“Don’t you think this would look spectacular on me?” Hyorin asked as she held a tiny hot-pink metallic bikini against her body in front of the mirror in their bedroom.

They had just sent off Kyuhyun at the airport and were scurrying to get everything ready for their beach trip with the boys.

“Uh, totally, if you want to be a ,” Cherie said as she picked out a simple white triangle top bikini from her wardrobe. “When did you buy that anyway?”

“Some sponsor gave it to me a long time ago,” Hyorin frowned. “Should I go the y route or cute route?”

“y,” Cherie said as she changed into her bikini. “But not ty. You don’t want random hairy men with beer bellies to corner you against a palm tree and take you then and there.”

“What if I do?”

“Don’t come crying to me when you conceive a hideous child. I charge $100 a minute for babysitting.”

HONK HONK!

“Crap crap crap, I don’t have any clothes on!” Hyorin screamed as she bolted for the bathroom.

Cherie laughed. “I’ll tell them to wait. I’m going down first!”

Throwing on a pastel purple crocheted slip-on, Cherie collected her beach towel, sunglasses, and sunscreen in her beach bag. Padding downstairs in her favorite Juicy Couture platform flip flops, she opened the front door of the house and waved hello to the boys.

“Hi Mrs. Hyukjae! Cherie and Hyukjae, up a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” Donghae and Leeteuk shouted in sync.

“Stop it, you guys are embarrassing me,” Cherie blushed as she slipped into the front seat of the car.

“Hey,” Hyukjae flashed her with his most adorable gummy smile. His skin felt instantly hot at the sight of her. Despite their little kissing game last night, he was still very unaccustomed to their new relationship status.

To having Cherie as his girlfriend.

Wow.

“Hey,” she replied, her heart fluttering.

"Did you sleep well last night?" Hyukjae asked, tucking a stray strand of hair away from her face.

Cherie's stomach dropped as his fingertips gently caressed her temples.

"Mmhmm," she smiled at him.

"Good."

“KISS! KISS! KISS!” Leeteuk and Donghae chanted from the backseat like a pair of hungry wolves desperate for meat.

"Patience my children," Hyukjae intoned sagely. "All good things come in time."

~*~*~*~

Walking down the slope from the car park onto the beach, the group set up base near a line of palm trees with hammocks that were relatively secluded from the other beach-goers. The sun’s rays shone on the sparkling white sand as the ocean water lapped onto the shore. The sky was a brilliant blue, with fluffy white clouds dotted here and there, drifting lazily.

Once they settled down, the guys started taking off their shirts as the girls stripped down to their bikinis. Even though Cherie had already seen Hyukjae’s abs, she still felt a blush creep onto her cheeks at the sight of Hyukjae bashfully lifting his shirt up, unable to look Cherie in the eye. He felt a warm breeze tickle his as he folded his shirt neatly into his bag.

Sitting down on her towel beside Hyorin, Cherie took out her sunscreen from her bag. Even though she felt that the awkward Hyukjae was beyond adorable, she wanted to make sure that he would never be shy around her again.

“Baby, can you help me put some sunscreen on my back?” Cherie turned her back to him and rested her chin on her right shoulder to smile at him.

“Uhhhh, sure,” Hyukjae said, biting his lips. Kneeling close to her, he squirted some sunscreen onto his hands and started rubbing it on. Cherie let out slight groans of pleasure as his hands traveled down to the small of her back.

“That feels so good. You should be a professional masseuse,” Cherie muttered, her eyes closed.

“Just say the word and I’ll be your private masseuse for eternity,” Hyukjae murmured in her ears, enveloping her in a back hug.

"Oohhh ," Hyorin joked as she perched her aviators on the crook of her nose before lying down to tan her toned, albeit pale body.

Ignoring her, Cherie pursed her lips in victory. “That's what I like to hear,” she whispered as she turned her head to peck him on the lips.

Hyukjae kept his eyes closed as he shook his head, wanting more.

Cherie giggled and turned around to face him. kissing him a little more deeply as she ran her fingers through his hair and down to his chest.

"Finally some action! This is better than . Dude I could totally watch this for hours," Donghae said slyly as Leeteuk whooped beside him as if he were watching an NBA basketball game.

The couple pulled apart, embarrassed.

Wanting to get Hyorin's attention for himself, Donghae tossed his shirt at her. Startled, she sat back up and took her sunglasses off. Donghae did a moonwalk towards her, posing with his arms on his head while flexing his biceps smugly.

