"Ugh...but I'm scared!" Haseul whined. 

"Oh my god, come on. Let's go!" Yeojin whined back, tugging on Haseul's arm. 

It was another day off for Haseul, and in just about any other circumstance she'd be going to the beach. And she would be excited to do so. But if everything that was going on, Haseul was beyond nervous. 

Her and Vivi, of course, had text non stop since their date a few days before. It felt comfortable, finally, both of them eagerly answering the other. Haseul, though, wasn't quite ready to see her. 

She was disappointed. She was disappointed that she hadn't kissed Vivi, and god she couldn't stop ruminating over it, constantly. Heejin and Hyunjin and Yeojin had complained at first, yeah, now they were understanding of Haseul. But she knew they were disappointed. 

And she knew Vivi was disappointed. Haseul couldn't imagine being in her shoes; she would have been utterly crushed and never gone after her again. She was amazed Vivi even wanted to keep on talking to her after enduring what she probably thought was a rejection. Haseul...Haseul had been pretty obvious about her feelings, this entire time, even if she had tried not to be. But now, did Vivi think Haseul didn't like her? Vivi might not be so sure, despite how desperate Haseul has seemed. 

And now, who knows? Maybe she would kiss her again. But maybe she could not have the courage again, and that opportunity would have passed her by. So mostly, she was disappointed in herself.

So...yeah. She was nervous to talk to Vivi again. She would have to face the girl, face the disappointment of everyone, and somehow muscle past it and just hope Vivi was still interest in this, in her. That she felt confident enough to continue. 

But it's not like she could avoid Vivi forever. It's not like, deep inside, she wanted to either. 

"Fine," Haseul groaned, letting Yeojin pull her standing. 

Yeojin stared up at her and crossed her arms. "Don't be a wimp. She likes you." 

Haseul sighed and rolled her eyes but smiled and after calling to their grandmother that they were leaving, followed Yeojin out of the door. 

Treading along the road to the beach they were silent. Haseul gripped their faded blue towels in her hand and watched them sway, swatting her legs, fluttering just above the floor. Yeojin tightened her grip on her frog backpack, sparing a quick glance at her cousin. 

"Don't give up just yet. You've come so far!" 

Haseul chuckled lowly to herself. "I won't, Yeojin. I won't."

The girls reached the path to the beach and with a smile, went down it. Breathing in the salty sea air so closely, a smile came onto Haseul's lips. It had been a minute since she came to the beach and god did it feel good, stepping out into the sand. And it was soothing on the eyes, of course. Relief washed over Haseul like the waves washed over the sand. 

And suddenly, there was Vivi. She was still in her red lifeguard swimsuit and ponytail, strands fallen out from a day of work. Haseul was overwhelmed, frankly. 

"Hi," Vivi said, and then Haseul remembered the reason why she was scared. 

But she, too, recognized that their date wasn't meaningless. The smile that was on Vivi's lips was easy, and Haseul smiled too, easily. 

"Hey Vivi." There wasn't a moment of stutter in her voice. Despite everything. 

"Earth to Vivi and Haseul! Someone else is here ya know," Yeojin called up to them. 

"Ah, we could never forget you!" Vivi cried, giving Yeojin a smile. 

"You better not." She took her backpack off and shook it. "I have all the snacks." 

Everyone giggled and went further onto the beach, setting up their spot to sit for the afternoon. Haseul put out the sheet and the towels, Yeojin set down her magazines and the snacks, and Vivi leaned over, looking at everything. 

"How was work?" Haseul asked. 

"Good! It was good. Not that busy, I mean, as usual. So it was a bit boring. But, I had this to look forward to." 

Slowly, Haseul smiled. Vivi was looking forward to this? What an absolute relief. 

"I was looking forward to this too." 

The girls smiled at each other and Yeojin made a barfing gesture. 

"Really?"

Vivi giggled, a little bit embarrassed but a little more proud, and Haseul rolled her eyes at her cousin. 

"Come on. You two are too obvious. Now go get into the water so I can concentrate on my reading." At that, Yeojin whipped out her American Girl magazine, orange heart shaped sunglasses, and leaned on her backpack to read. 

