August 27, 2013

Sunggyu blinked rapidly as he entered the kitchen. Seul-ki was standing at the sink, washing dishes while humming some tune. Just as he was about to approach her, she flung her hands up, splashing soapy water into the air and over the counter, “I got yooooou under my skin!” making Sunggyu jump a little bit. He tried not to laugh as she began to dance a bit, putting her hands back under the water and rinsing the dish, and he smiled for a split second before pressing his lips into a firm line.

His heart was beating loudly as he came closer, his hand shaking as he reached out to poke her in the shoulder. “Y – yah! Lee Seul-ki!” he half shouted, making her scream and splash water everywhere, wetting his face and shirt.

She turned around quickly with wide eyes, “Sunggyu-sshi!”
“Stop washing the dishes.” He commanded, looking at her seriously, and when she didn’t do anything but stared at him, he reached across her to turn off the tap, his hair tickling her chin.

“W – why?”

“We have business to discuss.” He said rather seriously.

“Business?” Seul-ki tilted her head to the side.

Sunggyu shifted weight from one foot to the other, deciding they were getting nowhere by standing at the sink. He quickly held onto Seul-ki’s wet hand and pulled her to the dining table. He pulled out a chair for her and all but pushed her down to sit in it. Then he took the chair opposite hers.

“Lee Seul-ki.” He said, staring her down and making her feel a little bit shy and uncomfortable. There was a long pause that was not necessary as she fidgeted under his intense gaze. Then he broke the silence.

“Do you want to go to the beach?”

“Eh?” she exclaimed, “Beach?”

Sunggyu nodded. “Sugi beach on Sugi Island. This weekend.” He explained, but he did not tell her that it was their honeymoon because he was shy. In fact, he was finding it difficult to keep the blush from rising to his cheeks and making him look suspicious.

“Beach!” she repeated a little louder. “Sugi beach!”

Sunggyu nodded again slowly, “Yes, Sugi beach on Sugi Island... That’s what I said.”

“Beach!” Seul-ki screamed, standing up suddenly and looking at Sunggyu with shining eyes, “Really? Really?” and he nodded his head for the third time.  "But why?"

"Why-why?" Sunggyu felt a bit panicky, and looked elsewhere. "Uh, well, because it's been a while since I last went to the beach and I thought why not we go and I can um, show you around Seoul..."

"That'd... That'd be nice. Un." She nodded to herself, with a somehow nervous smile on her face and sat down again. "The beach."

"Yes-yes." Sunggyu said and they were silent again. It couldn't be denied that both of them were still feeling embarrassed after having the baby talk the day before that dinner was full of awkward silence, much to Woohyun's annoyance.

"This weekend." She said, looking down on the table.

"Um-um."

She got up suddenly, startling Sunggyu a bit. "I better think of what to cook... What do people eat at the beach... Kimbap?" She said, mindlessly and went back into the kitchen. Sunggyu let out a big relief sigh and put his hand on his chest, trying to calm his fast-beating heart once she was gone. He then scratched his head and smiled a bit when he heard Seul-ki singing some Japanese song though he understood nothing but the 'summer dream' which she had sang so happily. He retreated to his room and took a bath, and got ready for work, eating the breakfast in silence but there was a pleasant feeling as he was studying Seul-ki's bright face all the while. They both left for work and uni and Sunggyu was on the internet, looking at pictures of Sugi Beach while imagining activities he could do there with Seul-ki before he snapped out of his thought.

"You're going to beach?" His colleague asked, peeping at his laptop screen.

"Yeah." He said, smiling widely.

"Hoho. With your girlfriend?"

"With my wife."

And then his colleague was laughing hard, and shook his head, calling Sunggyu crazy but he found himself not minding it as he kept on imagining things, up until the time he was going back home for the day. But all his imagination diminished as he saw a lot of shoes at the entrance and he walked inside to find the kids flocking up in his living room, chatting lively. There was also Myungsoo, who was looking bored, but his gaze was intense whenever Woohyun was talking.

 “Why are you kids here?” Sunggyu demanded, looking at every one and each of them, mostly at Myungsoo who shot him a bored look.

 “Because hyung,” Sungjong began, flipping his silky soft hair, “you’re taking us to the beach!”

"Yeah! I heard hyung said we're going to Sugi Island?" Sungyeol asked, excitedly.

"Why not we go to Gwangalli? We can catch fish." Howon said, tilting his head.

"Hyung, we're going for a swim, not to catch fish. And it's in Busan." Sungjong said, shaking his head. Howon only shrugged, thinking of something else.

"Why Sugi though? Why not we go to Boryeong? We can go to the Mud Festival. It's good for your skin." Woohyun said, and everyone was going 'woah' and 'ooh' and 'ahh'. Even Seul-ki was listening interestedly to his explanation.

