You walked on the hot, white, beach sand with $4 in one hand and your 4-year old baby cousin in the other. You marched over the beach towels and along the waterside with your goal in sight: the ice cream stand. Your cousin, Lena, tugged and squealed as she saw the pictures of the ice cream on the top of the stand; Oreo ice cream sandwiches, snow cones, SpongeBob popsicles, chocolate ice cream. You got in line, trying to get the ice cream of Lena’s desire and walk away as fast as possible so that you could get back to your tanning spot. As you handed her the SpongeBob shaped, commercialized popsicle, you tried to give the money to the cashier, but as clumsy as you are, all of the money fell into the sand. While on your knees, trying to pick the money up, you felt cold little SpongeBob on your leg. Yes, now the waterworks began and you were holding up the line; what a day! As you looked up, you met eyes with a guy; an oriental guy with wavy brown hair and beautiful, smiling eyes. He quickly picked up your money and gave it to you, and in the same instant, he gave another popsicle to Lena, whipping away her tears with one finger. Surprised, you stood up and tried to gather your thoughts on what to say to this mysterious figure. Your thoughts were interrupted with his words to the cashier, “Two more please!” The cashier quickly handed you the ice cream as the guy took his change out of his bathing suit pocket and paid. You found yourself walking a couple of feet away from the stand and stopping.

“Thank you so much for helping me! Here, let me pay you back for the ice cream.” He gently pushed your hand down as you tried to hand him the money.  

“No guy back at home would take down an offer of money!” you thought.

The guy spoke up in a very kind, tender voice; a voice of a singer potentially, “Please, you don’t have to pay me back. It’s my pleasure!”

Another one of your characteristics emerged as you stubbornly argued with him, “But I have to pay you back somehow. Please, let me do something or take the money because I can’t not repay you for this!”

“Haven’t you ever heard of a kind stranger?” the guy replied.

“Well, I won’t leave you alone until I find a way to pay you back!” you argued once more.

He smiled shyly and looked as if he was thinking up a way that you could pay him back.

“Ok. I know how you could pay me back! Tell me your name!” he said.

“That’s it; isn’t that not enough? Think up something else that I could do; something bigger.” you argued again.

He responded with a simple,

“No. You name is all that I could have as payback.”

 You found that if you continue to argue, this conversation will never end, and he, too, was pretty stubborn.

“Veronica. But everyone calls me Rose.”

“So beautiful names correspond with beautiful girls,” he said as you felt yourself get unbelievably red.

He must have seen that you became very flattered and you let your guard down so he stopped and looked shyly at his feet, making a little hole in the sand with his toes.

“I’m sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable, I was just trying to compliment you.” he apologized.

“Um… no, why? You don’t have to apologize. It was very sweet of you. It’s just that, um…”

You heard yourself stutter as you tried to make out the words.

“Um…. no guy has never said that to me before.”

You felt flushed and embarrassed. You have never told anyone stuff like that; never even admitting it to your best friend, and here you are, telling that to a complete stranger.

He suddenly looked up at you with a surprised look on his face and said, “Really? I thought every guy would tell you that. I mean, I thought it wouldn’t be right of me to tell you that because I presumed that you had a boyfriend and all the guys were looking at you and….”

He kept mumbling and saying all of these things that you just had to stop him from trailing off and potentially saying something that would make him feel really awkward so you laughed.

“Haha, no. I don’t have a boyfriend. Thank you for the compliments, though; you are really sweet! Here, how about you tell me what your name is?”

“Taemin!”

“Wow!” you thought as you looked at him. The sunlight bouncing off the water made him glow and only now you really realized his true beauty; inside and out.

“What?! Is there a bug on me? Get it off, get it off!” He shuffled in the sand trying to get his imaginary bug off of him but he soon realized, as you and Lena laughed, that he was making a complete fool of himself and that he should stop.

“I’m so sorry. I’m so gullible! My hyungs always put bugs down my shirt when I’m sleeping and they always trick me so whenever people stare at me, I freak out about a bug on me. I guess I should go now. I’ve embarrassed myself enough!”

“Nooooooo!” Lena yelled in a whiny voice. “Stay, stay!”

Both of you, now surprised, looked at her and Taemin walked back a couple of feet as he gave you a little smile and knelt down on the hot sand in front of her.

“I’m sorry little princess! What do you want me to do?” he asked

Lena bit her lip, looked sternly at the ocean, then at him, and then back at the ocean. With her eyes still fixed at the water, she said with her index finger extended out as far as it could possibly go, “Take me there!”

Taemin looked at you as if he was looking for your permission. You knew what he was going to do, so you smiled and nodded.