~

 

“Sitting alone again?” Changbin asked seeing Minho sitting on the beach, just watching their other friends playing in the ocean.

“Yeah, I’m okay here. You can go play with them.” Changbin didn’t listen however, grabbing his own towel to lay it out next to Minho and took a seat. “Seriously, I’m okay.”

“We’ve been here for three days, and you haven’t touched the water once. You’ve been mostly alone up here. Seems like a boring way to spend your vacation.”

“Maybe I enjoy it,” Minho countered, finally looking away from the water and at Changbin. Changbin scoffed.

“I’d maybe believe that if I didn’t know you better. Or you looked like you had something else you were doing besides looking blankly at our friends. So, what’s really going on?” Minho just stared at Changbin refusing to answer and hoping Changbin would back down. He didn’t. Changbin returned his stare full force, even going as far as to tilt his head and raise an eyebrow and have the audacity to look smug about it.

“I’ve never been one for the water,” Minho finally admitted. “I can’t swim.”

“Ah. That makes sense.” Changbin nodded to himself. “Why didn’t you say anything though? I’m sure the others would have made sure to do more stuff besides the beach.”

“Everyone always has to make a comment about it. They think it’s weird that I don’t know.”

“It’s not that weird. I didn’t know how until a couple years ago,” Changbin shared. “Chan taught me after I mentioned it a couple times.”

“Felix is the only other person I told, though I think he forgets about it. He tried some time back to teach me, but I gave up.”

“I could teach you. If you want that is.” Minho put his head down, and just randomly drew shapes in the sand in front of him. “We don’t have to. I just wanted to offer. It’s okay if you never learn.”

“It’s you’re vacation too. I, I don’t want you to spend it trying to help me. You should be enjoying your time with everyone else.”

“But maybe this is how I want to spend my time. There is a pool at our hotel, we can use that. And if you don’t want the others to know yet, we can do it early in the morning while most of them are still sleeping.” Minho looked back up at Changbin, still unsure himself, but Changbin looked confident.

“Are you sure?”

“Of course. Did you pack a swimsuit?” Minho shook his head. “Want to go shopping then? There are plenty of shops along the beach here we can pick one out.”

“I guess I’ll need one.”

“Alright, hold on.” Changbin quickly stood up and jogged back towards the water, stopping just where the waves would brush against his feet. He shouted out to their friends and Minho could hear him mention that the two of them were leaving. Minho could see half of them give thumbs up, while Chan shouted back an ‘okay’. Changbin came back, grabbing his stuff and urging Minho to do the same.

They walked back to the main section of shops just off the beach, mostly window shopping for a while before Changbin pushed Minho into a store that had a wide variety of swimwear. Changbin helped him pick something out, which Minho was shocked to see Changbin remembered that he doesn’t like showing a lot of skin when he showed him a set that had a shirt to match with it. Minho looked through the various designs that style came in before he finally picked one out.

Instead of heading straight back to the hotel afterwards, the two continued walking along the shops. Changbin had them stop in a couple more and picked up a couple other items he thought would help them including a little boogie board. They also stopped at an ice cream stand for a quick snack to eat on their way back. At the hotel, Changbin poked his head into the pool area, pleased to see it was mostly unused at the moment, most guests probably at the beach or taking in the sights at this time of day.

“The pool just has some older lady reading right now, and we have some time before the others come back. Do you want to go down now?” Changbin asked Minho once he got back to their room.

“I guess we can.” Minho’s not sure why but Changbin looked rather excited when he agreed. Changbin’s excitement got Minho moving a little faster, changing into his new suit and joining Changbin who was waiting by the door, towels, and boogie board in hand.

Just as Changbin said, there was just one older lady sitting in the pool area, but she was off to the side on one of the lounge chairs, reading and paying them no attention. Changbin picked a couple lounges on the other side to dump their stuff on and was the first to head into the pool. He squeaked quietly when he first touched the water but pushed himself all the way into the water.

“Come in. It’s not that deep here, so you can stand.” Minho was much slower to get in, but carefully did so with Changbin’s encouragement, wincing a few times at the temperature change. “Do you know how to float. On your back?”

