The beach—summer's paradise—where beads of white sand sputter from the impact of people's feet trampling upon the surface, where the sun smiles brightly at the people who thrive in it. Its clear waters gave off a nice turquoise hue as its waves brushed against the shore. This kind of beautiful atmosphere made it possible for people to achieve their one goal: to escape work and detach themselves from reality. As they relaxed, played, and even made fools of themselves, their stress toxins were being released—a kind of cleansing that happens only in summer. The sun kisses everyone with a new experience, and a chance to simply be part of something less complicatedly urban for a change. Hakuna matata, es.

"Why bring me here?" asked Jieun, looking from left to right uncomfortably.

"Because you need a life," replied her brother calmly as he took a sip off his coconut drink and tipped his shades to the sun.

But she questioned what his perspective of getting his little sister a life was. Joongki never let her out of his sight and didn't allow; her to mingle with anyone. Her situation, as she has deemed it, was utterly pointless—like a caged bird, unable to escape; it was the perfect manifestation of "so close, yet so far." Moreover, she hated beaches to begin with let alone the es in those beaches. She hated how there was so much skin involved, and she hated how some people just go there to use their smartphones 24/7 instead of making the most of the actual beach. She looked around once again and saw nothing but douchebags and coquettish females, but then again that was just her unrealistic judgmental mind as a defense mechanism. The place reeked of peer pressure and tanned popular people; she was beginning to miss the peaceful library although her thoughts soon transitioned to the fact that even according to Kyungsoo, she was deficient of a life. How getting locked up isn't healthy at all. A rebellion has to start, she thought.

"Bro, can't you let me look around by myself?" she asked, almost irritatingly. "I am in the peak of my youth and I need to add some flavor to my life. I can take care of myself, please."

He shook his head and sighed. "No way."

"Then I'll never get a life this way," she argued. "A real life."

"Yes you can, just stay with me—"

"You don't get the point, do you?" she gestured her hand to scan the vicinity. "Can't you see that amongst this pool of seemingly hip people, I could possibly find a friend. Look around you, Bro!" She twirled around with her arms spread out. "Endless possibilities."

He chuckled heartily and did the same rotational hand movement as Jieun did. "I'd like to copy paste your question. You don't get the point, do you? There are many men who have been eyeing on you since we came here."

"But we've been here for only five minutes."

"My point exactly," he said then squinted at the far distance. "And look, one of them is actually brave enough to confidently approach you right now."

From a distance, Kris was running toward them with a slight smile on his face. He looked just like Jieun's daydream of him a while back: sun-kissed skin and defined muscles on a lean physique. The sun gleamed at his skin, giving it a natural, slightly tan glow. A smile ran through her face as she questioned reality. Is this really happening, right here, right now? she asked herself, almost unable to breathe.

But in Joongki's perspective, he saw nothing but garbage—a threat. He knew Kris very well; he goes to the same college as him—an acquaintance that he shared some small talk with once in a while. But he began to ignore him completely the moment Jieun asked about him and how he was like at school. Of course, he refused to tell anything—especially the fact that Kris was single. The two then spoke-whispered to each other in lightning speed as Kris was making his way to them.

"Let's get outta here," nudged Joongki.

"No way," Jieun nudged back.

"He's hideous."

"He's handsome."

"He's coming."

"Shut up! He's here."

"Hey Joongki!" Kris smiled a perfect D-shape with a set of nice pearly whites and waved. He turned to Jieun and asked, "Library girl, Jieun, right? Are you his little sister?"

She blushed. "Well, not that little. Just two years younger—"

Joongki faked a smile and hit Jieun's bum to shut her up. "Yes, she's my little sister, my very little sister."

Kris noticed Jieun's irritated pouting face and chuckled in amusement. "My friends and I are by the blue umbrella over there. Wanna come with?"

Beneath the blue umbrella were college students of different ages having lots of fun; they looked like a close-knitted bunch. The two siblings looked at each other with completely different expressions. Jieun wanted in, but Joongki, as usual, thought otherwise.

