Teaser

“What are you doing?!” Yixing squawked, pulling at the sleeve of his tank. Strawberry and chocolate ice-cream dripped all over his shoulder, sticky and sweet. A sugar cone stuck out from a scoop that stubbornly clung to his body, making his arm look like some weird, unicorn sundae. If Jungmi was in her right mind, she would even be tempted to place a cherry on top, then take a bunch of pictures of him in all of his ice-creamy glory for troll’s sake.

However, Jungmi remained perched on the second step of the ice-cream parlor, frozen in the same pose from when she tripped and accidentally dumped her ice-cream onto Yixing in the first place. She died inside at that moment. She had been waiting all day for those two glorious scoops of sweet, heavenly goodness... And now it was all wasted on Yixing’s shoulder, of all places.

“You have to take responsibility for this,” Yixing announced coldly, carefully taking the sugar cone and pushing as much of the ice-cream as he could off of his shoulder and into the trash can. Jungmi cringed as he let the cone fall into the trash can as well.

Of course, Yixing wasn’t angry at all. His only worry at the moment was getting rid of all the stickiness. However, he couldn’t resist the opportunity to tease his companion.

“I am so sorry!” Jungmi proclaimed sincerely, finally coming to her senses and pulling out her spare napkins to help wipe his shoulder clean.

“Are you?” Yixing asked playfully, being sure to point out places that she had missed.

“Yes!” Jungmi replied, still wiping his shoulder with her napkins.

“Prove it.”

She paused. “... what?”

“Make it up to me.”

“How?” Jungmi asked slowly, worried now that a mischievous grin had appeared on Yixing’s face.

“Spend the day with me tomorrow.”

Part One: Just Drive

Kim Jungmi was not amused.

“Where are you even taking me?” she asked in a monotonous voice, arms folded across her chest. Yixing risked a side-glance at his companion, taking note of her body language. Her expression was dull as she adamantly stared at the road ahead. Her window was rolled all the way down, but she just allowed the wind to blow her hair in every direction; he wondered if her hair constantly slapping against her face was at all uncomfortable -- either way, she wouldn’t give any tells, just like with everything else. His eyes wandered down, and like her arms, she had a leg crossed over the other as well. He curiously followed one leg up until he reached the hem of her denim skirt --

He quickly glanced up at her face to make sure she hadn’t caught him looking. He refocused his attention on the road before him, and his grip on the steering wheel suddenly tightened.

“Well?” she asked impatiently.

He cleared his throat in hopes of clearing his mind of any weird thoughts as well. “Don’t worry about it.”

She rolled her eyes. “Of course I’m worried about it. What are you up to, exactly?”

Yixing stayed quiet, and Jungmi looked at him curiously.

“Fine,” she replied, giving up. “Just drive.” She uncrossed her limbs and propped up her head on one arm. Now she stared out of the side window. “I can’t believe I actually came.”

Yixing glanced at his passenger again and grinned, completely amused. “You know, you did this to yourself.”

She was incredulous. Wasn’t it enough that she lost not one, but two scoops of ice-cream yesterday? She even helped clean him up! She didn’t even have enough money to buy herself another cone. Wasn’t that punishment enough? Was he was trying to make her his personal slave for the day or something? Because that’s not cool.

“Yeah, whatever,” she muttered.

“Today will be fun,” Yixing reassured her. “Trust me.”

She frowned. “You may look innocent, Zhang Yixing, but I know better.”

Beep!

“Ugh,” she groaned, checking the screen of her phone to preview the text.

Yixing glanced at her then at her phone curiously, but decided to ignore the occurrence as she did.

Riiing! Riiing!

Yixing eyed her phone again, which Jungmi immediately silenced. “You’re not going to answer that?”

“No,” Jungmi said simply, adamantly refusing to check her screen for a second time.

“I see,” Yixing replied lightly and slightly amused -- although to him, pretty much everything about Jungmi was amusing. “It’s him, isn’t it?”

“It’s none of your business!” Jungmi snapped. She quickly worked to change the subject. “So where are we going?”

“Does it really matter where we’re going as long as we’re together?” Yixing retaliated, shooting her a small grin. She readied her retort, but instead decided to stay quiet. Yixing pointed at her phone. “You know, if he’s bothering you, I can talk to him and let him know you’re busy at the moment.”

“You of all people should know he wouldn’t be too happy about that.”

“And yet you’re with me again today, knowing he wouldn’t be too happy about that,” Yixing shrugged.

She glared at him, although she knew he was right. Still, not wanting to lose the argument, she attacked with a direct poke to the back of his neck.

“Hey!” Yixing jumped as he quickly brought a hand to defend his neck, causing the car to swerve slightly. Jungmi giggled at his shocked expression. “You know I hate that!”

“And yet I still did it, knowing that you hate that,” Jungmi mocked before shifting to a more comfortable position in her seat.

Yixing pouted at the sight of her smug grin. But when she least expected it, he jabbed a couple fingers to her side which caused her to jump this time. He laughed uncontrollably as she flinched and hit her arm on the car door.

