mul·ti·tude

Large numbers of people.

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November 10 (Saturday)

Han Kyung Mi made a tapping sound with her foot rhythmically, silently groaning at the way things were becoming. She stared around the locker room rather discreetly, noting the easy manner in which the other girls casually changed to their respective attires without feeling self-conscious. The bespectacled girl was quite dismayed at herself. How had things ended up like this?

“Sis, are you ready yet?” voiced out Min Jae from somewhere hidden. Startled, Kyung Mi lied between her teeth, promising that she was almost over and done with. Eventually, sarcasm crept into the eighteen year old’s mind, reminding her that it was her own fault to begin with.

It was a Wednesday, really, when the younger sister overheard her older sister, Han Min Jae, carrying a distressing phone call in the living room.

“Wait, you mean we have to cancel?” reconfirmed her older sister back then with a pale expression. “Like, there’s no way around this?” A muffled response was heard, and the nineteen year old had given a morose nod.

“Oh…” finally trailed off her older sister, slumping into the nearby couch. “Alright, don’t worry — it isn’t your fault. See you guys soon.” Infinitely curious, Kyung Mi approached her sister with much caution. It would be undeniable that they were closer now, in a flummoxing sense, but the waters were still tenacious.

“Um, anything?” began the girl lamely. Min Jae looked up to her younger sister wordlessly, contemplating on her impending response to that statement.

“Well, I was supposed to go out with the girls this Saturday,” admitted Min Jae on that particular Wednesday. “But now things have come up, with some last-minute trips being made and I can’t exactly make them cancel those plans. It’s just an early birthday celebration for me kind of a thing, but that’s not the issue that gnaws at me.” The older sister smiled then, awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck.

“… The four tickets to the famous waterpark are going to be wasted,” mentioned Min Jae a little dolefully. “They were quite expensive too. So I guess I’m sort of going to try getting people…” Enthusiastic and eager to help as always, Kyung Mi had proposed a rash idea.

“If I go along with you, then we only need two more people, right?” claimed the bespectacled girl animatedly. “That’d be easier!” A worried look marred the older girl’s countenance almost instantaneously. She shook her head slowly at that.

“… Well, I did plan to ask Gongchan if he wouldn’t mind, you know,” mentioned Min Jae a little guiltily. “So…” Her uncompleted sentence was one imbued with concern and care. Somehow, when things pertained to Gongchan Shik, the atmosphere was a little more smothering and left unsaid. Even so, Kyung Mi did not yield. In fact, it was like she had it all sorted out.

“Then we’ll drag Oh Sehun along and then it’s settled,” concluded the eighteen year old. Min Jae wanted to ask her sister to honestly think her proposal through, but it was too late since the younger was already dialling. The monotonous tone that emanated through the cellphone even confirmed his participation. Kyung Mi had only beamed then.

Thus, Han Kyung Mi had absolutely no right to groan about her current predicament. If one had not guessed just yet, they were in the locker room to change into their swimsuits — something the eighteen year old found to be horribly weird. She supposed it was due to the fact that she had never gone out to places like these with one of the opposite gender. Before her brain ensued another round of imagining bizarre things, the girl determinedly forgo her dignity and hurried changed into a seemingly plain, old-fashioned one-piece swimsuit. Her belongings like the tinted spectacles and dry clothing were stuffed into the locker. How could her older sister dare to even wear a two-piece? It perplexed her so immensely. Glancing at her sister’s complementing figure, the floral swimsuit befitted Min Jae amazingly.

“Oh, here they come,” mused a male monotonously, and that was recognized by the eighteen year old immediately. Who else would it have been but for her insensate classmate? Nonetheless, that adjective might no longer be suitable for he in due time. In spite of the wreck she was, Kyung Mi grinned brightly at the two guys.

“Hello there, Gongchan, Sehun,” greeted the girl, accidentally slipping a nervous laugh afterwards. It was just too new of an experience, surely. Min Jae seemed perfectly fine with skin exposure, however, since she was able to smile ever so amiably. The nineteen year old male was wearing knee-length swim trunks which had purple vertical stripes at the side whereas the eighteen year old male wore knee-length swim trunks that had green horizontal stripes as a simple pattern. Even Sehun seemed to have smiled.

Gongchan observed the younger sister carefully before pointing to the item on her head.

“You might want to wear that before you hurt yourself, Kyung Mi,” he quietly mentioned. Blinkingly, the usually bespectacled girl raised her hand and touched the goggles that were strapped onto her head. She made a slight simper.

“Thanks,” said Kyung Mi in an appreciating mien as she wore them. The goggles, being specifically made, had the exact tint that would ease her overly sensitive eyes. One could not underestimate the amount of light that penetrated the waters, after all. A mischievous grin adorned the older male’s expression afterwards.

