It was a peaceful scenery in a usual beach; children, teenagers, adults, and the elderly coexisted in a warm paradise to escape the stress of the life outside. Ice cream shops were jam-packed with drenched out customers who were thirsty and tired from their underwater excursions. Children were happily wading by the shore, finding happiness in the simplest things as their parents took pictures of them, reminiscing their youth at the same time.

Amidst the sea of joyful people, a usually youthful Dongwoo sat in his duck tube, floating on the water, watching his friends enjoy the thrill of life. On one side there was Hyuna and Sunggyu amusingly arguing, the same went for Jinyoung and Sungjong although their bickering was more of a fierce competition. On the other hand, Yura was too busy writing on a beach mat. Sungyeol and Myungsoo were one of those happy people; splashing at each other and taking derpy selcas. Truly, those two were the epitomy of a model couple. But despite all those peppy people, the thought of one who was wrecked made him glum.

Isolated from the rest, CL was having her own photo shoot in a very revealing black bikini. There was nothing fierce or empowering about her clothes and poses; they were all borderline . Unable to bear the sight, Dongwoo extended his hand forward from a distance toward her, but then the water beneath him began to swirl around really fast. Before he knew it, a whirlpool had him in. The last thing he saw beyond the blurry liquid was CL’s face from afar, shedding a line of tears down one eye. Her face was almost monotonous, but the slightly lowered corners of hinted of pure sorrow.

“Dongwoo!” yelled Myungsoo.

It was all just a dream. Dongwoo woke up in the hammock with his body springing upward as he in a ton of air as if the dream had actually happened. He had fallen asleep in the hammock without returning to the hotel. He sat up, panting hard, looking at the calm waves rushing in.

“Woah, what happened to you?” asked Myungsoo groggily, his voice almost unfathomable through the huskiness.

In between breaths, Dongwoo replied, “A dream.”

“Oh.” Having just woken up, Myungsoo squinted his eyes to the point where his brows slightly ached and said, “Okay, well, it’s breakfast so let’s go back.”

“Sure thing.”

Myungsoo helped him up then they walked over to the breakfast buffet area where they parted ways. Dongwoo went on his own while Myungsoo ran off to Sungyeol to whine about how early in the morning it was and that he was supposed to be asleep instead. Around him were the usual pairings plus the contending third wheel class president being their usual selves in the morning with a tint of grogginess on some people. The only ones who were alive were Hyuna and Sunggyu who kept bickering about dieting and food. He, on the other hand, couldn’t concentrate despite the wafting aroma of breakfast bacon and eggs; his dream bothered him so much that he just got a bunch of random things and took his seat in a lonely, one-person table in the room. And not long after, CL appeared in a ripped black tank top, short shorts, slippers, and large black glasses—probably to cover up her hangover face. Her hair was a mess; no product needed—the partying did all that to her. It was also evident that she didn’t take a bath.

It looked gross.

As she entered the room, everyone cleared the path; they didn’t wanna touch her or get near her. She was that monstrous and hard to approach, and what was worse was that she didn’t care and just talked to her boss on the phone. All she did was eat a piece of toast and leave—most likely to go back to sleep again. Seeing it all, Dongwoo felt nauseous and lost his appetite. His head panged with ache and his chest sank deeper than the depths of the ocean. He left shortly after she did to go back to his hammock—the place where he spent thinking and observing for hours, leaving behind his plate of food which Myungsoo snagged away and finished.

The rest of his afternoon was quite boring in the view of a passerby because all that Dongwoo did was sit on his hammock or walk across the shore to throw a shell or two in the sea once in a while. He didn’t eat lunch or talk to anyone either; he didn’t feel like it.

But when nighttime came, taking no action wasn’t an option anymore. From his room, he could hear the music blaring from the beach. People were screaming, people were bouncing to the beat; some were drunk, some were almost drunk. As much as he tried to ignore it, he couldn’t. Looking down from his balcony, he saw CL in the very center dancing the night away. She was jumping so hard that her drink kept spilling, her hair covered most of her face and she had on the same outfit she wore during breakfast. She was definitely drunk, but not drunk enough to lose her sanity—she was purposely acting reckless for the heck of it, and that led her to dance and flirt with a lot of men. Dongwoo’s eyes became fiercer by the second, and his fear of being shoved suddenly became so foreign to him. And when a guy slapped her , that was when he lost it.

Wearing a lose white shirt, baggy shorts, and slippers, he rushed down the stairs and stormed into the party looking straight at one person. Once he got to her, he punched the guy who slapped her who was also, by the way, the guy she was dancing with before he came. The guy stepped back a few steps and once he regained his balance, he charged at Dongwoo for a punch only to have his fist blocked and have a kick smash against his stomach. It didn’t injure him, but it was enough to let him know that the amount of booze he puked out that he lost—lost very bad.

“Don’t go around doing malicious things to her, or any girl for that matter,” said Dongwoo.

After that, he grabbed CL and led her back to her room. Despite her protests, he adjusted his grip to be tight enough to secure her completely; it was a long way back to the hotel seeing that she put up a fight. When they finally reached her room, he locked the door and waited for her to apologize and get to her senses, but no, all she did was remove her accessories as if it was nothing.

