I was floating, the smell of chlorine surrounding me, and although I should have found it unpleasant, I relished in how clean it smelled. The water made me feel like I was free from my everyday worries, washing all my fears away.

The other cleaning ladies told me that it was okay to use the pool when it would get really late, and since I was not using the main one I felt pretty safe in just closing my eyes and drifting away.

I felt the small waves of water on my body, the ripples tickling my sides, but didn't bother opening my eyes-that is until something, somebody, pulled my body down. I opened my eyes, the scream already half up my throat, when I felt a hand on my mouth.

Strangely enough, maybe I wasn't normal, the hand calmed down enough that I realized that there was a warm body now pressed against me, but that it just stayed there, keeping me afloat and not harming me. I could feel the stranger's chest move in the same rhythm as mine, and when I concentrated enough, I felt his heartbeat against my back.

His hand slowly moved away from my mouth, instead settling on the base of my neck, and I took a deep breath in.

The smell of chlorine was now mixed with the smell of Ji's cologne and the faint smell of cigarettes that always followed him around.

We stayed that way for a long time, not moving much, just listening to each other's heartbeats. There is something infinitely intimate in the silence we shared, almost like it told you more than a thousand words could have.

Where have you been? Did you get bored of me? Why am I missing you when I am nothing to you, when you pay me to stay? So many question I had, the fear of never seeing him growing from not seeing him for months.

Yet, here he was, holding me, making me feel like all was right in the world.

Slowly, I turned around in his embrace, looking up at his face, his plump lips pulled into a small smile, his eyes looking happy and relaxed. So much had changed since our last encounter.

“I'm sorry.“ He said quietly, matching the hushed atmosphere.

I wasn’t sure if he was jus