“Yoohoona!” Kyuhyun yodeled while he excitedly knocked on the said girl’s brown and wooden door. He knocked exactly three times, the pounding knock getting louder after each tap. Kyuhyun shifted all his weight to his right leg while waiting for the dark brown haired female to open the door. When no one opened the door after a few good minutes, the lawyer felt impatient and decided to knock again. Kyuhyun kept knocking until he formed a rhythm and tapped his feet to the beat, “Oh, yeah, listen up,” Kyuhyun started, “Ay, Yoona. Open up the door because I am tired of standing here out on the flo-“

Kyuhyun paused, “-or,” he muttered, truly afraid of what was going to happen next because he hadn’t expected Yoona to actually open the door while he was rapping so the moment she did, his fist collided with his forehead.

“I’m sorry!” Kyuhyun was flustered. “I didn’t mean to do that, you were just..I mean, uh.” Kyuhyun trailed of awkwardly and just like the awkward turtle he was, he rushed forward and rubbed Yoona’s forehead, trying to soothe it when in reality, all he did was make it worse because after Yoona pushed her away, he could see a bright red mark on her forehead, where he vigorously just rubbed.

Yoona raised her hand, telling him that it was fine. Kyuhyun exhaled a sigh of relief when he didn’t receive any scolding. Yoona’s hair was disheveled and her eyes were barely opened so Kyuhyun figured that she just woke up and maybe that was the reason why he didn’t receive any sermon.

“What are you doing here?”

“We’re going to the beach!”

“Who are? What does that have to do with me?”

“You’re coming with me, silly.” Kyuhyun good-naturedly replied, he either didn’t recognize the annoyance in her voice or he just chose to ignore it. “So of course you have something to do with it.”

“You have got to be kidding me,” Yoona scoffed when Kyuhyun was indeed serious and slammed the door in his face. “Go home, Kyuhyun.”

“Why?!” Kyuhyun rubbed his red nose that suffered from the impact from the door. “And that hurt!”

“Because I’m not going to the beach with you.”

“Why? It’s summer. This is the best time to go to the beach! We can play beach volleyball, play in the water, bury each other in sand and everything. It’s fun!” Kyuhyun’s voice was dripping with excitement; the pain in his nose was long gone and every cell of his body was replaced with adrenaline. Kyuhyun was still listing things they could do and whenever he ran out of ideas to do at the beach, he would just say how fun it was.

“-and it’s just so fun, Yoong!”

“As much as I want to do all those fun things you’ve listed ,” Yoona slightly opened the door now so that her head was peeking out, “I don’t have a swimsuit so I guess we’ll have to go another time. Or you know, maybe you could ask someone else.”

“I knew you would say that. So I asked Yul for help yesterday and got you a swimsuit.”

“You’re joking, right? Please tell me you are.” Yoona asked but knew he wasn’t kidding judging by his expression and the plastic bag in his hands.

Kyuhyun pushed the door open and shoved it to her hands, “Now go wash up and get your stuff ready. I’ll be waiting at your living room.”

“You can’t!” Yoona halted him from going to her living room, “I-I have work.”

“No, you don’t. I know your schedule so don’t even think about getting out of this. We are going and that’s final.”

Yoona scowled as she felt the scorching summer heat touch her underexposed bare legs and uncomfortably twitched under everyone’s stares. She wrapped her arms around her chest, shrinking under their judging gazes.

“See how I was right? It was a good idea to wear shorts rather than those horrid sweatpants you were going to wear.” Kyuhyun cockily remarked as he stepped out of the car. “Everyone here is wearing shorts. You would just stand out and suffer under the heat if you didn’t listen to me.”

“I’m here now. Can I please go back home now?”

Yoona pretty much got her answer when she was dragged to step foot in the stupid beach that she honestly thought could be a giant litter box for cats.

The answer was definitely a no. She couldn’t go home.

Yoona sighed as she rubbed the sunscreen onto her skin; she didn’t want to face the consequences of getting burned skin. Plus, she didn’t want to just sit there doing anything, applying sunscreen would at least give her something to do and keep her mind off being at the beach for a while if she could concentrate hard enough. The female in her mid 20’s scrunched her nose and sighed in disgust when one middle aged man shamelessly wolf whistled at her as she applied sunscreen to her legs. Infuriated, she flipped him off.

“Yoong! Get over here!”

“No, thank you!” She shouted back, “I would much rather stay here.”

“Come on, I brought you here to loosen up and have some fun.”

“I am having fun.”

“Sitting around isn’t fun,” Kyuhyun sighed as he took a swig of ice cold water and took a seat beside Yoona, “Let’s go to the water, it’s warm.”

“I said no, Kyuhyun.”

“Do you want to play beach volleyball, then?”

“No.”

“Do you want a sand bath?”

“What in the world is that?”

“It’s where I bury you under the sand. Yul used to do that to me when we were kids. She once tricked me by telling me the sand moisturizes my skin and left me there under the sun for hours. By the time I came out, my face was red all over while my body was still normal. I couldn’t laugh or smile after that because my face would hurt so much.” Kyuhyun chuckled at the memory, “But I’m not going to leave you there. If you want, you can be the one burying me.”

Yoona laughed at his story and silently thanked him for trying to keep the mood up but she just couldn’t. She appreciated his efforts and she didn’t want to be a killjoy and she wanted to try having fun here, she really did.

But she just couldn’t.

“I’m fine, Kyuhyun.” Yoona replied, “Go have fun. I’m fine here by myself.”

