Minseok wasn’t totally sure how he felt about being dragged out again two days later to go dress shopping with Semi as she absolutely refused to show up to a formal concert in anything other than an evening gown, regardless of whether or not Minseok himself planned to wear black tie.

Pretty much every dress was let down by the fact that it either had an open back – which was apparently the fashion that summer – or no sleeves, and Semi was also very, very reluctant to show any of her scars.  Now that she was out of the long sleeves that she insisted on wearing the entire time, Minseok could see that the scars on her arms were largely covered by makeup, but she fretted about getting foundation and concealer on the dresses if her arms accidentally brushed against them, and for some reason, none of the shops that they went into also sold long gloves.

She became very torn over the possibility of a well-cut peach dress that flattered her enormously and which had open sleeves she could easily wrap around her arms, but when she discovered the large gap at the back which left numerous scars from the car crash visible, she bit her lip and sat down on the dressing room bench with her back to the wall.  Minseok hovered in the doorway, wondering about the best way to cheer her up.

“We can cover the scars with makeup,” he suggested after a while.

Semi appeared to shrink.  “Nobody’s touching my back.”

Minseok refrained from pointing out that massages and appeared to be no problem when it came to touching backs.  “What about a shawl?”

“It’s way too hot.  And it won’t look good with the sleeves.”

She was right on both points.  Minseok pursed his lips, trying to think of other options, but before he could say anything, she looked up at him.

“Can you leave?  I want to change.”

Minseok nodded and backed out, wondering just how long this was going to go on for.  Eventually, Semi re-emerged, back in the shorts, t-shirt and cardigan that she’d been wearing that day.

“What about a cocktail dress?” he asked as he took the evening gown from her and handed it back to the store attendant.  “Most of them cover the back.”

“You can’t wear a cocktail dress to a concert, Minseok.  There are unspoken rules about this kind of thing and that’s one of them.”

She still insisted on trying on a few more, but she refused to let Minseok see any of them and discarded most of them because she couldn’t do up the backs without help, which she was a little uncomfortable about.  Bored, Minseok left the shop to bask in the sun outside, and Semi joined him about twenty minutes later with a stylish paper bag in her hands.  Minseok immediately tried to take it off her, but she whisked it out of his reach.

“No peeking.”

“Why not?”  He dropped his hands to his side, though.

“I want it to be a surprise.”

Minseok narrowed his eyes at her.  “Can I know what colour so I can coordinate?”

For a moment, Semi pursed her lips.  “No.  Just go for black or white.”

“Now I’m going to have to wear formal clothes.”

“Yep, unless you want to embarrass me.”  Semi prodded him on the nose and he sneezed in surprise.  “That was almost sickeningly adorable.”

“Oh, shush,” he grumbled, reaching for her hand.  “If you’re done shopping, can we do something else, like go bowling?”

Semi’s eyes lit up.  “There’s a bowling alley?”

“I saw it on the way here.  It’s a couple of streets in that direction.”  He pointed.

Semi started tugging him in the indicated direction.  “Prepare to get thrashed!”

Minseok had initially thought she was joking and just excited, but Semi was scarily good at bowling, to the point where if her accuracy had been translatable to a gun or similar weapon, she would have been quite formidable.  It took a while to shake the image of Semi as a sniper out of his mind, but there was no catching up to the string of strikes and spares that Semi got.

“You’re not allowed to tell Jaehwan,” he puffed, lying flat on his back by the ball dispenser as Semi took a photo of the final score.  She shot him a funny look.

“I’m sending this to Sehun.”

Minseok shot upright.  “Don’t!  He’ll think I’m a total wimp or something!”

Cackling, Semi scampered out of his reach.  “Come at me!”

The bowling alley was fairly empty, but it was still a good few minutes before Minseok caught up with Semi and swept her off her feet, dangling her upside down by the ankles as she giggled and used one hand to stop her top from falling down.

“You’ve already sent it, haven’t you?” Minseok asked her.  She nodded.  With a sigh, he set her back on her feet, but before either of them could say anything else, there was a sudden burst of applause from the few people in the place.

“Strong man!  Strong man!” somebody with a heavy Japanese accent shouted out in English, and Semi dissolved in another fit of giggles at Minseok’s nonplussed expression.

