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I opened the front door with my key, stepping into the house. I just noticed how sweaty I was. I wouldn't be surprised if there were already sweat stains on my clothes.
Before I went upstairs to my room, I glanced out through the large glass window into our garden. Sunghoon and a girl were sitting together in the whirlpool, messing around. That's probably where all the laughs and screams that Jungwon and I heard outside the house came from.
Gosh, what would I do to get into the hot tub right now? This cooling down would possibly save my day. But of course I didn't want to interrupt my brother and his beloved in whatever they were doing.
Instead, I decided to simply take a quick shower, get something to snack on, check my suitcase for completeness and then go to sleep.
After all, I had to be reasonably fit for tomorrow. The time change in America would completely destroy my sleep rhythm anyway.
In my head, the spirits were divided as to whether I had to meet Sunghoon's girlfriend. Because on the one hand I really wanted to, but on the other hand I didn't know what was wrong with a person who decided to date my brother. She was probably just as stupid, conceited and selfish as he was.
Although, isn't it said...opposites attract?
Anyway.
I got out of the shower and wrapped a towel around my body as I slipped over to my room. As I grabbed new clothes from my closet, I squinted down out the window and noticed that the hot tub was suddenly empty.
I cheered inwardly, and unceremoniously pulled out a bikini from my closet instead of my underwear.
No idea where the two had disappeared, but now the warm pool was mine.
Whether it was so smart that I had just taken a shower and now climbed back into the chlorinated water? No matter. You only live once, right?
I tied my hair in a quick messy bun, so that at least these would not still stink like chor tonight.
With a towel over my shoulders, I rushed back downstairs. Into the living room and then out into the garden.
I pulled the large glass door shut behind me when I noticed a person sitting in the pool in the reflection.
Shocked, I turned to check the reflection and spotted no one else but Heeseung sitting in there, his back half turned towards me, and he seemed distracted with his cell phone.
"Fuck.", I whispered to myself, and slowly turned around to disappear back into the house. I carefully opened the door again as quietly as I could, making sure he didn't notice me.
How was that possible, I made such a racket on the way out.
Suddenly my cell phone slipped from my hand and it bounced dully on the wooden floor. Shit! I quickly bent down to pick it up again, staring directly into Hee's eyes the next moment.
"Hyeo? How long have you been here?", he laughed and turned a little more in my direction.
"Just...Just a few seconds.". I lied and quickly wrapped the wet towel around my body.
"Were you planning to go in here too?", his gaze moved down to my bikini, which I now kept covered with the towel.
I laughed uncertainly and approached a few steps. "When I looked out of the window two minutes ago, the jacuzzi was empty, so I thought..."
"...ah yes. I had to use the bathroom, you know.", he explained and I nodded.
"Where are Sunghoon and the girl?". I looked around in wonder, since I couldn't see anyone else here in the garden, and the rest of the house was dark as well.
"The two of them went to get dinner. They left maybe a minute ago.".
Wow, what can happen in what feels like a minute. I was amazed. "They can bring me something too," I said defiantly. "I'm really starving.".
"I can text them quickly.", Heeseung answered and immediately grabbed his cell phone from the edge of the pool.
I stood there for a few seconds, holding on to my towel for dear life and just looked insecurely in the direction of the whirlpool. I was standing there like an idiot, staring into the air. Gosh that's so embarrassing. Why can't I be confident for once?
"Aren't you going to come in?", he said, peeking up at me for a second.
Did I actually flinch now?
I slowly approached the hot tub and stopped right next to the entrance.
I hesitated a little as I removed the towel from my body and placed it next to the entrance on our garden table.
Nervously, I glanced over at Heeseung to see if he was looking at me. But he was still engrossed in his cell phone and didn't even look up from it for a second. My heartbeat calmed down a bit at the thought that I didn't feel like I was being watched, and I stepped into the whirlpool as well.
"Sunghoon asks what you want to eat.". He read out the message on his cell phone and glared up at me for a moment.
"Ah um...". I quickly managed the last step and almost immediately submerged my body completely under water to sit on one of the seats to the left of Heeseung. "W-where are they going to get it?".
"Rob's. The kebab house three streets over.".
