Beep, beep, beep.

The morning alarm chimed in as Taemin groaned into the pillow, his arm stretched out from underneath the fluffy piles of blankets to reach for the buzzing phone, tapping and sliding his finger across the screen randomly to get the deafening sound off. He’d tried doing that in his half-awake state but just as it was bound to happen, he failed.

Grumbling, Taemin pushed himself to sit up then looked at his phone. It read 09:00 in the morning - meaning it’d been snoozed for over an hour already, attesting to the truth that his plan for an early morning walk along the beach remained only as a plan. The alarm was in vain, then.

That was his second day in the hotel. The vacation was so abrupt, yet work stretched him thin enough for the decision to be made relevant. Taemin had requested to be working portably, away from the office and certainly not at home, but he didn’t mention that. “Further details are confidential,” he appealed for leave while gathering the papers into one file. “But I promise to work just like usual every day.”

Except, well… Sunday. Who on God’s green Earth works on Sunday?

Not Taemin obviously. He was already climbing off his bed by then, snatching the bathrobe that he had hung overnight and bringing it into the bathroom where a bath filled with colourful streaks of foams awaited. It was practically calling for him as he submerged his pliant body into the water, sighed and wriggled a couple of times to enjoy the warmth of the unmoving water.

The beach resort that he visited was in all of its glory. Probably in their peak success, if judged by the tremendous amount of contentment in the reviews section of their website and the smiles on every guest’s face as they leave the lobby. Now that Taemin had the chance to experience it himself, from the spacious, gorgeous suites to their supreme hospitality and top-notch service; he agreed. The manager must be an incredible leader. The initiative, creative and resourceful kind who knew exactly the way to enhance room selling techniques and increase profitability.

Good for him, Taemin thought as he left the tub after draining the water, the flimsy lace of the robe hugged his wet body when he made his way into the bedroom again. Curtains were pushed open, the bright threads of not so morning light greeting him afternoon mockingly. Perched atop the table in the balcony was his laptop, the screen reflecting a new set of unread emails from the day before as he sat down. Working on a Sunday was a sin. He could never understand the audacity for his colleague - the one that was calling him needlessly - to forward these files to a friend on ‘vacation’ without an ounce of mercy. 

“I’m here,” Taemin said while taking a bite of the salad, a thumb moving professionally across the touchpad to load the first email. “Stop beating around the bush and tell me, Kibum. What is this nonsense in my email?”

“The list of candidates,” Kibum answered fatuously.

“I know. It doesn’t look like a To-Buy list to me,” Taemin grunted and forked down one of the berries then popped it into his mouth. “But what for? I thought I made it clear that I won’t be checking stuff on Sunday.”

“Jinki insisted that I forwarded the list to you.”

“Liar.”

Kibum scoffed, “For real! Just because he once had a crush on you doesn’t mean he would never give you work during your so-called vacation.”

“Not my fault he fell for my cute little .”

“Yeah, whatever. He’s my boyfriend now,” Kibum hissed. It earned a hearty laugh from Taemin who was beyond elated to tease the other. God, he’s so testy. “Anyway, he told me to send them to you so you can have a go on the new set. It was shortlisted by an intern, by the way. Hence the slight reduction of trust.”

“And you both made me the mama for this new intern.”

“Hey, you’re the best HR manager we’ve ever had. It was only right for us to believe in you more than anyone else.”

“Yeah, okay.” Scroll, scroll, pause, fix, and scroll. 

“Will you check on them?”

Taemin hummed shortly and slammed the laptop shut, now fully distracted by the sound of the waves lapping on the beach below like an incantation to coax him closer. Work was set aside at the moment, Kibum’s demand vanished with the growing excitement. “Yeah, but after my evening swim.”

A towel, sunscreen, a clean change of clothes, shades - all and more were dumped into his bag. It was not long after Taemin ended Kibum’s call for him to jump back onto his feet, now rummaging through his luggage for some beach essentials. The phone was completely out of the way. He didn’t need Kibum—or Jinki, for that matter—to be a killjoy and ruin the fun he was ready to indulge in, so he left his room and made his way down to the lobby as soon as he was ready. The key card was safely kept in a spare pouch he’d brought together and the 27-year-old bounced on his steps, eager to chase the dryness of the sand. 

As expected, the sun was unforgiving into the late afternoon. It pierced so harshly into Taemin’s gaze that he had to squint his eyes, unable to cope with the sudden increase of brightness and only stopped doing that when he was secured under the shade of an umbrella, a white, empty recliner stretching wide next to him.

“Damn,” Taemin grumbled and peeled his face mask off. People around were laughing and running and playing as though they were not the slightest bit disturbed by the hot weather. It made him wonder if it was just months of being a homebody during the pandemic that made him this sensitive to the external environment or if this crowd here was just built differently.

Perhaps the latter. He refused to acknowledge how much of a wuss he’d become after the lockdown, so it must be the latter.

Like what he