Taemin stares at the beautiful crystal blue ocean in front of him as he, Onew and Key are enjoying their short trip to Barcelona: Spain. The sun shines brightly down on them as the three Korean tourists eat their already melting ice creams by the beach. The cry of seagulls can be heard, the soft sound of waves and of people talking merrily in a foreign language.

No, wait…this isn´t Korea and they´re the foreigners now.

“Let´s take a swim!” Onew exclaims suddenly as he devourers his ice cream in one big bite.

Onew smiles brightly with ice cream on his lips and Key nods in anticipation. None of them notice the uncomfortable grimace on the youngest man´s face as they get up on their feet and walks towards the water. A few people carrying cameras follow them closely: ready to take pictures of them playing in the water.

“Be careful of the sun…” The staff members tell them.

They always have to bathe with their clothes on to avoid overexposure and to damage their skin. Pale, porcelain white skin is important in Korea. The people I Barcelona things the opposite though. All are wearing thin and comfortable clothes which have resulted in nicely tanned skin. Key wants to say “when in Rome do as the Romans do” but he knows he can´t. A staff Noona is already pouring sunscreen on him.

“Yes yes, we will bathe with our clothes on…” Key shrugs in a slightly irritated manner.  

Onew and Key wade out in the sparkly water with smiling faces. The water is comfortably warm and they can see small fish below the surface. Onew laughs loudly at the sight. He tries to catch the fish with his hands but fails miserably. Taemin regards their backs as he stands there with his feet barely touching the water. He´s not afraid but he knows he can´t join them even though he wants to.

“Taemin won´t you join us?” Onew calls out.

“No… I’ll stay here… “He forces a smile.

Onew and Key looks surprised but they simply shrugs before they continue to play around in the deeper water. Taemin regard them with a pair of longing eyes. He wades out a little bit deeper but he feels uncomfortable.

The truth is: Taemin can´t swim.

Due to the fact that he grew up in a big place like Seoul without any major lakes his parents didn´t think it´d be useful to send their son to the swimming school. Taemin regrets this now because all he wants is to run into the deep water and join his hyungs. However, he can´t go that far since he´s afraid that he´ll somehow get below surface and be unable to get up by himself.

It´s another warm day and Taemin is strolling down the beach walk by himself. Key and Onew wanted to do some shopping but Taemin didn´t want to go with them today, so he´s finally allowed some alone time to experience Spain. He´s wearing a pair of blue shorts, a red top and a cap as he strolls down the busy streets by himself, looking around to not miss anything. He loves this freedom: no one recognizes him. A happy smile covers his lips as he stretch a little.  He finds himself walking along the esplanade.

That´s when he sees her. A young woman is laughing brightly as she playing with a younger girl in the water. Her slightly tanned skin seems to glow in the sunlight. She´s amazing at swimming. Taemin´s mouth takes the form of an “O” as he watches how she swims back and forth while switching from all kinds of swim techniques. She even knows how to swim like a butterfly. Taemin sits down and leans his chin on his knee as he regards her and the ocean in silence. The sound of laughter and waves is very calming. He can´t tear his eyes away from her for some reason.

She suddenly turns around to stare at him. Busted. He gets really uncomfortable by this but he tries to act cool. Taemin forces a smile to his lips.

“Hello.” He smiles in an uncomfortable manner.

She smiles kindly at him and returns his hello with one of her own before she turns back to speak with the little girl. Taemin relaxes again, it doesn´t seem as if she got offended. Dark brown eyes regard the two girls: that´s probably her little sister. Their speaking in loud happy voices as they communicate with each other. When they´re done they walk towards him with friendly smiles on their lips. Those inviting lips open as the older girl starts to speak. Taemin shakes his head in a confused manner as she speaks in her tongue to him. She tilts her head to the side with equal confusion.

“You´re not from here?” She asks in accented English.

“No, from south Korea.” Taemin answers with his broken English.

