>Lia<
  The dark blue of the swimming pool was making my head dizzy. My pulse quickened, my breathing became labored and my vision blurred.
  "L!" Yoseobie bumped against my side, knocking me back to the here and now.
  I deliberately put the swimming pool behind me and leaned against the balcony's railing, facing the inside of the hotel room.
  "Let's go swimming," Yoseobie said, grinning at me.
  I shook my head at him. "That's okay. I'll just walk around the hotel."
  "Ah, waeyo? It's not fun if you're not there. Go swimming with us, please?"
  "I... can't," I admitted.
  He stared at me. "You can't? What do you mean you can't?"
  I looked away. "Do you want to know what's my weakness, Yoseobie?"
  "Weakness?" I could hear bewilderment in his voice. He must be wondering what did my weakness got to do with swimming.
  "Dark, deep blue water. That's my weakness."
  He frowned. "You mean, you're sacred of swimming pools?"
  I expected him to laugh, but instead, he looked confused.
  "Why?"
  I felt my face tightened as the memories started replaying in my head. "Remember when I told you my father taught us how to put together a gun when I was four?"
  He nodded slowly.
  "He taught us once, and then told us to put it together on our own. Lucas got it right the first time. He put the bullets, the safeties all at the right places. I couldn't get it right the first time."
  "Okay." Yoseobie was listening intently now.
  "My father got so angry. There's no such thing as second chances for him. He dragged me to the swimming pool. He told me that there were sharks and all other creatures in the swimming pool and he was going to let them eat me. I was four years old, I believed him. He threw me into the deep swimming pool and pushed my head under, not letting me up for air."
  Yoseob visibly paled. "Oh my god."
  "I was drowning, imagining all the sharks biting me. Just when I thought I was going to die from lack of oxygen, my father pulled me back up. By then, I was crying and wailing. He hates that too. He didn't allow us to cry, you know. He said crying are for weak people. So he pushed me back under the water to punish me for crying. He kept doing that, pulling me out and pushing me back under. Lucas kept begging him to stop. When he finally did, he just threw me in the pool, letting me drown. My twin forced one of my father's men to get me out of the pool. After that first time, Lucas learned how to swim and I have traumas. That was the only thing we didn't do together. He learned it because he wanted to save me every time our father did that. My father used that tactic to punish me as I got older, even when I was nineteen. Lucas would jump into the water and save me every time. We'd clung to each other and cry at the side of the pool after that."
  Yoseobie's face crumpled. "How did you survive living with your father, L? He's so cruel!"
  "I'm a survivor, Yoseobie. And Lucas was always there for me. Because of this too, that he became over protective of me." I finally looked at Yoseob and smiled. "I've told you my weakness, Yoseob-ah. Don't use it against me."
  He gripped my shoulders. "I hate your father."
  "I hate him too."
  "So you've never gotten into a swimming pool before? I mean, without your father forcing you."
  I thought about it for a moment. "During my high school days, there would always be pool parties. Not wanting to be left out, I'd go in the pool too, but I would cling to Lucas all the time. He wouldn't let me go either. I have this thought that whenever my twin was in the pool, the creatures under the water would disappear and I was safe. This crazy idea was already stuck with me since the first time he saved me. I would only feel safe if Lucas was there."
  Yoseobie gazed at me sadly. "Now that Lucas isn't here anymore..."
  My heart ripped into two again, hearing that sentence. "I don't go into a pool anymore."
  "If you just sit there, beside the pool, you don't have to come inside. Is that okay?"
  I hesitated for a moment then nodded.
  "Will you? Sit beside the pool? I've bought my video camera and I need someone to help me take videos of us. Will you help, L?"
  Could I? Would I be able to, so close to the pool?
  "Please?"
  "Okay."

 °Yoseob°
  I watched Lia took videos of us playing in the pool. She paled when we first got closer, but I held her hand and she gripped it for support. Now, she was fine. As long as none of her body parts were in the water.
  "That's enough, L. You don't have to take so many of us," I called out to her.
  She stopped recording and put the video camera down on the picnic table beside the pool. She sat down on the chair.
  Junhyung and Hyun Seung started heading towards Lia. Doojoon went out of the pool. I suddenly had a bad feeling.
  "Lia-ah, can you help me?" Hyun Seung called.
  I swam towards them. Gi Kwang and Dongwoon right behind me.
  "What is it?" She asked.
  "Can you put my watch on the table?" Hyun Seung was wearing his waterproof watch. He took it off and held it out for her.
  She hesitated for just a second, then got up from her chair and walked towards the pool where Hyun Seung was. She didn't see Doojoon sneaking up on her. Before she could take the watch, Doojoon pushed her from behind. She went flying into the pool. The kids laughed. I didn't, because I saw her struggling, panicking in the water. I was starting to panic myself.
  My hands shot out and I grabbed her. I pulled her up to the surface and pulled her to me. She clung to me tightly. Her arms hooked around my neck, her legs wrapped tightly around my waist. She gasped for air, shaking violently. And I didn't think it was because of the cold water. Then, she started making a small choked up sound at the back of . The kids stopped laughing.
  "Sshh... shh.. I'm sorry, L. I'm so sorry. It's alright now. Everything's fine. You're safe with me," I said into her ear. I glared at the kids. "What the hell were you thinking?"
  "I... We were just playing..." Doojoon said weakly.