"Sure!" said Jieun as quickly as she could.

"That's great! The more the merrier, as I say." Kris then urged, "Come, follow me."

As Kris grabbed Jieun's wrist as a friendly remark, Joongki's eyes and mouth gaped open for the first time in a very long time. What made it worse was that Jieun was well enough enjoying the moment, jogging with the man of her daydreams. Sun-kissed hand over milky white skin—that must be ing crazy, Joongki cussed in his mind—a thing he never really did. He could only imagine a string being cut away, and was saddened at the thought of it.

He followed them from behind, heart aching and feet weakening until they reached the blue umbrella filled with a good set of his acquaintances. He succumbed to social etiquette and gave them really casual-calm high fives then proceeded to call his "emergency hot line". He fumbled with the buttons of his phone before pressing the call button. While the ringing commenced, he would glance at Jieun once in a while who was already being one with the cool crowd. First glance, she was introducing herself timidly. Second glance, Kris was already laughing with her. Third glance, she had her own juice drink and was properly giving funny side comments in the topics they talked about. 

The long line of ringing was finally cut by Kyungsoo's answer.

"Hey, Bro—"

"Get. Here. Right. Now," Joongki said, emphasizing every single word with all the blood in his veins, but nevertheless remembered to be abruptly polite in the end. "Please."

"Wow, look who's a little less calm now," replied Kyungsoo amusingly.

"Look, this isn't a time to be mocking my lack of composure; this is a real emergency—"

"Well, this isn't a time to be talking to me either. Wherever you are, I can't go to you, I am busy—"

Just then, as Joongki decided to lift his head just for a split second, the world went in super slow motion and focused its view on one single person: Park Boyoung—the crush of his life—the only girl to have ever shaken his heart. Dropping his phone, he snapped out of his dream world that pictured nothing but Instagram-filtered images of her to his memory. Instead, he gave in to the harsh reality that he was a man and that he, as much as he tried his hardest, could not resist the fact that he was seeing her in a pastel pink bikini beneath her long white short-sleeved beach cardigan. As he approached her, his heart raised, and when she greeted him, he was at a loss for words. Right then and there he had lost all sanity and began to sweat beneath his white shirt.

"Hi, Joongki," she greeted with a cute, bubbly smile that lit up the place.

She said my name, he thought. She really said it.

From afar, Jieun giggled at the sight of her brother being more boyish for once. 

"Hey," Kris nudged her. "Those two are the school's real-life rom-com. Everyone, especially the girls who just watch them and spazz non-stop."

Jieun could imagine it. "They are the perfect characters for a cute love story. The feminine, doll-like elegant and poised girl—"

"Coupled with a collected gentleman who turns into a bashful, child-like little boy when he sees her," Kris completed. "The perfect dosage of stress-relieving butterflies for busy college students like us." He pointed over to Chen, a friend of his. "Look, Seok over there's gonna mess with them." Chen turned back and jestered a wink before proceeding to "accidentally" push Joongki. 

"Oh!" Joongki slipped and landed his hands against her cardigan to slowly expose the clear-skinned shoulder beneath it. He blushed immensely, trying not to give into his Instagram-filtered paradise. But it was too late; he had been staring at her bare shoulder for way too long. While the drama "Heirs" will usually have an OST that screams, "Love is the moment!" They hereby sing instead a big, "Awkward's the mooomeeent!"

Slowly pulling away, Joongki apologized repeatedly in which Boyoung was so nice she didn't mind at all. In fact, she giggled it all away. He couldn't believe the magnitude of her outstanding womanly qualities. She was the perfect girl—down to earth and very pleasant. Basically, she wasn't a .

Just then, on the small wooden platform stage nearby, three guys sat on stools. The one in the middle tapped the mic with his finger thrice then introduced himself and his friends to the audience. "How's everyone doin'?" greeted Kyungsoo. "I'm Kyungsoo," a short pause for the screaming fangirls, "To my right with the guitar is Chanyeol," another pause, "and to my left is Kai." They made way for the last pause. "And for today, we're gonna have some beach fun with our own version of f(x)'s 'Hot Summer'." Are you guys ready?"