“Shall we get going?” pointed out the nineteen year old.

As the rides were the most entertaining ones, the group of four drew nigh to them. There were water slides, toboggan-style foam mats to travel downwards on, splash pads, random squirting cannons that they used to drench one another — but one thing’s for sure, they all were indubitably soaked through. At first Kyung Mi feared that it would be uncomfortable to hang out like this, but it turned out that her worries weren’t too bad after all. She almost forgot that she was only clad in a mere swimsuit. She too, got used to the fact that technically her two male friends were walking around shirtless. Alright, that still sounded weird. Gongchan and Sehun were getting along in ways the younger sister could not understand, and Min Jae was doing fine. Kyung Mi smiled, remembering that this whole time was for her sister’s early birthday celebration.

In the midst of her thoughts, the girl was not being chary, and so she got hit by a carefully aimed squirting cannon. Han Kyung Mi scowled immediately, turning to face the perpetrator. Surprisingly, it was not Gongchan but Sehun instead. She could only blink in astonishment as a small, “Oh,” sound was produced. Aware of her startled state, the male allowed a minuscule movement that tilted the ends of his mouth.

“There’s something up ahead that you’ll be interested in,” remarked the eighteen year old solemnly. “Mister Shik and Miss Han are already waiting there.” A small nod was given, and the girl with the goggles wondered inwardly as to how long she had been spacing out. It must have been for a considerable amount of time. She groaned silently at her own silliness as she tailed her classmate.

“Ah, here she is,” commented Min Jae with an approving smile upon their arrival. “Look, Kyung Mi.” Her voice had dropped to a simple whisper when she mentioned her sister’s name. The aforementioned student turned to its general direction, and her eyes dilated in extreme disbelief. A whistle escaped her as she tried to process the possibility of this ride. It was water bumper cars, motorized vehicles that sped throughout a large, separate water pool with the purpose of bumping each other. There was no risk of anyone falling off the vehicles due to the seatbelts, and so Kyung Mi was absolutely determined to try out the following ride. Surely it didn’t differ too much from the original one, right?

The other three happened to laugh at her excited condition, and they readily agreed to it. Since they were all competitive and quick in nature, they all opted to gain access to a vehicle that was not clumped together in the middle. Thus, they actually ran through the knee-length waters in order to fulfil their desire. And so, they ended up solo in the four non-existent corners of the pool. As the other waterpark visitors filed in neatly, the four waited for their engines to ignite after strapping the seatbelts on. It would only do so when the others were ready, and the operator would need to flick a master switch that synchronised their engine operating systems. It was terribly thrilling. With the familiar sound of a switch being enabled, everyone set to work immediately. Gongchan Shik had his eye on Oh Sehun from the very beginning, in spite of being located in the opposite end.

“Oh Sehun!” declared Gongchan with a devilish grin. “I’m coming for you.” The boy, ever so nonchalant, nearly chuckled. As the younger male placed his hand on the wheel and threw a glance at the older one, he grinned just as diabolically.

“Then I’m waiting,” taunted Sehun. The nineteen year old had not been provoked, but he stepped on the accelerator anyway. And he sped so quickly, just eight more seconds and their vehicles would have bumped into each other — but an overwhelming force pushed him off-course.

“Wha…?” half-mumbled Gongchan, feeling slightly offended for being interrupted in his zealous goal. He turned to look at some pesky stranger, when it turned out to be Han Kyung Mi. The girl beamed radiantly behind her darkened goggles.

“I’m sorry?” she laughed cheekily. “Your declaration was too funny; I just had to interrupt you.”

He paused, allowing an easy laugh to roll off his tongue.

“Fine,” accepted Gongchan as his attention began returning to the younger male. “But if he already speeds off, it’d be on your account— “ Admittedly, Sehun was laughing maniacally — a rare phenomenon indeed — and he too, was interrupted rudely by a person who sped crazily into him. A dark expression decorated his face afterwards, making Gongchan laugh uncontrollably. He turned slowly to the wrongdoer, who turned out to be Han Min Jae. She too, beamed brightly like her sister Kyung Mi. He narrowed his eyes in abundant mistrust.

“… Girl power,” lamely uttered the Han sisters, feasting on Gongchan and Sehun’s shocked expression before speeding off in laughter.

Horrified, the two male glanced at each other with scepticism.

“So that means we have to pair up or something?” echoed Gongchan quite blankly, the intent to bump into the other still dominant. The younger male shrugged with a significant frown.

