[CONTENTID1]summer salt.[/CONTENTID1]
[CONTENTID2]oh sehun x kang seulgi[/CONTENTID2]

 

[CONTENTID3]Sehun ing loves summer.

 

He loves how the days stretch themselves out, endlessly long and simmering with heat, how the sun beats down against Seoul’s paved roads and radiate beams of light against tall, shining windows; he loves how blue the sky becomes and how time seems to pass by slowly, loves the light hum of cicadas from outside his apartment building, with windows wide open to welcome the hot, humid air; he loves the taste of slightly bitter, ice-cold beer on his tongue and long days out with his friends in the city, street lights illuminating the never-ending summer night because the night is young and so is he; he loves bright cerulean waves crashing into the shore, bonfires crackling into the night sky, and the girls--he really loves the girls.

 

But summer has an expiration date.

 

It’s fundamentally impermanent.

 

xx

 

Then, there’s Kang Seulgi.

 

xx

 

He meets her when the sun begins to set.

 

Sehun squints across the bonfire to where the new lifeguards are meeting each other, sharing awkward laughs and talking about their first weeks on the job--it’s all old news to Sehun. He remembers the tentative glances, underaged hands unsure of whether to take the drink from their boss or not. He remembers being nervous, being new, being fresh out of high school looking for a fun summer job to kill time.

 

He’s a little older now, going into his sophomore year of college, but admittedly he still looks forward to this time of the year the most.

 

“Dibs,” Chanyeol suddenly says through the crackling of the fire, lazily pointing his finger towards the crowd of new recruits. 

 

“I mean,” Sehun shrugs, “she’s pretty.”

 

He surveys the short girl, blonde ends resting over her shoulders and a wide smile plastered on her face as she talks to the slightly taller brunette next to her and--

 

Well.

 

Sehun doesn’t have a type, honestly.

 

But if he did--

 

She might be it.

 

“Dude, you’re so going to strike out.”

 

“Nah,” Sehun says, patting Chanyeol’s shoulder as he stands up. “I’ve got this.”

 

xx

 

He does not, in fact, have this.

 

xx

 

“Hey,” Sehun calls out, offering the new lifeguard his most charming smile. “I’m Sehun.”

 

“Hi, Sehun,” she says carefully. “What do you want?”

 

He looks across the bonfire and can see Chanyeol covering his mouth, shoulders shaking from silent laughter. He looks like he’s about to cry. He crosses his arms over his chest, flexing his biceps, and gestures to the bonfire and drinks haphazardly placed around their feet. 

 

“I thought the bonfire was hot, but--”

 

She blinks, looking confused, and then frantically hits the short blonde Chanyeol had been talking about.

 

“Seul--ow--oh,” the shorter girl whips around and immediately puts on a wide smile. “Hi. You are?”

 

“Sehun.”

 

“I’m Seungwan,” she smiles. “And this is Seulgi. And I’m going to get the three of us some drinks, so, Seulgi, play nice.”

 

She stands on her tiptoes to pat the taller girl on the head and heads off to god knows where, because she gets lost amongst the other guards within seconds of leaving their vicinity.

 

“So,” Sehun awkwardly says.

 

“So,” Seulgi kicks the sand underneath her feet, looks at the bonfire, looks at the empty bottles of beer on the floor, looks anywhere but him because this is ing awkward and so is she.

 

Sehun coughs, “Do you have a sunburn or are you always this hot?”

 

“Are you--are you serious?”

 

Sehun’s smile falters a little, “Uh, yeah?”

 

She grimaces. “No.”

 

“What’s that?”

 

“No,” she repeats, unnecessarily loud. “And I don’t really appreciate your lame pickup lines, either. Like, do those even work?”

 

“Oh,” he frowns. “They sort of do. Girls think it’s cute?”

 

“Only because they think you are cute, .”

 

She starts walking away, but he has indefinitely longer strides than her. He admits though, for someone so tiny, she walks surprisingly fast. “So you think I’m cute?”

 

Sehun’s smile twitches wider.

 

She abruptly turns around on her heels, almost crashing into him. Seulgi rolls her eyes, “It was a figure of speech.”

 

“But you said it.”

 

“Really?”

 

Sehun scratches the back of his head.

 

Seulgi huffs, crosses her arms over her chest, and he can’t help but stare a little and when she notices she lets out the most exasperated sigh he’s ever heard. She flicks an irritated glance at Sehun’s bare torso. He’s not used to girls looking at him like this. Like he’s an idiot. An unattractive idiot. It’s kind of alarming.

 

But also, kind of hot.

 

She’s kind of hot.

 

She starts walking away.

 

“So, like--you’ll be back right?” he blurts out.

 

Seulgi pauses for a brief second and turns to look at him and wrinkles her nose. “Not if you’re here.”

 

His mouth falls open.

 

xx

 

(11:32 pm) so like, if a girl rejects u
(11:32 pm) does that mean it’s over
(11:32 pm) or ???
(12:01 am) lol dude
(12:01 am) i told u u’d strike out
(12:02 am) but i used the pickup line u told me to use??
(12:04 am) bro
(12:04 am) that was a joke
(12:04 am) i’m cryinh ur so dumb

 

xx

 

On Monday, they have their first shift together.

 

Seulgi comes to their tower ten minutes late, with oversized raybans covering her tiny face, a messy bun arbitrarily tied into a tangled mess on top of her head, an Everything Bagel shoved into , and a clipboard tucked under her arm.

