Seungwan emerges into the bright sunlight, sending out a spray of water as she whips her hair backwards.

"Watch it," a voice calls out without any real annoyance, and she splashes a foot in its direction as if by accident.

"Oh, sorry, did I get you?"

She giggles as fingers brush against her leg, trying and failing to get a hold on the offending limb.

Even though it's a risky position to place herself in, she wades away just a bit before she leans backward, letting her body be carried along by the gentle undulation.

She watches the cloudless sky squinting against the sun. It doesn't take long for a familiar face to appear in her field of vision.

"You're playing a dangerous game, Son."

"On the contrary, Park. I'm deadly serious."

Their eyes lock for a moment and then she's underwater, hands pushing down on her stomach just long enough to ruin her balance.

She blinks the salt out of her eyes as she emerges, coughing a little just for show.

"Aww, did my little Seungwannie swallow some water?" Chaeyoung coos playfully.

"You better hope my mother didn't see that," she retorts with a sly grin. "She'll think you're a very violent girlfriend."

"Oh please, your mother knows it's very healthy to rinse your airways with saltwater."

"Is it? Care to share in the healing, then?"

She lunges forward, but Chaeyoung is too fast, spinning out of her grasp.

"You'll have to catch me first!"

"But it's so healthy!"

The two women continue to play in the water, giggles and splashes mingling together under a warm foreign sun.

It takes them quite a long time to grow tired, enamored with the perfect weather, perfect sea, perfect view, and fully determined to make the most of every second of these precious vacations.

It’s a rare opportunity to spend them in such an exotic place, a generous graduation gift from Seungwan’s parents that she would never think to refuse.

When they finally drag themselves back to their beach towels, Seungwan’s legs tremble with every step and her body aches to lie down and rest under the warm touch of the sun.

It’s hard to resist sleep once she’s on her stomach, feeling her skin tingle pleasantly and listening to the muffled voices of her parents and her girlfriend, talking about something that makes their tone light and amused. Probably herself.

Her parents and Chaeyoung get along so well, they have right from the start.

She was so nervous and worried to meet them, but no parent could resist such a polite and respectful young woman, or so Seungwan’s mother had assured later.

Especially one that pretty, she’d added playfully.

Lying there, half-asleep under a sun from halfway across the world, Seungwan thinks of how nice it is that they all get along well. That her parents would approve, if she…

Well, if she… If she took the next step.

Not yet, not when she’s just getting out of school and into her first job, not when they don’t even live together yet.

But one day, when they’re settled and stable.

She wants to, she realizes. To ask Chaeyoung to be hers, forever.

She wants the whole thing, a big ceremony and dresses and all their family and friends there, a photographer and fancy champagne and rings.

But it all feels so… distant. Unreal.

At first, Seungwan thinks it’s because they’re such vague plans, but then she realizes she doesn’t feel the heat on her skin either, and when she buries her fingers in the sand there is no resistance, no texture, no sensation at all.

It’s like she’s slipped right out of herself without noticing, and now there’s a Seungwan left behind, one that can feel and sense and interact, and the Seungwan that she is, that can only watch.

So she does the only thing she can. She gets up and walks away, towards the pretty white streets that just a moment ago almost blinded her with brightness, and now are only pretty and white.

The strong noon sun sets everything in stark detail, making the world too real for reality.

Seungwan follows the labyrinthine criss-cross of streets and alleys, nothing guiding her steps as she moves ever forward. She passes inns, cafes, a church in a small square.

Like a maze, the town stretches impossibly long, no street like the last but all melding together at the edges. Seungwan goes on and on, and only as she stops does she realize that she came exactly where she meant to go.

A plaza, lined by trees and filled with unfiltered sunbeams from above. The kind of place that would be busy with tourists and locals sitting in front of espressos or appetizers.

A plaza, wide and bright and empty.

A plaza, where she waits for Seungwan.

They stand, only a few steps separating them, and suddenly Seungwan is frozen, scared.

They've done this before, she knows they have. She can't remember, but the certainty is there, like replaying the actions of a past life.

They find each other, but the world tears them apart. Before their fingers can brush, before their gazes can meet, before the words can be spoken, she's gone.

If she comes closer, will it all come crashing down?

Her fingers clench into a tight fist and she wavers, trembles.

Wouldn't it be better to watch from a distance? To take what she knows she can have rather than risk it all?

But she knows she can't.

Like fate, they were meant to be together. She knows it. Distance, any distance, is a burden too heavy to carry. Too heavy to breathe.

She steps forward, cautious, and waits for the world to turn on its axis.

It doesn't.

Her heart hammers in her chest as she moves again. Like all the oxygen has been from the atmosphere, silence settles over her thickly until she can hear the blood flowing in her ears, until she can hear them ringing in protest at the absolute lack of sound.

She knows she is breathing heavily, can feel her chest rise and fall as she walks, but she hears only that ringing.

But she's made it. She stretches out her hand and it touches another, stretched to meet her halfway.

It feels like home.

She grips it, and she might be gripping too tight but she wouldn't know it, wouldn't be able to stop.

It feels like home.

There's tears in her eyes, pooling there to drip free as soon as she blinks. She won't. Won't miss the woman, even for a second.

She opens and Seungwan leans in closer, and she knows. She's going to say it. Those words that will tell her everything. That one word that escapes her, so close but out of reach. That one word that will tell Seungwan everything.

But there's only the ringing in her ears.

It's so loud now that she can't hear herself shout. She calls out with all her might, tries to break through the spell, release herself, but the ringing grows louder and louder.

She can't hear a thing.

The woman speaks her truth, speaks her salvation, and Seungwan stands there, tears finally breaking free.

She clamps her hands over her ears, willing it to stop. Their fingers slide apart without resistance.

Is the woman still there? Is she gone?

On her knees, eyes tightly shut against the assault, Seungwan doesn't know, has no way of knowing.

There's only the ringing, louder and louder.

And it won't stop.