“Alright,” Kyuhyun started and stood up, stretching his arms and in turn, highlighted his biceps since he was shirtless. He wasn’t muscular, but he wasn’t flabby either. “You have three seconds to go on your own will or I’m dragging you there.”

“Three.” Kyuhyun twisted his neck sideways and starting doing all these unnecessary exercises as he started his countdown. “Two.”

“One,” The shirtless man finished counting. “No? Alright. You asked for it.”

“Kyuhyun, no!” Yoona fearfully shrieked when she felt herself being lifted into the air and into the warm embrace that belong to Kyuhyun. “Put me down!”

Yoona tried everything. She forcefully tugged at his hair, flailed her legs around and even resorted to shouting ‘’ but no one cared, they figured it was one of those playful banters that couples always had. A familiar feeling of fear started to build up in Yoona’s chest. She grew scared and soon her antics stopped once she felt the emerald colored sea water meet her feet and her hands were now tightly wrapped around Kyuhyun’s neck while she looped her legs around Kyuhyun’s sturdy waist, she held onto him like her life depended on it.

To Yoona, it did.

Yoona buried her face in Kyuhyun’s shoulder with her eyes closed, she didn’t want to see the water under her. “Kyuhyun, please take me back. I don’t want to be here,” she whispered into his nape, her hot breath hitting Kyuhyun’s milky skin.

“It’s fine, Yoong.” Kyuhyun soothed and patted her back although he didn’t why she seemed so terrified. Kyuhyun figured she was just a bit scared because maybe she isn’t used to the water for so long or something. Was it bad to say that he liked how close they were?

“It’s not so bad, see?” Kyuhyun coaxed and slightly bent down to show Yoona how the water felt.

“It is.” Yoona whined, “Now take me back.”

“Oops!” Kyuhyun joked and pretended to fall, taking Yoona along with him. It was supposed to be a harmless joke, but how Yoona responded was not how people usually responded to his usual antics.

They were supposed to laugh or Yoona was supposed to scream and say how terrified she was and that he should never do it again, but Yoona stood still. She kept her face buried in his shoulder and he grew tense at this. “Yoona?”

“Don’t let go of me, Kyuhyun.” Yoona sobbed while clinging onto him, “Promise me you won’t let go.”

“I won’t. Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Take me back. I want to go back.” Yoona whispered and added after a while, “Please.”

Kyuhyun silently obliged and walked to shore while keeping both his arms around Yoona, he felt like such a big jerk for making Yoona cry. He should have known, he shouldn’t have pushed her and forced her to do something she didn’t want to do. Yoona didn’t stop crying even when he settled her on the mat. She kept her arms around him, with her face still covered.

The male just sat there with one hand safely wrapped around her waist while the other hand drew soothing circles. “Shh, it’s okay,” he tried to calm her down but nothing was working, he felt her warm tears run down his shoulder and her hot breathe come out evenly while she tried to stop crying. “I’m here. I’m sorry, Yoong. I’m so so sorry. I didn’t know you were that scared. I should have known.”

“I’ll take you home, okay? Let’s go.” Kyuhyun suggested and was just about to stand up when Yoona pulled him back down.

“No, wait.” Yoona was still sobbing as she tried to calm down. “Don’t leave me.”

“I’m not going to leave you, we’re just going to the car,” Kyuhyun softly spoke in a tone he would usually use to talk to babies whenever they would cry and carefully carried her in his arms bridal style.

Kyuhyun set her down on the car seat and if Yoona wasn’t crying, he would ask her to dry herself up first or maybe set up a towel himself because he couldn’t afford getting his car seats wet because it was leather for God’s sake but he figured he could worry about that later. Besides, he couldn’t open the back where the towels were kept with Yoona in his arms. When he came back after bringing back the beach mat, Yoona was sound asleep with dry tear stain on her cheeks and her eyebrows furrowed. Kyuhyun wondered how this delicate sleeping in front of him could be so broken yet be able to put up at strong front.

Kyuhyun decided to go to her place and take care of her for as long as she needed to be tended to. All the while throughout the ride, Yoona kept squirming; she looked like she was having a nightmare.

All the while through the ride, Yoona would mutter something along the lines of ‘don’t leave me’, which is what she said to Kyuhyun or ‘come back, Jinho’. Kyuhyun’s eyebrows met at this. Yoona never mentioned something about someone named Jinho. Maybe it was a touchy subject for her. Although he knew he had no right to feel like this, a little part of him was disappointed that she hadn’t mentioned anything about him. Did she not trust him?

Yoona would calm down every time Kyuhyun squeezed her hand but it seemed like a really bad dream because she would always wriggle in her seat a few seconds later and would sob in her sleep. Kyuhyun wished he had the power to make it go away and let her sleep in peace.

Kyuhyun clumsily fumbled through her bag for her keys while trying to keep Yoona from falling and struggled to find the light switch because he’s only been here a few times and he didn’t know where the her room was. Furthermore, he was a clumsy person so he didn’t want to risk navigating in the dark.

As gently as he could, he set her down on her single sized bed. Kyuhyun hesitated a bit after setting her down. Should he change her clothes and slip her into something more comfortable? Since it wasn’t exactly nice to sleep in clothes that smelled like the sand and sea. After a while of contemplation, Kyuhyun decided to leave her as she was and cook her something in case she would be hungry when she woke up.

The only light that was emitting in her room was shining through her door and came from the living room because he didn’t want to turn on the lights and wake the sleeping girl. But before he left, he didn’t miss the name that slipped through Yoona’s lips, the name that was the center of Kyuhyun’s thoughts.

“Jinho.”