“Come on,” the dark haired Korean whined, widening his already alarmingly large eyes even more to gain a reaction from the thin blond standing on the balcony in front of him.

The petite blond shook his head almost imperceptibly, his gaze focused on the beach several 100 metres from the row of housing. “How can I go? Mother will never allow it. And there are so many people,” he added quickly, trying to find an excuse to put his friend off.

“Well, yes, that is the point of a party,” the Korean replied, rolling his puppy dog eyes and standing up to also look down at the beach. “Come on, Luhan. We’ll only be gone for a couple of hours and the old hag will never notice you’re gone.”

Luhan sighed in defeat. “Fine. But only a couple of hours, Soo. I don’t want to be locked in here again for another week.”

Kyungsoo grinned triumphantly, large eyes sparkling with excitement. “Brilliant! Love you Lulu!”

The music from the speakers blared out over the long stretch of beach, causing vibrations in the sand and creating a buzz of excitement amongst the party-goers. The beach was crammed, the entire youth of the city crowded onto the shore to celebrate the start of summer. Despite the fact that half of the crowd were under 19, alcohol was shoved mindlessly into the hands of those without it and the many students with classes the next day drank eagerly, tipping beers and soju down their throats without a care for the consequences. At the outskirts of the crowd stood two eighteen year olds, one short with dark hair and wide, anticipating eyes, one slightly taller with a thin frame and white blonde hair.

“Kyungsoo ah, are you sure this is a good idea?” the boy by the name of Luhan asked his friend, raising his voice over the music, and Kyungsoo grabbed his arm and dragged him further into the crowd, taking two bottles from a bucket of ice and pressing one into Luhan’s small hand.

“Luhan. Stop worrying. Drink this and loosen up alright? You never know, you might meet someone,” Kyungsoo grinned as Luhan shook his head, unconvinced. “I’m gonna see if I can find Baekhyun and Minseok, alright? Stay here and I’ll be right back.” Kyungsoo turned, taking out his phone from his jeans pocket, and before Luhan could protest he had been swallowed up by the crowd.

“Kyungsoo ah!” Luhan yelled after him, standing on tiptoe to try and spot the dark head of hair but he was already gone. The music thudded it’s repetitive beat into his head, and Luhan pressed his slender fingers to his temples, trying to breathe as the crowd seemed to cut off his supply of oxygen, packing together more as the amount of people increased. Pushing his way through the crowd, Luhan stumbled towards the water, running away from the crowd to the edge of the sea. He had never been good with crowds or parties having been kept inside away from the outside world by his parents until he was fifteen years old, and three years later he was still tentative to let himself go.

Crouching down, he trailed his fingers through the clear shallow water, letting it cool his warm skin. The sea looked so inviting, crystal clear and peaceful, more his sort of place than in the middle of a traffic jam of bodies. Wading in up to his knees he sighed, and watched the waves pool around his legs as he stepped in deeper. Shutting his eyes, Luhan let his knees collapse, and he inhaled as he went beneath the water. Everything was so quiet. Tranquil. He held his breath for half a minute before he opened his eyes, just in time to see a figure dive towards him through the water. The person stretched out their arms, and before Luhan had time to move, grabbed him by the waist, pulling him upwards above the surface.

Luhan blinked rapidly, the evening air stinging his eyes, and he coughed at the sudden flood of oxygen in his lungs. He grabbed at the arms of the person holding him to steady himself and looked up into their face, which rendered him breathless once more.

Dark brown strands of hair fell into deep, dark eyes, flooded with concern and a hint of panic gazed down at him, framed by wet eyelashes dripping mini beads of water down onto high pale cheekbones which then cascaded further to roll off a sharply defined jawline. Luhan felt his pale cheeks flush as an unknown feeling of heat and sparks burst in his mind, and he could do nothing but stare up into those deep orbs. He shivered slightly as warm breath brushed across his cheeks, the taller boys small lips parting as he exhaled, dark eyes scanning Luhan’s large shining ones.

As the water lapped around them, the taller of the two pressed slightly closer, tightening his hold around Luhan’s slender waist, the latter felt something like anticipation roll up his spine. He didn’t know how long they were standing there for, but he did notice the other boy leaning forward slightly, one of his hands coming up to cup Luhan’s cheek as the shorter of the boys leaned into his touch, waiting for the moment when the dark haired boy brushed his lips delicately across Luhan’s mouth, and the blond gasped, before responding, pressing further into his first ever kiss in all his eighteen years. His mind did not register that he had set eyes on this stranger only moments before and that he was now kissing him. All he knew was that the taller boy’s mouth on his, his warmth and security flooding over him was all he ever wanted to know, until he was broken out of his reverie by a voice filtering its way into his brain.

“Luhan!” Said boy opened his eyes as he slid his arms around the brunett’s neck to steady himself. The taller boy’s mouth smiled softly, his eyes also opening to weaken Luhan’s legs again as he drowned himself in those eyes. The taller opened his mouth to speak, when the voice came again, this time louder.

“Luhan! Hurry!” Luhan broke away from his focus and turned his head towards the shore. Kyungsoo was standing at the edge of the water, and behind him, all hell had broken loose. Someone should have known that a party such as this would be a number one place for a fight to break lose. Luhan turned to look at the boy holding him, and noticed that his gaze was also on the fight. Without a word, Luhan grabbed the boy’s hand and began splashing back out of the water. As they reached the sand, Kyungsoo’s face fell, a look of horror clearly expressed on his features, and he pulled Luhan away from the taller, his features changed to show distaste. Just as he began to tug Luhan away from the other, another deeper voice rang through the air from behind them, causing the tallest of the three to turn his head.

“Sehun! Come on! What are you  doing?! We need to get out of here!”

At this, Luhan’s jaw dropped. “Sehun? Wait…. you’re… Sehun? Oh Sehun?”

“What have you done Luhan?” Kyungsoo whimpered, pulling even more urgently on his sodden shirt and Sehun’s eyes snapped back to Luhan’s face, shock written plainly on it.

“Luhan?” He whispered, searching Luhan’s face urgently as Kyungsoo grabbed his hand and forcefully yanked him backwards into the crowd, said boy still facing towards him, devastated surprise clear to see on his face.