"Let's go to an amusement park," Dojin says. 

It was Friday afternoon and Byulha had just come out of school. 

They were sitting in the living room, the TV playing in the background. 

"How about we go to the beach instead?" Jinwook suggests, "It'll be a nice way to cool off."

“But all you can do at the beach is swim,” Dojin says, “I want to ride the ferris wheel with you."

"You know you can't handle heights, not even when I give you a piggy back ride," Jinwook replies. Dojin hits Jinwook slightly. Byulha sticks out his tongue pretending to be grossed out by the thought. 

"I don't want to go to the beach," Byulha adds, "but I don't want to go to an amusement park either."

"We have to decide on one or the other," Dojin says as he attempts to stare down a determined Byulha. 

"We could have Chanyoung come and make the decision," Jinwook says. Dojin nods confidently.

"Maybe he'll come up with something better," Byulha replies.

"Sure! I'll go get him." Jinwook stands up and quickly runs over to their neighbor. 

Jinwook stands on the hallway for a while after he knocks, he grows impatient as the clock ticks away and knocks again, louder and in rapid succession.  Dojin sticks his head out from their opened door but Jinwook shoos him away, intending to get Chanyoung on his side.

“Was sleeping,” is what Chanyoung slurs when he opens the door, Jinwook can see the leftovers of his sleep rubbed onto his cheek and he sighs before he smiles.

“So Dojin and I were talking about going to the beach,” he says but before Jinwook can finish he’s been interrupted.

“We’re going to the beach?” Chanyoung says excitedly, Jinwook tries to remember when he invited Chanyoung along.  But he decides that his desire to go is too great so he smiles wider and nods.

“Yes, this weekend,” he says, starts to walk back into their apartment.

Chanyoung follows, barely walks in before he’s whooping, “we’re going to the beach!”

Byulha and Dojin simultaneously groan.

-

Jinwook opens the curtain in his room the next morning allowing the bit of sunlight inside; its enough to wake up a now half-awake Dojin.

It was quite early but if they wanted to get to the beach and have everything ready they would need to leave a bit early.

“I’ll go wake Byulha,” Jinwook says as he puts on a shirt, puts on his slippers, and makes his way towards Byulha’s room down the hall.

When Jinwook gets to Byulha’s door he cant open it; it’s locked. Jinwook knocks on the door, “Why is the door locked?” He stands there confused till he hears some ruffling on the otherside.

Byulha opens the door and smiles, “My bad.”

“Is it really that cold?” Jinwook says noticing the long sleeve shirt Byulha has on.

“Yeah,” Byulha replies, “Anything else Dad?”

“Just start packing your stuff, I’m going to go make breakfast for now,” Jinwook says. He slowly turns and begins to walk away. Byulha closes the door and locks it again.

-

“Byulha, don’t be ridiculous and take off that shirt right now,” Dojin says frowning. Byulha was wearing a white long sleeve shirt and Byulha refused to take it off claiming ‘It’s not too hot outside.’

Chanyoung insisted on letting him wear it. “He’ll learn his lesson,” Chanyoung says as he finishes putting all their stuff in the trunk of Jinwook’s car. 

“Fine, get in,” Dojin says opening the door for Byulha and Chanyoung. 

-

The drive down to their little beach house averages on a couple of hours.  Chanyoung ends up falling asleep, head bumping against the window.  Byulha watches amusedly not bothering to change his position, instead pulls out his phone and starts to take pictures.

By the time they reach the third hour, Byulha starts to get restless, shifting around and sighing, jamming his earbuds in and blasting his music at unhealthy, ear damaging levels.  

Eventually Byulha falls asleep, his music still a static background noise. 

Chanyoung wakes up just as they pull into the beach house, nudging Byulha awake.  They carry their bags into the house, their changes of clothes and toiletries.  

“Hey don’t you want to change out of the shirt?” Dojin asks.

“Nah, it’s cool,” Byulha answers with a smile, gets back into the car.

-

After driving for what seemed a really long time, they finally arrived at the beach. 

Jinwook finds a parking spot and turns around to look at a very excited Byulha and a happy Chanyoung.

“Remember to not stray too far from us,” Dojin says looking back as well. Jinwook and Dojin then look at each other, almost like they are reading each others mind. 

Byulha looks so happy.

“Let’s go!” Jinwook yells excitedly.

Byulha runs off on his own immediately while Dojin, Jinwook, and Chanyoung begin to take out their stuff and slowly make their way closer to the water.

The waves crash gently against the shore, flooding Dojin’s feet as he walks into the water.

“It’s cold,” he draws out, hand holding on tightly to Jinwook’s.

“It’s refreshing,” Jinwook corrects, pulling Dojin forward until their knees are submerged.  Dojin shivers.

“Where’s Byulha,” he asks, eyes scanning over the people at the beach, locking with Chanyoung who is farther away, carrying a little bucket of sea shells.

“He ran off as soon as we got here,” Jinwook answers, “he’s probably found a shop or something.”

Dojin sighs, stopping mid way through their waddle, “this is supposed to be family time,” he takes his hand from Jinwook’s, “Byulha is supposed to be here.”

Jinwook puts his hands up, “we’ll call him, he has a phone for a reason, right?”

Jinwook takes a hold of Dojin’s hand again, tugging him away from the waves, right into the sun rays beating on the sandy beach.

Jinwook speed dials Byulha, watches as Dojin starts going through their things, making sure everything is still there.

“Funny, he won’t answer,” Jinwook mumbles, turning to look at Dojin, who looks at him with demanding eyes.  Before he can say anything, a shadow eclipses the sun rays.