“Ah, vacation?” Her eyes widen in realization.

She laughs and he can´t help but join her.

“Yes. You teach me to swim?” He asks her without really thinking about it.

It´s only when those words already left his lips Taemin thinks of what he just said. It´s not nice to ask that of a stranger. Taemin regards her in silence as she seems to think about it for a while. Her eyes look at him with slight hesitation. She shrugs as if she´s thinking “why not?”.

“Hm... Okay!” She answers brightly. “It´s important to know how to swim so I´ll teach you.”

“Really?” Taemin asks her with wide eyes.

“Yes! Do you have a swimsuit?”

Taemin shakes his head but he decides he could bathe in his clothes. The girl chuckles a little as he walks into the water with all his clothes on. She must think he´s a strange foreigner but she doesn´t say anything.  Her little sister asks her something with a confused look. Taemin feels a bit embarrassed. She makes a hand movement for him to follow her further out in the water. The Korean pop star tenses as he follows her lead hesitantly. He don´t know why he asked her, a complete stranger, to help him like that. He blames her warm smile.

Eyes widen as this girl takes a hold of his hand all of a sudden. Sure, he knows that Europeans are a little bit more touchy than Asians but he didn´t expect it. She smiles gently so Taemin doesn´t mind as she leads him into the water. Her hand feels so small in his larger one.

“Woah!” Taemin tenses as he realizes she wants him to lay down in the water.

“Wait, you gotta trust me.” She tells him seriously as Taemin starts to struggle. “I won´t let you drown.”

He looks at her in a confused manner: he didn´t fully comprehend what she said.  She seems to notice this and forces a smile to her lips. Her smile calms Taemin down. Her eyes make him relax.  Everything is ok… a shaky sigh leaves his slightly parted lips as he looks deeper into those warm eyes of hers. He has eyes that you could easily drown in if you´re not careful. Her hold of his hand gets firmer as she helps him up again. Water is dripping from his hair. Taemin is breathing a little heavy dye to the fright. His eyes are slightly wide as well.

She touches his shoulder in a comforting manner before she starts to speak slowly to him. “You shouldn´t fear the water, but you should respect it. It can support your full body weight… make you float… but if you aren´t careful it can also take your life.”

Taemin looks at her intensively. She´s so wise and calm. It seems like a good thing because people use water in a lot of ways still it can also take lives.  Water is dripping down his face; he away the drops that reached his lips.  Her eyes are stuck on his lips for longer than she intended. She shakes her head as she looks up at him.

“Trust me, if you do that you might learn how to respect water as well…” She tells him.

Taemin finally tells himself to relax and fully trust this girl. He nods towards her as he lower himself into the water while clutching her hand in his firmly. She supports him with a hand on his back as he lays down and he feels how she helps him rest on the surface of the water. He glances up at her smiling face as he leans back towards her as she supports his weight. He´s afraid at first but he realizes that she won´t let his face get below the surface. She´s supporting him a little while the water does the rest. Taemin closes his eyes and sighs. His body grows limp as he relaxes.
He doesn´t know how long he has been floating in the water until he open his eyes to see that the girl is no longer by his side. That´s when he realizes that she´s no longer supporting his weight, but that´s he´s floating by himself. A broad smile grows on his lips but the realization makes him stiffen which results in him sinking. The girl´s eyes widen at this and she throws herself towards Taemin to take a hold of him before he gets below the surface. He got some water in his mouth but nothing more. His pleased laughter makes her relax.

“You did it.” She smiles. “You trusted the water.”

 “Yes.” He smiles at her happily. I trusted you…He´s amazed by how quickly she got him to trust her.

“The important thing is to respect the water and be comfortable… it´s only after that one can learn how to swim properly. So…” She smiles at him cunningly. “Let´s play!”

