It would be Serena's first time at the beach after her brother moved out of their home. When she was young she would walk around the beach picking up small shells and colorful rocks. She didn't like swimming in the sea though, because of all the stories she heard of people suddenly getting a foot cramp and almost drowning. Of course she knew how to swim, but she didn't like the slime on the rocks either. Her brother would laugh, saying that these things are frequent in dramas because they need a good plot to get the main characters closer.

 

Kyungsoo was surprised to see so few people at the beach. In pictures there would always be a lot of families sitting on the sand, or at least walking nearby. Today was pretty quiet, with a few elders swimming in the water and several couples walking their dog. As Chanyeol heard the waves rippling along the shoreline, he started to cold sweat. Observant Kyungsoo looked over.

 

"Um, you don't look too well." Kyungsoo commented. "Do you get seasick?"

 

Serena's mouth dropped. "Seasick is a type of motion sickness...not when you're near the water.." She too looked at the pale-faced Chanyeol. "Did you eat something wrong?"

 

"No..." Chanyeol stuttered. "Water...that's a lot of water..."

 

The sea water swished in the distance. "Yes...it's a beach, of course there's a lot of water." Serena re-stated the obvious. "You can't swim?"

 

"I can!" Chanyeol wiped the sweat from his forehead. "I d-don't know why I'm scared of that now." The thought of a tidal wave tumbling down on him and not being able to breathe under the water came across his mind.

 

Was it because he know has the power of fire? "Don't worry, we won't go in the water." Serena comforted him. 

 

Oh...we're not? Kyungsoo prepared swimming shorts, but as long as he never took them out it would save him from embarrassment. He kept quiet as they looked around. 

 

"Okay, what kind of part time jobs would they have at the beach?" Serena tried to brainstorm. 

 

"Garbage cleaner?" Chanyeol was slowly recovering from his shaking body. 

 

"Isn't that volunteer work though?" 

 

"Sometimes...?" Chanyeol didn't know. The three of them noticed a lifeguard asking people to exit the waters. "What's going on?"

 

The lifeguard approach them. "I guess you kids didn't read the weather news today, am I right? There's going to be a thunderstorm shortly, so please stay away from the shore and the water." He took off to warn the next group of people. 

 

"Rain?!" Serena took out her phone. Indeed there was a weather warning. "Sheesh, why would the principal suggest that we go to the beach when she probably knew today would have bad weather. She could have said some other day!"

 

Dark clouds gloomed over the distance and they could start hearing the thunder faintly in the background.

 

"We should probably find some shelter. Our bus doesn't come by until after a while." Kyungsoo suggested and pointed to the food stands. "They have some cover over there."

 

They stopped at a Yakisoba stand and watched as the several water droplets on the sand in front of them turned into a sudden downpour. The sound of this rain made Serena remember the first time she met Kyungsoo. She wondered if Kyungsoo was thinking of the same thing. 

 

"Can I help you guys?" The worker behind the counter asked. Serena thought that his face looked familiar and Kyungsoo nudged her. 

 

"Do you think that's...?" Kyungsoo whispered. 

 

"So I'm not over-thinking this." Serena whispered as well and the worker blinked at them with a confused look. "By any chance is your name Minseok?"

 

The worker was taken back and held up the spatulas. "Oh no...you guys are from the Academy, aren't you?"

 

"No!" Serena waved her hands around. "I mean, yes we're students but-"

 

"Don't force me to go to class!" Minseok panicked with tears building in his eyes. "I can't quit my jobs!"

 

"That's not what we mean!" Serena tried to assure him, but the thunderstorm grew heavier and Serena jumped when the thunder crackled loudly."Eep!"

 

Minseok was cautious as to what their purpose of being here was, but he couldn't just see them heading back into the rain. "You guys should come back here until the rain passes." He went over to open the door into the kitchen and the three briskly walked inside. "So are you guys Marked?"

 

Chanyeol placed his arm over Serena's shoulders (to which Kyungsoo expressed some sort of upset look at Chanyeol) and said, "I was winged by Serena here. That's Kyungsoo, who's also a Winged."

 

"Oh cool!" Minseok placed down the spatulas on the counter and the group sat on the ground. "What are your powers then?"

