It's summer morning and the woman has been waiting for this season to come back since it ended last year. It's her favorite season, no doubt. Especially when you're a Jeju girl who just loves the sea so very much but happens to be living in Seoul for work, missing not only the sound or smell of it, but being immersed in it as well.

She's blonde now, has been for a few months. And it draws attention, she's aware of it. Even more when she's returning to the surface after minutes under water swimming with the fishes. The smell of sunscreen and seaweed makes the woman happy as a very big smile spreads on her thin pink lips, brushing back a few wet strands of her fair hair.


She waves to someone on the land as she's not aware of the two aditional pair of eyes watching her.

"Kim TaeYeon, let's go. We're late!"

"Fine!"

Discontent, she swims her way to the land again, her eyes on her tall friend who's complaining about not being able to be in time for something.

They couldn't hear exactly what it was. But they did know her name now.

And that she could glow when covered by the sunlight.


"Did you just see a mermaid like I did?"

—

"You're staring again."

"I am not."

She was indeed staring for long minutes. In fact, she has been watching them for about two days now. And her friend had caught her behavior since the first time she laid eyes on her the previous morning. She was never a very discreet person after all.

"And now you're blatantly lying to me," Yuri said after placing her now empty glass back on the wooden counter top, eyes on the two women Taeyeon has been stealing glances at, outside the restaurant, "What is it? Do you miss her?"

"What?" Taeyeon can't help but scoff, averting her eyes to look at her friend who just shrugs in response, "No— Stop talking about her."

"So what's all the staring about? Are you jealous?"

"Of what?", she asks trying not to show much interest in the conversation while still cleaning the tables before they can open the establishment.

"Of what they have. They're clearly a couple."

Taeyeon stops for just a second, glancing at the two women through the glass windows, before promptly returning to her task. It's been four months now since her last relationship ended and her friends won't stop checking on her and her "broody self" (as stated by Yuri) every chance they get. It was sweet at first, but now every time they talk about her, it makes her angry. And Taeyeon doesn't want to brood anymore, especially not over something she has no control of. She just wants to live, eyes and heart on the present.

She says nothing, paying attention now on what she's doing.
But as she imagined, the taller one would not stop talking until she can get a proper answer from her.


"Are you interested in one of them, then? I mean, I'm not judging, but crushing on someone who is already taken is not very wise. Ask Seohyun."

No response. The blonde moves to another table, rubbing the damp cloth firmly on its surface.

"Stop ignoring me!"

"Stop saying stupid things, then," she says in her calm tone.

And Yuri sighs, defeated, "Fine. I'll see you later."



—



"Excuse me— Hi"

Taeyeon lifts her head from the notepad to see a woman with short black hair standing in front of her, a gentle but kind of nervous smile on her full lips. She's fidgeting with her fingers, Taeyeon notices.

Is she one of them? Oh...

"Oh— Hi? Can I help you?"

"Maybe," she looks around them for a second, smiling apologetically at the couple Taeyeon was taking orders from. She leans in gently, saying in a soft and low voice, "I need a band-aid".

"A band-ai—? Um, just a moment," Taeyeon turns to the clients she was attending and apologizes before roaming the place with attentive eyes, soon waving at a young man. "Oppa, can you take their order, please?", she asks him when he's closer to her, handing him the yellow notepad. "Thank you".

The blonde then turns her attention to the apprehensive woman, briefly touching her elbow to indicate she should follow her further into the restaurant. When they're at a safe distance from the clients, she returns to the band-aid subject.

"Are you hurt?"

"No, no. My girlfriend is. I'm sorry, I know a restaurant is not where I should look for help, but there was blood and I got nervous and it was the first place I saw open in front of me, so I just—"

"That's okay, that's okay", the blonde says with a small understanding smile, trying to comfort the woman.

She's clearly even more beautiful up close. They are a pretty good looking couple.

"So— Can you... Help me?"

"Oh, sure, yes! Of course. We have a first aid kit at the back, I'll get it", she nods, "A band-aid would do? You mentioned blood? Is there a lot?"

"Well, I can't say for sure, I got scared when I saw it, so I just.. ran...", the woman looks down at her feet before flashing a small regretful smile at her, "I have to go back to her. We're right across the street, can you—"

"Sure, sure, go. I'll bring it to you."

"Thank you!", she says a little bit too loud after bowing her head, then rushes out the restaurant to the other woman outside.

