"You seem okay now," Wonwoo noticed as he held Eunhye's hand while they walked along the beach. It was dark and the wind was strong. Afraid she would get cold, he wrapped an arm around her and she immediately wrapped hers around his waist. "I thought you're drunk."

She scoffed. "No," she admitted, smiling to herself. "It's just easier to say what you want when everyone thinks you are. For more than two decades, I've never been drunk. Drugged, yes. But not drunk."

He gaped at her. "But what about those drunk stories they revealed?"

Eunhye put her forefinger and thumb together, slightly. "Just a little tipsy, maybe? But not drunk enough to get wasted like they thought I was."

"You almost told them about our first night together," he said. He realized she might have wanted to say that on purpose. True enough, she snorted.

"They wouldn't believe me anyway," she answered with a sigh. "For once, I wanted to show them I could stand up on my own two feet and make my own decisions. I wanted to let them know that I can do irrational things and actions out of character. I'm not a baby."

"Yes, you are," Wonwoo disagreed. He kissed her hair. "You're my baby."

Eunhye poked his side playfully. "Did I embarrass you too much?"

"A bit," he replied honestly, although he was smiling. "I was convinced you had too much to drink."

"You did good," she told Wonwoo, patting his shoulder. "In getting away. I didn't want to do the cleaning."

"Oh, shoot. I promised Hyoseob-hyung I would help."

Eunhye shook her head. "Zico will help him, don't worry."

It had been eating at Wonwoo for a very long time, even before then, much more so today, and he realized he had to say it even if she got mad at him. He knew how much Eunhye treasured her friends, especially her best friends, but something had been gnawing on Wonwoo's mind for a while now.

"So Zico-hyung," he began.

"Hmm?"

"You're even closer to him than Chanyeol-hyung, aren't you?"

She thought for a moment. "Not really. Chanyeol and I had been neighbors since the nursery room in the hospital ward, and our parents are best friends--even though our older siblings practically hate each other. We just met Zico during middle school. It's kind of been that way since then."

Wonwoo had heard the middle school story before. She and Chanyeol studied in Japan and found another Korean student in their class who did not know anyone so they asked to be friends with him and voila! The three musketeers were born and since then their trio had been inseparable.

"So you never had any fluttering feelings for him even back then?" Wonwoo asked. He was trying to look for a way so she would not snap at him because of the questions he was asking her. "At all?"

Eunhye turned to him with an are-you-that-stupid look. "You've seen the photos. He was one head shorter than me and he used to leave boogers in my clothes. No, I didn't. And..." she almost barfed at the disgusting memory. It was the one thing she never forgave Zico about. No matter how tall they grew, her friends remained the kids in her head. "I never date friends."

She sounded so convinced about her belief. Yet, it did not cross out the other possibility. "What about him? Did he ever have had any feelings for you?"

He could put himself in the middle schooler Zico's shoes and imagine what it would be like in his eyes. He had to go to a new school in a foreign country where he would not even be able to talk to anyone because of the language barrier. Then suddenly, this beautiful middle school girl appeared in front of him out of nowhere, introducing herself in a language he understood, offering to be his friend. Any teenage boy would fall in love with that.

Eunhye stopped walking and stepped in front of him. "Wonwoo." When he looked at her, she wrapped her arms around his neck. "Jeon Wonwoo, listen to me real good. Zico is my best friend. So is Chanyeol. They've been a family to me more than my actual one ever was. You are my boyfriend. I don't know what else to do to show you that you're the only guy for me. You don't have to worry about any of them, okay?"

Maybe if you told me you loved me, Wonwoo wanted to say. He held his tongue, though. She had never told him she loved him but he swore he would never push her to say that unless she did willingly.

"Okay, that's not why I brought you here," she said, her hand playing with his hair on the back of his head. "I didn't want for you to feel insecure, or anything. I just wanted to show you off to them, honestly. You should know, you're the only boyfriend I brought over to trips like this. They've always been a part of me and I'm showing them that now, you're a part of me, too. A huge one."

Wonwoo stared into her eyes, amazed that she had so much love to give and that this girl was in his arms at that moment. He realized how stupid it was for him to feel insecure just because they had been closer to her and knew her longer than he did, and because most of them were threateningly good looking. He should be thankful that there were people who took good care of her so she would meet him like that for him to fall in love with. If there was anyone who deserved that much love and more, it would be her.

"You are so amazing," Wonwoo breathed. "You know that?"

She shook her head, smiling. "Not really. Show me."

With that, Wonwoo lowered his face to her and kissed her lips long and hard.

********

The dishes turned out to be untouched when they got back. Hyoseob had fallen asleep, Dean was just staring at the ocean, smoking probably his second pack, and Dongwook was playing games on his phone. Zico was nowhere to be seen.

"I'll clean this up," Wonwoo said, kissing the top of her head before she exploded. "Most of these are disposable, anyway. I'll be done in no time."

She kissed his lips instead. "I'm not sleepy yet," she said. "I'll wait for you by the rocks we found earlier."

"Okay," he agreed, grinning. Wonwoo started cleaning up. Seeing him, Dean also started to help out. Eunhye reached inside the cooler and took two cans of beer with her before walking towards that spot they found earlier. When she passed by Dean, she purposefully snuffed his cigarette out with the beer can.

"Ya!" he complained.

Eunhye just stuck a tongue out at him and ran away.

It was dark but her eyes grew accustomed to it and she easily found her way to the place. A few steps later, she realized the spot was already taken. A lonely Woo Zico was lying down flat on his back but with one knee raised like he usually did when he slept. 
Eunhye sat beside him. He was shielding his face with his arm, probably from the wind and he took it off to check who was his company.

"Got any beer?" he asked, sitting up.

She handed him one of the cans which she actually brought for herself. "You're drinking? You're driving tomorrow."

"I already had one bottle," Zico admitted. "But I'm thirsty. I'll sleep it off later."

"Make sure to drink plenty of water before sleeping." She knew her friend was not good at holding his liquor and he always limited himself to one bottle of either beer or ale. No hard ones like soju or vodka or he'd be knocked out easily. Zico voluntarily asking for beer was uncommon.

"Yes, mom."

The way he slurred made her doubt he only had one bottle as he said.

"So, Jieun's finally settling down, huh," he said after a while. 

Eunhye sighed. She knew something was up. Her friend had not been in his usual good mood. She almost expected him to downright embarrass her to the point Wonwoo would want to break up with her but Zico had been contributing less to the conversations than usual.

"Did she look happy?"

"She did," she answered. honestly "I've never seen that happy since she..." Her eyes shifted and she glanced at her best friend. She decided not to finish her sentence. "She invited me to their wedding. It's next year."

"That fast, huh?"

"I have her number," Eunhye offered. "Don't you wanna meet her?"

"What for?" Zico asked, lying back down on the sand. "The gi