Midnight Tales | ✔

25

Jaehyun

I learned to swim at the age of eight, my parents let me take a class back in Connecticut. I'd go for scheduled sessions in our school gym to swim for hours. Well, it's a good decision that I took it.

I swam up to the surface and took a deep breath of fresh air. I quickly ran a hand down my face to take off some water. Soyoung resurfaced next to me a second later, coughing. Probably drank some lake water.

"We did not bring extra clothes with us," I told her, she only laughed in answer.

"Who cares! We can just walk back wearing wet clothes, no one gets sick in here Jaehyun" she said and swam again going to the middle of the lake. Now I kind of regretted taking her here.

"Soyoung be careful!" I shouted as I swam after her. The water's clean and clear, so there's nothing to be worried about.

"Have you been here? In your reality?" Soyoung asked as I stop beside her.

"Uh yes," I lied.

"Really? What does it look like right now?"

"Probably now a tourist spot?"

Soyoung scoffed at my answer. "You don't make sense, you know. But anyway, I'm glad this place exists. I can just go here when I'm bored. I finally have somewhere to spend my coming days on"

I turned to her. How can I tell her that it's going to stop? That her days won't come in cycles anymore. How? When she looks so hopeful and happy.

We suddenly heard a loud meow coming from our picnic spot. Soyoung laughed. "Lola's probably looking for us, we should go back now"

We swam back to our place. Indeed Lola was now standing near the bank of the lake. I went out of the water first. Lola immediately runs to the picnic cloth to stay away from our drenched selves.

"Lola us afraid of the water—" I stopped and immediately looked away as soon as Soyoung pulled her body out of the water. Her dress has stuck to her body and the cloth thinned, revealing her undergarments beneath.

"Soyoung"

"Jaehyun?"

"I think I brought an extra table cloth, it's inside the basket. C-Can you cover yourself?"

A second of silence then. "Oh my god! Okay, I'm sorry!"

As soon as she was done, I turned back to her. She has wrapped herself now in white cloth, water dripping below her and hair stuck on her skin.  "We should go home now," I said and started cleaning things up.

"How about Lola? I can't carry her now, I'm all drenched up"

"Lola can just ride inside the basket since it's almost empty now"

I was in the middle of folding the picnic cloth when I noticed Soyoung's face have turned red, probably from embarrassment. She looks so cute and small sitting on a nearby rock waiting for me to finish, clutching the cloth around her while watching Lola play on the ground. I almost jumped in surprise when she suddenly turned to me and caught me staring, I quickly turned to the cloth in my hands.

"I caught you! Why were you staring?!"

I tried hard to stop myself from laughing but unfortunately, a sound came out.

"Yah! Jung Jaehyun!"

I put the cloth inside the basket and turned to her. Her face had become redder now. "What? I'm just cleaning things here"

"Why are you smiling huh?" She exclaimed and stood up. "I heard that laugh earlier! I heard it clearly mister!"

I shook my head at her. "I was not laughing!"

"You are!" She said and walked over to me, pointing at my face. "You're laughing now, you see!"

I couldn't stop myself from laughing anymore. "You look so red Soyoung"

"Yah! How can you make fun of me! I was embarrassed of course! If I only knew this would happen, I would have never pushed you into the lake—"

I didn't know what took over me. Instinct, adrenaline, or something else.

But I pulled Soyoung

and kissed her on the lips.

She didn't kiss me back at first. So I turned my head to the side to deepen the kiss. I lifted my hand to her cheek, ran it down to her neck, and grabbed her from the back of her head as I slid my fingers through the wet strands of her hair. A second later, Soyoung's lips finally moved. Her warm breath fanned over mine. I lifted my other hand to her waist. Though covered with another layer of cloth, I could still feel the warmth of her skin. I ran my hand towards her back and pulled her closer.

It took us seconds, or minutes—I've lost count—to realize the situation we've just put ourselves into. It was Soyoung who stopped first. She immediately pushed me away. We stood there in silence, staring at each in surprise. Afraid of the truth of what we did just a few seconds ago.

"Soyoung..."

She stared at me. Tears filled her eyes. "You shouldn't have done it Jaehyun. I shouldn't—"

"Soyoung"

She moved to walk away but I quickly grabbed her arm. She stopped but did not turn around to face me.

"Soyoung, I'm sorry"

She only nodded.

"Let's just go back please"