The sun was bright, nearly blinding. There was a heat wave that had washed over the city causing a mass exodus to the beaches. Crowded, nowhere to lay down a blanket Woohyun looked for a place of his own. Climbing over black craggy rock and coral there was a secluded area. He had his bag and his books. On the last step down he got caught up in a piece of drift wood and scraped his knee, enough to bleed but it wasn’t serious. He walked right into the sea sneakers and all to rinse the wound with the fresh salt water waves. He breathes it in with a smile, the mist of the cool ocean, deep into his lungs.

First line of business was to set up. He felt lucky here and wanted every moment of peace he could get during his much too short weekend vacation. With the sun on his back he laid out his blanket using shoes and books as anchors to keep it from flying away with the wind. He took a look at his spot and got right to it, laying across the middle choosing a book to cover his face and... read. Flipping through random pages he skims over meaningless words. He told himself he would read more and with his summer free this was his chance. Who reads for fun anyway? It was a thought and he had to laugh because as a child he did. He had stacks of books and vowed to one day write his own. Which is what he was doing at the beach, research. Though it was an excuse.

After reading for what seemed like an eternity he looks at his watch, only 30 minutes had passed. Tossing the book aside it bent the binding making him feel like an evil person, hearing the cracking spine of the book. He took his shirt off, pulling it over his head, which always messed his hair up and made it look fluffy but that didn’t matter because he was going for a swim anyway. He stands and stretches his lean muscular limbs, hiking up his swim trunks as he walks through the soft sand out into the waves. The water was cold, but it was a good contrast to the scalding heat. Diving under the cool water he swims out far enough to be past the crashing waves and floats there for a little bit and looking out over the horizon. From what he could make out no one had thought to go around those craggy rocks to the other side of the beach. He had found his own oasis of soft white sand.

Coming back to shore he doesn’t bother to dry himself with his towel, instead using it as a pillow to let the sun kiss his cool wet skin. After swimming he was hungry. He had cherries, a lot of them. His mother gave him an entire bushel. She had gone cherry picking with her husband, Woohyun’s step father and they just picked too many. This was her way of secretly feeding him, but he didn’t mind they were his favorite fruit anyway. He packed up a nice big bag of cherries, probably too many for one person to consume but at least he wouldn’t be hungry anymore. Digging them out of his back pack, he started in on them right away. Holding the red cherry to his lips he takes a bite, half of it, using the other half to rub over his chapped lips. It was soothing, and he knew it would turn his lips pink, laughing as he recalled doing this as a child. He popped the other half in his mouth plucking away the stem and spitting out the seed to see if he could make it hit the rocks.

What he didn’t know was he had an on looker. Someone was watching him but only for a moment, they hadn’t been there long. Having the same idea they climbed over the rocks but instead of making it to the other side they sat right on top looking down at Woohyun taking notice of him there alone. They didn’t want to disturb but also wondered if it would be strange to join when they hadn’t been invited. What if Woohyun wanted to be left alone… what if he wasn’t alone?

Woohyun had his eyes closed to avoid the bright sun and kept eating cherry after cherry. Some he just ate and some he repeated that motion of rubbing the sweet juice over his lips. The person on the rocks figured now would be a great time to sneak up and scare him as he gorged on those cherries. They were quiet climbing over those rocks and careful enough to not trip over that driftwood at the bottom. Without a sound they stood next to the blanket Woohyun was laying across and waited to be noticed. But that didn’t happen, so they kicked his foot. Woohyun sat up right way startled but it didn’t show. He raised a hand to his forehead to shield his eyes. He had been too distracted to notice anyone had been there. Was he about to get in trouble for being on someone’s private property? Then his eyes focused and he smiled.

“Of course you had the same idea.” He pulled his knees to his chest and made room for the newcomer who took it upon them selves to lay down on the blanket next to Woohyun and dig into those cherries that just looked so delicious. “I thought you were visiting family.” There was a soft chuckle in his voice as he spoke, now turned to the man lying next to him.