 

Chanyeol loved showing off his flame and Minseok immediately flocked towards him with sparkles in his eyes. "That's so cool. I wish I was able to do that - then all my restaurant part-time jobs would be so easy!" Minseok immediately sighed afterwards. "Alas I don't have enough time to do everything AND find myself an Activator."

 

"Well, we have a solution perfect for you!" Chanyeol imitated a salesperson. "As you can see over here we have a lovely Activator in line waiting!"

 

Serena's face grew red. "Don't say it like that..."

 

Minseok's eyes were filled with wonder. "You can? I don't even know you!"

 

It suddenly felt like speed dating to Serena, but replacing the word 'dating' with 'winging'. It didn't feel right to her at all, and neither did Kyungsoo. 

 

"So why are you doing all these different jobs?" Kyungsoo tried to pry away from the winging topic. 

 

"My family has a huge debt owing." Minseok told them without blinking. While some people might be afraid to admit their financial status, Minseok had to tell each company he worked for why his resume contained so many jobs. By this time the words flowed out of his mouth without hesitation. "I can hardly pay attention in class when I know my family is working hard to repay it." He scratched his head. "I guess you can say that I'm really out of the loop in terms of having a social life too."

 

"What kinds of jobs do you do?" Serena wondered. 

 

"I can pretty much do everything." Minseok listed some with his fingers. "Window cleaner, waiter, chef, deliverer...you name it and I probably did it before." It seemed like he was a man of many talents, but can't develop them because of his tight schedule. "If you guys know of any part-time job openings, let me know!"

 

"Does your family know that you're doing this?" Kyungsoo was suspicious.

 

Minseok smiled shyly. "Heh, you're smart. No, they think that I'm attending classes at the Academy. They want me to get a good education and job later in life. I had to repeat a year since I had an important job I couldn't miss out on the same day as finals and they got worried that I wasn't keeping up with my studies."

 

Another crack of lighting caused the area to go out of power. If it was absolutely silent you could probably hear frustrated gamers at a PC cafe rage because of the disconnect in the games. 

 

"Don't worry guys I got this covered." Chanyeol flicked on a flame easily with his hand.

 

"Now if only you could make your fire less hazardous." Kyungsoo rolled his eyes at his show-off buddy, recalling the accident in their suite.

 

"No can do Kyungsoo!" Chanyeol played around with the flame. "I don't shoot beams of light. Hah. Imagine that though! You can even make your own spotlights! Then we can throw disco parties every night and make real life lightsabers to play around with! But I must say flaming swords are much cooler and deadlier than shiny lights."

 

"Haven't you heard of lasers?!" Kyungsoo said irritably at Chanyeol. 

 

Minseok chuckled. "It must be fun having friendship fights like that. You guys are fortunate."

 

Kyungsoo continued to glare at Chanyeol. Friends? We're more like people who happen to know each other and have no choice but to be acquainted. 

 

"Is there anything we can help with?" Serena suggested some things she might be able to do, but Minseok shook his head.

 

"I don't want others to get involved. It'll get messy, but thank you for the offer." Behind the smiling face, Minseok was considerably sleep deprived and weak. He was still miles away from being able to pay even a third of the debt and he was working away for a few years already. He wasn't about to give up any time soon, but he did worry that at some point his health was going to break and he won't be able to recover from it. When the rain stopped, he exchanged phone numbers with Serena (who wouldn't leave until she got it) and resumed his duties as the shop keeper.

 

"Well, what do we do now?" Serena asked the two guys. "I don't think the principal would accept this as enough of an 'attempt' to wing him."

 

"We could try again? He might be somewhere else the next time though." Kyungsoo considered.

 

"I'll see if I can ask the principal about it." Serena drafted the email.

 

The three of them gave Minseok some energy to continue working, as he was happy that there was someone out there that knows of him. They didn't seem like bad people either, compared to the bunch of classmates in first grade that laughed at his financial status. His phone beeped alerted him to a message from an unknown sender (which wasn't uncommon since he applied to so many jobs and gave out his personal information to each one):

 

 

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A/N: dropped two hints in this chapter to future plots for the other members waiting to be Winged ;)