Once they arrived at the beach, they took a stroll alongside the beach while their hands entangled with each other. There were not many people at the beach right then, maybe because it wasn’t weekends or holidays, which made it easier for them to film without any inconvenience. Most of the people there were swimming in the ocean, a few of them were burying their bodies in sand, and there were a few children building sandcastles. There were also a few families having picnics on the sandy beach.

While walking by the shore of the beach, Minhee who walked next to sea water was kicking the waves whenever it approached her while giggling like a little kid. Donghae unconsciously smiled watching her cute antics but not long after that his smile faded away when his eyes caught a group of foreign men, who were in the water, were staring at Minhee flirtatiously. A frown immediately formed on his face. With their flirtatious smile on their faces, there was no doubt that the men were watching Minhee who was completely oblivious about it as she was busy playing with waves like an innocent kid.

Out of jealousy, he gently yet firmly pulled Minhee to the other side, exchanging places with him so now he was walking next to the water while Minhee walked on the side where he used to be.

“Mwoya?” she asked almost like complaining as she looked at him in confusion, confused at his action.

“What? I also want to play with waves,” he said nonchalantly as he kicked the waves that came approaching him, mimicking her action from earlier. While kicking the water, he managed to spare a glance at the group of foreigners only to find himself boiled in anger when he saw their eyes were still on Minhee.

“HEY! SHE’S MY GIRL!”  Donghae said in English loudly to the foreigners, so that his voice could be heard through the sound of splashing waves, while pointing at Minhee and giving a piercing glare at them. His action caught Minhee by surprise meanwhile the foreigners men quickly swam far away from the couple.

“Oppa, what are you doing?” Minhee asked, looking at him in bewilderment.

“Ani, those men…” he was still glaring at the foreigners’ back before he looked at her with his pouty lips. “…they stared at you without blinking,”

“Huh? Really?” Minhee tilted her head to look at the said men but before she could even do it, Donghae covered her eyes.

“Don’t look at them. They’re ugly,” he said. Actually he felt insecure since those foreigner men were all handsome, to be honest. He was afraid if Minhee looked at them, she’d fall for them. He didn’t want any more rivals besides  Lee Minho.

Even though she was still confused, she still complied with his command.

“Your shorts are too short,” Donghae commented, looking pointedly at the shorts she wore and managed to spare a glance at her soft milky white long legs. “That’s why men stare at you,” he muttered with a hint of irritation.

Minhee looked at her shorts and furrowed her eyebrows. “You should be glad I’m not wearing a bikini,” she retorted.

Donghae didn’t say anything in reply but take off his shirt making Minhee’s eyes widen looking at him before she quickly looked away. But then she felt him hold her wrist stopping her from walking. She hesitantly looked at him and was bewildered when he moved and stood in front of her. Before she could say anything, he wrapped his shirt around her waist and tied its sleeves so that it wouldn’t easily loose off her waist. After that he rubbed off his hands with a satisfied smile on his lips.

“Now it’s better,” he said, nodding approvingly then moving back to her side as they continued walking.

Minhee, who had been a bit stunned at his action, now had a small smile tugged on her lips. “Gomawo,” she mumbled.

“It’s nothing” he beamed. “Next time don’t wear anything too short. I don’t like it when any men stare at you. Only I can do it,” he grinned cheekily at her and Minhee laughed as she hit his arm sheepishly.

“Let’s get in the water?” he said.

Before she could respond to him, she ended up letting out a small yelp when he without warning swept her off her feet, carrying her bridal style heading towards the water.

“Oppa, what do you think you’re doing?” she said, blinking in shock, as she rather shyly wrapped her arms around his neck to keep her balance.

“Carrying you, of course,” he said matter-of-factly, briefly smiling sweetly at her before he looked ahead back, going deeper into the sea.  

The fact that he was carrying her while being shirtless made her cheeks redden. She couldn't hold herself from glancing at his bare chest and her cheeks immediately turned redder at her own action. She swallowed the lump in hard and looked away as her heart beat faster. She felt relieved when Donghae finally put her down into the water.

They swam around while holding each other’s hands for a while before Minhee started the water fight by splashing the water towards him who was not looking in her direction. Soon after he felt cold water splashed against his face, knowing who the culprit was, he without hesitation responded to her action with a splash of water as well. It was like their hobby now whenever they were in water.

“Ouch,” Minhee’s sudden whimper stopped Donghae from splashing water towards her.

He looked at her worriedly upon seeing her rubbing one of her eyes repeatedly. Concerned, he swam over approaching her and asked, “Are you okay?” The salty sea water must’ve been splashed into her eye. “Let me see,” he gently removed her hand that was rubbing her eye and cupped her face to see her reddened eye. A pang of guilt throbbed inside his heart, knowing that it was his fault for this to happen to her. “I’m sorry,” he muttered an apology and blew softly into her hurt eye without her even telling him to.

“It’s okay,” she assured him though she still felt sore in the eye that Donghae was blowing into.

They stayed in the position for a while, with Donghae cupping her face and blowing into her sore eye meanwhile Minhee barely moved from her position, eyeing him reducing pain in her sore eye with her other eye. How his face was so close from hers made her heart flutter and she felt her cheeks getting warmer and warmer by seconds. What he was doing right now just showed how he cared about her, how he loved her – it overwhelmed her heart. She felt loved.