"Yeah!" the crowd yelled.

"Let's do this!"

The guitar intro started and Jieun couldn't believe it. It was Kyungsoo, it was really him, singing up there in a lively voice. Even though he was too focused on having fun, she could tell he had technique and talent in there. She watched his performance, cheering for him once in a while. At times, she found her blood boiling at the sight of the fan girls. Little did she know that Kyungsoo also found his blood boiling over the guy beside her whenever it was Kai or Chanyeol's raps were being done. He did nothing but smile at her and glare at Kris whilst trying to keep a bright and cheerful appearance to his audience. And when the song came to a close, he bid his audience a hasty farewell, got off the stage, ran across the border of the crowd and made his way to the very back where he stopped just in front of Jieun and Kris.

"What is the meaning of this?" he asked, panting.

"Library guy," Kris extended a hand. "Nice to meet you, I'm Kris."

Kyungsoo shook his hand coldly. "'Sup. Kyungsoo."

Jieun chimed in, "I'm glad you've met—"

Just then, Kyungsoo excused Jieun and himself to get away from Kris and talk. "I'm so not glad to have officially met Kristine." Before she could ask why, he asked his own first. "Why were you with him?"

"He asked me," she said, almost smugly, folding her arms together.

"This is what you get for rejecting my emergency call," entered Joongki out of nowhere, calmly. 

"But had I answered, then you wouldn't have met that other girl over there."

Joongki momentarily blushed and began to stammer, "Well, that's," then he proceeded to defend the crush of his life, "Boyoung isn't just 'that other girl over there'; she is THAT girl—the epitome of true beauty, the bliss of my eyes, and a goddess in my heart."

With a smirk, Kyungsoo tapped his phone. "Jackpot! Recorded and sealed."

Joongki's eyes grew big. calmness; it was an important issue at hand. "Give me that!" As hard as he tried, Kyungsoo's hands were swift. Amidst trying, he lost balance, sending himself to plummet on the salty beach water. Eyes burning with red, he got up and still tried to put up a fight, but it was no use. In fact, it had backfired for he accidentally brushed his hand on the spot just above Boyoung's chest and was suddenly abashed. She happened to rush over upon seeing him fall.

"Oh. My. Gosh," Joongki said. He went down on his knees and repeatedly bowed. "I'm terribly sorry. Please forgive me, even if my deed was fatal. I am so sorry."

The two youngsters were trying their hardest to hold their chuckling in the background. Their distorted faces made it look as if they had eaten really sour lemons.

And once again, Boyoung proved herself as the goddess of purity. Joongki glanced up to see her hand reaching for his. He planted his hand onto hers and felt the softness of her palm for the few seconds that his fingers embraced hers. "Let me make it up to you," he said, still attempting to look calm, but failing miserably at it seeing that he couldn't even stand straight. "Let me buy you a non-alchoholic beverage."

Instead of being weirded out, she gladly accepted his offer. "Sure." And off they went to the juice stand, their figures gradually becoming smaller until they faded into the distance.

When they left, Jieun and Kyungsoo exploded in laughter, screaming the highlights in between.

"Dat chest accident!" yelled Jieun, hitting Kyungsoo's shoulder.

"Dat poetic description!" shouted Kyungsoo, hitting Jieun back lightly.

Like that, they laughed for more than a minute until they sat side by side on the shore. Jieun made the mood more lax by complimenting the couple again.

"But in fairness, they're kinda cute."

Kyungsoo pouted in agreement. "Yeah, you can say that again."

"I'm glad," she admitted, staring at the now dark blue beach waters. The sun was about to set, and the skies were tinted a nice mish mash of orange and violet. "Today, I lived again." She clumped up a pile of sand in her hand and let it fall slowly. "Today was just wonderful. I learned how to talk to new faces, found a new side in both you and my brother, and got talked to by Kris." She clasped his wrist in what she thought was in a friendly manner and locked her eyes with his. "You were right; I couldn't just stand there and wait for him. Therefore, I spoke. Thank you, Kyungsoo."

