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I don’t even want to tell you what happened on our way to the beach.

We’re in Sehun’s car, a Nissan Frontier pickup. So, we’re like seven all in all and heaven knows that we won’t fit in a car like Sehun’s. But this kid, this little , insisted, saying it won’t be fun if we weren’t all together. And then Luhan joined in, and then Kai and then everybody else. I was going to offer my ride, but Baekhyun stopped me. “You don’t even have a license yet, you know,” he whispered to me. Baekhyun? My Baekhyun? Of all the people! Then why the is this kid driving then? He’s like two or three years younger than me for pete’s sake. And because I knew I wouldn’t win no matter what I say, I just shut up and held Baek’s hand instead. I fell asleep on his shoulder after that.

I woke up just in time for the early signs of sunset. I’ve been asleep for almost two hours. Surprisingly, the heat wasn’t as annoying as back home. As soon as Sehun parked his car, Kai and Luhan dashed to the beach so that Baek and I, Yixing, and Dara were left to carry our stuff to the resort.

The place was owned by Sehun’s aunt. Turned out that after Sehun and Luhan were caught by Sehun’s father together, he decided to stay with his aunt. And that lucky kid became the apple of his aunt’s eye.  Good for him though since I heard from Baek that the man was an abusive drunkard.

House was as big as a vacay house could be. It was a wooden bungalow with a veranda and a hammock overlooking the ocean. It was perfect. If people were to ask what my dream house would be like, I’d point to the structure and say ‘that, my friend’.

Dara carried the food inside and Baekhyun insisted that he help her, and so he did. Oh great. That’s when I realized I was left with Yixing, Zhang ing Yixing.

Have I explained why my blood boils every time I see that bastard? No? Okay, buckle up for the time machine. Zhang’s Chinese, if the surname’s not enough of a giveaway. He’s like the weirdest guy I met in my entire life. Even if he’s part of the basketball team, he’s mostly alone – well before he had a thing with Dara – spacing out somewhere. He’d ask you about the weirdest stuff like unicorns and . This one time he asked if horses are just castrated unicorns or something. Like, bro, so you think they have their balls on their faces? Come on!

But that’s not exactly the reason of my dislike. He’s a know-it-all and a bully. He likes to distract me during basketball practice and laughs at my mistakes. He loves to compete with me but it’s not a friendly competition at all. Once, we even had a fist fight. When my knuckles made contact with his face, that was the most satisfying moment of my life. In conclusion, he’s a big pain in the and still is. Thank God I’m going to college.

“You. Go with them,” he said, pointing towards our lovers with his lips. I rolled my eyes, taking the biggest baggage from the back of the pickup and tossing it to him. He barely caught it. Ha! “As much as I hate spending time with you, I won’t. I’m not that childish,” I said, and tossed him another bag. My insides were tingling in joy.

“Hey!” he shouted. I readied myself for a brawl. “You little .” And he tossed the bags back at me, almost hitting my head in the process.

“You little ,” I grumbled and threw the bags at him. To make the story short, we lasted for a whole five minutes flinging the bags back at forth. If not for Baek and Dara coming back, we might have done it for the whole night.

“Grow up, both of you,” they complained in unison. We stopped fighting after that. Well, at least for the night.

When we finished carrying our stuff, Kai and Luhan, both wet, burst into the house panting. “Guys, guys! Come on! The sea’s practically blazing gold,” they said. All of us rushed out of the house and to the shore. And the scenery didn’t disappoint.

You know those concluding scenes in chick flicks where the girl or guy sometimes looks out to the sea and see his whole life or say sentimental and the screen fades to black? That’s how it felt back then. Only that I knew it was real, not some ty scripted act shot on a green screen. We felt real. I had my hand wrapped around Baek’s and my other arm over Kai’s shoulder beside me. Luhan chased Sehun by the water, splashing at each other with smiles reaching their ears. Dara and Yixing sat on one side and, just like us, wat