“Feel better?” he asked after a while, looking right into her eyes.

She shook her head in reply though her eye was no longer hurt. She didn’t know what came over her until she had to lie to him. Maybe because she wanted them to stay longer in the position – because she found herself liking it. The reason she liked it, it didn’t even cross her mind yet.

As Donghae continued blowing into her eye gently to reduce pain in her eye that he acknowledged it as his fault, suddenly he felt something soft briefly touch his cheek. He was stunned. His heart started beating faster.

He recognized the touch.
He had first felt it when Minhee had kissed him for the first time on the cheek.
He still remembered the touch.
There was no way he’d forget it – the soft, sweet and breathtaking touch of her lips.

He barely pulled his face away from hers and looked in her eyes with his shocked gaze. Her flushed cheeks caught his eyes, somehow telling him that what he was thinking and wanted to make sure was true – that she really did kiss his cheek.

“Uhm… Remember our deal before you did that heart thingy in some music show?” she asked, trying hard not to stutter. “It was the second kiss.” she showed him her two fingers to indicate the word ‘second’ she had just mentioned. But then she remembered the kiss she had given him last night, the goodnight kiss on the lips. “Nope. Three” she grinned awkwardly while adding one more finger to join the other two. Her cheeks flushed redder when remembering the goodnight kiss.

Donghae stared intently at her for a moment, before he shifted his gaze to her three fingers. Then he reached out and pulled out one more finger of her to join the other three. She looked at the newly-added finger and Donghae back and forth in confusion.

“No, it was the fourth kiss” he mumbled, loud enough for only her to hear it.

Upon hearing that, Minhee practically remembered the moment she had just given him a good morning kiss that morning, the kiss where there were no cameras filming them, unlike their other kisses. It was the only kiss that she had given him that wasn’t mentioned by her along with another three kisses just now.

“Oh…y-yeah,” she responded but then she realized something. “That means our deal has been accomplished, right?” she looked at him with her sparkled eyes.

Donghae beamed and nodded. Truthfully, he never took the deal seriously. And even if he did, he had never thought she would accomplish it…at least this soon. And it kinda amazed him. Nope, it completely amazed him. He always thought she wasn’t an easy girl but to think that she had kissed him two times in one day -which had surprised him a lot- he couldn’t help but wonder if she shared the same feelings with him. However, as soon as he realized what he was thinking, he quickly brushed it off because it would cause his hope to high up and he didn’t want to end up being disappointed in the end.

“But that doesn’t mean you can’t kiss me after this,” he sounded like teasing and shy at the same time. He still couldn’t get over the fact that she had just kissed him for the second time that day.

Minhee didn’t reply but only glanced at him shyly, blushing harder.

 “Donghae oppa!”

The voice caught the couple’s attention as they looked in the voice’s direction only to see a group of girls with bikinis were waving towards Donghae. Minhee unconsciously frowned at them (to be exact, at their revealing oh-so y cleavages) then she looked down at what she wore. A shirt and shorts; not y at all. She probably lost to them. ‘Donghae oppa will surely choose them over me,’ she thought, pouting.

Meanwhile Donghae briefly waved towards them, enough to make them squeal like typical fangirls they were.

“Donghae oppa, let’s play with us?” one of the bikinis girls shamelessly offered while smiling shyly a.k.a flirtatiously at him.

“Uhm…no, thanks,” he rejected politely then diverted his attention to Minhee.

Minhee tried to act cool, refraining herself from glaring at them. ‘How dare they... Don’t they know we’re filming right now?’ she mentally glared at the s girls.

“Come on, oppa. Minhee unnie will be alright? It’s not that you guys are married for real, right?” said another bikinis girl.

“Sorry. But we’re currently filming,” Donghae said.

“Aww, come on, oppa.  You can stop filming for a while to play with us, right?” the third girl persuaded. They were five in total, actually.

Before Donghae could protest, the forth girl chimed. “Come on, oppa. Come on. Just for a while, we promise.” The girl pulled Donghae’s hand to make him join them. Donghae managed to gently but firmly pull his hand away from her grip though he nearly lost his patience.

“No. I’m sorry. I can’t. We’re still filming and I don’t want to leave Minhee alone. If you excuse me,” he took Minhee’s hand in his and brought her swimming to the shore.

“Why didn’t you join them? They’re all pretty. You can pick one of them to be your girlfriend,” Minhee teased as they sat on the seaside, playing with waves that came over towards them.

“What are you talking about? I don’t want any girl other than you,” he said and shyly looked at her. “Moreover, you’re prettier than them…nope, you’re the prettiest than anyyyy girls in this world,” he added proudly.

Minhee laughed and lightly pushed him aside. “You’re boasting, you know.”

“I’m not. You’re seriously pretty,” he said, looking in her eyes. “Really pretty. Everytime my eyes land on you, I fall more and more in love with you,” he said, his eyes glued on hers. He wasn’t hesitant to say that to her, because he knew there was no point since she would never believe his words, especially the ‘love’ part.

Minhee didn’t break their locked gazes. His eyes were beautiful, even more beautiful when sincerity radiating in his eyes. She was touched and felt her heart soften upon hearing his sweet, sincere words. How she felt lucky to be loved by a