“Hey! Yixing!” she complained, unable to hide her laughter as well.

“You started it!” Yixing accused, still laughing as he lifted a hand up to call for a truce.

“Fine! Whatever! Just drive!”

---

“The beach. I had a feeling.”

Yixing lay a towel on the sand and took a seat. Jungmi remained standing, unsure of what she should do until Yixing patted the space next to him.

“You’re not going to sit?” he asked innocently.

“Yixing, I don’t get it. What are you going to make me do?”

“Nothing,” Yixing said feigning obliviousness.

“Then I don’t even have to be here right now.”

“You’re right. You don’t have to be here right now. But you are.”

“Obviously,” she replied, rolling her eyes as she eventually took her place next to him.

“You actually prefer to be here, though, isn’t that right?” he mused out loud.

“Because I owe you, apparently. But you’re not even making me do anything for you. So why am I here?”

Yixing gave her a crooked smile, revealing his sole dimple. “Because I wanted you to be here.”

She knew better than to be affected, but she couldn’t help but feel a little bit flustered by his comment. “But why?”

Yixing raised an eyebrow at his companion.

“Because I like you,” he said matter-of-factly, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world; as though it was preposterous that Jungmi didn’t have a clue. “You know that.”

“You can’t play around like that anymore,” Jungmi frowned.

He laughed. “It’s not funny?”

Annoyed, she turned away from him and crossed her arms, refusing to speak. He leaned forward to get a better view of her face, still completely amused.

“Fine, you want to do something for me?”

She faced him again. “Technically, I don’t want to, but yesterday you were so insistent that I ‘make it up to you’--wait, what are you doing?”

Jungmi’s eyes widened as Yixing proceeded to take off his shirt.

“Yixing--”

“Here, rub this on me.” He threw her a bottle of sunscreen.

“Are you serious?” she asked him incredulously. “You can do that by yourself.”

“I... can’t... reach...” Yixing said in a strained voice, feigning exertion as he reached for the far places of his back.

“Says the dancer,” she said barely audibly. In a louder voice she added, “Your back is understandable, but your front...”

Yixing turned his back toward her. “Back first, please!”

Jungmi rolled her eyes, but she complied, squirting a blob of sunscreen onto her hand. She put her hands together to evenly distribute the blob before slapping them onto his . Once she finished, he turned around so she could work on his front.

“Of course you were serious,” she muttered as she obediently squirted more sunscreen into her hands, preparing to repeat the process. He grinned with satisfaction when she began to rub it onto his skin. It wasn’t until she moved from his pecs to his stomach that she became aware of what exactly she was doing. She looked down to avoid his gaze, scared he would notice the blush creeping onto her cheeks.

"Arms, please!"

“Yeah, yeah...” Jungmi said as she started on his left arm. “You’re not gonna make me do your legs too, are you?” she added sarcastically.

“Can I?” he asked, playfully raising an eyebrow and tilting his head to one side. He brought his free hand up to scratch the back of his neck.

“No,” she said flatly, meeting his look with narrowed eyes.

“All right,” Yixing said, standing up and rubbing his hands together. “Time to go in the water!” He looked down at Jungmi, who remain seated on the towel, hugging her legs. “You’re not coming?”

“No.”

“Why not?” She shrugged. “As the person you unjustly covered in ice-cream, I insist that you come into the water with me.”

He laughed victoriously when she reluctantly took off her shirt and skirt, revealing a two-piece bathing suit. She grabbed Yixing’s bottle and quickly but thoroughly applied sunscreen on her skin. After a while, she looked up at him hesitantly.

“You ready?” he asked.

“I can’t reach my back. Can you help me?” she asked. “I mean, since I helped you.”

“That’s because you owe me, though,” Yixing reasoned, slightly mortified.

“Ugh, fine,” she spat before reattempting to reach for her back.

“I’m kidding,” Yixing laughed, grabbing her arm and forcibly turning her around so her back was to him. He moved her hair aside, and she took ahold of it, making a ponytail with her hands. She tensed when he first made contact with her skin, but soon relaxed as he gently massaged the sunscreen onto her back. He kneaded her shoulders, and she was forced to bite her lip as he slowly worked his way down her contours to the small of her back.

“All done!” Yixing announced. He grabbed Jungmi’s hand. “Let’s go!”

He picked up his speed, excited to get in the water, pulling Jungmi along behind him. She stumbled at first, but she quickly matched his pace, low-key excited to play in the water as well.

They both left their stuff behind on the beach towel, and since they would be playing in the water for some time, Jungmi didn’t notice her new missed calls and text messages from Kris until later on.

A/N: Hello~ I decided to two-shot this because I was just so anxious to post already, but I still have a few things to tweak for the ending. Since the deadline is on Wednesday, I'll be posting part two either tomorrow or, well, Wednesday, hahah. Thank you readers, commenters, and subscribers~ I hope you're enjoying what you're reading so far ^^