“Kind of. I’m not comfortable with it though.”

“Floating is a good first step for swimming. I’ll be here with you the whole way, so let’s just give it a try, okay?” Minho nervously nodded. “I’ll put my hand on your back, okay? And I’ll be supporting you. So just lean back against my hand and let the water lift you up.”

It took Minho a couple tries to get himself to start leaning against Changbin’s hand, but even once he did, when his back was mostly in contact with the water, he started panicking and stood up again. Changbin help onto him through it and Minho tried again after a moment. Minho felt himself tense up again when he got further back again, but Changbin was whispering gentle encouragements to him the whole time, relaxing him just enough to let himself make it all the way onto his back. Changbin kept his support while helping position Minho into a more stable pose and let him get used to the feel.

“Alright, I’m going to lower my hand off your back and let you float on your own. Don’t worry, I’ll still be right here, and my hand will still be just under you, just not touching you.” He waited until Minho gave him a confirmation and slowly lowered his hands in the water. The lack of support panicked Minho a little, and he almost lost his balance. “You’re doing really good Minho, just hold it like that. Relax and let the water support you. If you keep yourself like this, then you are safe.”

“I can’t tell where I am though.”

“That’s okay. As you get more comfortable being in this position, we will worry about moving and finding where you are in relation to everything around you. But for now, let’s float for another minute and then we’ll switch it up to some basic swimming.”

When Changbin deemed their floating time up, he gently helped Minho back to standing and let Minho reorientate himself along the side of the pool.  Changbin stepped out for a second and grabbed the boogieboard. Instead of bringing it into the pool, he set it on the ledge for the moment.

“So, we’re just going to do some basic movement with a free kick. Simply just kicking your feet back and forth to propel yourself forward. I’ll do it with you first and then I’ll let you do it by yourself with the board.” Changbin held out his hands, which Minho only briefly hesitated before taking and letting Changbin pull him. Changbin guided him into the right position and started pulling Minho through the pool while Minho kicked. It was clumsy and he was splashing a lot, but thankfully the old lady didn’t seem to care, and Changbin was still giving him all sorts of encouragement and praise.

The switch to the boogieboard was easy enough once Minho figured out how to balance himself on it. Minho did miss holding Changbin’s hands while he swam, but he couldn’t help but still feel proud of himself for swimming with just the help of the board. Changbin swimming alongside him and giving lots of praise was certainly helping too.

In total they spent about an hour in the pool, not doing anything more than letting Minho kick around and take one last round of floating. He wouldn’t say he was confident after the one session, but Minho was looking forward to doing more for the rest of their vacation. They already planned to work on it each morning, and occasionally when they rest would want to go back to the beach.

Two days into their new routine had Minho kicking around comfortably with the boogieboard and doing just a little without it. He was still only doing a doggy paddle but considering before they started, he wasn’t even comfortable enough to do that, Minho would take the improvement. They had yet to move towards deeper water, but Minho was okay with that too.

“You and Changbin have been spending a lot of time together,” Felix mentioned one morning when it was just them in the hotel room, the rest having gone down for some breakfast. Minho just shrugged. “Don’t give me that. I know you two leave in the early morning for something, and you both are often rejecting the suggestions to hand by the beach.”

“That doesn’t mean we’re doing anything. You know we both like to work out and that I’m not crazy about the beach.”

“Sure, but you still joined us and Changbin likes the beach. So, spill.” Felix suddenly gasps. “You didn’t confess, did you? Are you dating now?” Minho panicked and quickly covered Felix’s mouth and shushed him.

“No. I haven’t said anything. And you better not either.” Minho noticed Felix wasn’t really paying attention to him, instead almost going cross-eyed looking at Minho’s hand still covering his mouth. Minho grimaced and pulled his hand away. “Were you my hand?” Felix just looks away. “Gross.” Minho proceeds to wipe his hand off on Felix’s shoulder.

“Anyways. What are you two doing?” Minho sighs.

“He’s teaching me to swim.”

“What! I tried teaching you and you gave up before we even finished the first lesson. Why does he get to teach you?”