There was still a fair amount of time before dinner, so when they got back to the hotel, Semi curled up on the window seat with a book while Minseok grabbed a towel and swimming trunks to head down to the beach the hotel bordered.  Semi looked for a moment like she wanted to accompany him when he announced where he was going, but decided against it in favour of the book.  She was on the phone when he got back soaking wet and covered in sand, and he grabbed some clothes and headed straight into the shower to clean up.

She was still on the phone by the time he was done.  Catching sight of her curled up on the double bed facing away from him, he carefully closed the bathroom door so as not to disturb her, but she was chatting away so animatedly that he probably need not have bothered.

“Yeah, it’s fantastic,” she was saying, tracing a pattern on the duvet with her forefinger.  “I’m absolutely loving it – we’re going to a conc—”

Whoever it was on the other end interrupted her briefly and Semi shot upright, back still to Minseok.

“Sehun!” she squawked.  “Why would you even ask that?”  A male voice tried to reply, but Semi cut him off.  “I know it’s a honeymoon, but you’re my brother!  I’m not talking about my life! … Yes, he’s incredibly attentive and it’s magical.  That’s all you need to know.  No.  No, I am not saying anything else!  Bye!”

She stabbed her finger at the phone to cut off the call and blew hair out of her eyes before turning around.  Minseok hastily laid a hand on the bathroom door handle to make it looked like he hadn’t been unintentionally eavesdropping, but Semi went bright red when she saw him nevertheless.

“How much did you hear?” she asked him nervously.

Minseok opened his mouth to say nothing, but he could feel his face going crimson too and the word stuck in his throat.  He coughed instead.  With a groan, Semi face-planted in the nearest pillow.

“Well,” said Minseok, trying to find the bright side, “at least we’re on the same page when it comes to bedroom activities.”

“Please don’t pollute the meaning of the word bedroom,” came the muffled response.  Minseok remained silent for a moment or two before deciding it was best to change the subject.

“What do you want for dinner?  The lifeguard at the beach recommended me a couple of restaurants.  It sounds like there’s a really nice Italian just a few minutes’ walk away.”

Good pasta and a fair amount of wine broke down the temporary awkwardness between them again, and by eleven o’clock, newly back from the restaurant, Semi was lying with her head on Minseok’s lap as he finished off a diary entry for the day and played absently with her hair with his other hand.  In a happy haze of tipsiness, Semi closed her eyes and hummed quietly to herself.  She wasn’t sure at what point she fell asleep, but when she woke up in the morning, she was cocooned in Minseok’s arms under the duvet, and one of his hands was still resting in her hair.

Semi took the time to ring Seulgi and Jaehwan while Minseok went for an early morning dip in the sea, as it was something he hadn’t done since he was about ten and he wasn’t sure how Jaehwan would respond to seeing him – he was apparently less keen on having a dad now that Minseok wasn’t physically present beside him – and he didn’t want to push it too much.  Semi was frowning, a little worried, when he got back, but before he could ask what was wrong, she spoke up.

“I don’t like being away from Jaehwan this long,” she murmured.  “I’m having fun – I’m really enjoying myself – and I completely trust Seulgi, but I just don’t like being this far away from him.”

“It’s natural,” Minseok pointed out as he reached for a towel to dry his hair.  “You’re his mother.”

“And you’re his father,” Semi pointed out.  “How did you manage five whole years away from him without going insane?  I can barely manage five days.”

“I don’t know him as well as you do,” Minseok said simply.  “And I knew he was with you.”

Semi wrinkled her nose, clearly not considering him to have really answered her question, and flopped back onto the bed.  “How was the beach?”

“Uncrowded.  The sea was freezing, but it’s very early on, which kind of explains both.  I was basically alone with the jellyfish.”

Semi made a face.  “What about in the evening?”

“The water’s much warmer, but there are lots more people about.”

Semi pulled another face.

“You could come down one day – bring a book and sit there for a while.  Fresh air is good for you.”

Semi looked like she was trying to smile, but she failed.

“You don’t need to be showing any skin to look respectable on a beach,” Minseok told her.  That just drew yet another grimace before she sat up.

“What are we doing today?”

