“Stop playing with that,” Yixing said, grabbing a hold of Jinyu’s wrist and pulling it away from her other hand. Jinyu tightened the line of and rolled her eyes. She had been nervously fidgeting with the charm bracelet on her left wrist when Yixing nagged her. She couldn’t help it; Jinyu was nervous, as any girl would be just minutes away from her first date.

Forced to let go of the bracelet chain, she turned her attention to her dress. It was more comfortable than the one Victoria had forced her to wear to the party; the skirt was longer, stopping just at the knees, and although her shoulders were still exposed, her chest was sufficiently covered. It was a white dress with place blue horizontal strips. Yixing had picked it out when he went to the marketplace the day before. Jinyu started playing with the hem and the braided belt around her waist.

“Would you stop twitching?” Yixing said, slapping at her wrists again. “Just calm down; you’re making me nervous.”

“I apologize,” Jinyu said gently. She took a deep breath and leaned against the metal railing. The boardwalk was close to the cliffs instead of the beach, but it had a stunning view of the ocean. Most of the patrons there that day were either couples or families; it was an ever-changing scenery, full of happiness and tranquility. Yet Jinyu felt like she was in the middle of a war-zone. And Luhan was still not in sight.

“What if he never arrives?” Jinyu asked.

“He will,” Yixing answered without looking up from his phone. “He wouldn’t do that. Stand up straight.”

Jinyu followed his directions and straightened out her shoulders. She hadn’t even noticed that her anxiety was causing her to slump forward a bit. She chewed on her bottom lip; Jinyu felt like a mess. Her heart was beating a mile a minute and her knees were starting to knock together. Where could he be? What if he didn’t like the way he looked? What if he was still in love with that girl he kissed at the party?

“What if I make a complete fool out of myself?” she voiced aloud to Yixing. The boy looked up from his phone with a blank expression. Yixing thought about his response for bit; if she had been any other girl, he would have automatically told her that there was nothing she could do that would make her seem too foolish. But this was Jinyu and there was no real guarantee that she wouldn’t say something odd.

“Well, what sort of foolish thing are you planning to do?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she answered. “I am… just worried. I have never done this before.”

Yixing gave her a reassuring smile. “Just be yourself,” he said. “Minus the tail part. Just be yourself.”

Jinyu’s mouth tweaked upward a bit in an attempt to smile. She sighed. “Do you think I can do this? I mean, do you think he will love me?”

Yixing made a show of pretending to be doubtful, but when her face turned dark, he laughed and nodded to her. “Like I said, just calm down,” he said. “It’s just the first date. It’s not that big a deal. Just be yourself and…”

He paused a moment to look her up and down. Mei had curled her hair that morning, but as it braved the ocean winds throughout the day, the curls had come undone and left soft waves in their wake. The dress he bought had been a spur-of-the-moment decision at the store in which, in his indecision, he grabbed whichever dress was cheapest and was her size. The last thing he’d ever bought for a girl was a corsage for the senior dance almost 2 years ago, and it happened to be the wrong color. He was pleased with the way the dress looked on Jinyu, however. It was pretty.

Yixing swallowed and tried to remember what else it was he’d wanted to say. Jinyu looked at him expectantly with her wide blue eyes. She always looked at people directly in the eyes, and it was a wonder that she never felt embarrassed when she was caught staring. He quite liked it about her.

“Yes?” she asked, prompting him to speak up. Yixing cleared his throat.

“Uh, nevermind,” he said. “Just… don’t try too hard. You won’t need to.”

“Oh,” she said, knitting her brows a bit as she tried to figure out what “trying” meant, anyway. Yixing smiled. He turned back to his cell phone.

Jinyu let out a sigh and looked out over the boardwalk. There were several people on metal frames with two large wheels. A sign on the building near them read “BICYCLE RENTALS”, but Jinyu couldn’t tell what it signified. She turned to Yixing again.

“Do you have advice for me?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Some time ago, you advised me on certain things to do and not do at the party,” Jinyu said. “Well, what about for a situation like now?”

Yixing shrugged. “Don’t talk about your ex,” he said. “Jinyu, the most that will probably happen is that you’ll take a walk around here, get lunch, things like that. And Luhan is a simple kind of guy. What else do you need to know?”

“But what if he kisses me?”

Yixing raised his brows at her. “I thought that was what we were going for?”

