Sunggyu had never really thought about seeing a whale up close before, so he wasn’t really prepared as to how to handle the nerves. His fingers gripped the bucket of fish fiercely, his hands shaking. There was too much water around him. Too much.

The four of them kept making their way towards a pool. Woohyun and Sungyeol led them to the side and up a metal staircase that reminded Sunggyu of bleachers. The stairs would creak as they stepped up. Myungsoo followed behind him closely, taking pictures here and there. They kept taking steps farther from the ground and closer to the water and Sunggyu’s stomach tied itself into knots.

“Myungsoo, what are we doing?” he asked shakily.

“Simple – feeding whales.” Sunggyu sent him a frustrated look and Myungsoo chuckled and pat his back. “I get it, I get it – but it’ll all be okay. You don’t have to get close to the whale. You can just watch from the sides, okay?”

“It’s just… it’s just so close,” he whispered. “The water, the whale, e-everything. It’s so overwhelming.” His voice was small.

“Hyung, it’s all okay. Besides, the phobia isn’t that bad, right? You said it was getting better.”

Sunggyu grit his teeth. “ I saw that therapist years ago and I paid a lot of money for very little help… but I guess it’s better than it was when I was younger.”

Myungsoo opened up his mouth to speak again when they reached the top of the staircase. The opening of the staircase connected to the ledge of the pool. Sunggyu dared not to look over the edge since he knew it was over forty-five feet deep, but when he accidentally glanced, he was glad to see that there was a floor-sized ledge there instead. It was submerged in about ten centimeters of water and wrapped around quite a bit of the pool.

Inside the pool were a few whales. If they looked big from a distance, they were definitely gigantic from fifteen feet away.

“Can you hand me your bucket?” Woohyun asked him.

Sunggyu handed him the pail of fish and Woohyun smiled back at him. He and Sungyeol ran onto the platform in their wetsuits yelling and Sunggyu could hear Myungsoo taking pictures behind him.

“He’s adorable,” he could hear Myungsoo say quietly. He wanted to roll his eyes.

“Myungsoo, stand in front of me,” he told him. “I don’t… I don’t want to get too close.”

“Sure.” Myungsoo complied willingly. “Tell me when it gets to be too much, okay? Then we can leave.”

“It’s fine. As long as I just focus on Sungyeol, then I think I can handle it.”

Myungsoo shot him a playful glare. “Don’t stare at my boyfriend too long, Sunggyu. I’ll have to end my friendship with you.”

Sunggyu scoffed and flicked the other’s forehead. He focused his vision back onto Sungyeol since he figured that the other would lessen his tension.

“Lunch time, babies!” Sungyeol yelled out, jumping up and down and splashing on the platform. He did some sort of arm signal and three whales swam over and surfaced at the edge of the platforms.

Woohyun crouched down and kissed the top of one’s nose. “Hi, Kalu, baby! Did you miss me? Hm?” Kalu nodded her head up and down and Woohyun laughed, kissing her nose again. “I came with food, so let’s get you fed.”

He reached into the bucket and pulled out a bunch of fish with both his hands. Kalu opened and he tossed it in, patting her tongue as she swallowed. Afterwards she let out a high-pitched squeak.

“That’s my girl,” he cooed, rubbing her face.

Sungyeol was busy feeding two other whales, smiling and talking to them as they ate. He turned his face and poked his cheek with his finger and one of the orcas bobbed up and nudged it with his own nose – similar to a kiss.

Sungyeol was rubbing the whale’s face when he turned and called, “Myungsoo! Do you want to meet him personally?”

Myungsoo’s face contorted into pleasant shock. “Can I?”

“Sure you can! Take off your shoes and roll up your pants and come here!” Sungyeol said, waving him over.

Knowing that there was absolutely no way he was going to deny his boyfriend anything, Sunggyu could only roll his eyes again as Myungsoo walked out onto the platform. Myungsoo approached the whale cautiously, not sure what he should do.

“Myungsoo, meet Nalu. He’s Kalu’s birthday buddy – born on the same day and year.”

