Incheon and beaches were two inseparable things, and Seulgi loved them fondly. She would give anything just to spend the summer break in her hometown, where she could wear a pretty flowy-flared dress, sunk her feet to the wet sand, while the sun radiated the highest temperature of the year just above her head. August was approaching in a few days. People still flocked to all beaches across Incheon, making the most valuable memories with their loved ones.

Baekhyun sipped on his piña colada, relaxing his back on the yellow beach chair. He kept rumbling about how good the compound of coconut milk and pineapple juice tasted. Seulgi was separated with him only by a small round table, where she lay and mumbled under her breath. Their bodies were shielded with one big rainbow umbrella. She finally dragged her sunglasses up to her head and took a look at Baekhyun.

“Are you done with the piña colada?”.

“We have plenty of time, chill”.

Seulgi wondered why Baekhyun never tasted the pain of her slap after years of their friendships, considering how he always acted.

She shifted her eyes to the coastline tens of meters in front of her. Right on the first attempt, she landed her gaze on a happy young couple dashing the water here and there while chasing each other. They laughed a lot even though their clothes were soaking wet. The boy then wrapped their play by hugging the girl.

So delicate, so full of love.

And Seulgi felt bitter about it first, until she realized how dumb she was for feeling irritated seeing the happiness she couldn’t achieve. She unconsciously bit on her nails while watching the lovely scenery unfolded before her eyes.

“Pretty bad heartbreak, huh?”, Baekhyun set his almost empty glass on the table. “What did he do to you?”.

A deep sigh fled Seulgi’s lips.

“I met this guy online before I met him in person. We talked a lot...hanging out...stuffs like that, yeah? I fell for him but I didn’t show it, yet he kept treating me really good...so we misunderstood each other. It was tangled, I was wrong, he was wrong too”.

“That’s it?”.

“What do you mean ‘that’s it’? I’m just telling the gist”, she scoffed.

“So, you liked him because of the way he treated you?”.

“I mean...”, shrugging her shoulders, Seulgi resumed, “It wasn’t my fault that he kept telling me secrets no one knows? Kinda flirting with me? Being super nice and all? Then when we finally met, he ruffled my hair, hugged me, came to my flat when I didn’t answer his text. Who wouldn’t fall if someone treated you that way?”.

“Ah...classic trope”, said Baekhyun. “And how did you guys know that it was the end? Did you fight? Or just, you know, ghosted each other”.

This question Baekhyun propelled got Seulgi to squeeze the fabric of her flowy floral cyan dress immediately.

“We had an argument”, Seulgi swallowed hard. “After I kissed him”. That sentence still didn’t feel real to her ears.

Baekhyun’s eyes widened in less than a second after. He gasped, covered his mouth with his palm before he leaned his body forward. “You?! You kissed him first?!”.

“I know! It’s embarrassing!”, Seulgi slumped her face into her thighs. A high-pitched growl came up from her inability to erase the scene when she pulled the collar of Jongin’s jacket—

“No, it’s not at all”.

She lifted her face again. “Don’t try to make me feel better. I know it was”.

“I was surprised because you were so bold. You were right. You’ve changed”.

Seulgi looked at him without saying anything.

“So I guess he didn’t respond to the kiss well”. Baekhyun adjusted his position into facing Seulgi, his feet touched the sand.

 “He didn’t even respond to it”, Seulgi said. “I was mad because everything he did to me felt special, yet he just took it as something ordinary. He didn’t realize that I might catch feelings. And he told me that he didn’t know because I never show it. Ah! It’s just running circles!”.

Baekhyun watched as Seulgi’s anger manifested in how she hugged both of her knees and a big frown upon her face. He pushed his glass into Seulgi, then patted her shoulder a couple times. “Here, have my drink”.

Seulgi took the glass without hesitation. She gobbled all the remaining piña colada and paused for a moment before she spoke again. “It is...sad, you know? He is the first guy I like during my college years...and it must end this way. I know too many things about him and he knows too many things about me too and we’re back as strangers again”.

For a minute or so, no sound but distant conversations from people and the wave were heard. Baekhyun kept his mouth sealed so Seulgi could talk more about it. Silence was indeed an awkward gap where words should fill it in between.

“I really like him. If he is here, I will still run to him, I will still hear whatever stories he got, I will be gladly dancing to slow music with him again”, Seulgi uttered. “I still remember his voice so clear when he called my name. I can’t even hear the song Sweater Weather without remembering him anymore! No, no, not just that. Even iced americano, because that was the last drink he had with me before we fought. His face was all over my flat! Even seeing a random person with the surname Kim always reminds me of him! Do you see the problem?! Do you see...”. Seulgi stopped to catch on her own breath. She could list tons of things that remind her of Jongin, yet she had no enough time to voice it out. “What the , I really like how happy I was when I’m with him. I like him so much, why was I so angry at him at that time?”.