"But it's too crowded." Myungsoo suddenly said, not looking at Woohyun.

"But every beach is crowded right now." Woohyun replied, with a rather mocking tone.

"Well, not Sugi Island though." Myungsoo said, looking at Woohyun, in the same tone, though more obvious and it was followed with an intense gaze. Everyone was quiet until Seul-ki waved her hands around, laughing nervously.

"Mud Festival is good! But I think we should just follow Sunggyu-sshi's plan!" She said, loudly, looking at Woohyun apologetically. Woohyun pouted slightly and Myungsoo was making his straight face, though it was clear that he was feeling victorious. Everyone was then quiet again before Howon spoke again.

"We can go to Songjeong beach. It's quiet enough."

"Hyung, that is still in Busan." Sungjong said, sighing.

"Dadaepo beach?" Howon spoke again, clearly not hearing what the younger was saying earlier. Howon looked like he was still lost in his thoughts, and everyone suspected that he was going to come up with more name of beaches in Busan.

"So, we're going to Sugi Island then?" Sungyeol finally asked.

"No we are not!" Sunggyu snapped, and everyone was looking up at him. Sunggyu crossed his arms across his chest, glaring at the kids. "Who said I was going to bring you kids?!" Sunggyu’s yelling suddenly overpowered everything. “None of you are invited to the beach!” he said loudly, tugging on his hair, “When did I invite you?”

“Seul-ki said!” Sungyeol reasoned, pouting childishly, “Seul-ki told us!”

Seul-ki’s dropped her eyes to the floor when she realised how angry Sunggyu was. She felt guilty, and bad like she had done something naughty. The mood of the room instantly dropped and everyone anticipated Sunggyu’s reaction.

“Yah Lee Seul-ki.” He called, “Is this true?”

Seul-ki bit her lip, “But Sunggyu-sshi said that we were going to Sugi beach on Sugi Island!”

Before Sunggyu could respond, Detective Nam spoke up, “Wae? Hyung? Were you planning to go to the beach with Seul-ki alone?” He was studying Sunggyu's change of expression interestedly. Everyone was looking at Sunggyu except for Myungsoo who was looking at Woohyun sharply.

The former male’s froze suddenly  before shaking his head furiously, denying the entire thing, “N – no!”

“Then?” Woohyun prompted, “Why are you so worked up about us coming?” he squinted his and scrutinised Sunggyu, “Is it because there is something you’re hiding?”

Sunggyu’s ears turned red, “No!” he almost shouted, “There’s nothing I’m hiding! I’m hiding nothing!”

“Then?” Woohyun repeated.

“Then... Then!” Sunggyu said stupidly, “I was going to invite Dongwoo because I can trust him and isn’t embarrassing!”

Howon clicked his tongue, “Are you saying that the rest of us are embarrassing?”

“Yes-yes.”

The kids all hung their heads low and sighed, feeling dejected. Seul-ki looked around frantically and felt very guilty – guilt so intense like she had never felt it before. Myungsoo frowned at her for a moment before turning to Sunggyu again, staring at him wordlessly, clearly unimpressed.

Sunggyu could feel Seul-ki feeling guilty, and it made him feel guilty too because he was supposed to be treating her more like a wife!

“Hyung...” Howon gave him puppy eyes but his jaw was tight, “We really want to go to the beach...”

“Mm.” Sungjong and Sungyeol nodded in agreement, “We haven’t gone to the beach in almost three years.”

“You little rascals! You went to the beach only three days ago. I saw the photos!” Sunggyu hissed, but immediately shut his mouth when he saw Seul-ki trembling a little bit, trying to hold in her tears. “Aish.” He muttered under his breath, deciding whether or not to let them go or stand firm and reject them.

Woohyun looked up at Sunggyu, trying to imitate the cute look Howon had given earlier, “Hyung... When was the last time we all hung out together?” he asked, but Sunggyu didn’t even look at him.

“I – I’m sorry –“ Seul-ki began to say, but Sunggyu rudely interrupted her.

“Aish! Chincha! Fine, fine! We’re all going!” He blared suddenly before adding “And I guess... It will be a good time for us to know about Myungsoo?” he said unsurely, looking at Seul-ki’s friend.

Myungsoo’s head suddenly snapped towards Sunggyu and his eyes became intent, making Sunggyu feel extremely nervous – so nervous that his hands became clammy and he suddenly felt very warm.

“Really?” Sungyeol asked, not believing him.

“Yah! Don’t you believe me?” Sunggyu challenged, and the entire room shook their head. “Fine! If you don’t want to come to Sugi beach on Sugi Island, then don’t!”