She starts to run around and splash water at Taemin. He´s surprised at first but the fear is gone and turns into excitement as he declares war. He laughs as she runs after her to splash a lot more water back on her. Her little sister, who watched silently before, joins in to help her sister bombard Taemin with water attacks. That´s unfair! Taemin can´t help but feel free as he runs there, without fear, in the water together with a girl he feels as if he has known longer than a few hours.

“Mission accomplished.” She winks at him as she gives him a poke.

The three of them sits in the water, panting, after the long water-war. It was fun but also very tiring.

“What?” He chuckles.

“You now trust water; you even played in it ….so we can start now.”  She tells him. “I´ll tell you about .”

He nods. It´s true, he´s not afraid of water anymore and he guess that´s essential to proceed to the next step in learning how to swim.

“The arm movement is like this…” She shows him. “You make a heart, just like that…”

Taemin tries to draw hearts with his arms just like she showed him while he glances at her.  Together they kneel down as they walk in the water, drawing hearts with their arms. She makes sure that Taemin can feel how he can use the water to push himself forward while doing that. He seems to get it quite quickly so she teaches him how to do the leg movements as well. She asks him to rest on his stomach while she takes a hold of his feet. Taemin thinks it´s a bit embarrassing but she seems to be professional about this. She leads his feet up to his bum, tilts his feet in the right angle before she asks him to push. His legs look like a W from behind.

Her eyes stay on his bum and back for a little longer than necessary, she shakes her head to get rid of her unprofessional thoughts. She sighs. He´s too cute.

“Then you have to do these two movements on the same time…” She tells him as she lets go of his feet. “Now, try.”

The Korean turns around to look at her. He doesn´t understand her small blush or the way she avert her gaze as he tries to look her in the eye. Taemin let it slip as he continues to try swimming. Taemin tries and fails miserably. The girl and her sister laugh out loud at his surprised expression as he sinks a bit. Taemin doesn´t give up though, as he continues to try to swim where the water isn´t too deep.

Taemin glances at the girl discreetly. He´s fascinated with her. His eyes move from her eyes to her smiling lips. What is this?

Taemin runs off to meet the girl whenever he gets free time. He always finds her at the beach either alone or with her sister. He has learned some things about her already. She´s very kind, considerate and open person and it seems as if she doesn´t what dread is.  There´s always a carefree smile on her face. Taemin feels free whenever he is with her: he feels completely at peace.

“Where are you going?” Key complains as Taemin is about to exit their hotel room.

“To see a friend!” Taemin beams, he shuts the door loudly behind him.

Key and Onew look at each other. “A friend?”

The two of them seems to ponder about it for a while. Taemin can´t mean K, their friend here in Barcelona, since the two of them will meet him soon. They´re aware of that Taemin has been sneaking out lately and they´re starting to get a little worried. Who is this “friend”? Onew and Key both know that Taemin is a bit shy and that he wouldn´t just go and make new friends in a foreign country. But…?

“Just keep on going, Swim, swim swim…!” She urges Taemin on.

This is the third day Taemin is meeting the girl at the beach. Their swimming training has continued and Taemin is making slow progress. Thanks to her open and warm personality, they´ve also gotten quite close.

Taemin is struggling to keep his head above surface as he swims forward in the water. He´s almost getting the hang of it now, almost.  He´s slowly swimming forward in the water while looking really concentrated. A gasp leaves his lips as he reaches the girl: his goal.

He accidentally takes a hold of her hips as he reaches her. He withdraws his hands quickly with a small hint of a blush on his cheeks as he realized what he just did. A high voltage of electricity runs through his body at the skin to skin contact. A shaky, nervous, laugh leaves her lips at this. Taemin get up on his feet while laughing a bit as well. His laughter gets louder as the joy of swimming makes him forget his embarrassment.

“I did it!” He beams with joy. “I swam!”

