“I can’t swim!” she squealed. The water continued to splash up at her. She lifted an arm to shield herself from the onslaught. “Zelo! If you pull me down and I die, it’s your fault!”

            The boy swam up to her. “Why would you want to come to the pool if you can’t swim? Isn’t that like a death sentence?”

            She pointed at the shallow end before her. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m sticking to the baby side.”

            “Didn’t you learn freshmen year during swim gym?”

            She crossed her eyes at him. He had pulled himself out of the water. “Go put on a shirt,” she handed him a towel. He took it from her but plopped down next to her, not caring that other girls were craning their necks to check him out. “That was in three feet deep water too. And we could stop whenever we wanted.”

            Zelo stared at her. “So if I threw you in right now, you would drown?”

            “I’ll kill you first.”

            He sighed and got up. “Let’s go home. Since you won’t swim anyway, I don’t really want to stay here. Those girls are scary.”

            A week later,  Zelo showed up in front of her house. She opened the door, slightly irritated, and saw it was him. He had towels, a floatie  and a whistle around his neck. “Go change. I’m going to teach you how to swim.”

            fell open. “But why?”

            “It’s an essential survival skill. Come on! It’ll be fun with me teaching it anyway, wouldn’t it be?” He flashed her a grin. She groaned and reluctantly went with him.

            They walked into the empty pool. “I emptied it just for you. The manager wasn’t super happy but I promised I would help him clean the locker rooms in exchange for this.”

            She stared at him. “Thank you.”

            He scrunched his nose at her. “Don’t thank me. Get in and show me what you can do.”

            She got into the three feet section and pushed off, doing the backstroke. “I can sort of free style if you’ll let me stop every so often.”

            He shook his head. “You need to learn to use your legs to propel you and your arms to move you. Alright. I’m getting in.” He jumped in with his shirt still on. “Okay, let me help you. You hold onto the side of the pool first. Float your legs to the top and kick. Go on, do it.”

            She did as he said. His hands lightly supported her legs, pushing them up whenever they threatened to fall. “Okay, good. Now, lay on your back and move. Your arms shouldn’t splash and try to keep them near your body.”

            She started, fighting to keep her head above water. When she started to sink, Zelo would swim underneath her and push her back up. When they were taking a break, she looked at him. “You should take off your shirt. Isn’t it holding you down?”

            He looked at her. “You don’t mind being in the pool alone with a shirtless guy?”

            She splashed water in his face. “Don’t be silly, Zelo. I trust you.”

            He grinned and yanked off his shirt. “Look, I can do underwater pushups. Watch me!”

            He sank to the bottom and she followed suit. He impressively managed to stable himself and do a couple before floating back. “Okay, next we’re going to move on to the five feet water. There, you can learn to tread and float more!”

            dropped open. “Sir, just because you’re like a foot over does not mean I am. In case you haven’t noticed, my height is around there. My eyes won’t even be above the water!”

            His arms went around her waist as he propelled her forward. “I got you.”

            She took a deep breath and swam under the lanes to the deeper end. Once she got to the five feet part, she started to kick, trying not to sink. “I’ll help you become vertical. Slowly let your legs down and then move them in a circular motion. I’ll hold you.”

            She tried but her head went under. Her limbs thrashed as she tried to keep from inhaling the water. Too late. The chlorine burned. She accidently hit Zelo in the face. He pushed her towards the wall and she grasped on. When she recovered, he was concerned. “Maybe this was all a little too fast,” he fretted.

            She threw an arm around his neck. “That was scary,” she gasped, still tasting the burning of the chlorine. He helped push her out of the pool and ran to wrap her in a towel.

            Zelo held her against him and her hair. “Are you tired? We can come back tomorrow. You already made so much progress. You just need to learn to float while vertical. I can help you with that when you’re less tired. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed you.”

            She smiled. “You’re so sweet. But I don’t want you having to work more days for the manager. I can finish this.”

            He shook his head firmly. “Nope. The manager’s my uncle anyway. I’ll just beg him or we can come after hours. You already did so well.”

            She let out another cough and shook her head, trying to clear her ears. “Blawr, water and I really don’t mix.” She looked at him. “Thank you for being so patient though.”

            He grinned. “Do you want to watch me dive then?”

            She nodded. “Yes!”

            Zelo walked onto the board, jumped a little, testing the spring before launching himself into the air. He spun and executed a perfect dive. When he came back up, he shook his hair and she took a towel to dry him. “Why do I even need to learn? With you next to me, I’ll be safe anyway.” Zelo laughed and picked up her hand.

            “Come on, let’s go get something to eat. You must be hungry. Swimming takes a lot of energy. Think of this as segment two of our date.” He grinned.

requested

sorry if it's lacking, a bit tired ;;

omg shirtless Yongguk

Daehyun's arms

this concert...