Myungsoo bent down slowly to the animal. Even though he was usually fearless, Nalu was still enormous enough to startle him. “Hi, Nalu,” he greeted.

Sungyeol said, “Nalu – meet Myungsoo. He’s my boyfriend.”

Nalu squeaked and sprayed water up at Myungsoo. Myungsoo barely covered himself before he got wet.

“Whoa, thanks for the welcome!” he laughed.

Sungyeol took his boyfriend’s hand and gently placed it on Nalu’s head, rubbing it from side to side. Nalu let out a satisfied squeal and Sungyeol giggled.

“He likes you,” he said. He looked down at Nalu. “Do you like him, baby? You like him, huh?”

Sunggyu would’ve smiled under normal circumstances, but this was, in no way, a normal circumstance. Looking at the water made him feel dizzy and he closed his eyes. He didn’t want to get seasick by looking at a big pool – that would be embarrassing. His hammering heart didn’t help, though.

Opening his eyes again, he fixed his vision on the water that neared his toes. His fingers gripped the metal railing of the stairs because now he had finally registered that he was standing alone. Myungsoo wasn’t there to offer him reassurance or pat his back. And he needed that right now.

“Hey.”

Sunggyu snapped his head up and found Woohyun staring at him. Woohyun offered a smile and said, “I was just going to ask if you wanted to meet Kalu. She’s been staring at you for a bit and I think she wants to see you up close.”

“M-Me?” Sunggyu repeated.

“Yeah.” He flashed a smile. “If it’s a problem, I can–”

“No, no!” Sunggyu interrupted. “It’s fine. I’ll just… take my shoes off.”

Woohyun grinned. “Thanks,” he said. “Kalu loves playing with people.”

Sunggyu had no idea what the hell he was thinking. He was terrified of this pool and animal, and yet here he was, walking straight towards it. But he didn’t want to reject Woohyun’s offer. Besides, he figured that maybe if he came into contact with water again, it would help instead of hurt.

But he was so wrong.

When he stepped in the cool water, it reached his shins. He walked alongside Woohyun, trying really hard not to focus on what was coming. He approached the big animal, feeling even more intimidated the closer he got.

The whale was humongous while still being black and sleek. It’s big white patches looked like eyes, but upon coming closer, Sunggyu could tell that his eyes were under the white spots. Perhaps if he were staring at a photo, he would call it beautiful.

“Kalu, baby,” Woohyun sang, crouching down, “look at who I brought to meet you!”

Kalu sprayed water happily and Sunggyu immediately backed away. He gripped the hem of his shirt violently, afraid that something would happen if he let go.

“Want to see something she’s been working?” Woohyun asked him. Mistaking his petrified silence for a yes, he smiled down at Kalu. He gave a hand signal and she shot back into the water.

“Oh my goodness,” Sunggyu breathed out, utterly terrified by how quickly it moved underwater.

It swam to the other end of the tank and burst out of the water. With a gasp, Sunggyu grabbed onto Woohyun’s bicep. Woohyun glanced at him in confusion.

“Hey, are you alright?”

Sunggyu’s throat tightened and his stomach flipped. “I-I’m okay,” he tried convincing himself. “I’m absolutely fine.” Kalu shot out of the water again, only closer and Sunggyu made the mistake of looking over the edge of the shallow platform. He stared into the over-forty-five-foot drop and gulped. He couldn’t even see the bottom.

The water around his feet suddenly felt dangerous, and the whale felt dangerous. He felt threatened by the tank of water, as if it would surge up and swallow him whole.

“Sunggyu-ssi, are you okay?” Woohyun asked again.

His eyes were wide as he wheezed out, “No.”

“Sunggyu-ssi?!”

“No… I’m not okay. T-This is not okay… I-I-…Myungsoo!” he shouted.

Myungsoo turned around and took notice of how Sunggyu was no longer at the staircase, and instead clutching Woohyun’s bicep while standing in water on the edge of a forty-five foot drop. He saw the panic that was rising in his eyes. His eyes were solely focusing on the swirling water of the tank.

