“Two small figures were beating against the rock; the girl had fainted and lay on the boy’s arm.

With a last effort Peter pulled her up the rock and then lay down beside her.

Even as he also fainted he saw that the water was raising,

He knew that they would soon be drowned, but he could do no more.”

The wind was bustling against the green, soft leaves on the trees, leaving a very natural scent behind. The fallen leaves danced with the breeze, its traces left behind as well as the sound of waves could be heard crashing on the shore with a greeting as it did. All was silent except for an occasionally bird call deep in the jungle.

A boy in his early twenties was out on the beach, cooking fishes for breakfast when he saw something swooshing by in the jungle. It was Chanyeol swinging on the vines again. Another figure blurred past with a giggle. Suho chuckled lightly.

“Be careful, Chanyeol-ah, Sohee-yah!” he called out to the two of them. “Make sure you guys don’t disturb the animals!”

“Neh!” he heard them response somewhere within those trees.

He turned back to the fishes and saw Sehun and Jongin coming up from the ocean with fishes on their sticks. “Hyung, we caught more fishes!” Jongin stated the obvious. “We can have a feast today!”

Sehun looked up to inspect the time. “It’s almost time for Sohee’s swimming lesson. Have anyone seen her?” he asked, looking around.

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo came out from the jungle with logs and wood to help build the fire in their arms. They pointed into the woods. “Sohee and Chanyeol are having their swinging competition,” Kyungsoo told the rest of them.

Sehun sighed and shook his head. “It’s going to be tough to try to convince her to swim,” he muttered under his breath.

Jongin shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know. It’s been, what, ten years and she still refused to learn how to swim.”

“Well you would be traumatized too, if you had nearly drowned all those years ago,” Suho pointed out reasonably.

Caw, caw.

Suddenly a flock of crows could be seen flying into the air, away from the jungle like they were chased away from there, flying overhead.

Sehun signed once more. “I’ll be going to get her out to swim.” He started to make his way inside to where Sohee and Chanyeol were.

Jongin followed him inside to where they birds had flown away from. Five minutes later, they were at the waterfall, where Chanyeol was enjoying himself in the water while Sohee was sitting on the rocks, avoiding any contact with the water if it meant that she would have to swim. Sohee laughed as Chanyeol tried to swim like a dolphin.

Jongin turned to Sehun, his eyes gleaming. “Why not we push her inside the water? That way, she will have no choice but to swim.”

“No,” Sehun objected almost in an instant. “Do you want her to feel scared and think that she’s drowning again?” He walked over to Sohee.

Jongin pouted but shrugged and decided to join Chanyeol on this particular, hot sunny day. Sohee looked up when Sehun approached her and glanced warily at him. “I’m very tired from all those swinging,” she told him.

“Who won the race?”

“Channie Oppa, as always. He has longer limbs than me, after all.”

“What’s the punishment?”

“That I can’t have a refreshing swim after the hot, sweaty battle,” she replied, shrugging nonchalantly as she glanced over toward the older boy.

He laughed. “That doesn’t seem to be much of a punishment for someone who hates swimming like you.” He pinched the bridge of her nose as she smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, but that doesn’t apply to the swimming lessons I’m giving you.”

Her face fell. “Awww . . .”

“No but’s, Sohee,” he said firmly. He stood up and held his hands out to her. “Come on, be a good girl and swim. If you come now, I promise I’ll end the lesson earlier as a reward for coming willingly now. How does that sound?”

Sohee hesitated.

“Come on,” he tried to coax her. “The faster we have the lesson, the more time you’ll have to play later. Okay?”

She sighed reluctantly and took his hand. He pulled her up to her feet and the two of them walked back to the beach. Kyungsoo and Suho were frying the second batch of fishes for lunch while Baekhyun was sunbathing. Sehun and Sohee stripped to their swimsuits before they slowly entered the cool water that greeted them the moment they stepped into the water.

Sohee shuddered but tried not to let Sehun know (although he did). Sehun made sure the water was up to Sohee’s neck when he motioned for her to stop and swam out alone, at least three feet away from her. “Try swim out here on your own,” he told her. When he saw the look of panic in her eyes, he smiled reassuringly. “I know you can do it, Sohee. I’m here. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

Sohee nodded, feeling this sense of fear arising, but she did everything she could to push it away. “You can do it,” Kyungsoo hollered encouragingly from the shore

She closed her eyes, tried to relax and regulate her breathing, and then she pushed herself forward, swimming cautiously but hurriedly so that she would reach Sehun’s side in no time. Sehun caught her by the waist and helped stable her in the water now that she could no longer feel the rocks under her feet — which scared her the most.