Taemin jumps with joy and glomps his laughing teacher. They laugh together as they jump around in the water. He suddenly finds himself really close to this girl, but he can´t take a step back for some unknown reason. Her big, confused eyes look up at him and he feels as if he´s really drowning in them even though all she has done is trying to help him swim. Taemin doesn´t realize that he´s too close until their lips meet in a salty lip-lock. The electrifying feeling of her body touching him takes Taemin´s breath away. They break apart quite quickly due to the surprise.

“Oh.” She laughs shyly.

Taemin laughs a little with a blush on his cheeks. How did that happen?? Things are moving too quickly but it felt so natural. She smiles at him before she touches his cheek and pulls him into a second kiss. Her lips are salty yet sweet and the way she touches his face makes him feel very warm inside. He hasn´t felt this way before but he knows he wants more. Taemin answers to her kiss by moving his lips against hers more firmly.They break apart due to the lack of oxygen but she doesn´t pull away. Their different skin tones looks good together he thinks as he looks at the woman in his arms. She´s so beautiful.

“That was… surprising…” She murmurs a bit. “But, I…. “

“I liked it.” Taemin finishes for her shyly.

“Yeah…” She nods in an embarrassed manner.

They´re still really close, bodies touching, and she breaks the ice by taking his hand. Taemin´s smile grows bigger on his lips at this. He was afraid that this sudden leap forward in their relationship would scare her. He can´t help but feel attracted to her in all ways. He wouldn´t have liked to let her go just like that.

“Let´s dry up and then I´ll show you the best places of Barcelona.”

“Y-y-yes…” Taemin stutters a bit.

She doesn´t let go of his hand as they get dry before they walk down Barcelona´s streets together.

Taemin and the girl are exiting an old looking building. They just ate at a restaurant together, and the taste of nice Spanish cuisine is lingering on their tongues. Taemin really enjoyed the food and her company even though he doesn´t understand everything she says. They´re always able to communicate with body language though.

“Taemin-ah!” A familiar voice shouts.

Taemin reacts by turning around. He tenses as he sees his two friends coming towards him and his date.

“Your friends?” She asks with curiosity.

Onew and Key approach them quickly. The girl looks confused as the three men starts conversing in Korean. They´re speaking really quickly and she doesn´t understand anything. What she does understand though is their surprised expressions upon seeing her and Taemin´s intertwined hands.

“Hi, I´m Key!” Key tells her with a smile. His English is pretty good. “This is Onew. We´re Taemin´s friends.”

“Hi.” Onew smiles awkwardly as he waves his hand at her.

“Hello.” She smiles. “My name is ___, nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too. So, you´re Taemin´s girlfriend?” Key asks boldly, but in a teasing manner. He wants to see Taemin squirm in embarrassment.

The girl blushes red at the question and she grows quiet.

“Yes she is.” Taemin answers bravely with a frown on his face.

Key laughs merrily with surprise. He didn´t expect Taemin to get irritated by his question or that he´d answer like that. This girl must be something special. The girl looks up at Taemin but she can´t meet his eyes, he´s looking away shyly, but she can see that his whole face is red. Even his ears. Leader Onew seem impressed by this new side of their magnae as well.

“Wow.” Onew laughs. “Good!”

“Very nice.” Key nods. “Why won´t we eat ice cream together?”

“Sure!” The girl agrees, she just wishes this embarrassing moment would pass.

Key keeps on interrogating her as she leads the three Koreans towards an ice cream shop further down the road. It seems like he tries to see if she is a good girl or not while he´s also showing off his English skills. Taemin feels a little possessive and doesn´t let go of her hand as Key and Onew communicates with her with their much superior English skills. Her squeezing his hand back from time to time calms his racing heart and mind down. She still picks him.

The new couple got to spend a few days more together after that salty kiss and bumping into Taemin´s friends, and after that they spent their time together effectively.  However, time is running out and it´s soon time for Taemin to return back to his hectic schedule in Korea leaving his newly found love behind. Taemin makes a troubled face at the thought. The pair is walking down the esplanade hand in hand in a comfortable silence.