“That’s unfortunate,” agreed Sehun. “But since we have no choice, we’ll do so.” With that temporal pact, the girls and the guys raced and bumped into each other excessively, earning a lot of laughter and fun. After that particular ride, they had simultaneously decided to go for less overexerting activities. The wave pool, then, was favourable.

“You… aren’t that bad after all,” admitted Gongchan to Sehun at one point of time. The aforementioned male blinked knowledgably in eerie silence.

“If only I could mirror your words,” he responded, the volume similar to the susurrus of dry leaves. And nothing more was added.

At the wave pool, they all continued moving forward until the water was at thorax-length. Min Jae was the first to reach the designated area, and actually grinned.

“Chicken fight!” declared the nineteen year old girl, and that caused Gongchan to grin as well whilst Kyung Mi stood in the water bewildered. Well, there was no need to describe Sehun’s ever stoic expression. The girl with the darkened goggles could not comprehend the fact that her sister had ceremoniously decided on a game. Thus, it surprised her when her supposedly best friend began piggybacking her older sister.

“Come on, get Sehun to carry you and then we can have a match on who gets to topple the other team first,” explained Min Jae clearly. It was only then the girl understood.

But her mind remained jumbled. Ask Sehun to carry her? That was so—

“Well, here goes nothing,” noted Sehun as he bent down, inadvertently submerging himself underwater. She stared bleakly, knowing that it would be just too bad if she didn’t respond to his effort. So in a dilatory manner, the eighteen year old cautiously climbed on him. Alright, that sounded odd. The girl made sure that she had her arms securely around the other’s shoulders — unfortunately remembering the time in which Gongchan did carry her — and waited. Waited for some time because her classmate had yet to reappear. It worried her incessantly. Could it be that she was too heavy?

A meek, “Sehun…?” might have been uttered by Kyung Mi, but that sort of gentle cry was effortlessly forgotten when he surfaced — carrying the girl piggyback style as well. The eighteen year old male had the audacity to tilt his head innocently.

“Did someone miss me?” chuckled Sehun lowly. The girl wanted to protest, but his eyes narrowed dangerously all of a sudden. Then he ran in the water, heading recklessly towards Gongchan who was carrying Min Jae. The eighteen year old girl’s eyes widened, fearing impact. The younger male could be merciless and thoughtless when he chose to be too. Looks like that time chanced to be now. Unmistakably, the collision happened, and that actually fired up Gongchan. And so, they invested in numerous petty ways to overthrow the other team.

At last, it was technically a draw since they all lost their respective balances and fell into the cooling water. Laughter emanated from them unrestrainedly.

“That was fun, now wasn’t it?” exclaimed Kyung Mi excitedly as she stood up. “I can’t believe that— “ Then it was like time decided to halt in its pedantic ticking. As the girl with the darkened goggles stood on her feet, she watched how Gongchan Shik had pulled her sister Min Jae up to hers. They were smiling wide, and the younger sister could see how much he adored her sister. How had she failed to notice such a thing before? Maybe, just maybe, she intentionally closed a blind eye to it. Then Gongchan smoothly leaned closer to Min Jae, and it almost looked like he was daring himself to do something outrageous. Something like kissing his crush, perhaps. Han Kyung Mi felt like asphyxiating. But she couldn’t turn away. She was frozen in her spot. Then he leaned in so close, she felt absolutely faint. Unexpectedly, albeit not turning away, she was saved of witnessing a probable unwanted scenario.

“Big wave,” quipped a familiar male’s voice gently. Kyung Mi looked up to see Oh Sehun, who had strategically placed himself in front of her, and inadvertently protected her from a wave that came up as high as the male’s shoulder. His eyes were unfathomable; indecipherable. Subtly, the male pulled away from her sight and the girl saw that Gongchan and Min Jae were still sharing a secret laugh with each other. It was horrible. Subconsciously, the female whirled to descry her classmate’s physique, but to no avail. As her eyes drifted in the further crowd, it was then she saw him. In her attempt to catch up to him, Kyung Mi was placing more distance between herself and the older two. Sehun, after all, appeared to be getting out of the wave pool.

“Wait up,” nearly uttered the girl in desperation, unable to understand her classmate at all. “Please…?” Annoyingly, the crowd moved in and they blocked her sight, dismaying her exceedingly. The girl shook her head sadly, feeling crestfallen, and then felt his hand clasping hers.

She glanced upwards, finding Sehun watching her silently. He made a slight indication of disapproval, but the ends of his mouth would have almost tilted upwards. With a small jerk, the fingers of his left hand intertwined with her right ones. Only then he smiled enigmatically for a moment before it met its demise.