“Who won’t answer?” Byulha asks, bypassing Jinwook, diving right into the cooler stocked with snacks.

“Byulha!” Dojin says, hands going limp at his sides, “where have you been?”

“Woah, dad, calm down,” Byulha says as he opens a can of soda, “I went to the shops, got this sweet hat.”

Dojin squints at him, “you’re getting a little red in the face, it almost blends with your hair, aren’t you hot in those long sleeves?”

Byulha shakes his head, “nope,” he takes a sip of his soda, “it’s kinda a little cool, to be honest.”

At the moment a small breeze picks up, Dojin throws his hands up in defeat.

-

The beach has gotten a little cooler, the sun starts to go down, sinking into the waves, Dojin buries his toes in the sand, leans forward, watching Byulha watching Chanyoung.  

“What was the point of going to the beach if he wasn’t going to get in?” Dojin asks.

Jinwook snorts, “you didn’t even want to go in.”

“At least I’m wearing beach approved clothing,” Dojin says.

Eventually it gets too dark and they start the drive back home.  They stop at a local supermarket to pick up dinner.

“Dad,” Byulha says, “can we get chicken?”

The lights from the aisle do nothing to hide the bags under Byulha’s eyes and it’s the first time Dojin thinks about how hard school must be going, how this must be a really nice way of relaxing.

“Of course,” he says, “pick the one you want, meet me at the snack aisle, your father is definitely going to drag me there.”

The smile Byulha gives him is too sweet and bright, it makes Dojin feel warm inside.

-

They’re having a quiet dinner, it’s a bit too late for food, but they eat until they’re full.  Byulha laughs at all of Chanyoung’s dumb jokes and even offers to do the dishes.

Dojin later thinks that this should have been a hint, Byulha never does the dishes.

But it goes over him and instead he smiles all thankful, trying to offer help but getting shooed away.

He bumps into Byulha when he gets out of the shower, Byulha’s face is scrubbed pink and Dojin notices that he’s wearing long sleeves.

He decides that it is a little cold, so he doesn’t say anything and goes on to brushing his teeth.

-

“Byulha went ahead,” Jinwook says when Dojin walks into the kitchen the next morning, “he said he wanted to get to the beach before it got too crowded.”

Dojin nods, going around the counter, placing a kiss on Jinwook’s cheek, instead catching the corner of his mouth.

“Coffee?” he says groggily, and Jinwook pours him a cup.

-

“He said he was behind some big rocks,” Chanyoung says helpfully, he trudges through the sand, “so maybe over there?”

Jinwook follows, arms wobbling under all of their things, “it’s a wonder we haven’t lost him yet.”

“Well,” Dojin drags on, “we always almost do.”

They finally find Byulha, or at least his things, Chanyoung turns to look at them, voice already soothing when he says, “Byulha is going to be here soon, he’s gone to get something to eat.”

“He’s always eating,” Jinwook shakes his head, drops everything in the sand.

“He’s a growing boy,” Dojin says, “he should be eating more.”

Dojin lays out his blanket, pulling out his book and sunglasses.

“I’m going into the water,” Jinwook says, “do you want to?”

Dojin shakes his head, lays down carefully, “I’ll just read and enjoy the sun.”

Minutes past before there’s any signs of Byulha, Dojin barely looks at him before he does a double take.  

Byulha in a short sleeved shirt is surprising in a way that it should not be.  But the hand holding on to an iced drink has something on its wrist.

Dojin thinks (hopes) it’s just a stain of some sort, but as Byulha drops next to him, it looks deeper, permanent.

“What is that?” he asks slowly.

“Just an iced tea,” Byulha shrugs, “do you want any?”

“Not the drink!” Dojin’s voice raises a little, “on your wrist!?”

“Oh,” Byulha says, “that’s a tattoo.”

He takes a sip of his drink, shakes it so that the ice cubes dilute evenly.

Dojin’s never been the kind of parent to yell, and now he wonders if this is why his son has turn into some sort of rebel.  He takes a deep breath, wants to ask how he got, when he got it, where he got it.  Is he taking care of it, was the place sanitary.  Instead his mouth can only say, “A tattoo?”

“Yeah, a tattoo,” Byulha repeats, “you know what they are right?”

His voice is challenging, closed off.  Dojin sighs.

“Have you been taking care of it?”

Byulha nods.

-

Jinwook gets red in the face when Dojin fills him in, his anger is more quiet and exaggerated hand gestures.  Chanyoung hides out in the living room, turns on the television and pretends he isn’t there.

“When did this happen?” Jinwook asks, hands on his hips.

“Like two months ago,” Byulha mumbles, “my friend did it for me.”

Dojin’s hopes of a safe job fly out the window.

“But why?” Jinwook asks exasperated.

“He said he wanted to practice on me,” Byulha shrugs.

All possible good things that Dojin had been hoping for start to crash down.

Jinwook has gone from red to green, looking like he’s going to pass out, “can we at least see it?”

Byulha hesitates, and Dojin starts to dread what ever god awful thing his baby has etched on his body.

He sticks his wrist out slowly and Dojin leans forward to see, blinks at it when he sees the characters of his and Jinwook’s name.  The script itself is not bad, neat and outlined boldly.

“Byulha,” Jinwook starts, Byulha interrupts,

“He gave me some money and some snacks for it,” as if that negates any sentimental value to it.

But Dojin sees the way Byulha looks at it, with a sort of soft gaze, awing.  .

There’s a moment of silence and then, “You’re still grounded,” Jinwook pauses, “as soon as we get back home.”