Having spent some time in and around the town, they opted to go out to the waterfalls with a picnic for the day.  There weren’t very many other people around, and after checking carefully that they were alone, Semi slipped off the shirt of Minseok’s that she was wearing over her t-shirt, citing that it was far too warm to be wearing something long-sleeved.  Minseok gave a jokey complaint about Semi stealing his clothes before ing a rice cake at her.  They arrived back at the hotel soaking wet because Semi had thought it funny to push Minseok into the rock pool below one of the waterfalls and his instinctive reaction had been to pull her in with him.  She took a quick shower and then hogged the hair dryer, stating that her hair needed to look perfect for the concert they were going to that evening.

When Semi emerged in a deep plum evening gown shortly after dinner, Minseok nearly choked on his saliva.  It flattered her figure perfectly, had no gaping open back, and also had the open sleeves Semi had liked so much on the peach dress.  She was wearing the pearls he’d given her for her twentieth birthday and had done her hair up in a simple, elegant knot.

When all he did was stare without a word, she started to get visibly self-conscious, but Minseok grabbed her hand as she raised it to scratch nervously at her hairdo and wrapped his fingers lightly around hers.

“Gorgeous,” he croaked out, and she immediately relaxed.  After a moment or two of hesitation, Minseok bent his head to kiss her.  It seemed to bolster her confidence even more, and she almost appeared to glow after it.  Neither of them spoke on the way over to the concert hall.  Minseok was far too busy stealing glances at Semi and Semi was pretending not to notice him doing that and was attempting to text Sehun.

She had been right that it was the kind of occasion people would dress up for, though.  There were one or two people younger than them who were dressed very casually, but most, despite the heat, were wearing formal clothes, and many of the women were in gowns.  Minseok had managed to get seats pretty near the front, and they spent a blissful evening listening to an extensive repertoire of Beethoven, Liszt and Rachmaninov.  By the time the encore was playing, Semi’s head was on Minseok’s shoulder and his hand was resting delicately on her hair.  Her eyes were closed and she was smiling.

“This is familiar,” he murmured to her, unable to hide his own smile.

“Comfortable,” was all she mumbled back, nuzzling against his neck.  He chuckled.

“Do you want to go for street ddeokbokki afterwards?  For old times’ sake?”

Semi gave a drowsy shake of the head and Minseok fell silent to listen to the remainder of the piece.

Semi was still just about awake enough to walk home afterwards and give a very concise opinion of the evening – “nice.  Beautiful music.  Again, please” – before tumbling into bed.  Minseok had to persuade her to get out again to change out of her dress.  After a quick shower, he joined her under the covers.  She was humming along to one of the Liszt pieces, and as he snuggled up to her, she reached out and started tracing the tattoo visible on his right shoulder.  Minseok watched her for a moment or two before turning out the light and giving her a quick kiss.

It was not a peaceful night.  Minseok shot awake when he was kicked in the shins and immediately got an earful of a deafening scream as Semi thrashed about.  Alarmed, he sat up and fumbled for the bedside light, almost knocking it over as he tried to turn it on.  A nightmare was the last thing he’d expected, but still he couldn’t help cursing himself for not being aware that it could happen.

Once there was light in the room, it was possible to see that Semi had been crying in her sleep.  Minseok reached out to grab one of her shoulders – his arm nearly got knocked off it – and shook her.

“Semi!  Semi, wake up!”

It took a few attempts before her eyes opened and she sat up, wide-eyed and frightened with her breaths in short gasps.  Minseok surveyed her with worry, braced to calm her down from hyperventilating, but her gaze, which had been flitting around the room, settled on him and her breathing began to calm.

“Oh, thank God,” she mumbled before burying her head in his chest amid a burst of sobs.  Baffled, Minseok put his arms around her.

“Is it the crash again?” he asked.  “It seemed different.”

Semi shook her head.

“Just a bad dream?”

“I’ve had it before.”  Her voice was choked.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

There was a pause of several long moments.  Eventually, Semi lifted her head away to look up at him.

“Can you get me some water?”

Minseok slipped off the bed to fill up a glass from the bedside table with water from the bathroom tap.  When he returned, Semi was sitting hugging her knees, expression morose but otherwise looking much calmer than a minute or two before.  She accepted the water with a small thanks and sipped at it.  Mi