Seokjin ran full out in hope of intercepting the ball, but his leg slowed him down. He swore under his breath when the baseball hit Eri’s hands, just missing her head. His friend and former teammate Ken, was the person he’d been throwing the ball to, but he got distracted when he saw Eri leaving just behind Ken. So he absentmindedly ended up putting more force throwing the ball past Ken and towards Eri.

Namjoon, who is still in his uniform, sprinted past him. But neither of them made it in time to save Eri from falling backward into the pond. As she hit the water with a deafening scream, Namjoon shot him a look.

“Jesus, I didn’t do it on purpose.” Seokjin muttered, closing in on the pond. He knew his brother always had a suspicion on what went on with him and Eri in the past as his brother was in the same year as Eri. So he supposed it wasn’t a stretch that his brother might think the throw had been intentional. But really, Namjoon should know better. He would never hurt a woman, even if she was someone he had a past with.

Eri’s head popped up from the water and started flailing. She didn’t realize how deep the pond was and started to panic when neither of her feet was able to reach the bottom. “Help! I’m drowning!”

“Rii!” Kii called out, kneeling on the edge of the wooden deck. “Come and grab my hand!”

She remembered that after her mom’s scream, she briefly saw Kii extending his hand when she was falling but he wasn’t able to grab her because she moved both her hands to cover her head instead.

“Eri you’re not drowning. Just give me your hand.” Seokjin said as he also reached out to her as soon as he got to the edge.

But both of them were ignored by Eri. With everyone crowded around the pond calling out to her, it was possible that she didn’t hear both of them.

She had started panicking, feeling her heart beating too fast for her to catch up to. I’m going to die.

There was no helping it. Seokjin had to jump in.

But Taehyung beat him to it. In three powerful , the other man reached her and wrapped an arm around her waist. “I’ve got you Eri.” He said.

She released a shuddering breath, sagging against Taehyung as he swam toward the stairs.

Seokjin leaned over and grabbed her by the arms as Taehyung helped her by hoisting her waist up with both hands. Her eyes were closed, mascara wet with either tears or water from the pond, marking black tracks down her stark white face.

Eri’s eyes opened. “Are you happy now? You nearly drowned me.” She said, her pale lips quivering.

Seokjin sighed and lifted her into his arms, then limped his way toward the grass area. “I didn’t mean to. All you had to do is move. Not just stand there and wait for the ball to hit you.” He grumbled. He wasn’t really mad at her. What pissed him off was the sight of his uncle running toward them with the same look as his brother earlier. A distraught Sunhee also followed his uncle carrying a blanket. He inadvertently gave Eri an opportunity to cause a scene.

“Darling are you alright?” Sunhee asked as she wrapped the blanket around her daughter’s shoulders.

Her teeth chattering, Eri gave her mother a wan smile. “I’ll be fine mom.”

As Seokjin slowly lowered himself to the grass to put Eri down, hi