OUR HEARTBEAT [BEOMJUN] ✅

seventeen

“Beomgyu!”

My lights flipped on, and I winced against the sudden brightness.

I held my hand up to block the light and sat up, disoriented from sleep. It was Saturday morning and the sun wasn’t even up yet. A quick glance at my cell phone showed it was five a.m. “What?” I asked in confusion. “Is everything okay?”

My mom stood over me. “We had a break-in last night.”

Now I was fully awake. “Someone broke into our house?”

“No, the marina. They released all the WaveRunners.” Mom’s face was drawn and worried.

“Released them?” I had no idea what that meant. At night we kept the WaveRunners on the south side of the dock, locked behind chain link.

“They’re scattered all over the lake.”

I climbed out of bed and opened my dresser to grab one of my swim wear. “They just let them loose on the lake? They didn’t steal them?”

“No, they didn’t steal them. We can see them on the GPS, scattered everywhere.”

“That’s so weird. Did they take the keys, too?” I asked.

“No, they must’ve had a boat or their own WaveRunner and dragged them around that way,” Mom said, turning to go.

“And Patrol didn’t catch them? Nobody reported noise on the lake last night?” Powered vehicles on an otherwise quiet night were loud.

“Nothing makes sense. We’re still trying to get answers. I’ll meet you down there.”

She was right. Nothing made sense. I changed into my suit, pulled on a windbreaker, and slipped into a pair of flip-flops. In the hall I met up with Jeno, who had bedhead and was mumbling about sleep. Together we went out the front door, around the corner, and across the street to the marina. As I passed through the gate and onto the dock, I paused to look at the padlock. It was cut and hanging lopsided on the latch.

Inside the shop, my dad stood talking to my aunt and uncle. CD came over and nudged my leg with his snout until I petted his head. Then he moved on to Jeno.

“Hey, kids. Any idea how this happened?” Dad asked.

I looked at Jeno, who shrugged. Why would we have any idea?

“Friends playing a prank?”Jeno offered.

“Friends playing a …” I closed my eyes. “Soobin?”

“You think the Choi boy did this?” Dad asked.

“I don’t know; he’s the only one I can think of,” I answered, my suspicions growing the more I thought about it. “He was here at the marina the other day, saw how we kept things.” Plus, he’d been nosing around our house the night before; maybe he’d seen the inventory list dad kept with the ledger. “He has a boat and a WaveRunner. He could’ve easily done this. And you know his family has an in with the Patrol and a problem with us.”

“I hope you’re wrong,” my dad said.

Suddenly, I was sure I wasn’t. “Where’s Mom?” I asked, glancing around the store.

“She went to make a report. Uncle Kyuhyun is going to take a boat out to the first WaveRunner and drop you off. You’ll drive Max to the next WaveRunner. Take walkie-talkies. I’ll direct you both from there. Don’t tow more than two at a time, please.” He looked at his watch on his wrist. “Hopefully, we can get this done before we open.”

On Saturdays, we opened at six a.m. Mainly for our fishing boats and supplies, but also for the hardcore skiers who liked their water like glass, unaffected by the choppiness that more boats on the lake produced.