“Yes, but what if he kisses me?” Jinyu’s eyes widened, obviously worried about this. Yixing couldn’t understand why since he thought that she liked Luhan. Even though he wasn’t sure about the idea, he didn’t see what could be so wrong about him kissing her?

“Then… yay, the spell is broken?” he pitched. Jinyu’s shoulders slumped again.

“I am serious,” she said. “What should I do? What am I supposed to do?” Yixing shrugged again.

“Kiss him back?” he said. “Slap him because you’re not about kissing on the first date? I don’t understand the question.”

“I mean,” she said, leaning closer. “I… What do I do with my hands?” Jinyu lifted her palms up and stared at them like they were alien appendages that just showed up on her body. Yixing was about to laugh at her, but he suddenly realized that Jinyu had never kissed a boy before, and probably had never been familiarized with the concept of kissing. She really didn’t know what to do. Yixing swallowed again and then cleared his throat.

“Oh,” he said. He stuffed his phone into his pockets and lifted his hands in front of him. “Well, you put them… uh..”

Yixing paused and thought about it for a moment, turning this way and that trying to visualize what actually happened when two people kissed. He raised his hands so they were at waist level but then furrowed his eyebrows.

“Wait, that’s not right – ” he said to himself. Jinyu giggled a little. He smirked at her, warning her to take this seriously since she had claimed to have asked a serious question. Jinyu nodded and paid attention.

“Just put them wherever it feels comfortable,” he concluded. “I think… as a general rule, if he holds your head, put them on his waist. And vice versa if he holds your waist.”

“Why do humans hold each other when they kiss?” Jinyu asked. Yixing blushed a little.

“Well, it’s natural to want to hold onto people, isn’t it?”

Yixing looked up to see Jinyu staring at him again. His heartbeat was the loudest sound at that moment, and he was scared that if he wasn’t careful, she’d hear it and give himself away. His senses always seemed to heighten every time he was near her, and it puzzled him. He’d never felt like this before, so why now? Jinyu’s breathing unconsciously picked up to match his pace. Yixing looked back at her eyes and wondered what she was thinking. Jinyu’s wide blue eyes were always wonderful, but lately, they started to cloud with uncertainty; they were darkening with the sort of doubt that cut into his heart as well.

Yixing released a long sigh.

“Okay, look,” he said decisively. Convincing himself that it was a mere demonstration, Yixing lifted his hands and cradled her face gently. He closed his eyes while Jinyu’s eyes widened. Her heart began to race and her breath stopped coming out the moment Yixing brought his face close to hers.

It took every ounce of strength in him not to do this too fast. With her innocence in the back of his mind, Yixing didn’t want to scare her. Standing directly in front of her, Yixing used his hands to tilt her face towards him as he inched his lips to hers closer and closer until –

“Luhan’s here!” Mei cried from a foot away. Yixing pushed himself away from Jinyu as soon as he registered the name “Luhan” in his head. He’d been so caught up in her that he completely forgot that Mei had tagged along as well. Jinyu pulled away in a hurry as well and immediately started to scan the crowd for Luhan. She spotted him at the further end of the boardwalk, looking around for her.

Yixing turned away to hide the rosy patches of humiliation on his cheeks. He pressed his palm to his forehead for a moment, willing his heart to calm down, to recover faster. A half-second later and the deed would have been done. But he forced himself to face the reality of things, and he almost felt glad that the kiss hadn’t happened. It was bad enough that her first kiss was stolen by an old woman at the beach; and disguising his selfish act under the guise of a “demonstration” didn’t exactly sit right with him either.

Yixing cursed in his head. That was too close.

Luhan was still trying to look over the crowd in search of Jinyu. Seeing his friend getting closer to the meeting place, Yixing turned to his younger sister.

“We should get going,” he said to Mei. Yixing turned to Jinyu again. She was clutching a hand over her heart; Yixing wondered if she was feeling equally as flustered about what almost happened.

“We’re leaving now,” he said to her. Jinyu gasped when she looked at him. Yixing tried to give her a smile. “Don’t worry,” he said. “You’re not alone.”

He reached out and gave her shoulder a squeeze and Jinyu nodded in his direction. Then, with a heavy heart, he grabbed Mei and began walking in the opposite direction. He looked back at her one more time, just to be sure of her and he sighed.

“Please work out,” he whispered to himself. He swallowed a lump in his throat, trying not to feel too many things. He really did hope she’d be happy.

