Taecyeon stood tall, his arms fiercely wrapped around his torso, his feet digging into the concrete underneath him. He clenched his jaw, as another flood of ice-cold water outpoured on them. He was freezing. He lifted his head to the side, seeing Nichkhun tremendously shivering next to him. Chansung at the other side was jumping up and down, several high-pitched screams escaping his trembling mouth.

“Okay!” He looked up the moment the flood of cold water stopped, as the Chief spoke up. “Endurance test ends here. You’re dismissed for the break. Go warm yourselves up! I don´t want a single one with the flu tomorrow!” The boys fanned out immediately, trying to get away from the cold place below the waterfall-like construction they spend their last 15 minutes. Saying that he was freezing was the understatement of the year. There were several parts of his body he didn’t even have a feeling in anymore.

 “O-okay, I’m totally awake now.”, Chansung murmured, his arms still embracing his torso, as he made his way to his towel, wrapping himself up as much as he could.

„I n-need something w-w-warm now.” Nichkhun jittered, icy water still dropping from his arms. “Omo, I think my hair is f-frozen.” He touched his head lightly and pulled at a stiff strand.

Taecyeon looked at him in amusement. His body was still shaking in irregular cramps the cold sent into his muscles.  “C-Coffee?” He asked, his mouth still numb. He got a shaky nod from his hyung. They wobbled their way through some giggling girls to the hallway. Nichkhun took a cup from the shelf but shook so much, that half of it landed on the cupboard next to the coffee machine.

“Aish! I’m leaving this place as an invalid.” He moaned, as he tried again, this time using both of his hands to steady the cup and showing another one to Taecyeon. Meanwhile Taecyeon was watching the beach and caught sight of a well-known figure sitting at the bay. 'She’s there again.' He thought, sensing a warm feeling warming up is stomach from underneath. Since their last encoutner he actually never saw her again during training. Apart from the first tests the instructors had seperate training for boys and girls, trying to keep the encounters pretty platonic. Most of the time he was too sleepy in the morning to even see beyond his plate of breakfast, and he never really saw her at dinner, even if he actively searched for her in the dining room. Not that he would ever.

"Khun, I need your coffee.“ He interrupted his hyung, who was just about to take a sip from his finally filled cup. He looked at him disbelievingly.

“Mwoh? But I just got it-“ Nichkhun started to protest, when Taecyeon took the cup from his stiff hands. “Yah! That’s my cup, give it back, pabo!”

“Kamsahamnida! I will make it up to you. Maybe…” Taecyeon just grinned at him, as he blocked him with his shoulder from getting his cup back and left towards the bay.

“Aish! That pabo is killing me.” Nichkhun moaned to himself. As he ruffled through his hair and nearly froze his hand again in it. He sighed and made his way to the parasols. If he couldn’t have his coffee, at least he could warm himself up in the sun…

„Yoona? Yoona-yah!“

„Eh?“ Yoona looked up to notice Yuri looking her, eyebrows raised. They sat in the warm sand, using the time the boys spend in the ‘acadamy-freezer’ – that’s how they jokingly named the waterfall – for a break.

„Where are you again, girl?“ She asked.

“Oh, I just thought about something, sorry.”

“Whatever, I tried to tell you that Seo and I will get us some coffee. Do you want some?”

“No, I'm fine, thanks.” She declined. Yuri just shrugged her shoulders and left towards the hall.

Yoona turned back towards the bay and watched the tide. Now that they had a break from training, she just couldn’t stop thinking about the job offer. It definitely wasn’t as she had planned it. The academy would never allow her to have a part-time job during training. So she would have to sneak out in secret. She run her fingers through her bunned up hair. How did it come this far? She never wanted to do something so irresponsible. And yet she would’ve been exactly that if she had declined. She felt caught between stools.

She was thrown out of her thoughts when shadow fell over her. “Omo, Yuri, you’re back already? I though you wanted to get coffee.”, she asked without looking up, thinking it was Yuri who appeared behind her. But when ‘Yuri’ didn’t respond and just sat down beside her, she frowned. Surprised she stared right into a dark pair of eyes and froze.

