at that stage yet.”

“You aren’t?” Jun regarded the couple with doubtful eyes. Mina’s statement did not make sense to him. There standing before him were the embodiments of and good looks in their purest forms. “You mean the two of you can resist each other when others would jump at you at the first given chance?”

“Why not?” Sana retorted, not liking the hankering look in Jun’s eyes. “Our relationship is built on love, not lust.”

“Alright, whatever you say,” Jun raised his hands in an act of surrender. He had a gnawing bad feeling that Sana would rip him to shreds like a possessive lioness if he were to probe further. “Anyway, what infection were you talking about?” he asked, trying to sound as casual as possible while tossing the ball from hand to hand.

“It’s nothing,” Mina replied swiftly and made a sniffing sound. “She was referring to the flu bug that one of our colleagues has.”

“Ah, I see,” although not quite believing his words, Jun decided to just go with the flow out of fear for his life. He could fight against a thug or two and win without breaking a sweat but not a raging mad girlfriend.

Sana took the chance to pull Mina aside. “What did you mean by ‘if Momo was handsome?’ Don’t tell me you are starting to look at men that way too?”

The doctor stared at her with his most intense gaze, nodded, and watched as her eyes grew as wide as saucers.

“N-No way…” her hand on his arm loosened and fell but he grabbed it and held it close to his chest. Looking up, he bore an enamoring smile on his face.

“Of course not. Have a little more faith in me.”

No matter how charmingly handsome he looked at that point, she still thwacked him on the shoulder - hard.

“It’s precisely because I have too much faith in you that I believed you in the first place!” she huffed, not bothering to soothe the obvious pain her boyfriend was in from her mammoth strike.

Off to the side, Jun could not help but be drawn in by the lovers’ banter. There was a radiant five-finger mark burnt on Mina’s pale shoulder. “Are you two, perhaps, like in an S&M relationship or something?” he queried despite his better judgement.

“No!” Sana snapped and stormed ahead of the two dumbfounded men.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Jun turned to Mina and kindly offered, “PMS?”

The doctor’s slight frame drooped as he sighed, mentally beating himself over and over for taking his joke too far. He, of all people, should have known that his girlfriend had endured more than enough surprises for a day and was exceptionally high-strung as a result.

With a forced smile, he uttered, “No. My fault.”

His response prompted Jun to let out a low whistle in surprise and true appreciation. ‘This guy… It takes a real man to admit his mistakes.’ Patting the shorter man’s back, he told him, “Bro, I salute you.”

---

At the sand court, Nayeon had her hands positioned inches before her face, fingers twiddling while her lips were pressed tightly in concentration.

“What are you doing?” Jeongyeon’s voice barged through her thoughts like a bulldozer smashing into a concrete wall and she would have wrung that skinny neck and squeezed all air out of his lungs if not for her self-restraint.

“You idiot! You just made me lose count!”

His proud visage cracked into a gloating grin. “Lost count of what?”

“The score, damn it!” Nayeon tugged at her hair in frustration. “Now I’ve got to start all over again.”

“It’s ten to nine in my favor,” he declared offhandedly. A distrustful frown buried deep in Nayeon’s brow.

“How can you be so sure?”

“I was keeping count unlike a certain single-track fool,” Jeongyeon folded his arms, shooting the tiny woman a belittling look. “Our team is leading by eight points. The other team is as good as gone at the rate we are going.”

“Shut it with the insults,” Nayeon griped, crossing her arms as well. “I hate to admit this but you are not bad for a stick. We have to keep striving to make sure Dr. Tuan’s team doesn’t catch up. Jihyo did say that our team winning this match is a prerequisite before the top scorer can get that ice cream treat.”

“There’s no way the losers can turn this game around. Look,” he gestured towards the other side of the net with a slight tilt of his chin, “even Mark is drained from trying to make up for his hopeless teammates.”

The vivacious Dr. Tuan who was always b with seemingly boundless energy was currently sprawled out on the sand like a beached starfish while Joy willingly massaged his aching muscles with a face that looked too gleeful for comfort. Momo, faring not much better, was taking a swig from his bottle of isotonic drink as beads of perspiration rolled down his finely sculpted temples and cheekbones.

“You know, it’s kind of nice that the two of you are working together for once,” Wendy chipped in thoughtfully from behind Nayeon and Jeongyeon.

