“Sojin, you’re entering in the Miss Guam Beach contest?!” Krystal shrieks, shooting up from her seat. “Why?”

“It’s a bet,” I inform her stolidly. “Kai’s entering in the Mr. Guam Beach contest. If I place higher than him, he’s going to stop messing with me.” I don’t mention what’ll happen if I lose.

“That contest requires you to parade around in a skimpy little bikini and basically kiss up to the audience.” Amber shakes her head.

I sigh. “I know, the entire thing is disgusting. But I already agreed to it.”

Sulli grabs my hands. “Okay, guys, there’s nothing we can do about it now. Let’s help Sojin do this! When’s the contest?”

“I have to be at the beach Wednesday morning by 8,” I reply miserably. “Oh, my poor specimen...,”

“That’s enough time,” Luna nods to Sulli. “We’ll start now.”

The rest of the day is filled with Krystal, Victoria, Sulli, Luna, and Amber giving me pageant prep lessons. Being the daughters of wealthy moguls, the 5 have had to learn to put on a fake smile and act nice really quickly. It’s sickening acting this way, but I’m a fast learner; by the time the day’s over I have the hang of acting honey sweet.

“The only problem we have now is your swimsuit.” Victoria scratches her head. “I have some, but I don’t know if they’ll fit you. You’re really tall.”

I cringe. “I... I have the swimsuit taken care of.” Reaching into my bag I pull out a strapless little coral bikini.

“Oh my god, where did you get this?” Victoria lunges at the swimsuit. “This is so cute! But I didn’t think you wore stuff like this.”

I sigh, rubbing my forehead. “Dr. Hwang made sure to sneak it in before I left.”

“She would!” Krystal giggles. “Well, we’ve got that taken care of, at least."

“Oh my god,” Amber whistles.

“Holy ,” Luna gasps.

“Sojin...,” Victoria clasps her hands to .

I furrow my eyebrows. “Do I really look that bad?” I examine myself in the floor-length mirror in Sulli’s hotel room. “Wow, I am showing way too much skin. Okay, I’ll change. It’s only 7 o’ clock, we still have time to go to the gift shop and get another-,”

“You look awesome!” Krystal squeals, fanning her face. “Oh, my little Sojin baby, I’m going to cry!”

“Stay away from the guys,” Luna warns me. “They’re gonna be all over you.”

“Now let’s do your makeup.” Sulli drags me over to a chair in front her her vanity mirror. “We have one hour till Miss Guam Beach begins. Let’s do this!”

I am valedictorian. I am smart. I am a science intern at a prestigious company. So I should not be nervous right now.

Yet there are butterflies the size of rocks flitting around in my stomach as I walk to the judge’s booth to sign in. It’s set up right in the middle of the beach, where everyone can see.

I don’t let my facade of cool confidence crack. They can look. I don’t care.

“Holy , is that Park Sojin?!” I hear someone hiss.

“I didn’t know she was hiding that body under those sweatshirts.”

“I’d like to see those long legs wrapped around-,”

“Name?” one of the judges sitting at the table asks.

“Park Sojin,” I reply firmly.

“You’re checked in.” The judge points towards a booth near the refreshments stand. “Wait there with the other contestants until the competition begins.”

“Thanks.” I head over there.

“Good luck Sojin!” Amber calls, waving wildly. I flash her a discreet thumbs up.

As I get closer to the booth, I can make out Kai’s profile against the sun. He looks handsome as ever against the blazing sun. Time to take you down, Kim Kai. If there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s how to act cordial in uncomfortable situations.

When I arrive at the contestant waiting area everyone goes dead silent. Kai goes slack-jawed as he drags his eyes down my body, taking in every little detail.

“What are you doing here?” Yuna snaps. I see she’s joined the Miss Guam Beach contest as well. Instead of snapping at her, I merely ignore her and take a seat.

“Hey, cutie.” A broad, muscled man slides over to me. He must be either a local or a tourist; he’s not a student at our school. “Can I have the pleasure of knowing your name?”

“That’s for me to know and you to dream about,” I reply smoothly, crossing my legs. A willowy girl in the corner of the booth snorts in laughter.

“Ouch, Federico. Someone got rejected,” she trills.

“Shut up, Nicole,” Federico barks, his face reddening.

As Nicole and Federico begin bickering, Kai stands up and swaggers over to me, slamming a hand on the wooden board above my head.

The move is intended to intimidate me. I don’t bat an eye.

“If you were showing any more skin, you’d be ,” he scoffs.

“Says the guy wearing nothing but a pair of swim trunks.” I roll my eyes. Kai’s swimsuit is hung low on his waist, a thin trail of hair leading down into his trunks. It’s obvious from the way half the girls on the beach are blatantly ogling his crotch that the female population approves of his clothing choice.

The female population minus yours truly. Kai may have a nice exterior, but I know how rotten he really is on the inside.

The Miss Guam Beach contest begins. The female contestants are first: me, Nicole, Yuna, and the other girls strut onto a runway, give a brief introduction about ourselves, and answer questions from judges. I nail my question portion. When a judge asks me about sealife protection, I answer cleverly with a personal anecdote about working with Guam’s native specimen and a few statistics as well.

“Beautiful and smart, I see,” the judge beams at me, and I give her a winning smile.

The swimsuit modelling portion goes well, too. So does the audience approval contest.

It’s not until lunch break when I screw everything up.

I’m chomping on a tasty guava (Chanyeol would love that) when I hear a faint scream from behind the surfboard shed. Furrowing my eyebrows, I walk over to see what’s happening-

And drop my guava.