Taecyeon.

How could she ever forget his name when he was so persistent?

“I’m not Yuri, but I have coffee. I think that’s a good replacement, isn’t it?” He asked with his dark voice and the usual smile on his face, offering her one of the cups he got.

“Thanks-“ she answered hesitating, before she avoided his gaze and shifted hers back to the water. She unfolded her legs and leaned back, making herself as much comfortable as she could, with him next to her.  “But I don’t drink coffee. And seeing how you shake, you probably need both of them to warm up again.“  

“So you watched us.”

She gulped. To be honest, her watch hadn’t just been the bay this whole time. She couldn´t help herself but to take a few glances over to the boys. But she despised the fact that he was right about that too much, to tell him. “Heard rather. I have never experienced a guy with such a high pitched voice…”

He laughed. “That must’ve been Chansung. Speaking of his voice, can you speak a little louder? I think I my left ear is partially deaf because of the frost.” He joked, rubbing his ear and leaning closer to her in the process. She blinked at him in surprise, when her mind stepped in and she tilted herself away from him, avoiding his gaze. He sighed as he noticed her stiffening and took his distance immediately, a thoughtful expression on his face.

“So during the swim-test that time.” he began. “You stood out.” He declared, his astonishement clearly visible on his features, as she looked up at him with a questioning look on her face. She knew immediately that he was talking about the race. She got a lot of reactions from both envious and rivaling girls to flirting boys already.

“I was just lucky.” She shrugged it off, like she did with all of them.

“I don’t think that was luck out there.” he corrected her. “You have a unique style. Even though the other girls had more stamina than you, they didn’t stand a chance.”

She gulped and looked at him in disbelief. How had he noticed all that? She just raced once and still he had a pretty good feeling of what she and her opponents were like. Her expression must’ve been too obvious because he suddenly started grinning at her. She widened her eyes and forced herself to go stern again, as she avoided his gaze. “You have a keen eye.”

“People tell me that a lot.” He answered with a grin and took another sip from his coffee nonchalantly. “Where did you learn to swim like that?”

She froze, when a blast of painful memories washed over her. She tried to fight back the dull feeling starting to surface. Darkness all around her, freezing water burning its way right into her lungs. She was too weak to fight her way back to the surface, as she sank deeper and deeper. Until a strong hand reached out to her-

Yoona literally jumped, when she felt the grip on her arm. Taecyeon looked at her confused, “Are you okay?”

“I-I’m okay.” She stammered, looking down to hide her face. “I must’ve picked it up somewhere.” She then answered with her cold voice once again. She grabbed the board they were training with this morning and stood up without another word. Just as she took a step away from him, he grabbed her arm, stopping her in her motion. She froze again under his grip and turned her gaze at him.

“Maybe you can teach me someday?” Taecyeon looked at her questioning. The smile he still had on his face, softened Yoona’s expression. She blinked a few times and looked to her feet.

“Maybe.” He let go of her, and she vanished into the hall. He sighed at how she reacted. That girl was definitely different. But for this one second he saw a crack in the wall she build around her that made him realize that there was more to her than she wanted the outside to see…

Chansung was watching the scene from afar, amused. 'So he already hits on a girl.' He thought, leaving his gaze lingering around the beach. He had unraveled himself from his towel. The sun didn’t take much to warm him up again. Yet he was almost sure he would get nightmares from the waterfall.

He watched the other trainees using their break with a yawn. Girl’s giggling, Boys showing off their muscles, a few were even sunbathing. But what got his attention was the girl that was standing at the wall at the end of the beach solely. He smiled inwardly as he stood up and walked as casually as he could towards her. She was checking herself in the mirror and didn’t notice him at all, as he leaned next to her against the wall. He made a fake cough to gain her attention. She finally looked up, smiled at him, and looked down in embarrassment.

“So…” he started. “You’re new here, too, aren’t you?” As soon as he had it spoken out he fought the urge to hit himself hard. Of course she was new here, they all started together two days ago. How dump was that?

“Uhm, yes, I am.”

“I’m Chansung, by the way.”