Seulgi’s high walls finally shattered into a cry. She had been holding on not to break into pieces. She hated crying, not because it made her eyes puffed and ugly, but because it was a sign that she couldn’t deal with her problems anymore. Every word she told herself to stop her tears were not working. She then buried her face into her knees, not wanting the world to know that she was weak.

Baekhyun stood from his seat to sit on Seulgi’s beach chair. He couldn’t joke around when he saw Seulgi sobbed. That girl cried only once in a blue moon, and this was a sign something extraordinary happened to her. He caressed Seulgi’s trembling back softly.

 “Cry some more, alright? Don’t hold it back”.

Seulgi took her time to let the baggage on her shoulder lifted in every drop of tear. She never cried in a beach before. She always came and left this place feeling contented and full, and for the first time in 21 years, she broke the record because of a guy he met in online app.

No, Jongin isn’t just some guy, another part of herself defended. He is a good one.

And that made Seulgi cried even harder.

Beside her, Baekhyun patiently waited until Seulgi calmed down. Which wasn’t really long, compared to other people he had seen crying for an hour. When all that left were just soft snorts and heavy breaths, Seulgi lifted her face and wiped her cheeks along with her nose. It was all red.

“Feel better now?”, Baekhyun asked.

“Kinda”. Seulgi’s hand reached for her handbag above the table and took out the tissue pack. She proceeded to sweep it around her eyes. “Am I overreacting?”.

“If I was in your position, I’ll do the same too. Even worse”.

Seulgi exhaled deeply.

“Come on, the sun is about to set”. Baekhyun stood up first, then tugged on Seulgi’s dress sleeve. “You’ll even feel better about it”.

Seulgi followed Baekhyun’s steps. Along with the 7.18 PM written on her watch and the golden orange sky told her that sunset was approaching. Heaps of sands rubbing against her feet that were already bare from her sandals. The wave was about to come and Seulgi stood still, with Baekhyun right next to him. But he grabbed her sleeve once more and stepped further defied the sea.

It was fortunate that the beach they visited that day was on the west side. When the sun gradually dropped lower, it seemed like the ocean was slowly giving space for it to have a rest before the moon took over. The landscape she gawked at the moment was divine, no matter how many times she saw it before.

“Yah...Seulgi, summer in Incheon is the best compared to anywhere, huh?”, Baekhyun placed both of his hands right on his hips. “Have you ever saw this in Seoul? I bet not”.

Seulgi chuckled lightly. “The sunset? Yeah. The sun being swallowed by the sea? Not at all”.

“I want to stare at this forever”.

“I don’t think so”.

“What?”.

“I can even see his face in the sky”.

What Seulgi just said gained a questionable look from Baekhyun, while Seulgi frowned without taking her gaze off from the sunset.

“Is that what a severe heartbroken feel like?”.

Seulgi paused for a moment to reminisce how contrasted the scenery and what happened on the rooftop of her apartment a few sunsets ago. Without her knowing, Seulgi already clenched her fists. The wound was still fresh as hell.

“Can you believe that we fought under the sunset?”, Seulgi said.

Baekhyun shook his head numerous times. “You gotta be kidding me”.

A wave bigger than what had passed them came at a high speed. Before Seulgi and Baekhyun could even rescue themselves, it already swallowed their feet up until the middle of their thighs. Seulgi shrieked because her knee-length dress was half wet now, while Baekhyun clapped and laughed like his denim shorts were not washed by the ocean.

“Hey, Seulgi, stay here”, he grabbed onto her arm. Seulgi stopped walking midway and turned back to Baekhyun. He let go of his hand once Seulgi did what he commanded.

“Maybe what you currently feel is like...the wave”, Baekhyun started talking again. Hearing Baekhyun got a little bit serious made Seulgi inched closer to him. “It gets you feeling uncomfortable. You didn’t expect it was coming at first. But that doesn’t rule out the fact that soon your dress will dry. Like nothing happened”.

“And maybe you and that Kim guy is just...not really meant to be together? Sorry, I run out metaphor”.

The first reaction Seulgi exhibited was to smack Baekhyun’s arm with full force until he hissed in pain.

“I thought you’re going to be serious!”.

“I am!”, Baekhyun widened his eyes, which Seulgi still found funny and she laughed. Baekhyun was relieved the moment he saw her laughing loosely.

“I know we were not meant to be together. I kept holding on because I thought it would change”.

“Now it’s time to stop. Do you want the wave to keep washing your dress and never have it dry anymore?”.