Dahyun could feel a weight in her chest, pressing against her heart, making it harder for her to breathe regularly. It was not how things were supposed to go. She didn't want to resent her friends, or to hate spending time with them, but something was wrong and she couldn't do anything to fix it. Things would only get worse. There was no way it could end well.

 She was supposed to be optimistic, to see the glass half-full. She couldn't. Not today.

 Even Sana holding her hand couldn't soothe her worries.

 They really were going to the beach, the seven of them together. Chaeyoung and her had been unable to find any sort of argument – they knew they could trust the rest of their friends with staying in the house while they went to the beach because it was something that they had done several times before. They couldn't escape the beach. Dahyun couldn't escape the beach and its consequences. Her heart felt too heavy in her chest.

 "Is Dahyun okay?"

 She glanced up at Sana and offered her a small smile. Imposing her worries on Sana was the last thing Dahyun wanted. Sana did not need to know that Dahyun was scared she would lose her. Dahyun needed to carry her burdens herself.

 "I'm okay."

 Lie. Blatant lie. Obvious lie. Terrible lie. Dahyun hated it. But lying remained the better option; how could she ever tell Sana that she didn't want her to get back to her people because she egoistically wanted Sana to stay with her? Sana's fate was her own. The mermaid needed to make her own choices. Dahyun could accept that. And she would accept it, even if Sana wanted to leave, to go back to the sea.

 Dahyun felt Sana give her hand a squeeze. It wasn't the bone crushing kind; it was soft, a way for Dahyun that Sana was still right there with her. Everything would be fine. Dahyun could convince herself that everything would be fine.

 "Unnie, you think you could go even slower?"

 Chaeyoung's tone was teasing, but there was only worry in her eyes as she walked backwards to look at them. Dahyun knew that her best friend cared about her feelings and realized how much this was affecting her. She also knew that there was nothing Chaeyoung could do to make all of this disappear. At least Dahyun would have someone by her side if things turned out bad.

 Dahyun took a deep breath and offered Chaeyoung a smile. Chaeyoung gave her a thumb's up before she turned around again.

 They were getting too close to the beach. Dahyun could hear the sea over the sound of her friends' conversations. Their happiness and excitement couldn't drown out the noise of the waves.

 "Come on, Dubu! Walk faster! Get your over here!"

 Jeongyeon was waiting for her and Sana as the others were already running in the sand to find a spot where to settle down with their beer cans and their two soju bottles. Was Jeongyeon worried about her? Dahyun couldn't help wondering how worried and tired she must have looked. Dahyun didn't walk any faster; she had no motivation to. She wanted to enjoy going to the beach with her friends, but with Sana by her side, it was too hard. No. Dahyun shook her head. She needed to remember that whatever happened today would happen because it was meant to be.

 Their little group was far enough from the water for Dahyun to sit with them in the sand without being too preoccupied. Sana was unlikely to spontaneously transform. All Dahyun could do now was hope that nobody would start splashing around because they had too much alcohol in their system. It was still too early to be drunk.

 Dahyun didn't have time to say a word before Jihyo handed her a beer can. She didn't protest and opened it. She wasn't about to refuse alcohol, not right now. Dahyun felt a hand tap her thigh gently, and she looked at Sana to see her glancing between her face and the beer can. Dahyun took a sip of the beer and handed it to Sana without needing to hear a word from her or to say anything.

 "You're sharing your beer with the new girl when you've never shared with us?" Nayeon asked, looking the slightest bit outraged.

 "I'm not Jihyo unnie, I share my beer!"

 Now it was Jihyo's turn to look offended. Dahyun stuck out her tongue at her, but she stopped paying attention her friends after just a few seconds of argument.

 Sana wasn't drinking. She was staring at the water. Dahyun couldn't blame her. The waves were particularly gorgeous under the lights of the sunset – not as gorgeous as Sana, though, but Dahyun didn't believe that much could compare to Sana's beauty. Maybe she was as whipped for Sana as Chaeyoung (and all her friends) thought that she was, in the end.

 Still staring at the sea, Sana frowned.

 Something was off.

 "We should play Never Have I Ever!"

 Nayeon's sudden, and loud, suggestion took Dahyun by surprise. She tore her gaze away from Sana to look at her friends; they did not seem all that enthusiastic about Nayeon's idea. Dahyun wasn't much more enthusiastic than the rest of the group.

 "Babe, we know everything about each other already, don't we?" Jeongyeon shrugged as she took a sip of her beer.

 "We don't know what's up with Dahyun unnie and Sana," Tzuyu retorted, too quickly, as if she had been waiting to make a comment about the elephant in the room – or rather the fish on the beach.

 "There's probably nothing to know because Dahyun is a coward."

 Dahyun glared at Nayeon. But even if she wanted to contradict Nayeon, her friend wasn't wrong. She was a coward. She needed to be bolder, she knew that. And more than anything, she needed to accept herself for who she was. Dahyun knew that her friends wouldn't look at her any differently if she were to admit out loud that she was attracted to women – they had known longer than she herself had.

 Be bold. Do something.

 "Just because you don't see it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen."

 Dahyun blinked at the sound of her own voice. Chaeyoung elbowed her in the ribs, as she did whenever Dahyun was about to do something extremely embarrassing. She couldn't talk about how close to Sana she had grown for the sake of proving Nayeon wrong. Proving Nayeon wrong was Jeongyeon and Tzuyu's job, not hers.

 Nayeon tilted her head to the side. She was waiting for Dahyun to keep talking. It was a challenge.

 Don't make a fool of yourself. Dahyun couldn't let the alcohol talk for her. She knew that she always regretted it. If the alcohol started to get to her, if she let it get to her, then she would without a doubt talk too much about how close she had gotten to Sana. But Dahyun would get teased no matter what. Why did her friends have so much torturing her on a daily basis? Keep your cool, Dahyun.

 "Coward."

 Nayeon was smirking. Dahyun did not like that smirk, or trust it the slightest bit.

 "We're playing Never Have I Ever, then!"

 Dahyun had rarely regretted something as much as letting Nayeon convince her to play Never Have I Ever. The worst part was, it wasn't even the first time something like that happened. Nayeon had a gift with those things. And it never ended well for anyone. Except maybe for Jihyo, was had the highest tolerance for alcohol in their group; everyone else usually had to deal with one hell of a hangover the following day.

 But Dahyun wasn't drunk. She was embarrassed for sure, though.

 It was a complete mess. Not that Dahyun was surprised.

 From struggling to explain the rules of Never Have I Ever to Sana, to revealing how much she had seen of Sana, things had gone awry. At least, everyone was having a lot of fun. Nayeon and Chaeyoung were bordering on wasted, and Jeongyeon wasn't