You smiled flirtatiously and lifted your cocktail drink as a sign of salute as the guy who had been hitting on you for the past few minutes finally walked away. You turned away and saw someone else walking your way. A smile lit up on your face but you tried to mask it as general pleasure rather than your heart fluttering.

            You felt almost self-conscious but remembered that the whole point in doing this was to build your confidence. You admired that he was the only one in the entire resort who had flouted the rules, something which only made him all the more interesting.

            He continued walking your way and you saw a bunch of girls come out to intercept him. They were giggling into their palms and talking at him but he seemed only interested in getting out of their grasps. You felt a small twinge of excitement when he finally pushed past them with a charming, yet dismissive smile.

            He was coming closer and you took in a deep breath. All of a sudden the fact that he was clothed, and you were not, made you more conscious and you wanted to leave. You heard him call out your name and had no choice.

            “Hey.”

            Himchan finally was level with you and he smiled. “You should be a rebel like me.”

            “R-rebel?” You had heard rumors about his reputation. You had heard that he was good with girls.

            “You should wear clothes.”

            You cracked a grin. “It is indeed rebellious to wear clothes at a nudist resort. Why did you come here?”

            “Well, to see if I could build up the confidence. I’m looking around and everyone seems so comfortable in their skins.”

            “You don’t really have to be one hundred percent confident to do that,” you responded softly.

            Himchan looked at you. He let his eyes slowly linger on your face as if asking for silent permission before allowing his gaze to wander down your body. You felt the sun against your skin and that wasn’t the only thing making you feel hot. His eyes swept past your shoulders, down to your s and to your slightly crossed arms, in front of your stomach. He dropped down to look at your legs before, very quickly, looking at you again.

            “I think you’re perfect.”

            He held out his hand. “Do you want to help me?”

            “Help you with?”       

            “Finding my confidence.”

            You smiled at him and allowed one arm to leave the scratch marks on your stomach to take his hand. Himchan led you from the beach area into the shade and you curled on a chair, folding into yourself as the two of you watched people.

            The two of you sat quietly, not really talking. You could feel your heartbeat calming down after the initial shock of having Himchan confide in you something so personal. The two of you had arrived at the resort together and you had been interested in him. While everyone else walked around baring all, he had always kept on shorts and at least a tank top. The others respected his decision but you knew some of the men grumbled about him purposely wanting to draw attention to himself.

            You had gone on this out of your friend’s suggestion. After your disastrous breakup and miscarriage, you had withdrawn into yourself and she felt that you needed to regain the confidence you once had. It was difficult but you reminded yourself constantly that nobody was there to ogle. Everyone was there to be free in their own skin.

            When the night fell, Himchan took a deep breath and looked at you. “I have an idea.”

            You had just downed your third martini and looked at him expectantly. The two of you had spent the whole afternoon talking about your lives, but always skirting around the real reason why you decided to take this bold plunge.

            “Let’s go skinny-dipping.”

            You cracked a grin. “You do realize that one of the rules in this resort is no clothes in the pool, right?”

            Himchan returned with a charming smile. “I know. I figured I would call it that anyway because if it weren’t’ for you, I would be missing out on this experience and three days later when I go back, I would probably regret it.”

            The majority of people had gone in and so you made your way towards the outdoor pool. You held out your hand for Himchan and you walked to the edge and slipped in. The cold water made you shiver and you watched him.

            He had a look of apprehension on his face as he first took off the sweater he had on. You saw his arms come into view and floated on your back, feeling a shiver of exhilaration at the feel of nothing between you and the water.

            Himchan coughed nervously and you closed your eyes. “I won’t look if you don’t want me to.”

            “No, you can. In fact, I’d rather you did, or else it wouldn’t seem like progress.”

            You righted yourself and watched him slip off his tank top. His smooth skin came into view and you in a breath. His pants took longer to come off but when they did, you saw the bruises on his thighs and knew why he was so self-conscious.

            You reached for him and he slipped into the water with you. You took his hands and let them run across the stretch marks and he looked at you. You shrugged. “This is why I came. Because I had lost who I thought was the love of my life, and a baby I never knew. It was like losing myself. And I guess I just wanted to go back to the basics. Get to love myself and who I am first.”

            You ran a finger down the marks on his thigh. He shivered a little but you didn’t pull away even though you were breaking the number one rule of respecting boundaries. “I don’t know where these came from, and you don’t need to tell me, but I’ll let you know that they are a part of who you are. And one thing I’ve learned is that whatever is a part of you needs to be embraced.”

            Himchan finally gave you a small smile and flipped onto his side, floating like a dignified looking otter. “Embrace the whole of me?”

            You laughed and splashed water at him. “One step at a time.”

I'm not sure if this really made a point or whatever. I thought of this when I was reading the Economist. And I wanted to make it more fun and flirty but I know self image issues is a major problem with a lot of people so I did this instead.