“Let’s go,” seemed to be the message radiating out of the male. Without waiting for her response, the male continued walking steadily and she eventually drew near to his side. Although they remained wordless, it felt somewhat comfortable to hold hands even though it was so, so foreign. It was nearly natural or something. Out of the blue, the eighteen year old grabbed a water float with his free hand and at last stopped by the lazy river. Leaving the float in the said river, he finally released his grip on her hand and faced his shorter classmate squarely.

He blinked in contemplation before a suspire articulated. Mysterious as always, this time he bent down and carried Kyung Mi, earning him a yelp from the aforementioned girl. She felt chills because of the skinship, and she was partially amazed because it was a considerable feat to carry her without water buoyancy to aid him. The male nearly pouted, making a keep quiet sign before resuming his initial task. The girl with the darkened goggles was extremely perplexed. Carefully, he half-hopped into the lazy river whilst carrying her, finally lowering her into the middle of the water float. Instinctively, the girl held on to the float’s handles so that she wouldn’t fall.

“Se… hun?” questioned Kyung Mi hesitantly. Just what was in the stoic male’s mind?

“… Just relax,” barely whispered Sehun, and she was certain the lightest shade of red was visible on his cheeks. She was glad for it, in a sense. At least she wasn’t the only one feeling vulnerable about this.

Without any discussion, Sehun quietly dragged the float in a delayed mien along the lazy river. Everyone else occupying the said route was also being as slow, so it was no issue at all. Since Sehun told her to relax, Kyung Mi tried to achieve that status. But she could only sigh with an aching heart. It had already been a few weeks since she had known of Gongchan’s feelings towards Min Jae, so why couldn’t she just accept it and move on? She was merely burying herself under such emotions, surely. After some time, Sehun turned around to face Kyung Mi who was on the float.

“Kyung Mi,” called the male plaintively, with aberrantly owlish eyes. The girl, partly in a daze, actually smiled at him weirdly.

“Hi there,” mused the girl aloud, casually touching her classmate’s wet hair. She was, in fact, remembering how she used to mess up her best friend’s hair. He groaned, shaking his head at her randomness.

“Kyung Mi, can you not,” murmured Sehun, taken aback. “Stop being weird, please. … I have to go now, by the way, so.” That snapped the girl out of her delusion immediately. She looked woeful, but it was something already declared earlier since he had important shifts to do at the convenience store.

“Ah, alright,” said Kyung Mi after a while, and she found herself despondent. He noted her lack of joviality, but there was nothing he could do to alter it. And so no words were exchanged. This time, the girl got out of the float by her own self and they walked around the waterpark until they bumped into the older two once more. With that, Sehun had given a brief farewell and ran off. The eighteen year old, at least, was easily welcomed by the other two. After the insouciant male’s leave, they continued their playing for three more hours, and it ended up being time to return home.

“Catch,” laughed Gongchan as he tossed a towel at Kyung Mi. It landed on her face due to her failed reflexes, but she took her fail good-naturedly. The eighteen year old used the towel to dry herself up first before she could catch a cold. In the midst of doing so, she found herself watching another scene unfolding between her apparent best friend and older sister. Gongchan was purposefully making a poor attempt at drying the other’s hair with a fresh towel, causing Min Jae to reprimand him playfully. It was upsetting to the younger girl because she knew very well that if her older sister had never been in the picture, he would have been doing the aforementioned action to her. It was evident that a line between him and her was thickening.

“… Just relax,” were the words that echoed kindly in her head, and Kyung Mi obeyed it by letting the towel veil her sight once more. She was about to fall apart. If only she could do otherwise.

Afterwards, Gongchan walked the two Han sisters home. Kyung Mi had been in the middle, feeling sullen because she felt that the older two would have been happier if she hadn’t been there. Their topics weren’t exactly exclusive, but the now bespectacled girl found her own throat too dry for speaking. It must have been the trick of the mind. Han Kyung Mi had never been happier to reach her house gates, and it took all she could to not sigh in relief.

“Eh, goodbye Gongchan,” said the eighteen year old hurriedly with a bright expression. “I’ll just go in first so that you two can talk a little longer, so yea.” With that, without even waiting for his words, she actually ran into her housing compound. She pulled the door open, entering and sank on her knees with the closed door behind her own back. She was just so, so sad. She was hugging her knees to comfort herself when it rudely opened once more, indirectly hitting her.

Allowing a small yell, she looked up in slight defiance to find Gongchan looking at her.

“… What?” questioned Kyung Mi nearly bitterly, hoping that he wouldn’t see that she was breaking on the inside. A sheepish smile decorated the male’s countenance.

“Kyung Mi,” voiced out the nineteen year old thoughtfully. “Have you already forgotten that I’m staying for dinner?” Her eyes could only dilate in horror at this indispensable truth.