“We will come!” Howon said quickly, “We will be there! Right? Right, guys?”

The entire room nodded clearly, but Seul-ki was still feeling a little bit guilty from inviting them when she shouldn’t have. She was also a little bit worried that Sunggyu was going to be mad at her later on when they all left. She didn’t want them to leave so she announced that they should come up with a plan and that was when Dongwoo, who was quiet the whole time, poured out big pieces of butchers paper and colourful markers from his bag, making the other kids excited. Sunggyu rolled his eyes but when he saw how Seul-ki, with her eyes a bit glassy was taking the red marker and started drawing 'W' with a happy expression, Sunggyu’s lips tugged up a bit of his own.

Woohyun was observing everything and he shook his head to himself, thinking that cousins don’t look at each other like that. But then Woohyun turned his head to meet Myungsoo’s glaring eyes and felt like he couldn’t look away. Woohyun shivered, suddenly feeling cold and Myungsoo’s eyes hardened, scaring him a little bit.

Sunggyu sat down next to her, watching how Seul-ki was writing Kim Jaejoong's name and he took a blue marker and crossed out the name and wrote his own name. Seul-ki turned to him, shot him a glare but then it was softened as she was watching Sunggyu drawing house and cars like a child. And then Sunggyu and Seul-ki were too busy looking at each other with some sickening love look in their eyes that they didn’t notice Howon looking back at forth between the two of them.

Suddenly, a hand latched onto Seul-ki’s arm making her yelp in shock. When she turned her head, she saw a pouting Howon, looking at her cutely. “Seul-ki ah...” he said in a baby voice, stunning her and irritating Sunggyu.

“Y – yeah?” she looked at his hand which was still on her arm and shifted her position a little bit.

“Will you cook us lunch on the beach trip?” he battered his eyes at her, pouting slightly making his lips look extremely kissable (not that Seul-ki was thinking that because her eyes were only on Sunggyu’s lips).

“S – sure.” She nodded, “Just tell me what you want to eat, I guess.”

“No!” Sunggyu roared, “No, no, no!”

Myungsoo suddenly switched his gaze from Woohyun to Sunggyu, and Sunggyu could sense it immediately. The gaze was different though, instead of a glare, it was rather he was just looking... looking to see if Sunggyu had any imperfections.

“Hyung, is something wrong?”Dongwoo asked, looking up from his the green and red dinosaur he had drawn on the butchers paper he was working on with Howon.

“No!” Sunggyu shouted again, before correcting himself, “Yes! There is something wrong!”

“What is it?” Sungjong queried, looking at Sunggyu like he had grown another head, “And why are you yelling! We’re indoors!”

“This is my house, Lee Sungjong!” Sunggyu narrowed his eyes, “I can shout if I want to!”

Seul-ki watched as Sunggyu bickered like an immature child with the kids. And then she wondered who she would refer to when talking about ‘the kids’ or ‘the kid’. She wasn’t entirely sure anymore.

Woohyun seized this opportunity to tug on her sleeve, capturing her attention. “Seul-ki.” He said quietly, “I found a job for you.”

Seul-ki’s eyes widened immensely, “Chincha?!”

Woohyun nodded, “But I will tell you a bit later...” he shivered violently as Myungsoo penetrated his gaze back onto him from behind.

"We are supposed to be planning but why is everyone drawing instead!" Sunggyu snapped, almost wanting to cry because he felt himself being more and more ridiculous. He looked down on Howon's nice drawing but everything was drawn using a purple marker, even the trees. And Sungyeol had drawn what he claimed to be as Sungjong and Sungjong was the only one who was listing up the stuff needed for the trip.

 “Then let’s continue planning!” Dongwoo laughed, uncapping his colourful marker so he could continue drawing on the paper instead of coming up with ideas. Howon followed his lead quickly and picked up a brown marker, drawing two bears that were holding hands – one boy bear and one girl bear – while smiling to himself. Woohyun squinted his eyes and peered over Howon’s shoulder, “What are you doing?” he asked close to his ear, making the hair on Howon’s neck stand.

“Drawing.” He said simply.

“Bears? But those are for girls.” Woohyun said.

Howon’s face turned red and dangerous, “You take that back right now.”

“Wae? It’s the truth.”

Howon’s eyes narrowed and he reached out to grab Woohyun by the collar, “Take it back.” he commanded, and because there was steam coming out of his ears, Woohyun nodded and swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat, “I – I take it back.”

“What do you take back?”

“I – I take back that bears are for g – girls.”

Howon smiled with a satisfied smirk and released him, “That’s what I thought.”

Sunggyu watched as Seul-ki watched Howon and Woohyun interact. He ran his