“Okay, now, try swimming out by yourself while I’m behind you,” he suggested.

Sohee’s eyes rounded like saucepans. “Wh – What?” she choked. As if she wasn’t feeling scared when she had to swim to him, now she had to swim away from him? What he for real? How can he expect that from her?

“I’ll be right behind you,” he promised before he let her go and gave her a gentle push from the back. “Swim as far as you can, Sohee-yah.”

Sohee had no choice but to do as he said before she didn’t have time to hold onto him before he had given her another push. She tried to remember everything he taught her about swimming and tried to apply it now. She used the leap-frog swimming style as that was the one she was most confident in and tried to swim out as far as she could.

When she felt like she didn’t dare to do it anymore, she turned around — to see that Sehun had not even moved an inch.

At first, she started to panic and started to sink because she realized that Sehun was at least five feet away from her, but then she realized she had done it. She had swum without any guidance and she was actually okay!

She wasn’t drowning yet!

Sehun gave her the thumbs-up and she beamed widely. “You do it, Sohee!” he cried out to her, waving a hand.

I did it! Sohee couldn’t believe it.

“Can you swim further?” he asked her.

She responded by giving him an ‘are-you-crazy?’ glare.

“I’m kidding,” he chuckled. “Okay, okay. Just try to swim back and then we’ll call it for the rest of the day, okay? You did well, Sohee.”

She smiled and started to make her way back when she felt this sharp pain on her right foot before numbness took over and she started to sink into the sea, her vision blurring in the saltiness of the water. She was having leg cramps from swimming too much.

Sehun saw her sinking and his eyes grew wide, knowing just what the problem was. “Sohee! Hang on, I’m coming!” he said as he started to take powerful to her.

Within seconds, he was at the spot where she had sunk in. He took a long, deep breath, before he dived underwater to see Sohee struggling to swim back up to the surface with one hand while clutching onto her cramped leg with the other. He pushed himself forward, fighting against the currents of the sea, until he was by her side.

To his horror, Sohee had stopped fighting. She stopped moving. It was almost as if she had stopped breathing.

He quickly placed her arms around his shoulders and with a mighty kick, he managed to reach the surface with the both of their weight on him. It was a good thing Suho and Kyungsoo were keeping watch on them because the moment air returned to his lungs, he felt Suho taking Sohee away from him as Kyungsoo helped guide him back to the shore.

Suho laid an unconscious Sohee on the sand (where an oblivious Baekhyun was sleeping soundly) while Kyungsoo was totally freaking out.

“Oh my God! Oh my God! She’s dead? Is she dead? Oh my God! What are we going to do? What are we going to do? Is she still breathing? I don’t see her chest rising! Oh my God! Oh my God! Hyung! Do something!”

Suho slapped him. “Calm down!”

“Hyung!” Kyungsoo whined.

The leader ignored his friend and turned to Sohee before he looked at Sehun who was shaking her, attempting to wake her up. “Sehun, do you know how to do CPR?” he asked the younger boy. “I mean, you’re the swimming instructor after all.”

Sehun slapped himself. “How could I have forgotten that I should perform CPR?” But then he looked at Sohee’s pink lips and blinked. . . . Should he take advantage of this and steal Sohee’s first kiss? Would her lips be soft? Would it be sweet?

What the hell are you doing?, he scolded him, shaking his head.

“Sehun.”

“I’ll do it,” he said hastily before he pinched the bridge of her nose and leaned in, his lips touching hers. They were soft. Aish, shut up, stop thinking about this. He blew into , giving oxygen to her. Then he placed his hands over her chest (trying not to think about the fact that he was kind of touching her s — no, no, don’t think about that, Oh Sehun!) and pumped. He repeated the steps again, and again, and again, and again.

“It’s not working,” Kyungsoo croaked from behind Suho, who ran a hand through his messy hair. “She’s going to die.”

Sehun shook his head adamantly and tried again. He was not going to let her die in his hands. If she does die now, he will forever be ridden with guilt for he was the one who had promised he would not let anything bad happen to her.

Come on, Sohee, wake up!

“Ughh . . .”

Kyungsoo looked up to see Sohee coughing salt water, and Sehun immediately hugging her. Suho breathed a sigh of relief and Kyungsoo realized that Sohee was alive. “Oh my God!! She’s alive! She’s alive! She’s not dead yet! Oh my God!”

Sehun kissed her cheek without thinking and his face immediately turned crimson red. “Uh . . . don’t do that! I thought you were going to die!” he said, relieved. “I’m so sorry, I promise you I won’t let you swim out by yourself again.”