Luhan sighed as he walked along the boardwalk, trying to find the bike rental sign where he was supposed to meet Jinyu for their date. It had been years since he last visited the boardwalk, and there had been drastic changes to the scene since the last time he was there. He couldn’t recognize anything, and the sun was only getting hotter.

Finally, he looked up and was caught up in someone’s blue-eyed gaze; Luhan smiled, genuinely happy to have found her. If he weren’t delirious at the time of rescue, he would have compared the moment to waking up alive after the tsunami, taking a breath of air after hours of thinking that he was dead. Jinyu’s expression was nervous, yet hopeful at the same time.

Having finally found her, Luhan jogged the rest of the way to her. He laughed nervously when he reached their meeting place.

“I’m incredibly sorry!” he said. “I made you wait for a long time, didn’t I? I’m glad you haven’t left. Anyone else probably would have thought I stood them up.”

“All is fine,” she said, slightly breathless. Jinyu offered a shy smile in return. Yixing’s words, don’t try too hard, kept ringing in her ears. “I am… just glad you are here.”

Luhan sighed. “Next time Yixing tries to set us up,” he said. “Maybe you should tell him to suggest some place that’s easier to find.”

Jinyu laughed. “It makes the discovery more worthwhile, though, does it not?”

Luhan nodded. “In a manner of speaking,” he said. They were silent for a while, and Luhan sighed as he leaned against the railing beside her. Their spot was overlooking a section of the ocean that was lined by sharp rocks by the incline. They both looked down at the foamy waves that crashed against it.

Luhan looked at Jinyu through his peripheral vision, still feeling slightly guilty. He blinked once and then let out a slow breath.

“Hey,” he said gently. “So… I don’t know if I’m just going crazy or something but… were you at the party last week?”

Jinyu straightened up and looked at him. She stared for a long time before nodding once, the movement barely detectable. Luhan pursed his lips.

“So you were there,” he said, more to himself than to her. “I… I have something that I want to clear up, then… before this date gets any further.”

Jinyu watched his expectantly, not daring to speak until she’d heard him. Luhan straightened up as well, an apologetic look on his handsome face. He took a deep breath.

“That girl I was with,” he explained slowly. “She’s… she’s nothing to me. Nothing at all. I just want you to know that since… you seem like a really nice girl and I don’t want you to think anything about it. She’s just… she was a girl I knew in high school who had a real big crush on me. For a long time, I kept putting her off but towards graduation I decided to give her a chance, so I talked to her a bit, and everything was alright until… well, until she told me about something she did that involved Yixing and how all that happened right under my nose and… anyhow, it’s not important anymore. I just wanted to explain myself. She’s nothing.”

Jinyu let his words runs through her, and once their meaning had sunk in, she let out a slow breath and nodded. She understood now; Yixing had told her a similar story. Jinyu knit her brows a bit thinking how the two stories aligned, and she felt sorry for the damage that must have been dealt to the friendship between these two boys.

Luhan held his breath, waiting for her to react; he wasn’t sure what to expect from her. He was already surprised that she hadn’t asked him about Sa Rang from the beginning of the date. Her shoulders remained level and her breathing was calm. Jinyu suddenly gave him a soft smile.

“I understand,” she said.

Luhan still didn’t react however. He was still waiting for her to demand further explanation or perhaps he was waiting for her to explode in rage. But he could see the information sinking into her, and it seemed that she really did understand. He raised one eyebrow at her.

“That’s it?” he asked. “You’re… not curious about it or anything?”

Jinyu widened her eyes. “Why would I be?”

“Well,” Luhan said, scratching his head. “I don’t know, I just thought… most girls who hear something like this usually intend to reply or retaliate or something.”

“Oh,” Jinyu said, knitting her brows again. Was she supposed to reply? She hadn’t really any comments to make. Yixing had already told her this story before, and it was supposed to be a story that no one but herself and Yixing knew.

“I never really intended to reply, though,” she said. “I… mostly just listen and intend to understand.”

Luhan smiled and let out a soft laugh. “More people should be like that,” he said. “Well, enough of this heavy stuff; we’re supposed to be on a date after all. Let’s get going. You hungry?”

“Uh,” Jinyu said, pushing away from the railing and following Luhan as he started a slow walk along the concrete. “Only a little,” she answered with a smile.

“Good,” Luhan replied. “We’ll add a late lunch to our list of things to do today, then.”

“Is there a list?” Jinyu asked.

