Page 17

The rest of the day went by quickly. After gathering my things from my locker, we walk to Jongin's. 

"Okay, I just want to give you a heads-up." He says as he swings his locker door open. 

"Yeah, what's up?" 

"You'll be sitting with my teammates' girlfriends. There's a section in the bleachers where the swimmers invite their girlfriends to sit if they want to watch. If they start asking questions like- why are you here when you're not even dating anyone? Just ignore them. I want you to watch, regardless of labels." He actually looks worried about leaving me out there alone. It was cute enough for me to laugh about. 

"Jongin-ah, I'll be fine. If they ask, then I'll just tell them that the hottest guy on the team is courting me. And that's why I'm there." Jongin blushes. He clears his throat as he starts to pile his books into his locker. I check the time and notice that his practice starts in less than 10 minutes. "Jongin, we have to get going! Come on!" I close his locker and start to drag him to the pool. 

"Woah, slow down. Someone's excited to see me half ." I roll my eyes at his remark and keep walking. Jongin catches up and wraps his arm around my shoulders as we walk to the boys' locker room. "Alright, just walk through those doors and you'll see the spot I was talking about." He waves at me as he watches me enter the other door. I walk in and I'm hit with the strong smell of chlorine. I'm suddenly brought back to freshman year of physical education class when we had swimming as a part of our course. I remember being pushed into the water countless times by Baek. I couldn't help but laugh at the memory. Speaking of Baek, I wonder where he's been. No! Stop! I shake myself out of it and walk over to where I see the group of girls sitting. 

"Oh hi!" One of the girls waved me over. I smiled at all of them and joined where they were sitting. 

"Who are you here to watch?" I couldn't help but giggle at the question. Guess Jongin really was right about them asking me. 

"Jongin." The girls all look at me like I'm fresh meat. 

"You two are dating?" They all stare at me anticipating my response. 

"Not yet." A few of them gasp out loud and I just shrug my shoulders. I can hear a few whispers but I decide to just set my bag down and sit facing the pool. Soon the boys were slowly coming out of the locker room one by one. I look for Jongin in the sea of boys. Finally, he walks out with his swimming trunks on and his hair slicked back from taking a shower in the locker room. "There's my boy." I whispered to myself. They all stretch by the pool and make their way into the water. Jongin looks up and I could tell he's looking for me. Our eyes meet and the biggest grin appears on his face. He waves excitedly before being scolded by his coach to jump into the water. He apologizes before shrugging his shoulders at me. 

For the next hour, I watch him practice laps and his . I've never seen him so focused. At school, I usually just see him doze off during class or slowly fall asleep. But this side of Jongin was very attractive. I guess I'm really seeing many layers to him today that I haven't seen before. And when I think about it, I actually really like that I am. The final whistle goes off and they all start to hop out. I watch as he smoothly swims to the surface. He uses his arms to pull himself out and by now the veins were bulging after swimming for an hour. It's almost as if this whole thing was in slow motion as I watch him rustle the water out of his hair. He slicks it back which is suddenly a weakness of mine. As he turns around to face me, I slowly gulp down. I try not to look too bothered by the water dripping down from his hair onto his abs. What do they call them? Washboard? Chocolate abs? 

"Wow, it is hot in here." I mumbled. Jongin calls my name out and waves again. "I'll wait for you outside!" He nods his head and throws two thumbs up before heading back into the locker room. I gather my things and say goodbye to the girls. I stand to the side of the door to the boys' locker room waiting for him.

"Rinnie-ah." I look up to find him walking out drying his hair with a hand towel. "I hope I didn't make you wait too long. I didn't want to smell like chlorine on the way home." I shook my head. 

"No, you're fine." We start to walk out as he bids his goodbye to a few teammates we pass by. "You did great out there today. What was your time for the freestyle?" 

"I think my best today was 1 minute and 25 seconds." As we head outside the school, Jongin stops. "Hey." I look back to find him standing there smiling at me like a fool. 

"What? Is there something on my face?" He shakes his head. 

"I just wanted to say thanks for coming." He walks over and leans in to plant a kiss on my forehead. There it is again. The heart flutters. What does this mean? "Do you have to be home right away?" I take a moment to think about what exactly I had to do tonight. 

"Hm, I do have a short paper to write for my class but I've started it already so there's not much left to finish. Why?" With that being said, Jongin drags me over to the bus stop. "Where are we going?" 

"You ask too many questions. Let this be a surprise." He chuckles. I nod my head and follow along with his plan.