Letting Go { Jung Jaehyun Series }

Chapter 2

As soon as Jaehyun woke up, he checked his phone. Still no text from Rosa. It had been almost a week. He rubbed his hands over his face several times to try to wake up fully. Between practices and photo shoots, he had not had time to return to the pool. But today was his day off and he planned to spend his time at the pool in the hopes that Rosa would show up there again. He didn't know if she came often or if it was a one-time thing, but he had no other option for finding her. He should have asked her for her number, but he sensed she didn't give out her number freely.

For her part, Rosa had spent the week in a mental tug-of-war. She had done as Jaehyun suggested and had Googled him. She was stunned by the huge number of videos and articles about him. She was particularly drawn to a video of him as a young boy, practicing his English.

"Kevin, will you come to my birthday party? This Saturday at 7:00. OK, let's see. I'll see you then," Jaehyun had repeated his English lesson dutifully. Seeing him as such a young boy touched Rosa's heart. Despite her general aversion to trusting people, she found that Jaehyun's videos showed a certain sweetness that drew her in. She hated to admit it, but she had spent the past week thinking a lot about him. She didn't text, however, because she found it hard to be the first person to text. She didn't like the vulnerability of texting and waiting for a response.

Later, when Jaehyun got to the pool, he looked around hoping to spot Rosa. No such luck. He took a deep breath and dove in, beginning with the breast stroke as he swam the length of the pool. His times were slow because every time he bobbed his head up to take a breath, he glanced around the pool to see if Rosa had arrived. After about 20 minutes, his search paid off when he saw Rosa standing in the shallow end of the pool. He was surprised to see that her hair was a mass of black curls. The last time he had seen her, her hair was wet and plastered to her back. So, he had not realized that her hair was so curly. Usually, he liked girls with straight hair, but he found the fluffy black cloud around her tan face to be quite fetching. He waved enthusiastically at her and she nodded in recognition. He swam quickly toward her and popped up in front of her, wiping the water from his face and swinging his wet hair around, causing Rosa to be hit by drops of water. She put her hands up to shield her face from the flying water droplets.

"Hey, you're back!" Jaehyun exclaimed, stating the obvious.

"Yeah, I thought I would give it another go. I should probably learn to swim, you know, for Titanic-type situations," she explained.

"Oh, gosh! I hope you don't have that kind of thing," Jaehyun replied in mock horror. "Listen, if you want to, I could teach you to swim," he offered.

"Um, I don't know," hedged Rosa. "I think I'm just going to try to figure it out on my own."

"I thought we established last time that learning to swim is not a solo activity," Jaehyun reminded her.

Rosa looked about nervously. Finally, she said, "Well, I guess you could give me some pointers. But if you laugh at me, it's Game Over," she warned.

Jaehyun held up his right hand in a solemn pledge. "I promise to never laugh at you," he vowed. Rosa nodded gravely and waited for his instructions.

"So, we should start out with floating. It's really easy. You just lie back, and your body should do the rest. If you don't tense up, your body will naturally float," Jaehyun told her.

Rosa looked at him skeptically. "So, you're saying that my body will float if I lie back and do nothing?"

"Exactly," assured Jaehyun.

"I'm calling bullshit," Rosa replied. "There's no way I will float by doing nothing."

Jaehyun lay back to demonstrate. He floated easily on the surface of the shallow water. Rosa eyed him with suspicion, convinced that it had to be a trick.

"Do you have air packs in your swimming trunks?" she questioned.

Jaehyun stood up in the water and laughed. "No, it must be all the air in my head that's keeping me afloat," he joked. Rosa smiled hesitantly. "How about you lie back, and I'll keep my hands under you so that you won't sink."

He gently put his hands on her back and lay her down on the water. Her body tensed and she felt herself sinking. Just then, she felt his strong arms under her, keeping her afloat.

"Just relax," he said. "Allow your back to be relaxed and not stiff."

"I don't do relaxed," quipped Rosa. "It's not part of my MO."

Jaehyun laughed, but soon stopped when he saw that Rosa was deadly serious. "Sorry," he said, clearing his throat. He repositioned her and said, "Just lie like you would on a bed, straight but not stiff," he instructed.

Rosa tried again, feeling safer knowing that his muscular arms would catch her if she started to sink. At some point, Jaehyun removed his arms and Rosa continued to float. When she saw that his arms were at his side and not under her, she began to flail about wildly.

"Shh," Jaehyun soothed. "No need to panic. You were doing just fine without me until you realized I had taken my hands away."

Rosa tried again. This time, when Jaehyun removed his hands, she focused on staying calm. She managed to float for quite some time as Jaehyun watched over her to make sure that she didn't float into the deep end.

After she had mastered floating, they decided to call it a day. Jaehyun met up with her again outside the building and asked her to have a coffee with him at a nearby shop. As they sat across from each other in silence, he sipped his iced Americano and she her green tea.

"So, you know what I do for a living," Jaehyun began. "What do you do?"

"I do translation and interpreting for a diaper manufacturer," Rosa answered. "We have factories in Latin America and China. So, I interpret in Spanish or Chinese."

"Wait, so you speak Spanish and Chinese?!" he asked incredulously.

"And French," Rosa added dryly.

"Damn!" he replied with admiration. "So, if you work for a diaper company, does that mean you'll get free diapers when you have a baby?"

"I have no idea," responded Rosa. "I have no plans to have a baby any time soon," she clarified.

"But you do want to have kids someday, right?" questioned Jaehyun.

"I suppose I will someday," she conceded. "Right now, I just want to live my life with no strings attached. I want to get to do all the things I've always dreamed of before I settle down and have a family."

"Yeah, I guess," replied Jaehyun. "I mean, it's not a great moment for me to become a dad, but I have to admit that it's something I want. I love kids so much," he confessed. "I just find myself really wanting to be a dad and teaching my kids to play basketball and all that fun stuff."

"Yeah, well, the dads get to do the fun stuff while the moms get diaper duty and feeding time," Rosa pointed out.

"I suppose you're right," he conceded, "but I want to be one of those hands-on dads who helps out with everything."

"Why are we talking about this anyway?" Rosa questioned. "It's not like we're going to have kids together," she added.

"Why not?" he asked with a wink. "We could have kids together. At the very least, we could try a few practice runs to see how it goes."

Rosa's eyes grew wide. She jumped up from the table, knocking her knee against it. "I just realized I have somewhere I have to be," she said. There was nowhere in particular that she needed to be, but the change in tone of the conversation had her wishing to be anywhere but sitting across from Jaehyun. She gathered her things and ran out the door without so much as a goodbye.