We were all sitting on the patio when....

“Wow!” Junsu said suddenly. “Will you look at that?”

“Oh, man,” Yoochun agreed, his tongue practically lolling out of his mouth.

Four girls were crossing in front of the beach house, down on the sand about halfway between us and the water. They were all outfitted more or less alike, in cutoffs and cover-ups with beach towels slung across their necks, and radios, bottled water, and straw beach bags loading their arms. The girls picked their way across the sand, finally stopping about twenty feet from the end of the first volleyball court and spreading their towels.

“I get dibs on the blonde,” Yoochun said, picking the most glamorous one in the group.

“As if!” Min responded, amused.

“Gentlemen,” Junsu announced, rising to his feet and running a hand through his hair, “I feel a sudden overwhelming need to play volleyball.”

“I’ll get the ball,” Yoochun offered, running into the house.

“Oh, come on,” Min protested. “I hope you guys aren’t going to waste the whole vacation chasing girls. Jae, you’re not going with them, are you?”

I didn’t answer him. The truth was that I too felt a burning desire – no, an absolute compulsion – to play volleyball. Because I could not take my eyes off the smallest girl of the four, the angelic one with a killer smile. She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen.

She could be the one, I told myself as I kicked off my slippers and vaulted over the patio wall onto the crowded beach.