As much as it hurt like a to hear those words, he took in a lot of air and managed to yelp, "Sure." An air of awkward silence surrounded the two, that is, until Chanyeol came in between the two and teased them. 

"Oh, what's happening over here?" asked Chanyeol having one hand on each of their shoulders. 

"Nothing, she was just thanking me for the Kristine thing."

Chanyeol sensed the agony in his friend's eyes and decided from then on not to push it any further. Instead, he tried to brighten up the mood by offering his guitar to Jieun. "I know this is a long shot, but do you know how to play?"

She shyly took the guitar to their surprise. "Actually, I can."

"Well then," Chanyeol squeezed their shoulders hard with delight. "I'll leave you two then. Remember, a little music goes a long way."

"Wait, what?—" Before the two could evade his scheme, Chanyeol already began to stride away. As he jogged away, he said, "Return it to me sometime!"

Left with nothing but the guitar, both of them just sat there, feeling the breeze, and practically stalling. They both had this mutual feeling of wanting to sing together, but were both too hesitant to make the first move. While spacing out, Jieun accidentally strummed the guitar. Surprised, she froze in a rigid stature.

"Just play what's in your heart," said Kyungsoo, staring into the sunset. "You don't get a moment like this very often."

She nodded at him with a huge grin and thought of Kris. Soon, she strummed the intro of Girls' Generation's "Baby Maybe" and began to sing. The beauty of her voice enchanted Kyungsoo. At first she sang in a more reserved tone, but when he joined in to make a beautiful harmony, she expressed her vocals to him completely. The music was precious, and both felt this warm feeling in their souls. But these warm feelings were directed at particularly different people. While Kyungsoo was singing of Jieun through the lyrics, Jieun sang it thinking about her leap toward Kris. He knew this very well, and it hurt him: bittersweet.

With the last strum, Jieun carefully laid the guitar against the sand and glanced at Kyungsoo, her face half overlayed with night while the other half lit with orange violet. He couldn't read anything off her expression but regardless, he gave her an facade: a smile in place of his grief. He placed his hand on top of hers shortly, pretending it was an accident, but he actually wanted to—he really wanted to.

"I'm sorry," he said, without much regret.

"It's okay," replied Jieun.

Suddenly, Joongki yelled from afar, "Jieun, go home with Hot Summer over there!" From the sound of his tone, he didn't seem to have seen the potentially dreadful contact. Initially they were suspicious to be allowed to do such although seeing that Boyoung was beside him made everything clear: he didn't wanna miss that chance. The two just gave two thumbs up in the air. Kyungsoo slung the guitar around his back then they got going. Neither one of them spoke on the way to her place. Jieun was too busy replaying the day in her head and Kyungsoo was too busy feeling some discouragement.

"You seem glum," Jieun finally noticed.

"Mm," he replied, eyes glued to the ground "I just have a problem."

She sensed that he didn't want to spill the details. Rather than bothering him, she simply asked, "Have a solution?"

"Yeah," he said with a smile with both hands in his pockets as they stopped in front of her house. "I'm just not gonna give up." He then handed her the guitar. "Keep it for now. Even if you have one, think of it as a temporary memento for today."

She got the guitar, thanked him, and walked to her door. "Goodnight," she said.

"Good night," he also said.

With the light close of the door, Kyungsoo walked away, trying his best to cheer himself up. There was no one to lift his spirits but himself. 

Never give up, he kept chanting to himself on the way back to his house. Never give up. 

If it's not happening, he thought, Then I'll make it happen.

After a while of being in the library, I thought it was about time for a change of venue. So here we see Kris finally catching up, deeming a threat to Kyungsoo's newly found feelings and a more loose, dorky Joongki. Quite a set of new discoveries in this chapter, yeah? :))

Thank you for reading and I hope you guys enjoyed it~! :D