“Sunggyu-hyung!” he exclaimed. He ran towards him, water kicking up behind him. “Hyung, don’t look at the water!”

“I can’t,” he murmured helplessly.

“What’s happening?!” Woohyun exclaimed.

“Hyung!” Sungyeol called as he was attempting to get Kalu to calm down. “Get Sunggyu-hyung away from the ledge! Back him up and turn him away from the tank!”

Woohyun obeyed; worried for the man he just met. Myungsoo ran up to Sunggyu and held his face between his hands.

“Hyung. Hyung, look at me! I’m right here. There’s nothing here, okay, just me. Focus on the sound of my voice and not the water. Focus.”

Sunggyu breathed heavily in front of him, eyes almost glazed over.

“Hyung! Look right into my eyes!” Myungsoo demanded. “It’s going to be okay; nothing here can hurt you.”

“Myungsoo, the water–”

“I know. I know, hyung, I know but don’t listen to it. Don’t look at it. Just look at me. Just– hyung!”

Myungsoo shouted in surprise as Sunggyu fell limp onto him. He struggled to keep Sunggyu’s weight on his body.

“Sunggyu-hyung!” Sungyeol exclaimed.

“What happened?” Woohyun shouted, still extremely confused. “Why did he–”

“He’s… not good around water,” Sungyeol explained quickly. It was vague, but Woohyun got the gist.

“He hasn’t fainted like this since college days,” Myungsoo muttered. “I think the whales made him even more nervous.”

Woohyun stared at Sunggyu’s unconscious body draped on top of Myungsoo’s shoulders and chest.

“Let’s get him down to the locker room.”

When Sunggyu woke up he was surprised to find himself lying on a metal bench with Sungyeol dabbing his forehead. Lockers and rubber-mat lined metal floors surrounded him.

“Hyung!” Sungyeol exclaimed as he noticed that the other was awake. “Are you alright? You fainted earlier.”

“W-What… what happened?”

“Woohyun was showing you Kalu. And you panicked near the water and called for Myungsoo. And when he tried to calm you down you out.”

“Oh.”

“But, hyung, are you alright? You didn’t hit your head or anything, but–”

“I’m fine,” Sunggyu said.

Sungyeol almost gasped as he sat back up, immediately putting a hand on his chest and pushing him back down. “Hyung, you just fainted. Maybe you shouldn’t be sitting up so quickly.”

“Sungyeol, I’m fine. Just… where’s Myungsoo?”

“He’s talking over the job details with Woohyun in the office right now. We finished feeding the whales.”

Sunggyu took notice of how Sungyeol was now wearing a black sweater over his wetsuit. He recognized it as Myungsoo’s.

Shaking his head, he said, “I’m part of this job, too. I want a say in this.”

“Actually, hyung…”

“Actually?” he repeated.

Sungyeol rubbed the nape of his neck. “I talked with Myungsoo, and we both decided that it would be better for you if, maybe, you didn’t take this opportunity.”

“What?!”

Sungyeol sat cross-legged on the bench next to him, staring at his hands. “I just… I know you don’t handle water well, and I reminded Myungsoo that when I asked him to work for us. But I thought maybe it would work. And looking back, maybe I didn’t make the right decision.”

“Wait, so what does this mean?”

“Well, we thought that maybe Myungsoo could handle the job directly at the park while you could stay at home or something. Just… not near the tanks and animals.”

Sunggyu was astounded. “What made you think you could make this decision for me?!”

Sungyeol leaned forward with concerned eyes. “But, hyung, the water–!”

Sunggyu placed a finger over his lips. “Hush. I refuse to let a silly phobia of mine get in the way of making money. Show me to the office now because I am still going to work here.”

Sungyeol frowned. “Phobias aren’t silly, hyung. They’re something serious that should be considered.”

Sunggyu hushed him again. “Just lead me to where Myungsoo is.”