"Then a normal kebab...without onions.", I quickly added, which made Heeseung giggle quietly.
Gosh it felt so weird. My legs were like jello, even though I'm sitting and can only feel them half as well in the water. But the fact that I was just sitting pretty exposed next to the guy I'm crushing on, immediately made my heart beat faster.
Maybe I should stop watching so many movies. It's not good for you and your mental health, Hyeona.
No matter how hard I tried to suppress it, my eyes kept wandering over to him. Almost as if I had temporarily lost control of them.
"What have you been up to today?" he asked, which completely threw me off my game.
"I...um...I happened to run into Siu and then Jungwon and I watched the tennis club practice for a bit.".
"You met Siu?" he repeated with a grin.
"Yeah, why?", I asked in wonder.
"What did you talk about?".
I giggled and sank deep into the warm water up to my neck. "That's a secret.".
"Okay fine.", Hee was now grinning as well. "Then I won't tell you anything else now either."
I thought about it for a few seconds. "Okay. Let me say this much. She's not good at keeping things to herself. And exposing other people.".
Hee laughed as my eyes fell on a gold chain around his neck. The small pendant with the numbers 01, hovered slightly at the surface of the water, just above his chest. My eyes were glued to the reflection until Heeseung noticed my stare.
"You bought a necklace to match your tattoo?".
He sat up a little further. "Ah Yes. It's cool that you noticed it." he said. "It's not just matching my tattoo though.". All of a sudden he rose from the water and unceremoniously got out of the hot tub to walk over to his hoodie.
Okay. Concentration! CONCENTRATION ON SOMETHING ELSE, HYEONA! I couldn't take my eyes off him. No matter how hard I tried. Even in the water, I was able to feel how damn much I was sweating. It's crazy.
After rummaging around in his pocket for some time, he pulled another gold chain out of his black hoodie and got back into the pool.
"I really wanted to give this one to you before you leave.", he said, sliding a bit closer to me, to show me the little pendant. "I thought it would be fun if we both had some.".
"It's a 04?", I gasped surprised and glanced up at him. "That's my birth year.".
"Yes, I know. But that's not everything.". He said. "You know. There are the 4 elements, the 4 seasons. 4 cardinal points. It combines opposites and makes a whole.", he proudly explained.
I giggled because it was so incredibly cute that he had dealt with numerlogy to describe my birth number to me.
"I...I don't know what to say. It's honestly so beautiful. Can you like...", I twisted my head and pointed to the back of my neck and he seemed to understand immeadiately.
"Yes, sure.".
I slid a little to the side on my underwater chair to give a better access, while Heeseung guided the chain around my neck.
Damn, he was not even 10 centimeters away from me. I turned my head slightly to the side and noticed his concentrated face as he tried to close the small shutter.
"You did a good job memorizing that.", I said with a grin.
Even though I wasn't able to see him at the moment, I couldn't definitely tell there was a huge smirk spread across his face.
âI know, right.", he answered, pulling himself away a little to see my playful smirk. "Stop laughing.".
He loosened the grip around the chain and looked down at my cleavage where finally the small pendant rested.
Heeseung suddenly leaned closer to my side once again, as I felt his lips almost touching my ear. âHappy birthday, Hyeona.".
I couldn't help but lower my head with a chuckle, cheeks flushed pink. My heart started racing, as he backed away, leaving my neck empty. It's not even a second ago and I was already missing his hot breath on my skin. Something in my body made me reach for his arm to keep him by my side. âHee...".
He focused back at me, staring into my eyes for a few seconds, what gave me a huge confidence boost all of a sudden. I knew this was goddamn wrong, but I couldn't help it any longer.
So I finally leaned in and placed a short, soft kiss on his lips. The fear that he would pull back and reject me, vanished into thin air when I realized he wasn't moving from the spot.
As I sheepishly backed away, the butterflies in my stomage went crazy. What the heck did I do?! Heeseung seemed equally surprised from my sudden action. I shyly lowered my head again, since I wasn't able to withstand his eye contact. But it didn't even take a whole second before he shifted closer to me, while his hand found its way around my neck. His lips hovered over mine as he lifted my chin with the other hand. They were about to touch again when two giggling voices stepped up to the gate of our garden.
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