“We’ll make it up as we go along, then,” Luhan said, grinning. “I was kinda caught off guard with this date, to be honest. Yixing called a few days ago to ask about the lawsuit – you know about the lawsuit right? – but I didn’t expect that he was also calling to set me up with a girl. I’m…”

Luhan paused to smile nervously. “I’m glad it was you, though,” he said. “Is that okay to admit?”

Jinyu shrugged. “I suppose,” she answered. “I am glad to be with you, too.”

Luhan smiled. “You sort of just popped up out of nowhere,” he continued. “Victoria’s cousin. She never talks about her family so… I’m actually really curious about you. I guess this date is just what I needed to… satisfy my curiosity. Now, I already know you spent time in Africa and you’re great with dolphins, but I’ve got a feeling that there’s more to you than that, right?”

Jinyu laughed. There was so much more than that, but she held her tongue back. He was being so sweet; Jinyu’s heart started to beat wildly again and her spirit felt like it was being lifted into the clouds. They continued their slow-paced walk and conversed, but Luhan suddenly stopped in front of the bike rental shop, and his eyes twinkled with an idea.

“We should rent a couple bikes!” he said, pointing at the entrance. He started to walk toward it, and Jinyu followed happily until realization dawned on her: she couldn’t ride a bike.

“Wait…Luhan,” she said softly. Luhan didn’t stop however. He went straight into the shop and out the back door to inspect the bikes available for rent. There was every kind of bicycle in the lot: red ones, blues, purple ones, two-rider bikes, unicycles, tricycles, pedicabs, tall ones and short ones and every other kind in between. Jinyu had no doubt that riding these mechanisms was fun, but their sense of balance, or her lack thereof, scared her.

Luhan walked over to a section of beach cruisers and eyed two bright blue ones. They were tall enough for the two of them and had hand brakes that would make it easier to stop.

“Jinyu,” he said, signaling her to come over. “What do you think of these?”

Jinyu began fidgeting with her bracelet again, and she thought about how Yixing had lightly slapped her wrists when she did that earlier. She smiled nervously.

“They are beautiful,” she said to satisfy him. “But I must tell you, I – ” she paused then, feeling slightly ashamed. Luhan raised his brows in anticipation of the rest of her sentence.

“You, what?” he prompted.

Jinyu looked at the bicycle and then at her wrists again. Suddenly he understood. Luhan smiled incredulously.

“You… don’t know how to ride a two-wheeler?”

Jinyu wasn’t sure what “two-wheeler” referred to, but since he gestured to the bike, she just nodded apologetically.

“I am sorr –”

“That’s okay,” Luhan said, putting his hands in his pockets and looking around the lot. “I’m sure we can find a way to work around that. Hmm. Follow me.”

He walked toward another section of the lot. Jinyu looked around and saw small children on bicycles and she envied their balance and skill. If their activity had been swimming, she could have shown him a thing or two. She’d been one of the best swimmers in her family. For now, she was stuck having to feel a little helpless, and it annoyed her to a very high degree. Luhan went off on his own for a bit, but when he returned, he was riding a white cruiser with an extended backseat, already rented out.

“Problem solved,” he announced proudly. He pushed the bike a little closer to her, and Jinyu gasped softly, admiring how smoothly he could operate the bike.

“Just sit on the back,” he said. “Side-saddle since you’re wearing a dress.”

Jinyu was a little afraid to get on the rickety-looking metal frame, but she didn’t want to seem like a coward. Besides, a little adventure always involved some measure of risk. She put on a brave smile and stepped toward the bike, placing her hand on Luhan’s shoulder as she stepped onto it. Fixing her dress and trying to maintain balance, she sat her bottom on the back seat and tested to see if it would hold her weight.

Without warning, Luhan took off. Jinyu let out a surprised yelp and instinctively wrapped her arms around his body. Luhan laughed at her reaction, but her savored the feel of her arms around him and the wind in his hair. He went slowly at first, dodging other patrons, but when the bike road became wider and lonelier, he pedaled faster.

“It’s so fast!” she said breathlessly between a fit of giggles. The sea came into view as they rounded a corner and Luhan slowed down a bit to let her enjoy it. From this side of the beach, his parents’ estate could be seen; but that wasn’t what he was looking at.

In his peripheral, he could make out Jinyu’s profile and he was enjoying how happy she looked.

“Next time, I’ll teach you how to ride one,” he promised. “And then I’ll ride on the backseat.”