nothing's over.

“And you’re positive this thing will keep me from drowning?” Miyoon asked a bit worried as she fibbed with the buckles of her life-vest.

After the first group went out to compete, Hoya had managed to convince her to give the canoeing ordeal a shot. He promised her that she would be safe because he’d be there to protect her. Also she had already given in half-way after that heartwarming conversation the two of them had conducted prior to the discussion. She was still wavering but once she watched everyone having so much fun being competitive, Miyoon had to admit that she did not want to be left out.

Nor did she want to be stuck doing chores when this was supposed to be a little break from work and stress for her.

“For the umpteenth time, yes.” Hoya answered, playfully rolling his eyes as he strapped his own floating device on. He didn’t really need it but because of Miyoon’s insistence and worries, he didn’t really have much of a choice. He had worn it to reassure her that he’d be safe as well.

“But it’s so small and light. Would it really be able to hold me up?” she fibbed constantly as she glanced unsurely out into the body of water lying before them which over the short span of time seemed to have tripled in size.

They were put into the third and last seed to go. Whatever team lost this round would be the final unfortunate souls that would be glued to chores for the remainder of the time there. “Just because it’s small and seems flimsy doesn’t mean it’s weak. It’s more secure than you think. Now just breathe and whatever you do, do not panic when we’re out on the lake. If you do the chances of us flipping over and falling into the water would be high. Got it?”

“Fl-flipping into the w-water?” she staggered out as panic engulfed her being. Miyoon was already starting to doubt herself and the decision she had selected as she watched the other players climbing and getting comfortable in their own racing machines.

Hoya recognized the fear in her voice and mentally slapped himself for saying something like that. It most definitely must have horrified her down right to the bones. He bit back his tongue and really wished that he could recant his words. With a guilty conscious, he slowly turned around and gave Miyoon a dry laugh. “Eh he he, I was only kidding?”

Miyoon grasped onto the straps of her vest firmly without making any eye contact with him and Hoya exhaled dejectedly. “Come on, captain! We’re all waiting!” Wonho bellowed out from his canoe which was positioned all the way at the other end of theirs.

Her body tensed at his call and she wondered if it would be too late for her to back out of race. She was contemplating on whether or not she should just bolt out of their when a warm and familiar hand rested on her shoulder.

Surprised, Miyoon lifted her eyes up to discover Hoya standing there with a small and subtle smile painted on his face. There was a tint of bitterness and regret lingering on his lips which made her feel uncertain at what he was thinking. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. It’s okay for me to do chores. It’ll be a new experience.”

When the ending resounded through her head, Miyoon’s brows raised into arches as her grip around her vest loosened. “New experience?” she mimicked the words and he nodded. “You mean you’ve never lost before?”

The latter chuckled and shrugged nonchalantly. “What can I say? I’m a natural at this kind of stuff.” Most people would have seen Hoya’s remark as bragging and boastful. Filled with nothing but cockiness and over-confidence but not to Miyoon. She almost, strangely enough, found it charming.

Then a pang of guilt conquered her body as she let out an exasperated sigh. “If you have never lost a race before, what did you usually place in?”

“Ah, it’s nothing big.” He dismissed, ruffling his hair. “I won’t force you to do it. We can go get some firewood for tonight.” Hoya started to unclasp the buckles while Miyoon did nothing but observe him.

“You won every single time, didn’t you.” Her words used to form such a line reflected more of a statement than a question and the man before her yielded his actions.

He met eyes with her yet smiled, “Yeah but it’s not like this is anything serious. I’m fine with losing this one year.”

“Just this one year? Does that mean this will be my first and last time coming?” her tone came off sadder than she had intended it to.

“Yes, possibly.” He nodded. In an instant, her face dropped along with her heart. “Or it could also mean that you’ll eventually get over your fear of water one day and the next time we come, we can kick everyone’s .”

At the second explanation, Miyoon felt her heart leap as she gazed at him with shimmering eyes. “Do you think I can really get over it?”

Hoya didn’t say anything as he thought deeply about his response. When he created an answer he deemed to be worthy, he parted his lips and allowed the words to escape. “If you believe you can, I do too. I’ll always believe in you.”

His words continued swelling her already fat heart with joy as Miyoon moved her hands to re-strap the buckles which would keep the life-vest on him. As she finished, she looked up at him and the corners of her lips twitched upwards. “I believe I can.” She told him with positivity. With you by my side, I can do anything.

“Are you sure?” Hoya asked, holding onto her shoulders. “Things like these require time and patience. What I did earlier wasn’t right.”

Miyoon laughed and poked his forehead back, “I said I believe I can do it so you better believe in me as well. Now let’s stop the yapping and kick some .” She pumped her fist in the air and he quirked a brow at her.

“Since when did you start talking like that?” He climbed into the canoe fist and sat at the seat occupying the back of the water-mobile.

“Since the fifth game of the season. Do you not know how difficult it is for me to not curse those stupid players who could do nothing but slide-tackle you guys? It was so annoying.” Miyoon snickered as she crossed her arms against her chest indignantly.

“At least we won,” Hoya pointed out. “Now get in before we pass out from being fried by the sun.”

The woman’s body tensed again as her arms moved back to rest lifelessly by her sides. She gulped and peered over her shoulder to see everyone looking at her with expressions of oppressed impatience. Meaning, they were losing tolerance but were still trying to remain civilized and polite about the situation. She felt as though she had wasted enough of their time and sighed as she hopped in. She picked up the oar and turned to Hoya. “What am I supposed to do with this?” she whispered, waving it back and forth.