"Yeojin's probably right-" 

"Of course I am. I always am," Yeojin interrupted, not bothering to look up. 

"Anyways," Vivi continued with a grin, "wanna continue those lessons?" 

Haseul shrugged. "Why not?" 

So Vivi leapt up and ran to the water, still in her lifeguard uniform and after carelessly tossing her clothes aside (swimsuit underneath of course), she followed after Vivi. 

~~~~~~~~~

Haseul wasn't doing too awful at swimming that day. 

She had managed to do, at least partially, everything Vivi had instructed for her. But, her mind was elsewhere. 

Haseul bounced between joy and sorrow, excitement and disappointment. She was still sad about this kiss thing, but she was excited because oh my gosh it seemed like there was another chance for them to kiss, but was Vivi disappointed? She didn't seem like it, amazingly, and Haseul just couldn't stop thinking about them having another date. Another one of those? Amazing! So, so fun like the first but with even less of the awkwardness and maybe even more of the romance. Would Haseul have the courage to ask Vivi out again? Could Haseul have the courage to ask Vivi out again? Maybe! 

Vivi had asked to see if Haseul could try to tread water for five whole minutes. But after about two and a half, getting distracted by Vivi focusing so hard on her, looking at only her, thinking about all the thoughts in her mind, she just...stopped. And sunk under the water.

"Ugh, sorry," Haseul whined, pushing back strands of her wet hair as she bobbed back up. 

"No, no! You're good. You're doing good today. You just seem...a little distracted." 

Mindlessly, Haseul's eyes looked up and down Vivi's gorgeous body, half hidden by the water.  was she pretty. So pretty. "I am." 

Immediately, Vivi flushed deep and Haseul knew she'd noticed her eyes. "Ah- I-" Haseul stuttered. She really hadn't meant it like that, it had been a total accident, she couldn't help but look when Vivi was just so ing pretty she didn't mean it like that! "I-I'm sorry! Oh my god, Vivi, I didn't- I-" God, now Haseul was blushing too. As if she didn't do that enough already. 

Vivi bit her lip shyly, looking down into the water, and started to giggle. And suddenly she had closed the space between Haseul and her, wrapping her in a light hug. Vivi's arms were wet thrown over Haseul's shoulders and it was gross and kinda icky but it was also not, Haseul could feel her warmth beneath the cool of the water and could tell she had a smile on her lips. 

"It's okay," she mumbled right into Haseul's ear. "I like it when you flirt with me." 

Vivi pulled away and now it was Haseul's turn to be flustered, as if she totally wasn't already, blubbering like a fish while Vivi just giggled at her. It wasn't awkward, though, and soon enough Haseul couldn't help but giggle too. 

"Now I'm really going to be distracted!" She whined. 

"Come on," Vivi answered, tugging Haseul's wrist a little into the deeper parts of the water. "Let's practice your butterfly." 

~~~~~~~~~~

"Get out guys come on!" Yeojin yelled again from the shore. 

"Coming, coming!" Haseul shouted back and with a sigh, Vivi and herself got out of the water, running over to the ten year old. "What?" 

"I'm ready to go home and play minecraft." 

"Ah," Vivi hummed to herself, looking at Haseul. Haseul was pretty tired herself; she'd swam pretty hard that day and was ready to chill out. But she didn't want to be parted from Vivi just yet. "Wanna drop off Yeojin at your house and then take a little walk?" 

Thank god. Vivi, her savior. "That sounds wonderful." 

Yeojin huffed. "God, if I'd known you two were gonna be this bad-" 

"Aw, come on," Haseul whined back, starting to pack up the stuff. The two girls followed her lead and once Haseul threw her t-shirt on over her swimsuit (in Egret Cove it's perfectly acceptable to walk around in just flip flops, a swimsuit, and an oversized tee), the girls were ready. 

It was a quick enough walk back to Haseul and Yeojin's, the perfect amount of time for Yeojin to explain what poggers meant (although Haseul still didn't quite get it). They let her in and Yeojin quickly slammed the door behind them, running inside to the computer (Vivi and Haseul could hear her feet thumping on the floor). 

"What should we do?" Haseul asked. 

"There's that ice cream shop by the tourist beach. That's not too far. Wanna grab some with me?" 