“Scale of 1 to 10. Rate me.”

“Definitely a 9.9,” Hyorin smiled coyly as she got up from her towel and used his shirt to whip him in the .

Donghae yelped but didn't make a move to dodge her. He was enjoying it way too much.

~*~*~*~

"Who's up for a game of beach volleyball?" Leeteuk asked everyone who were chilling on their beach towels after a little rendenzvous in the cool ocean water. It was time to turn things up a notch.

"Let's make it guys versus girls."

"That's not fair to the ladies."

"Are you kidding? You guys should be the ones who're going to be calling out for your mamas because Cherie led her high school to claim 3 consecutive years of national volleyball championship titles as the varsity team captain," Hyorin boasted.

"True story," Cherie nodded.

"Impressive," Donghae said, his chin thoughtfully.

"Indeed," Hyukjae agreed, giving Cherie a proud shove with his elbow.

Cherie beamed back at him.

As the guys went to a hut that rented out equipment for beach activities, the girls were getting ready as two guys approached them.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you two to leave."

“Excuse me, but the last I checked, this was a public beach,” Cherie said incredulously.

“Don’t take it the wrong way,” the shorter guy said. “We just couldn’t stand how you two beautiful ladies were making everyone else on the beach look bad.”

“It was all his idea,” the taller guy laughed, putting his hands up in surrender. His body was very tan and muscular, and his almond eyes were crinkled in the shape of crescent moons as if they were smiling themselves.

“I’m Siwon. Gosh, I feel like I’m in the presence of royalty.”

“What a flatterer you are,” Cherie slightly turned her lips upwards at the corners. “I’m Cherie.”

“Princess, it’s an honor,” Siwon bowed slightly and took her hand, gently kissing the back of it. “Do I have the pleasure of being your knight in shining armor?”

Cherie raised her eyebrows. “I’m sorry but my prince is going to be back any moment now. It wouldn’t be good if he saw us together, for fear of your life.”

“Oh my, how foolish of me to think that you would still be searching for your fairytale dream,” Siwon said.

Cherie cocked her head to the side.

"Uhhh..."

There seemed to be something off about these two guys. They seemed normal, but the air about them was just… strange.

Just as Cherie was trying to think of an excuse to make them go away, the guys conveniently returned with the volleyball equipment.

“Very well, till next time then,” Siwon said as he saw the guys approaching. Bowing his head, he dragged his friend away with him.

... weird.

“Who were those two?” Hyukjae asked as he and Leeteuk set the volleyball net down near their beach towels. Donghae scrunched his eyes at the sight of them speed walking down the sand strip as if they were being chased by a killer Rottweiler.

“No idea,” Cherie shrugged.

“The taller wanted to be Cherie's knight to her princess," Hyorin offered nonchalantly. She and Cherie were all too used to the myriad of creative stunts guys pulled to get their attention.

“Romantic,” Leeteuk commented as he and Hukjae started setting the net up.

"Tell me about it. He deserves some kind of award," Cherie rolled her eyes.

Hyukjae pursed his lips, not particularly enthused that some random guys were hitting on his girlfriend just one day after they got together.

But he didn't say anything.

“There are no rules to this game. Just hit the ball over the net and dominate the opposing team,” Cherie said, propping the volleyball against her hips as they separated into their gender teams. “You gentlemen ready?”

“HIT IT!”

Cherie served the ball over the net and began the game.

In spite of their 3:2 ratio advantage, the guys were struggling to match up to the girls’ supremacy of the game. They were uncoordinated, clumsy with their feet, and constantly collided into each other when they ran towards the ball with only their eyes in the air and not on each other.

“You guys are terrible,” Hyorin laughed as she got a bottle of orange juice from the cooler during a five-minute break.

“I knew we needed to mix up the teams,” Leeteuk frowned, sitting down next to Cherie on her towel.

“If anyone’s moving to a different team, I should be the one with her,” Hyukjae said as he tickled Leeteuk’s side with his feet.

“Okay okay Mr. Jealous,” Leeteuk gave up his spot as he crawled back onto his own towel. Hyukjae grinned triumphantly and sat next to Cherie.

“You’ll take me right?” he nudged her shoulder with his nose.

“I’m going to make you run for the ball so hard you wish you never met me."

“Try me.”

And so the game began once again.

"Bump it to me!” Cherie yelled as Hyukjae got ready to receive the ball. He directed it to her and in one fluid motion, she jumped and spiked it over the net right in front of Leeteuk’s feet. Squatting in ready position after the ball had already hit the ground, Leeteuk looked around helplessly.