He gnashed his teeth and asked, containing his anger, “Don’t you have anything to say?”

She shrugged without a hint of fear or burden, “What? Nothing really.”

“How about ‘Oh, I’m sorry for staying out with a bunch of drunk strangers’ or ‘Sorry Dongwoo, I’ve been a to you all this time’ or maybe even ‘Sorry Dongwoo that I’m become some desensitized heartbreaker that did nothing but bull!’”

A short moment of silence followed, but when CL spoke once again, it was the ignorant sentence that definitely crossed the line.

“What the ?”

That was when the volcano had been activated.

“What the …?” asked Dongwoo. “What the …?”

Brought to tears of anger, he lashed out, “I busted my to get you out of that stupid place and that is all you can say? What the !”

He punched the wall so hard that his fist began to bled; it was then that she knew how strong he hit the guy. The sound echoed across their heads; Dongwoo had never been so pissed in his life, and CL was the first to witness it in all its un-sugar-coated splendor. With that one strike, she felt her body quiver from intimidation; she was a bit more like her old self.

“Do you know how much it pissed me off to see you just get smacked in the by some guy and not care about it? What have you become, Chaerin?”

He never used her name until that night. He was dead serious.

“You’ve become a cold-hearted .”

Looking away while biting her lip, she slapped him hard on the face, her eyes welling up with tears. “Why can’t you stop bugging me? It’s seriously ticking me off!”

“It’s because I love you; I always have and always will, but the girl I fell in love wasn’t this one.” He couldn’t believe he just said that, but he meant every single word of it. “If you wanna act like a , break my heart first then act like a ! Chaerin, I challenge you to do that—I challenge you. Whether it's me or not, I tell you... lust won't help you nor the men that will soon become your buddies. I've given up a lot for you... the only thing—the only thing I wanted was appreciation, nothing else... yet I get this. I get this undignified girl who’s completely wasted herself—a girl who seems to have thrown away her memories of me, even if I kept mine with hers so vividly. Please, let me know that I didn't pour my heart out to a person who didn't deserve it in the first place." By that time, his face was filled with tears. He wiped his face with one hand and said with much yearning, “Chaerin, can’t you just listen to me already? I hate feeling like , okay?”

Dongwoo leaned against the wall and plumped down to the floor, one hand covered his crying face. He was really fed up, and he said what he needed to say. His heart will never be ready to give her up. To him, it didn’t even seem to affect her.

But that wasn’t the case.

Soon after, he felt her sitting beside him, crying as hard as he was. He turned to the side to see her curled up into a ball, clawing the floor from frustration. To that, he slung an arm around her and patted her shoulder. In return she hugged him tight, her head nestled on his chest.

“I’m… so sorry, Dongwoo,” she whimpered, holding his arm tightly. “I’m so sorry… And if I sound horrible, it’s because I’m ing drunk right now.”

She was back.

“Damn, I was such a !” she hissed and fisted the floor. “That was so stupid of me.”

Dongwoo’s tears came gushing out even more, relieved that she was once again her true self. She wiped his tears for him with her hand, but rubbed it against his shirt to dry off. It was very much like her.

She let out a long sigh. “That… was horrible. I was horrible. You described me perfectly, a . I couldn’t stop myself; vanity’s a when I abused it.”

“I’m sorry I had to say all that; it was horrible!” He managed to say in between yelps. “But then—“

“It inevitably had to be said,” she completed and hugged him tighter. “I know… and thank you for that. You’re the only person who could do that.”

“Because I’m the only one who could get that mad?”

“No.” She shook her head and blushed. “It’s because… you’re the one who loves me.”

He didn’t say anything and instead glided his hand across her hair.

“To be honest, I knew for a long time already,” she admitted. “But I just couldn’t say how much I love-hated your endless attempts to make me laugh… make me smile. Well guess what, every time you do, I really smile inside.”

That made him smile outside. “It’s really good to hear that.”

She got up and said, “and you know what’s good to say?”

“What?”

She leaned closer to him, just an inch away from his ear. As she uttered her next line with a breathy tone, she smiled.

“I love you so much; I love you so tenderly with every moment.”

“And I love you so deeply with my beating heart,” he replied.

Slowly, he closed his eyes and leaned closer to her; she made way for his action by wrapping her hands around his and gave herself to his sweet kiss. His lips were soft and filled with a kind of warmth that soothed her body in an instant. And when they pulled away, the feeling remained within her; it was something she would cherish forever.

“I taste like booze, right?” she asked. “I made the moment ty.”

“It’s fine; I know it’s you anyway.” He rested his head on her shoulder and heavily sighed in relief. “I’m just glad you’re back.”

“Me too,” she nodded and shed another tear, remembering how much she owed him for all the trouble she caused. “Me too.”

Together, they leaned against each other and went to sleep for the night. It was their first blissful sleep in a very long time.

Another couple down, two more to go. :)

Thank you for reading and I hope you guys enjoyed it~! :D