 

She’s a ing mess, and aside from her being on the shift with him, that’s what he expected least.

 

“Are you hungover?” he jokes, but he sees her eyebrows furrow together and she looks like she’s about to assault him.

 

“Are you even certified?” 

 

He almost snorts.

 

“Like, for lifeguarding?” Sehun asks.

 

“Like, for anything,” she mocks in his voice, while digging for a bottle of SPF 150 from the depths of her bag. He tells himself he’s not going to watch her put it on, but he’s probably lying to himself.

 

“Dunno,” he says innocently, climbing up the lifeguard tower, “why don’t you test me?”

 

“Test you for what? STDs?”

 

“Seul, if you want to know if I’m safe for--”

 

“Do not finish that sentence,” she interjects, throwing her sunglasses into her bag.

 

Sehun winks. “I get it. Not in front of the kids.”

 

She sighs. “I really don’t think you do.”

 

“Anyway,” he goes on, “of course I’m certified for--stuff. Like CPR. I’m certified for that.”

 

She turns--very, very slowly--to look at him. “CPR,” she echoes, something like a mixture of disbelief and disgust coloring her voice. “Is that what you wanted me to test you on?”

 

He smirks. “You know it.”

 

Seulgi clenches and unclenches her jaw, a dollop of sunscreen streaking the length of her right arm, and he can’t help but notice that her skin is already a light caramel color, almost like the sand in the morning light. Smooth. Silky.

 

She flinches when she realizes that he’s staring.

 

“Look,” she snaps, “I don’t--I’m not here to hook up, okay?”

 

Sehun considers that for a second. “So like...you want me to take you to dinner first?”

 

xx

 

(3:09 pm) lol duuude
(3:09 pm) baek told me that the new girl pushed u into the ocean
(3:09 pm) i guess she makes u wet in more ways than one
(3:10 pm) am i right? ;)
(3:13 pm) deadass going 2 kill u

 

xx

 

He snags the morning shift for the entirety of the following week.

 

And so does she--

 

Not that he used his senior lifeguard privileges to make sure that their schedules lined up or anything, because that’d be weird and a little creepy, and he is not weird or creepy. He’s just an ambitious opportunist.

 

Weekday mornings on the beach, even during the summer, are always quieter and less hectic than weekend afternoons. The shore is sparsely filled with middle-aged women doing yoga, young adults taking their dogs out for runs, and the occasional kid crying because of the waves washing out their perfectly built sandcastles.

 

There’s a hush blanketing the surrounding area with rolling waves intermittently disturbing the silence, the sky bleeding pink and blue and orange where the horizon line sits, and a pleasantly lukewarm breeze is blowing through the beach, right where their tower is posted. 

 

Her back is faced towards him, the music blasting from her earbuds are loud enough for him to hear from where he’s sitting, and she’s furiously sketching something onto the clipboard she always lugs around.

 

He peers over her shoulder to see her sketching the scene in front of her; the horizon line painted in vibrant hues, dogs running around in the sand, people smiling--the absolute epitome of summer to him.

 

Seulgi feels the warmth of his stare and shoots a glare behind her.

 

He holds his hands up in innocence and smiles, spreading his legs and slouching further down in his seat. She roughly yanks one earbud out of her ear and raises a brow up at him. “What?”

 

Sehun shrugs. “It’s nice.”

 

“Um,” she says, fumbling with the pen in her hand. “Yeah, okay.”

 

“Yeah, okay,” he teases in her voice.

 

“Thanks?”

 

Sehun bites down on the inside of his cheek to hide a smile. “Sure.”

 

“Uh, so do you do that often…”

 

She raises an eyebrow.

 

“Draw, I mean.”

 

“Right,” she says hastily, putting her clipboard on the ground, face down. “Sort of. Not really. I wanted to be an art major but I’m not really good enough.”

 

Sehun rubs the back of his neck. “It looks good though. Really good.”

 

She her lips, studiously avoiding his gaze. “Yeah, thanks,” she says for the second time today--for the second time since they’ve met--and sounds more sincere this time. Maybe even a little happy.

 

“Maybe you could draw me,” Sehun winks.

 

She scoffs. “I only draw things I like. Don’t push your luck.”

 

“Exactly.”

 

xx

 

A heatwave hits that weekend, and the beach is more packed than ever. Rows upon rows of sandy beach towels and brightly colored umbrellas line the shore. 

 

Seulgi is sprawled out in an off-white, plastic chair on the lifeguard tower, overlooking the beach. Her sunglasses are perched on the very end of her nose, her hair is pushed out of her face with a white Nike hat, hair tied into a loose ponytail at the nape of her neck. She’s wearing a bright red one-piece and a pair of white denim cut-offs, a gleaming silver whistle around her neck, and a thick book in her hands as the day goes on without a hitch.

 

She closes her book and sets it on the creaky wooden floorboard underneath her. Sehun glances at her when she audibly sighs.

 

“What’s wrong, princess? Need someone to save you from your misery?”

 

“Yes, because being here with you is the absolute last thing I want to be doing.”

 

Sehun parodically frowns. “People would kill to be in your position, you know.”

 

Seulgi rolls her eyes. “Oh, I hope someone does.”

 

“Like, what do you even do during a seven hour shift when no one drowns?” she continues. “I need something to happen. This is ridiculous. We get paid to do nothing.”

 

Sehun shrugs. “I mean, it’s better than getting paid to do something.”

 

“How do you even stand this?”

 

“Having a pretty girl as