  "Pabo ya? She already told you she didn't want to get into the pool!" I said harshly.
  "What's wrong with her?" Junhyung asked.
  "She's afraid of deep water! Its a phobia."
  Junhyung, Hyun Seung and Doojoon's faces changed and I knew they felt bad.
  They crowded around me and L, apologizing. "Lia. Mian. Lia, we're really sorry. Lia..."
  I didn't know if she heard them. She had stopped making those small noises but she was still shaking.
  "That's alright," she whispered.

  •Gi Kwang•
  When the kids pushed her into the water, I laughed because it was funny. But then Yoseob suddenly grabbed her and held her close. Then did we see her shaking and paling, heard her small choked up cry.
  I didn't know she had a phobia. If I knew, I wouldn't have allowed the kids to do what they did.
  She clung to Yoseob as if her life depended on it. I guessed her life did depend on it.
  I went to them. "Yoseob-ah, give her to me."
  He stared at me. "You want what?"
  "Give Lia to me. I'll carry her."
  "But she's—"
  "My wife," I finished, even though I knew that wasn't what he wanted to say.
  I saw his hands balled up into fists at Lia's back.
  "Just get me out of here, please," Lia choked out. Her eyes were squeezed shut.
  I touched her arm and she flinched.
  "It's me," I spoke to her gently. "Come to me, Lia." I pulled on her arm but she resisted and made that choked up sound again.
  "L, it's Gi Kwang. It's okay, L," Yoseob murmured to her. "L? It's okay, everything's going to be alright."
  Her grip on him loosened and I guided her hand around my neck. I placed my hands around her hip. Without opening her eyes, she let go of Yoseob and quickly clung to me. My arms circled around her fully.
  "You guys go ahead. I'll take care of Lia," I told the kids.
  They watched me for a moment, giving me weird looks before swimming back to the middle of the pool. Yoseob was the last to go.
  The waves from when the kids swam off came and hit me and Lia. She panicked a little, tightening her hold on me and burying her face at the crook of my neck. I held her close.
  "Look at me, Lia," I said.
  She shook her head frantically and didn't budge.
  "Do you trust me?" I asked.
  She didn't answer.
  "Do you trust me, Lia?"
  "I don't know," she finally whispered. "I have trust issues."
  She had more than trust issues.
  "Trust me, Lia. I'm telling you to trust me now. Please? Please, Lia?"
  When she finally nodded, I said. "Open your eyes."
  "Sireo."
  "You said you trust me. So open your eyes, Lia. Open your eyes and look at me. Look me in the eyes."
  She didn't open her eyes but she did lean back a little, away from me so that she could see my face better.
  "Open your eyes now."
  I felt her chest heaved a little and then her eyes opened. She looked into my eyes. I saw the terror she was bravely suppressing in her eyes. She was really afraid of the water. It made me want to protect her more.
  "Relax," I told her. "I'm not going to let anything hurt you." I held her gaze. "Do you believe me? Do you believe that I won't allow anything to hurt you, Lia?"
  She nodded slowly.
  "Now, take a deep breath... And let it out. Breathe in... breathe out." She did what I told her. "Okay?" She nodded. "I want you to look at Yoseob now. Find him, and look at him."
  She hesitated, blinked once and turned her head slowly to look at Yoseob. He was watching us. When Lia looked at him, he smiled and waved at her. She returned the smile, just a small one.
  "Do you see him?"
  "Yes," she whispered.
  "Now look at the other kids. Watch them play, Lia."
  I let her watched them for a few minutes.
  "You see? There's nothing to be afraid of here," I said gently. She turned back to me. I took one hand off her, holding her with just one hand. She visibly tensed up and started tightening her grip on me. "Relax, love, relax."
  She forced herself to relax.
  I cupped the pool water in my free hand. "Look," I told her. The water dripped off my hands. "It's just water, Lia. There's nothing to be afraid of."
  She watched me, wide-eyed.
  I wrapped my arms around her waist. "And now, we'll go under water."
  "No!" She shouted. "No! Please. Gi Kwang, please... I don't want to go under water. Don't push it, please! Please!" She was close to tears, panicking.
  "L, Gwaenchana?" Yoseob appeared beside us.
  Immediately, she threw herself at him, running away from me. She caught me off guard. I didn't have the time to stop her from slipping out of my hands.
  Yoseob wrapped his arms around her.
  "Get me out of here, Yoseobie. Please," She said, her voice shaking.
  "Arasso. We're going, okay? We're getting out," He murmured to her.
  I watched them got out of the pool. Yoseob put her down on the floor, and she tried to stand up. But her legs couldn't hold her up and she went down.
  "Lia!"
  "Lia!" The kids cried.
  I jerked forward automatically, wanting to catch her. But I was still in the pool, far away from her, and Yoseob was closer. He caught her in time.
  Lia's eyes were closed, her chest was heaving. Her pale face was just seconds away from crumpling. She was really shaken. I shouldn't have put her through that.
  "Lia, gwaenchana?" Dongwoon asked worriedly.
  "Lia?" Doojoon called.
  She didn't answer or open her eyes.
  Yoseob, seeing as she couldn't possibly walk, placed one hand on her back and the other under her knees. Then, he lifted her up.
  "I'm bringing her back to the hotel," he told us.
  I watched them leave, staring at Yoseob's back, carrying my wife away.