Sungyeol stood up and took his hand, leading him towards the left. Sungyeol gripped his fingers tightly, not willing to let go easily. Handholding was a habit of Sungyeol’s. He would hold hands with anyone and everyone just because he liked it (Myungsoo, on the other hand, was not too fond of it.) Holding hands with the younger actually made Sunggyu feel a lot more relieved. There was just something about Sungyeol that he loved and it comforted him.

They came closer to the corner of the locker room where a big window was placed in the wall. Inside, Sunggyu could see a big desk with Woohyun speaking on one side, while Myungsoo was on the other.

Sungyeol knocked on the door softly and poked his head inside. “Guess who’s up?” he said.

“Sunggyu-hyung!” Myungsoo exclaimed, standing up to hug him. “You’re okay!”

“Of course I’d be okay; what would make me not okay?”

“Shouldn’t you be resting?” Woohyun asked as he stood up warily. “You fainted, after all.”

“But I’m awake now and I’m fine,” Sunggyu replied. “I just came here to say that there’s no way I’m letting this little incident stop me from doing my job.”

Myungsoo’s eyes widened. “Hyung–!”

“No, Myungsoo, stop. I may be uncomfortable at such close range but I handled it from a good distance, right? It’s not like I have to constantly be at the tank.”

“But…”

“No buts. My decision is final – I’m not going to stay elsewhere while you work. We’re business partners, Myungsoo.”

Myungsoo’s frown deepened. “Hyung, I’m not going to risk your mental stability for a job!”

“This has nothing to do with my mental stability!”

“Yes, it does!” Myungsoo retorted. “And I don’t want yours to get worse because you want to work with me.”

“Myungsoo–!”

“Not a chance!” he said defiantly.

Frustrated, Sunggyu looked to Sungyeol for help. The latter caught his eye signal and gently grasped Myungsoo’s bicep.

“Soo, you know… Sunggyu-hyung might be right.”

Myungsoo turned to him in shock. “Yeol, what are you talking about?! Sunggyu isn’t safe here!”

“A marine park isn’t a danger to me!” Sunggyu exclaimed.

“Soo, take a deep breath, honey,” Sungyeol began.

“No! I will not be taking any deep breaths so long as Sunggyu is in a place that could potentially make him lose his breath!”

Sungyeol huffed from his nose – a sure sign that this was an argument he was going to win. He turned towards Sunggyu and Woohyun. “Could you guys give us a moment?”

Woohyun – who had been watching quietly – responded, “Sure thing, Sungyeol.”

Sunggyu nodded towards them and exited the room with Woohyun. As soon as they shut the door, they could hear the muffled argument behind them. They stood next to each other awkwardly, staring into different directions.

“It’s warm in here,” Sunggyu commented randomly, hoping to avoid the awkward silence.

“Oh, yeah. Yeah, it is. The water is kept at a normal temperature but the air isn’t so we keep this place warm so we don’t get sick,” he nodded awkwardly.

“Ah.”

“That’s also why we’re required to wear our sweaters after getting out of the water,” he added quickly. “You know, in case of hypothermia, or something…” he nodded and then trailed off, looking the other way.

Sunggyu looked at the way he let out a lot of deep breaths and kept shaking one foot. He was looked everywhere except for Sunggyu and he twiddled with his fingers.

Sunggyu, also, felt awkward and looked away. He clasped his hands together then unclasped them. He tucked his hands under his armpits as he rocked back and forth. The wet rubber mats squeaked beneath his sneakers.

“Sorry.”

“Hm?” he asked, turning towards the other.

Woohyun looked at his fingers. “I’m real sorry for earlier. I didn’t mean to–”

“It’s fine. You didn’t know – it’s not really your fault,” Sunggyu interrupted.

Woohyun looked up at him. “Still, I feel awful. I’ll find a way to make it up to you – I promise.”

Sunggyu smiled. “There’s no need for that, but thank you nonetheless. Uh… Woohyun, right?”

“Yeah,” he grinned. “Nam Woohyun.”

He held out his hand. “Kim Sunggyu.”

They shook hands, not caring if they had already introduced themselves nearly an hour ago. Behind them, the door opened and Sungyeol’s head popped out.

“Looks like you two got to know each other a little,” he said.