“There’s still a next time?” Sohee joked weakly, indicating that she was going to be okay. She looked over to the older boys. “Kyungsoo Oppa, are you okay? Why are you crying? Were you scared that I was going to die?”

“Yes!” he wailed, stomping his foot on the sand before he pushed Sehun away — causing him to fall on the sand on his — and hugged her close to him. “But Suho freaked out the most. You should have had seen him earlier.”

Suho blushed. “Yah, Kyungsoo . . .”

Just then Jongin and Chanyeol came out, all wet and happy from their swim earlier, and gathered around the boys. But then they paused when they saw that Sohee was on the sand. They rushed over. “What happened? Are you okay?” they asked frantically.

Sohee smiled weakly. “I’m okay . . .”

Sehun looked worriedly at her. “You should go get some rest now or something,” he told her. He was feeling guilty because it was sort of his fault that she had almost drowned. If anything had happened to her, he would not let himself live it down.

“I’m fine, Oppa, really,” she insisted. “I just . . .”

Sehun carried her up, bridal-style, and ignored her protests as he brought her back to the hangman’s tree to rest. The others all just watched them.

Baekhyun blinked. “What happened to her?” he wanted to know. He had been sleeping all this while, even when Sehun gave Sohee CPR.

Everyone just facepalmed.

“What?” he blinked again.

Later that night, Sohee was in the kitchen, cooking, when Jongin approached her. “Hey, Sohee. I thought you were supposed to be resting.”

“If I don’t cook, who else will cook?”

“Kyungsoo hyung?”

She shrugged. “He’s in charge of the washing the clothes and keeping everything in order. I’m in charge of meals.”

Jongin watched her as she moved about in the kitchen. He leaned against the counter. “Just because you’re a girl doesn’t mean you have to be stuck with the ‘girls’ chores’. We’ve been fairing well before, remember? Kyungsoo hyung made sure we did.” He chuckled, remembering how much Kyungsoo Umma had nagged their ears off.

She shrugged again and smiled, stirring the soup in the pot. “I don’t mind, really, because I love cooking.” She poked his biceps. “Besides, I know you guys love my cooking, right, right, right, right?” She laughed.

Jongin grabbed her finger. “Yah, what are you doing?” he laughed as well. He pulled her toward him and she crashed her body against him. He held onto her waist and looked into her eyes. He smiled softly as she gazed up toward him. She had grown prettier throughout all the years, letting her hair grow long and she also had grown taller, although she was still shorter than him. If she was to hug him, her head would rest nicely on his chest.

He leaned forward and kissed her forehead softly. “Do you want me to help?” he offered kindly, looking around the place.

Sohee blushed, surprised by this sudden intimacy. “Um. Okay . . .” She looked up to him and smiled timidly.

Jongin let go of her and smiled back. “Let’s get cookin’,” he said lightly and went around the kitchen to help her. “What are we going to make?”

Sehun, who had wanted a glass of water, was about to enter the kitchen when he saw Sohee and Jongin laughing and talking as they prepared the meal together. He felt like if he entered now, he would be ruining something that might be another thing one day and shrank back. With a hollow feeling, he turned and went outside, unaware that someone was watching him the whole time.

“Dinner!” Sohee called out and soon, hungry boys popped up all of a sudden from nowhere and were soon seated around the table, ready to eat the delicious feast right before their very eyes. She counted heads. “Where’s Sehun Oppa?”

Kyungsoo pointed outside the hangman’s tree. “I saw him going out,” he replied.

Chanyeol frowned. “Why? Is he not hungry?” But then he smiled and shrugged. “More for me, then,” he went on, not bothered. He started to scoop some food in an unusually large portion for himself but Baekhyun slapped his hand away, making him to drop the serving spoon back into the plate with a clatter.

“Don’t be greedy, hyung, everyone needs to eat,” Jongin chastised the giant boy.

Suho sighed as he glanced around. “Jongin, why don’t you go call Sehun back in so we can all eat?” he asked the second youngest male.

“Why don’t Sohee go get him instead? She’ll probably find him a lot quicker, because we need to be able to tame Chanyeol and Jongin from the food,” Baekhyun suggested.

Suho nodded his head to Sohee. “Could you ask him to come and eat now?”

Sohee nodded, setting the last spoon and fork down. “Of course, Suho Oppa,” she replied and bowed before she turned and ran out of the hangman’s tree, in search for Sehun, knowing just where he would be.

Meanwhile, that same person who watched Sehun stalked off, grinned to himself.

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Orz, someone, give me motivation to update this more often i

but here's a chappie for you guise :3