"Oh damn."

“Someone get the microwave to defrost Leeteuk over there,” Cherie laughed.

“Playing dirty on my teammates are we?” Hyorin yelled competitively from the other side of the net. “Now's when the game really starts whale-turnip.”

“Eat my dust flamingo-gravy!”

Hyukjae chuckled and couldn’t resist smooching Cherie on the cheeks. Was it odd for him to be proud of his girlfriend for being such a beast at volleyball yet remain so extraordinarily cute at the same time?

“I GOT IT I GOT IT. DON’T GET IT. I SAID DON’T-” Hyorin screamed as Donghae tried to dive for the ball. It was too late. He crashed onto the sand and rolled onto his back, only to trip Hyorin in the process.

“Oww,” Donghae grunted as Hyorin fell on him with a thud. She tried to quickly get up, but realized she couldn’t because Donghae was gripping onto her waist.

“Hey there,” Donghae grinned teasingly.

“You tripped me!” Hyorin shrieked.

“Way to be obvious there Hae,” Hyukjae rolled his eyes from the other side of the net.

“Should I be even more obvious and make you kiss me?” Donghae whispered to Hyorin.

“My lips are off limits to you.”

“You’re more difficult than I thought. But no worries, I revel in a good challenge,” Donghae winked and gently her waist before letting go.

Hyorin tried to supress a visible shiver that traveled down her back.

'What is this man doing to me?'

~*~*~*~

As it got close to six o'clock, the sun started to set as soft cotton clouds floated amidst the random dashes of pink, marigold, and violet streaks of color that painted the misty blue sky. The water gradually turned into a rich peach color as the sun above the horizon slowly melted into the ocean.

The group had long finished their wacky game of volleyball and split up to walk around and explore, savoring the last few remnants of the gorgeous palm beach before they converged to eat dinner back in the city.

Hyukjae and Cherie wandered hand in hand to a small cove beside a patch of tulips and nestled comfortably in a hammock together.

"I had a lot of fun today," Hyukjae said as Cherie rested her head on his chest.

Hearing his heart beat methodically in sync with his breathing, laying so close to him, feeling the warmth of his bare skin radiating off of him, Cherie wanted to lay there forever under the beautiful evening sky with him.

"How did it feel getting trained by another captain?" Cherie asked softly.

"Amazing, captain," Hyukjae chuckled. "I'd love to have you whip me into shape someday for a one-on-one battle. I might just win against my own sensei."

The crickets started chirping as the calm waves splashed onto shore. Chatting quietly, the couple snuggled closer together as the cool, ocean breeze slightly disturbed the palm tree leaves.

"Can you believe that the stuttering you would be so irresistable to me right now?" Cherie teased, running her index finger up and down the tight crevices of Hyukjae's abs.

"You bring out the best in me," Hyukjae smiled, feeling a rush of euphoria in the pit of his stomach wherever Cherie's finger touched.

She had no idea just how big of an effect she had on him.

Looking towards the patch of tulips, Hyukjae got up from the hammock and picked one. He slid the pink flower into Cherie's hair as it delicately rested on her ears.

"Cherie, do you know what Tulips symbolize? They're voracious sun seekers, swaying their heads in outrageous contortions to seek out the best angle for light. They represent opportunity and aspiration. You're just like a tulip and I, if you would allow me, am your stem and roots, your support and strength whenever the smouldering sun or blazing storms want to knock you down. Don't be afraid to pursue your goals and dreams. I'll be there."

Looking into Hyukjae's eyes, Cherie's heart felt like escaping out of her chest. Thousands of emotions crowded her head, and she didn't know how to respond.

There was no deceit, not ulterior motives behind his pure intentions.

He was there for her.

100%.

"Thanks for believing in me," she whispered.

"Seeing you happy gives me a sense of indescribable joy. You're more precious to me than any one else on this planet."

The other three, who were secretly spying on the two lovebirds behind some bushes, silently awww-ed at the heart-melting scene. This candid moment between them was more romantic than those in blockbuster movies.

Much, much more.

Donghae took out his iPhone and snapped a photo of them, happy that the three of them were responsible for turning Cherie and Hyukjae into a couple. Uploading it onto Facebook, he typed in the caption:

"Captain Hyukjae and his stunning girlfriend sharing a beautiful moment together on a gorgeous beach in Italy. Don't be jealous~"

   
It had only been 3 minutes since he posted it up.

Everyone was jealous.

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