“He offered and it was better than sitting on the beach everyday watching the rest of you.”

“And it has nothing to do with you having a crush on him.”

“He’s definitely a better teacher than you were,” Minho commented instead, ignoring Felix.

“Rude,” Felix scoffed out. “Are you going to use this time to confess though? Cause you totally should.”

“I don’t know. I didn’t plan on it.” Felix didn’t get the chance to continue the conversation as they heard the door unlocking and their friends coming back in. Minho was glad from the interruption but that didn’t stop him from thinking about it the rest of the day.

Later when he and Changbin were at the pool together, Changbin could see Minho was distracted. Instead of continuing with their lesson Changbin pulled Minho out of the pool to sit on the ledge with him.

“Are you okay? Did you and Felix fight earlier or something?”

“Huh? Why would you think that?”

“You two looked like you were stopped mid conversation when we came back and then you haven’t spoken to him the rest of the day and have been distracted.”

“No, we’re fine. He was just teasing me a little, but I guess a couple of the things he said got to me.”

“Do I need to talk to him?” Changbin offered. Minho chuckled lightly.

“No. It’s nothing important or to worry over. Just has me lost in thought.”

“Anything you want to share? I’ve been told I’m a good listener.”

“Nah, my thoughts will figure themselves out.” Minho stretched and leaned himself back.

They sat in silence for a short while. It was comfortable just sitting there together, legs in the pool. But Changbin did still have something to say.

“Hey, can I tell you something?” Minho perked up and sat back up.

“Sure.”

“I know we’re on vacation with everyone else too but think the part I’ve enjoyed the most is teaching you. Back home we rarely have time where it’s just the two of us, so I’ve really been glad to get some time now,” Changbin admitted.

“Is that why you offered to teach me?”

“Yeah, that was definitely part of it. But not the only reason.” Changbin glanced over to Minho who was waiting for him to continue speaking. “You looked lonely. Obviously, I didn’t know the reason at first, but I hated that there was something stopping you from joining the rest of us. I wanted to find some way to erase that look. So, when you said swimming was the problem, teaching was the solution, or at least one solution. I was thinking of other options before you agreed.”

“So, you were pitying me?”

“No!” Changbin all but shouted and put his hands up in surrender. “This may sound weird, but I was missing you. You were right there, but so far at the same time. I didn’t like it. I was being selfish.”

“How is that selfish?”

“Because we are with everyone and yet the person I want to spend the most time with is you. And I am dreading returning home. We will have to go back to our regular schedules and thus only see each other a couple times a week and even then, that’s with Chan too,” Changbin admitted. Minho was left speechless at Changbin’s confession, and they sat in silence for a minute.

“We should kick Chan out of our workout sessions,” Minho finally said, and it was the last thing Changbin expected to hear.

“Minho? What? We can’t just kick Chan out.”

“I mean, we could if we really wanted to. But I suppose that’s a little harsh.”

“How would you even go about doing that. Just say sorry Chan, we’re kicking you out of sports kids because I want to spend time with my crush without you. That just sounds ridiculous.”

“Did you just say your crush?”

“What? No. Of course not.” Changbin turned away from Minho to hide the redness he could feel heating up on his face.

“Oh, then what did you say?” Minho prodded. Changbin went through every rhyme he could quickly think of to find an excuse but came up with nothing.
“Uhm, I’m not sure but it wasn’t crush. Why would I say crush?” Since Changbin was still refusing to look at Minho, he couldn’t see the scowl Minho had or the hands that were suddenly shoving him back into the pool.

Changbin made it into the pool with a large splash and a scream. Because he was screaming, he inhaled some water and thus was coughing when he emerged back from under the water. He made his way back to the side of the pool, leaning over the edge while he got his breathing back under control. When he did, he brushed his hair back as it had stuck to his face and then splashed Minho.

“What the hell was that for?” Changbin asked, ignoring Minho’s shout from being splashed.

“You were denying saying crush when you did.”

“Why do you want me to have said it?”

“Cause then it means you have a crush on me.”

“Do you want me to say I have a crush on you?”

“Yes,” Minho said definitively.