“Seohyun, nice to meet you.” She looked up at him again, and smiled so warmly, that it nearly made him blush. He bung his arms around the wall casually and cocked his head to the other side.

“So this place is pretty awesome, isn’t it? Except that crazy chief that is. Have you seen us under the waterfall today? He totally tried to kill u-aaah!” He jumped, as he looked right into the chief’s eyes. His face was only an inch apart from his, his arms folded behind his back as he stood at the other side of the wall, Seohyun was just leaning at. He saw her leaving the scene quickly. She looked back once and shot him an apologetic look. He just couldn’t be mad at this face, could he?

“So.” the chief started, making Chansung swallow hard immediately. “You want to have another round in the freezer, don’t you, Mr. Hwang?”

“Actually I would rather no-“ he was interrupted by the chiefs whistle. The loud tone made him wince and hold his ears in pain. “O-of course I want.” He bowed obedient, as the chief pointed into the direction of the waterfall…

The same time, Yuri just came back from the dorm. Since Yoona didn’t want any coffee and Seohyun was nowhere to be found after she came back from the hall, she decided to have a little sunbath on her own. She took place on one of the parasols, opening her bottle of sunscreen, as she heard two boys broke into laughter right next to her. She looked up, directly into the eyes of the sunny blonde boy who stood out everywhere he went. And with just those trunks on there wasn’t much to hide the fact that he was well-trained and good-looking. Enough to make her interested. As he caught her view he smiled generously at her and she curled up her lips as she got an idea. She waved him over, satisfied as he stood up seconds after and walked his way casually over to her.

“Hey sunshine.” He greeted her.

“Talking about yourself?” She joked and pointed at his hair, amused. He bit his lip.

“Well… would you believe me if I told you it is my natural color?”

Yuri looked at him with her eyebrows raised.

“It was worth a try.” He shrugged it off, as he sat down next to her and took the bottle out of her hands. She looked at him confused. He stared back. “What? A girl, sunscreen, this hands? I can put two and two together, you know.” He explained and she smiled knowingly.

“Well then, make sure you don’t miss a spot, witho those hands, sunny boy.” She joked back, as he began to pour some of the screen on his hands.

“To be honest, the sad truth about my hair is -“ he started and Yuri looked back at him, confused about his suddenly serious voice. “Clorine poisoning.”

“What?”

“Yeah, it just absorbed all my natural color right out. Guess I trained too much in the pool back then…”

She whirled around. Her hair flipped back simultaneously and hit him right into the face. She cocked her eyebrow when he turned from the serious face to the whining one. “That just doesn’t make any sense at all.” She shook her head.

“Yah!” He pointed at her with creamy hands. “Turn yourself around, before you batter me to death with that deathly hair of yours.” She did as she was told and he began to cover her back with sunscreen. Surprised, she forced back a moan, as he began to massage her back, trailing all the way down her spine and sending shivers through her body. She turned her head back to where he sat and froze, when she found his face only inches away from his. He looked at her, the same confused look she had right now, turning into an intense one. Yuri noticed the heat crawling up her back, although his hands had already stopped.

They broke apart, as he cleared his throat, glancing into the exact opposite direction, trying to make out what just happened.

“Speechless much?” He asked with a grin and she rolled her eyes on him. “Well I… I guess I go search my hyung.” He stated as he finished his work and stood up almost hastily.

“… I… thanks for the sunscreen.” Yuri told him, as he smiled at her and ran his fingers through his hair kinda nervously and left the parasols.  She blinked. The first guy to leave Kwon Yuri speechless. Something was definitely off. “Maybe Chlorine poisoning.” she thought back at what he said before.

She knew he made a joke on this. But she just couldn’t help but look at the tips of her hair, searching for any blonde streaks.

And if she had seen the way Nichkhun just unknowingly smudged all the leftovers of her sunscreen into his hair as he ruffled it nervously, she would’ve known something was definitely off…

Splash Corner

Anyeong! *bows* So, to make up for all I missed in the past, here’s your pre-dating chapter :D Thanks for all your comments, votes and subscriptions so far! I hope you enjoy ;)

~KY