“Are you done talking to him?” Woohyun asked.

Sungyeol nodded. “Mm-hm. He’s okay with Sunggyu working here now.”

The two stepped inside and found Myungsoo sitting on the chair, his arms crossed and a pout on his face.

“Now that that’s settled,” Woohyun began as he sat down again, “let’s go over the job details, okay?”

“Alright,” Myungsoo huffed.

Sunggyu took the seat next to him and smiled. “Tell us what we need to do.”

The job description had been simple enough – advertise. They already had logos so Sunggyu wouldn’t have to worry about things like that. However, they did ask them to design a website, to make a bit of merchandise and obviously to get their name out there. Sunggyu had begun working on a sort of booklet. It was about a trainer’s daily life and how they interacted with whales on a day-to-day basis. It was going to be sold after each show as some sort of souvenir. Myungsoo would provide the pictures.

Sunggyu had taken a few days to work on the layout, playing around with the text boxes and whatnot. But the other night he had stayed up late thinking of what to write and he had come up with nothing. He realized he didn’t know enough about a trainer’s life to write anything yet. It bothered him a lot when he had gone to sleep last night – so much that he couldn’t sleep. He ended up drinking two teaspoons of allergy medicine and it knocked him out like a light. The downside, however, was that he was knocked out for five hours more than usual.

“Crap!” he hissed when he woke up. Tussling his bed-hair, he stared at the clock – 11:36 AM. How much more late could he get?

In a rush he stripped out of his t-shirt and boxers in exchange for another t-shirt and jeans. He searched through his pile of laundry and found two similar looking socks. He had stopped looking for matched ones ages ago. He ran his fingers through his hair in attempt to tame it and rushed out the door.

“Myungsoo! Why didn’t you wake me up?! We can’t be late–…whoa.” He stopped in his tracks.

Standing at the stove was Sungyeol, flipping over a pancake. He turned around with a smile. “Oh, hyung! You’re up!”

“…Yes, I am. Sungyeol, what are you–”

“Do you want chocolate chips or blueberries in your waffles?”

He paused. “Blueberries.”

“Maple syrup?”

He scrunched his mouth. “Is that the only option?”

“Well, they’re going to come back with strawberry syrup if you want to wait.”

“Yeah, strawberry syrup. That’s better.” He shook his head quickly. “Wait, as I was saying – what are you doing here? Where’s Myungsoo?”

“He’s out getting the strawberry syrup.”

“Oh… okay.”

“As for me, today is a very rare day off for me, so I came here to spend the day with you guys. Well, me and–”

“What about the whales and stuff?”

“The veteran trainers are giving the rookies some lessons today, so I get to rest. Besides, Myungsoo said you needed help writing about trainers, so we came over.”

“Oh, he noticed I was struggling, huh?” he murmured to himself. Then he realized something. “Wait, who’s ‘we’?”

“Hm?” Sungyeol flipped the pancake onto a waiting stack nearby.

“Just now. You said ‘we’.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s–” There was a knock on the door and Sungyeol turned towards it. “Oh, can you get that please, hyung?”

“Sure.”

He walked towards his apartment’s door, dodging baskets of laundry and an empty pizza box. He unhooked the chain, turned the lock and opened the door.

“Oh, hyung you’re up!” Myungsoo greeted as he saw him. He held up a few plastic bags. “We bought strawberry syrup!”

“Again with the ‘we’! Who is–?”

“Hello, Sunggyu-ssi.”

He turned to look at the other presence that was behind Myungsoo.

“Oh. Hi, Woohyun.” 

( A/N ) : Hello :3 I am back with chapter 2 ^^ I  enjoying reading ch as I enjoy writing it. I am slowly introducing everybody and I hope you're going to enjoy it even more in the future! LOL this ended up longer than expected XD I was planning on stopping it earlier but I decided nah XD

hay guise i got a tumblr . i'm called gyuboob. go love me. LOLOL JK I JOKE!

ps guys i actually love comments. But go ahead and upvote and comment if you're pleased :3

~ Quinnie