*

"How can you just leave me here like that?", she says in english.

"I'm sorry, I went to look for help", Tiffany mumbles in a soft voice, taking a deep breath to find the courage to look at Sunny's bloody lower leg, squatting in front of her. But to her surprise and relief, it's not as bloody as she thought at first, even though it doesn't look that superficial to her.

"It's okay, it's nothing. But did you find it? We could walk back to—"

"No, no. Wait, she's coming."

Sunny already knows who she's talking about. She watched her girlfriend run to the restaurant and couldn't help but chuckle at her behavior. You sure found an excuse to see her again.

Tiffany feels Sunny gently her hair in a very soothing manner. Tiffany looks up at her before sitting on the bench by her side. "I'm sorry I hurt you."

The smaller woman was trying to teach Tiffany to ride a bike, since it just came to her knowledge her girlfriend didn't know how to. She couldn't stop laughing at first, finding it extremely adorable, even more when she saw Tiffany rolling her eyes and trying to hide her red cheeks.
Even at this stage of their relationship, after two years officially together, Tiffany can still make her feel like the luckiest woman to walk on this planet, plus the butterflies in her stomach and the usual sore cheeks she would get from all the smiling.

"That's okay, I don't blame you. Maybe it's a sign, y'know?", says the readhead in english.

"A sign? Of what?"

"That you're a lost cause."

Tiffany scoffs, rolling her eyes once again that day, "Shut up."

They hear a gentle clearing of a throat and move their eyes from each other to look at the blonde woman standing in front of them, a small box in her hands that both of them already know its contents.
Tiffany doesn't fail to notice how her fair hair, despite being down in neatly made braids this time, waver with the wind and shine as the Jeju sun glow over her petite figure. Sunny offers the stranger a very sweet smile, tilting her head the slightest at the sight of that woman. It's really the mermaid, uh.

"You must be my savior?", Sunny asks in perfect korean.

"Y-Yes. Um, I guess that's me," responds Taeyeon a bit taken aback by the choice of words, finding it hard to maintain eye contact for long. Especially after she was just (creepily, one could say) staring at them a few hours before.

Little did she know she wasn't the only one.


"I'm sorry to bother you like that when you're clearly busy. I didn't know what to do."

"There's no problem," the blonde shakes her head a bit, "They can handle it there without me".

"I mean, we could've just gone to our airbnb. But she ran away after the bike fell on top of me, I didn't have the time to tell her that."

"I panicked, I did the first thing that popped into my head."

While listening to their conversation, Taeyeon just nods and steps closer to the bench, propping the box over it beside the injured woman while looking for some gauze and the ointment to clean the wound she had take a look at briefly when she got closer to them. The thought of helping the stranger herself was automatic for those seconds. But she suddenly snaps out of it, looking at the other two who are watching the woman's moves. "I'm sorry— I'm used to do it for my kids, I just— Um... Here, you should do it". She holds out the items in her hands to the short haired girl before watching her eyes softly widening a little bit. Sunny looks over at Tiffany and quietly chuckles when she watches her girlfriend's reaction.

"Don't worry, I can do it myself. She's not a big fan of blood and wounds."

"Who is?", inquires Tiffany while unknowingly pursing her lips, getting a sweet smile from Sunny and a pink cheeks from TaeYeon who just averts her eyes for a second.

"I mean, I can do it for you if you want. As I said, I'm used to it," the blonde woman explained, eyeing the other as she waits for an yes or no answer, to know what to do.


Taeyeon genuinely wanted to help but she knew it was more than just herself trying to be a nice person. She was curious ever since she saw them taking pictures together, holding hands and being very loud in public. She could hear them from inside the restaurant, their laughs and their high pitched squeals now and then when fooling around and teasing each other.

Maybe Yuri was right. She was kind of jealous.

None of her past relationships were like that. Especially not with another woman. Her first and last relationship she had with a woman was with her and it was, down to the bone, not ideal for Taeyeon. They could not act like themselves in public and, even less, let other people know they were a couple. It was fun to play hide and seek at first, it was hot, new and exciting. And, yes, Taeyeon understood why she would want things like that, she was aware of the consequences, particularly what could happen to the other's career since she was (is) a public figure. But after a while Taeyeon just wanted to show her girlfriend off to her friends, family, coworkers and even strangers on the street, because she loved the woman so much... She couldn't, though. She would never be able to do that.

That's why they broke up.
Taeyeon was never good at hiding her feelings. Keeping it all inside her just made the woman miserable.