“Paddle it in the water. When I go right you go left and vice versa. Don’t worry too much about it, I’ll tell you what side to oar.” He replied. “Just relax and get ready to kick some .”

When he said it, Miyoon realized it sounded ridiculous because she wasn’t used to it at all and laughed. “It doesn’t suit you, Hoya.” She covered and faced forward. “Just stick to saying .” Behind her Hoya pretended to be angry but seeing that she was much more at ease, he shook his head in amusement.

Next, ten players who had already went came and two of them left to go behind each canoe. Coach Sang signaled for them to push the canoes into the water and when the water reached their knees, they returned to the shore. By this point, Miyoon was still laughing at the scene with Hoya saying . Was that how funny it sounded when I said it? Her eyes were closed and she hadn’t even realized that they were already nearly three feet into the lake.

“When you hear the whistle, begin!” Coach Sang hollered, causing Miyoon to snap out of her thoughts.

“What?!” she gasped as her eyes flew open. She looked left and then right to find out she was surrounded by nothing but water. The canoe swayed side to side gently and she grabbed onto both sides, not wanting it to rock. “When did we get out here?!” she shrieked.

“Xiazi, relax and breathe. Believe that you can do it and you will.” Hoya advised her from behind. He couldn’t see her face but he could tell she was probably as pale as a ghost. Her hands trembling were taken into account as he sighed.

“What if another canoe crashes into us? What if we sink? I don’t want to sink. This is going to be like the Titanic, isn’t it?” she blurted as her breaths started to become short, heavy and fast.

“Don’t think like that,” He prodded her and before he could encourage her some more, the loud whistle rang through the air and in a flash, the other four canoes began to swim the course made for the race. All they had to do was go around the perimeter once and it’d be over but at this rate, Hoya was sure that it would have been better if they just hadn’t participated at all.

The splashing coming from the other oars breaking surface of the water struck Miyoon and the droplets left on her skin caused her to flinch. Her body quivered and shook but Hoya’s words floated around in her head. He was right. She couldn’t let her fear take away even a minute of her life. She couldn’t miss out on the countless of possibilities because of fright. She couldn’t even fathom that she was scared of anything at all. She was Wu Xiazi for crying out loud. The woman who laughed at horror films, enjoyed riding on rollercoasters and scaring the living daylights of her geges whenever she had the chance.

Her fingers brushed over the life-vest wrapped around her body and if Hoya assured her that she would be safe, it had to be true because he’d never lie to her.

Miyoon trusted him and immediately, her moment of frenzy settled. Her breathing returned to its normal pace and she pried her lids open. She spotted the others ahead of them by a good twenty yards and gawked at how quickly they had managed to maneuver through the water. Hesitantly, she lifted up the oar and turned her head just a bit to look at Hoya. She was still scared that if she moved too much or too fast, the canoe would become unbalanced and knock them straight into the water like he had hypothesized earlier. “What are you doing?” she attempted to joke but Hoya only sighed.

“I’ll just drag us back to the shore. Sit tight.” He instructed her and as he was prepared to enter the water, she stopped him.

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’m up for losing my first year attending this team trip. I think it would make me look really bad. You go right and I go left you say? Ready, go!” Miyoon dipped the oar and began to paddle excitedly.

They shifted only a little and she frowned because the distance between them and the other teams was continuing to grow. “Why aren’t we moving!?” she huffed and resumed her paddling.

Hoya was in a daze and therefore was the main reason into why they were getting nowhere.

Then Miyoon forgot about where they were because of the frustration and whirled the entire upper half of her body around. “Yah!” she whined loudly. She wagged a finger at him and the oar sitting on the floor in front of him, “Why aren’t you paddling?” He simply blinked at her and without breaking eye contact he reached down to pick the oar up. He didn’t say a word and Miyoon blew at her hair before she spun back around. “Aish, now we’re never going to catch up to them!” She cried agonizingly and childishly.

The man behind her couldn’t restrain laughter from filling the area around them as he shook his noggin in disbelief. He began to paddle and send ripples into the water. “Just paddle and we’ll see,” he ordered her.

Her shoulders slumped as she followed his instructions, now hopeless in the idea of ever winning. The eagerness she had experienced for that brief moment had disappeared along with the fear only to be replaced by dread and defeat.

Miyoon really wanted to win. Not just for herself but for Hoya too. However, she took too long in making up her mind and in the end it had cost them their chance in claiming victory. Miyoon hung her head low and just moved her oar in whatever direction opposite to Hoya’s. She had become mute and unaware of her surroundings as someone shouted, “Look out!” The warning was delayed and so was the reaction from Miyoon.

A collision took place and all Miyoon heard was splashing. Her eyes were closed tightly and of course her first instinct was to hold her breath. All she could feel enveloping her was the water. She was submerged six feet under and for some reason she found herself opening her eyes.

She could see the sun lounging over her head and a few unclear voices hovering there as well. Miyoon didn’t know the first thing about swimming but naturally her feet kicked into drive as she found it a strenuous task to hold her breath. She couldn’t scream nor did she want to because she was aware that if she opened , she would only be granting the water entrance into her body.

Miyoon found she was getting closer and when she finally breached the water’s surface, she in oxygen into her lungs like there was no tomorrow. Her hand wiped her face as her chest heaved hastily. Her body was clearly hungry for air even though she hadn’t been under for more than a minute. She was relieved as one could be and when she realized that she wasn’t sinking back under and screaming for help, she froze.

She eyed the life-vest and breathed out appreciatively. “It really does work,” she murmured more than satisfied.

“You’re okay!” Hoya exclaimed as he pulled her into his arms.