“I… go back Korea …” Taemin breaks the silence. “Tomorrow.” And drops the bomb.

She looks sad but doesn´t say anything as they continue to walk. It seems like she knew this was coming.

“Will I see you again?” She whispers silently, not daring to really look at him.

Taemin stops abruptly and she almost trips over at the sudden halt.  She looks up at him with wide eyes but Taemin won´t meet her gaze immediately. He looks sad. It makes her heart throb in hear chest. She squeezes his hand gently in an attempt to comfort him. Taemin closes his eyes and frowns. Of course, they´ve only known each other for a couple of days and the language barrier have been great, but it feels like they were able to grow close. It´s heart breaking for him to have to part this quickly, especially since they just started to go out.

“We can…contact when I go back.” He tells her in his broken English. “With email and chat?”

“Yes!” She smiles.  

Taemin smiles happily at her reply and he squeezes her hand gently. He gets an idea suddenly, and asks her to sit down on the bench there on the esplanade. She looks confused but she obeys. People who pass them by looks at Taemin strangely: everyone seems to think he´s about to propose. The girl blushes. Taemin takes a deep breath before he starts to sing.  Her eyes widen at the sound of it. Taemin is smiling broadly as he sees her reaction on his singing, it´s a boost to his self-confidence. He was worried she wouldn´t enjoy Korean pop. He´s currently singing SHINee´s song called “Replay” even though he doesn´t know if the girl is his Noona or not. Age doesn´t really matter to him.

“Wow, you´re amazing…!” She claps her hands. “I didn´t know you could sing….!”

The two of them smiles at each other like a pair of fools. It seems as if he wanted to cheer her up by revealing his unique singing ability.  Taemin hasn´t explained to her that he´s an idol in Korea because he doesn´t think that matters at all. They got together without her knowing and that makes him so happy: she didn´t pick him because of his money, fame or status. That is what makes her so special to him.  Taemin sits down and hugs her tightly. He wishes tomorrow won´t come.

Taemin, Onew and Key are waiting for a taxi outside their hotel with tired expressions on their faces. They were forced t get up really early to catch their flight back to Korea. Still, Taemin looks even more tired than them but for other reasons than the lack of sleep. The youngest Korean man pulls another bag out the door as someone suddenly calls his name.

“Taemin!”

Taemin´s eyes widen at the sound. He turns around to see how his girlfriend comes running towards him with her hair floating behind her. He didn´t expect her to see him off like this. His heart grows warm at the kind gesture. He drops the bag. She stops in front of him and tries to catch her breath.

“I wanted to say good bye properly.” She pants.

Taemin can´t help but smile at her. This girl whom he barely known for a week got up this early just to see him off. He feels special and loved.

“It´s not a good bye, it´s a see you later.” Key reminds her with a wink of his eye.

“Of course!” She nods. “Meeting you guys made me want to visit Korea in the future.”

Onew and Key smiles while nodding at her. They haven´t met her a lot of times but both have understood that she´s a kind girl, a girl that fits Taemin nicely. The girl stands on the tips of her toes suddenly as she gives Taemin a peck on his cheek. Key and Onew´s eyes widen at the sight. Taemin blushes at the attention she gives him. A chuckle leaves her lips.

“I won´t forget these days with you, Taemin.” She tells him with a gentle smile. “Please don´t forget me after returning to your normal life…”

“I won´t.” He assures her.

Taemin smiles at her before he gives her a kiss to the lips. Onew and Key stares at them with surprise.

“Oh my God.” Key utters wide-eyed. What´s happening to their Taemin?

The taxi arrives and Taemin groans in frustration. He´s forced to let go.

“See you later.” Taemin tells her, gives her a kiss to her forehead, before he and the others get into the taxi.

“See you in Korea!” Key tells her through the window.

And they´re gone.