There was a pregnant pause as the two senior doctors turned to each other, stared…

And made the grandest gagging sounds ever.

“Me working with this annoying stick? That’s crazy!” Nayeon flailed her arms in horror.

Jeongyeon took one giant step away from her and admonished the unsuspecting Wendy, “I forbid you to suggest something as ridiculous ever again, do you hear?”

Wendy shrank back from the highly volatile aura that was emitted by the scandalized pair and hastily slinked away to the protective arms of Jihyo who was drawing little kittens in the sand.

“Hey, you two don’t bully Wendy!” Jihyo chided as she wrapped a comforting arm around the woman.

“What?” Nayeon pointed disbelievingly at herself. “Now it’s my fault?”

Jeongyeon nodded. “Yes, yours. You called her crazy.”

“I didn’t! Stop putting words in my mouth!” Nayeon growled. “You were the one who threatened Wendy!”

“That was called giving advice.”

“Why you-”

“Oh my God!” a sudden loud cry interrupted the rivals’ heated squabble and all eyes turned to the source.

“Who the heck?” the question slipped past Nayeon’s lips as she took in the appearance of an ecstatic man beside Mina.

“He looks like a walking lime popsicle,” Jeongyeon crinkled his nose in disdain, referring to the gaudy green Hawaiian shirt that Jun was wearing.

“O.M.G,” Jun repeated, “what in heaven’s name– Wait! I think I’m in heaven!” His jaw dropped as his eyes feasted on the mouth-watering sight before him. “If I’m not in heaven, then I must be in paradise on earth!” He bounded over to Jeongyeon like an excited lost puppy reunited with its owner and latched onto his arm as though they had been master and pet for years. “This dude, you’re so cool! I want you as my brother!”

“Hah?” Jeongyeon shook off the delirious newcomer. “Take your paws off me.”

His warning was sorely ignored because Jun had already zipped off towards Mark who had just sprung up from the commotion. The neurosurgeon took a startled step back as Jun’s hungry eyes gobbled up his well-defined muscular body from his firm pectorals to his rock-hard abs.

“You are a living Greek God! Please teach me how to be as charming as you!”

Feeling many pairs of questioning eyes boring holes in his body, Mina decided that he had better put a stop to Jun’s overflowing torrent of excitement. Placing a firm hand on his shoulder, Mina said, “Jun-ssi, I think you should stop for a while.”

“Mina, you and your friends should be starring in an idol drama or something!” Jun gushed.

Sana’s mouth twitched in irritation. Mina? On first name basis already?

Nayeon studied the almost hyperventilating Jun from head to toe. “You’re the opposite of Momo.”

“Momo?” Jun’s eyebrows rose. “You mean there’s one more hunk I’ve missed?”

“Yes, behind you,” Mina answered flatly.

Sana’s mouth twitched again. Mina agrees that Momo is a hunk! Didn’t he say he was joking just now?

Momo who had just set his drink bottle down, spun around at the mention of his name. Looking up, he noticed a frozen man gaping with his mouth opening and closing like a goldfish at him. He peeked past the stranger and sent a puzzled look in Mina’s direction, hoping that the younger doctor would shed some light on the situation. However, the bespectacled man only returned a useless shrug.

“Excuse me, are you alright?” Momo waved his hand before Jun’s unblinking eyes.

“Mina,” Jun called, his sight not leaving Momo, “you just lost your spot as the perfect eye candy. This guy here is the real perfection.”

To say he was disturbed would be an understatement. In fact, Momo felt his insides being churned upside down and inside out by the very man before him. Jun’s infatuated stare was making his skin crawl in a way that he had never experienced before.

“Would you happen to be single?”

Momo’s throat constricted as though an invisible force was strangling him till he began to suspect he needed an oxygen mask to breathe. If it was even possible, his tan face had turned whiter than a sheet of paper.

‘What is wrong with this man? My relationship status is none of his business. Why is he looking at me like that? Wait, no, stop! Why are you coming towards me?’

A warm hand attached itself to Momo’s slick forehead which had broken out in an extreme case of cold sweat.

“Are you alright?” Jun returned Momo’s question to him as he felt the abnormally cool skin. “You look like you are about to faint.”

‘Why is his face so close to me?