[ C H A P T E R  O N E ]

Yongsun tossed in her king-sized bed that was way too big for one person, but it actually made sense because it was never meant to be for one person in the first place. Perhaps it also didn’t quite make enough sense to her either that they both had this whole entire suite to themselves. It was two in the morning, they had a really long day and they wrapped up the filming a few hours ago, but here she was — tossing and sighing every five minutes because she couldn’t sleep. For goodness sake, Yongsun cursed herself, she has an early flight in a few hours. 

What happened earlier at the water fountain kept on replaying in her head, but it wasn’t the show itself that kept her up and wide awake at this hours. It was a particular someone she caught staring at her in the the corner of her eyes. She caught him bit his lips while watching her enjoying the show, and she knew something would have happened right there and then had she turned around to face him. Yongsun was aware of it all, she wanted so bad to turn around and let that something happened, but something inside of her pulled her back and told her to play oblivious — she was scared, very scared and anxious of what would have happened if she allowed that to happen. 

Grabbing her phone, she decided she needed to talk to someone for some deep discussion, or some advices, or whatever it is she’s looking for — she didn’t really know, but she knew she needed to talk to someone. Checking the timezone back in Seoul, she hastily typed a quick message to someone who she knew she could always talked to — Byul.

      Asleep?

    No.

    Let’s call.

Her fingers hovered over the call button, and instantly she pressed it and waited for the line to beep exactly twice to hear the younger girl’s voice from the other side of the line. She still sounded very sleepy for someone who is awake, Yongsun guessed she either just woke up or stayed up all night playing her game again. 

With Byul, it has always been easy for her to talk to. Probably even more than her sister, and Yongsun knows it’s ridiculous, but that’s just how their relationship has came to be over the years. Majority of their fans mistook it for something else, but they didn’t want to stop them either, because all that matters to them was the fact that they both clearly know what exactly they are to each other — or maybe both just had this underlying thought that perhaps shutting down those rumors directly would just turned things awkward for everyone including them in the future.

    “So, you’re saying you know he was about to kiss you right there and then, and you’d do it too if there wasn’t camera, but because there was so you chickened out and now you’re regretting it?” 

    “Don’t say chickened out.” Yongsun hissed. 

    “What are you even regretting about exactly, it’s not like losing one opportunity means you’re gonna lose the rest of the opportunities in the future as well.”

    “You don’t understand, Byul.” Yongsun sighed, her fingers fiddling with another pillow next to her. “These, all of these — the whole entire trip felt like a dream to me, and today early morning, we’ll be on a flight back to reality and there will be no way we can turn things to that moment again.”

    “Yeah, but it’s not today early morning yet in Dubai.” 

Yongsun frowned at the younger girl’s ambitious reply. Keeping silent on her part, she waited for Byul to continue. “You still have like what, five more hours to make things right again if you still want to.” 

    “I can’t—”

    “Just so you know,” Byul hummed. “He was the one who wanted to kiss you a few hours ago, so you’re definitely not the only one awake at this hour right now.”

    Yongsun sighed and stayed silent for a good one minute. In the smallest voice as if anyone is going to overheard their whole conversation, she asked, “Byul, do you think I’m ready for this?” 

    “I don’t know, that’s up to your heart.” Yongsun could almost see the younger girl shrugging at her, completely unfazed. “But if I were you, I’d just seize this chance while I still can.”

When Byul hang up, Yongsun searched for another contact in her phone. She stopped at his name, and listened as her heart made a loud thudding sound she didn’t know it was capable of making. It’s 2:30, and she only has four hours and a half left to make this right again. Perhaps she should really seize this chance like Byul said. 

Typing a message, she hovered over the send button and freaked out by herself. She contemplated sending and deleting, but Byul’s words echoed through her head, and for a split second, a sudden splurge of confidence washed over her and she pressed send. 

    Are you asleep? Let’s talk at the pool.

The next few minutes, she found herself sitting by the pool waiting for him. Pulling her cardigan to wrap around herself, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to hide the fact that she was still wearing their couple pajamas to bed, or if she was cold. Yongsun contemplated wearing a hat so he wouldn’t see her bare face, but disregarded it when she thought it was already dark enough outside.

Her stomach did a little happy flip when she saw him walking towards her in his couple pajama as well. They both stared at each other’s pajama and blushed, at least neither of them were alone in this. He took a seat next to her, and one whole minute went by with neither of them starting a conversation first. 

    “Why aren’t you asleep?”

    “We’re leaving in a few hours, but I still feel like we haven’t complete everything yet.” Her voice small, her fingers fidgeting again. She took his silence as the sign to go on. “I know you were looking at me back at the fountain. I also know something might have happened had I turned around to look at you.” 

    Eric sighed, his initial embarrassment turned into guilt. “I’m sorry if I unintentionally made you uncomfortable—”

    “Shh, I haven’t finish talking yet.” She playfully huffed at him and he raised his eyebrows at her in confusion. “I wanted to turn around and let things happened, I wanted whatever impending situation that was to happened there as well, and I’d actually turned around if there wasn’t any camera with us, but I guess I sort of chickened out a little because there was.” 

She almost grinned at the word chickened out. Damn it, Byul.

    It took him a good ten seconds to register what she was trying to say. He looked almost bewildered when he spoke again, “You what?”

    Yongsun laughed. “I’m trying to say I’d actually let you kiss me if we were alone and there wasn’t any camera with us.” 

Eric wasn’t sure if he was bewildered or happy with this newfound information, but he knew for sure he was amused at how straightforward Yongsun could be when she’s really comfortable with someone. He always knew her to be the most straightforward person he has ever came across, but she was at another level of straightforward, and tonight proved that even more. Trying to recompose himself, he looked at her and very faintly, he noticed the little blushes creeping on her cheeks, and how pretty she actually looked even without any makeup.

    “So, I’m taking that you telling me all of these as you also wanting this to work out between us?” 

    She shrugged, and lightly jerked her feet inside the water so it made a little splash. “Yeah. Do you?” 

    He smiled at her answer. Slighting kicking the water towards her way, he said, “You know you didn’t even need to ask.” 

She yelped when a few droplets of water hit her face, and they broke into a laughing fit as they started kicking water at each other. There was a loud splash when they jumped into the water — soaked from heads to toes, they laughed at each other’s mishap. 

    Playfully splashing water at his face, she grinned and started swimming ahead of him. “Race you to the other side of the pool. Winner gets a wish granted.” 

This time, she’s not going to let him win over her again because of her attempt to save her makeup like their last time. And this time, she’s going to win and make the wish everyone in the studio that day thought he was going to ask from her — like Byul said, losing one opportunity doesn’t mean you’re gonna lose the rest of the opportunities in the future as well.