“And my family wanted to come to the beach.” Hoya talked with his mouth full of those sweet cherries, dangling another over his lips as he looks up at Woohyun. “Man, I really had no idea you were over here. I was just climbing the rocks to get a better view and take some selfies.’ He laughs stupid and pops that last cherry into his mouth flicking the stem away and finally ridding himself of all those pits in his mouth, spitting them into his hand and tossing them.  “Are you here with anyone?” He rolls onto his stomach and balls up Woohyun’s wet towel to use as a pillow while Woohyun poked into his thigh with his toes, trying to pinch him as he wiggles away laughing again.

“Nope, dove up early this morning. I just wanted to swim. Needed to be in the sun.” Woohyun snorts at his own response. Hoya knew he hardly left his cave of a room.

“So, you came for inspiration and to finally use your legs.” There was a smirk on Hoya’s face, canines exposed.  And this just made Woohyun want to hit him. Hoya crosses his arms over himself to avoid a smack that he could feel coming.

“What I am not going to hit you. It was a too quiet over here. Now your big mouth can keep me company.” Woohyun smiles and leans forward to shade Hoyas face with his own shadow then moves away repeating this a few times until Hoya noticed as thy both continued to eat the cherries while they talked.

Hoya laughs, but stops taking a breath and he let out a deep sigh. They were quiet, staring at each other lingering, before Hoya shifts his gaze away to ask his unnecessary question. “Where is Sunggyu?” the way he said it sounded almost condescending. He didn’t mean it but it came out that way. There was a hint of jealousy, probably stemming from the closeness Woohyun only shared with his best friend, Sunggyu. They had all known each other for a very long time, it was just unusual to see Woohyun somewhere new and all alone. Hoya accepts Woohyun’s shy shrug as an answer. “Anyway, why are your lips so pink? You wearing lipstick or something?” He chuckles and sits up matching Woohyun’s pose, hugging his knees to his chest as they both look out over the water. He reaches for the bag of cherries to eat a few more but to his and Woohyun’s dismay they were all gone. “Aw, they’re all gone.”

“How many did you eat?” Woohyun scoffs and picks up the empty bag to look at it and then at Hoya with a scowl, before crumpling the bag up and shoving it in his back pack. “Too bad you never even asked if you could have any. What if I didn’t want to share huh?” He laughs, and notices Hoya was smiling, he caught his eyes on his lips. “What do I have something on my face?” Woohyun wipes his mouth with the back of his hand.

Pulling Hoya out if his daze, his eyes flicker back up to Woohyun’s “Huh? No, I was just going to say your lips look like cherries now.” He snorts and picks up a rock that was half buried in the sand chucking it out towards the water.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

They were quiet again; the sound of waves crashing was the only thing that could be heard and maybe two loud beating hearts.

Like something out of a movie Hoya leans into Woohyun’s shoulder to which Woohyun leans back and in slow motion turns his head to face him. Hoya’s eyes were on those lips again. So he does what comes natural, the feeling had been building in his chest as soon as Hoya came into view earlier, and Woohyun moves in for a soft kiss, Hoya reciprocates. Their lips meet tentatively, and they melt into each other. There were no hands involved just a kiss and a good one at that. It was slow and long lasting, Hoya got what he wanted, one last taste of those summer cherries, as he smiles against Woohyun’s plump sweet lips. They stay like that for a while eyes closed, lingering close with small pecks here and there.

Woohyun finally speaks. “Let’s swim.”

They both pull back at the same time with a grin and get up quick to race each other to the waters edge, running into those waves splashing and kicking water at each other under the summer sun. They spend the rest of the day like that in and out of the water, sharing more snacks that Woohyun had brought, taking turns napping on top of each other until the sun set in the distance. They watched it go down together talking about the past as the blue sky shifted to purple and orange.

“Hey, ask your mom if she has anymore cherries.”

“Why don’t you ask her yourself. We can go eat at her restaurant, next weekend, and do this all over again.”

“Yeah let’s do this all again.”

________________________________________________________________________________________

an: uwu. kinda into wooya lately........