“Fine, I have a crush on you. Happy?” It’s not the way most people would want to confess, sounding annoyed and having an argument with said crush, but Changbin was lost in the moment and that’s what he did. He was only looking at Minho through the corner of his eye, but even that was enough to see Minho’s expression change to a huge smile.

“Very.” Part of Changbin wanted to be annoyed by that reaction, but that’s how it always is with Minho. And just seeing that smile and hearing him laugh was enough to ease Changbin’s frustrations. “So, now that you’ve confessed to me, are you going to take me out on a dinner date too?”

“So, I get to take you out? That’s how this works?”

“Yup.”

“And we’re just going to ditch our friends again?”

“I’m sure they’ll forgive us if we’re dating by the end of the night.”

“If?” Changbin questioned.

“Well, who knows, you may be a horrible date.” That earned Minho another splash though he was expecting it this time, putting his hands in front of his face, and laughing through it.

“I’ll have you know I’m a fantastic date.”

“You will just have to prove it then.”

They sent a text to the rest later that afternoon that they wouldn’t be joining them and snuck out to the city before they could be asked anything else. It was a simple date, nothing fancy, that wasn’t either of their styles. They found a nice local restaurant to eat at and then did some window shopping and a little sightseeing before grabbing some dessert on their way back to the hotel. When they got back to the room it seemed everyone was waiting for them. Minho explained they were dating now and casually ignored Jisung opening his wallet to pass money to both Jeongin and Seungmin. He, however, did not bother to explain what they did everyday when the others were at the beach, but that wasn’t important to share with them yet.

Not that much changed after their date, other than they skipped the pool to go out together a couple times. Changbin still took as much care to teach Minho, slowly moving on to new skills once Minho was comfortable with the last one. The one thing Minho was still uncomfortable with was floating on his back. They hadn’t expanded on that much beyond practicing it each day. Changbin decided today was the time to change that.

“You’ve gotten good at floating on your own. I think it’s time for you to move a little while on your back.”

“Why?”

“You never know when it may come in handy. Come on, let’s give it a try. I won’t let you crash into anything.”

Minho eyed him suspiciously but went ahead and started floating on his back. Changbin moved so he was close enough for Minho to see easy enough and began instructing him to move around a little. Minho was nervous about running into any of the pool edges so was moving very slowly, so Changbin decided a new approach was better. He moved to standing above Minho’s head and grabbed Minho’s hands to start pulling him around the pool like they did when Minho was first learning. From this position, Changbin started using Minho’s arms to point out when they got close to the edges, until Minho started doing it on his own.

“Good job. See I said you could do it.” Minho had mostly gotten used to the praise by this point. What he did not expect was Changbin leaning down to place a kiss near his temple. Minho’s first reaction was the flail, which did not help as he immediately sank himself. Changbin took a step back laughing while Minho regained his composure and stood back up.

“Don’t just do that. You could have drowned me,” Minho complained.

“Don’t lie, you enjoyed it. Also, you know I wouldn’t have let you actually drown.”

“Yes, that is what your laughing is proving to me right now,” Minho said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Ah but you didn’t deny liking it. Besides, this makes us even.”

“Even for what?”

“You attempting to drown me when you forced me to confess. Which by the way, you never said anything about you.”

“What I supposed to?”

“Well, it would be nice to hear it.” Minho hummed but swam over to Changbin, wrapping his arms around Changbin’s neck.

“So, which would you like to hear me say? That I like you?” Minho watched as Changbin started blushing. “Or maybe since you said crush, you want me to admit that I have had a crush on you for almost two years now.” Changbin stuttered to say anything for a while.

“I mean, either is good,” He finally squeaked out.

“Well then, I like you, Seo Changbin.” If Minho thought Changbin couldn’t get any redder, he was wrong. Minho decided to put him out of his misery and let go, only to turn around and splash him and swim away.

“What was that for?”

“We promised to meet the others in about fifteen minutes.” Minho had reached the edge of the pool before Changbin even started moving. “Come on slow poke.” Minho held out his hand to for Changbin. That was all it took for Changbin to swim over and let Minho help him out. And if they held hands for the rest of the day, no one was going to comment on it.