"Sounds great." 

The girls were a few steps from Haseul's house when Vivi turned to her. 

"I still don't really understand what poggers means." 

Haseul laughed loudly. "Me either." 

"Are we really old enough now to not understand all the slang terms? I thought we at least had a couple more years..." 

"I guess we don't." 

The girls shared a giggle and fell into the easiest of conversation. The hot sun beat down on their heads and though they'd been swimming in the ocean moments before they were dry and warm now, comfortably so. Vivi, with a soft sigh of relief, let her hair out of her ponytail. The creamsicle locks fell into those strands you get when you don't wash your hair properly after going in the water, but Haseul's hair did the same thing (and anyways, even that was pretty on Vivi, somehow). She wore what looked like her dad's old brown button up over her lifeguard uniform and her baby pink flip flops slapped the ground in time with Haseul's. For a moment, Haseul's heart ached with how bad she wished things could be like this always. But Haseul was leaving after the summer, and well, Vivi was too. She couldn't get this back again. 

She just had to make the most of these hours that were in her possession. 

It didn't take long for them to reach the ice cream shop, a little stand that sold simple burgers and sodas too. The line was long; it was a hot day and they were by the tourist beach, so there were many out of towners. But Haseul didn't mind the wait at all when it gave her a little more time with Vivi. 

Vivi got chocolate and Haseul got rocky road and Vivi practically shoved Haseul out of the way to pay, immediately showering her with panicked apologies. But god Haseul was so ing whipped that she was just grateful Vivi had touched her at all. 

It was silent for minutes when they got their ice cream, the taste tenfold on their tongues under the hot air and the swimming sleepiness. With a nod the girls began to head home, and it was only when Haseul started biting into the cone when Vivi spoke. 

"Can I ask you something?" 

Haseul's stomach immediately began to burn with nerves, the butterflies in her stomach up in a blaze, but she nodded coolly anyways. 

"I...um...when we went on our date the other day, right at the end there....I tried to kiss you? But you kinda dodged it...so, ugh." Vivi paused, clearly very embarrassed, refusing to look anyways but at the ground where her ice cream dripped in a little trail behind her. "I-I thought you liked me..." 

Haseul took a deep breath. Then two, then three. 

She was not expecting to be confronted about this. 

But you know what...at least it would be out in the open. At least she wouldn't have to dwell any more. At least they could work this out. 

Haseul was starting to realize that way was far better than keeping all your worries all bottled up inside. 

"I...I got nervous. That's just the truth. Vivi...I, I've told you about my experiences, my insecurities. The truth is, it's hard for me to imagine anyone liking me. And I've never had....anything, before. Anything romantic I mean. So I got nervous, but..." Haseul's voice dropped to barely above a whisper. "It doesn't mean I don't like you. Or that I don't want to kiss you. I do." 

Vivi looked up so suddenly that Haseul had to look back, and Vivi smiled so bright she could feel her heart go flip, flop, flip, flop. 

She breathed a massive sigh of relief. "Oh my god...I..." Vivi breathed out again. "I'm so happy to hear that. Because, I, I like you too. I promise." 

Haseul's jaw dropped, and she was frozen. Her thoughts stopped, and suddenly everything was happening at once; Vivi reached over and grabbed Haseul's hand. 

A moment's pause, a delayed reaction, and then, Haseul was holding Vivi's hand back. Her delicate fingers were just the slightest bit sticky from the ice cream but Haseul could not find it within herself to care, not at all. She couldn't really care about much of anything, except the fact that they were already in front of her house. Like time had moved without her. 

Vivi led her up to her front door, hands still entertwined, fingers laced together, and looked her in the eyes. 

"Whenever you're ready for that kiss, tell me. I'm ready. I won't spring it on you again." She paused a second and looked at Haseul's scrappy front lawn. "You can spring it on me though." 

Haseul couldn't do much more than smile and nod. 

Slowly, Vivi let go of Haseul's hand and waved at her. Haseul nodded, again. She waited for Vivi to cross the street, head into her house, and shut the door behind her. 

And as soon as she had Haseul ran inside herself, jumping onto her bed and screaming into her pillowcase, a smile etched on her lips for the rest of the night.