"Oh—Aren't you busy?", asks the small woman and Taeyeon shakes her head in denial. Sunny glances at Tiffany who just lightly shrugs with a small smile on her lips before turning her attention to the standing woman again, "Okay, sure, but I feel like, since you're going to touch me for a while and all, we should at least know your name? I could go with my savior, but I don't think it would be appropriate after awhile." She feels Tiffany lightly hitting her on the arm and she's aware it's a don't embarrass me kind of slap. The brunette scoots closer, hugging her girlfriend's arm close to her chest.

Sunny knows that deep down Tiffany can get a bit jealous when they're around beautiful women and be extra clingy. Maybe it would make sense since she just called the stranger her savior two times now in less than five minutes, but it's not like she was flirting, though. Not at all. She wasn't like that anymore, not after she got official with Tiffany.

Maybe two years ago she would, for sure. She's pretty, anyway.


"Of course, I'm sorry", she places the gauze down inside the box again to make her hand free and promptly extend it in front of her, "I'm Taeyeon."

The injured woman takes her hand, shaking it briefly, "Sunny".

Taeyeon moves her attention to the other woman who shakes her hand as well, "I'm Tiffany. It's nice to meet you."

"Ah, english", the blonde says in the foreign language and a big hint of her korean accent shows, which makes both of the other women smile at the sound of it, "Where are you from?"

"Is it that clear we're tourists?", asks Tiffany, her cheek pressed to Sunny's shoulder.

Focusing again on what she has to do while keeping herself attentive to the conversation, Taeyeon takes a seat at the end of the bench, the box between herself and Sunny. "I mean— Not much. Your names gave it away", she nods, "maybe the camera too". The short blonde points at the polaroid camera hanging from Sunny's neck.

Before they can reply, though, Taeyeon gently taps Sunny's knee and then her own lap, "Um, can you... Please?", starts to say in a soft voice. She's a bit worried they would feel uncomfortable, since she has gone through a few embarrassing moments being a Jeju girl in Seoul, due to her eagerness sometimes. They're are just not that receptive, touching wise, in the big city unlike the people in the island. But these two are foreign... Maybe they won't mind the skinship that much. In any case, she's just trying to help, so she has to touch Sunny in order to do it and the thought of her squatting in front of them is a little bit awkward, even for herself.

Tiffany promptly mumbles a "go ahead" close to Sunny's ear and as soon as that Sunny's leg is resting on Taeyeon's lap. They don't exchange any glances for a few long seconds after that, even when they're back at chatting about how they just arrived in Jeju a couple of days ago from Los Angeles and how they managed to hurt Sunny's leg while trying to ride a bike, clearly with no much success.

The attentive woman takes care of her bloody wound, not having to clean it too much since it was not that dirty and soon she neatly puts the gauze, damp with medicine, and the square band-aid over it, to keep it in place.

"Done", says Taeyeon, carefully touching the other's ankle for a brief second, letting her know she can put her leg down again. That's what Sunny does.

"Thank you so much. And I'm sorry for burdening you like that."

"Please, don't mention it. It's fine, I'm glad I can help".

They share a moment of silence while watching Taeyeon put everything away inside the box.

The brunette doesn't mind breaking it first.

"Um, you said you're used to it... Because of your kids...?", asks Tiffany with a hint of curiosity that doesn't go unnoticed by Sunny, who just pays attention to the conversation.

"Ah, yes. They get hurt a lot more than they should," smiles to herself while shaking her head a bit, closing the box and standing up, "So I'm always prepared".

"You have more than one, then?"

"Mm", Taeyeon nods in agreement for a second before she actually realizes, "Oh, wait— I'm not a mother. I'm a kindergarten teacher" explains the blonde.

Tiffany quietly giggles, getting a smile out of Sunny who is playing with her girlfriend's fingers while watching them talk, "That makes sense, sure."

"Why? Don't I look like a mother to you?", she looks down at herself before arching an eyebrow in questioning.

"... I don't wanna say it".

"I'll take that as a no".

They end their conversation with Sunny and Tiffany thanking Taeyeon again and promising to visit the restaurant on the next day since they had lunch an hour ago and the blonde said she already made plans for dinner with her friends. Taeyeon makes clear they do not owe her anything and it was not burdening at all to help, as Sunny had previously said. She says she'll wait for them for lunch tomorrow and promptly makes her way bac