SEASHORE. － k.yk + y.ty

13

Taeyang blinked, wondering if Youngkyun were joking, but the boy suddenly gave off a determined air and his tone was nothing but serious as his stare remained unblinking.

"What, now? Aren't you afraid?"

Youngkyun didn't allow himself to falter in his statement, shifting slightly to look at the other better.

"I want to face my fear," he replied, which was true, he wanted to, but maybe not the fear which Taeyang was thinking of.

"Come with me. Please."

The last word sounded like a plea, and heaven knew Taeyang could not deny the smaller what he wanted, and the way his voice trembled with vulnerability for an instant made his heart quiver.

"Okay," he glanced at the sea, "Are you really sure, though?"

Youngkyun let out a laugh, burying the concern which bubbled within him.

"Stop worrying, Tae."

Taeyang hummed, then the two proceeded to rid themselves of their shirts until the human stood in his bathing suit and Youngkyun stopped before removing his three-quarters.

The taller peeked at him whilst folding his clothes further up on the sand, dusting off his hands once he was up-right.

"Aren't you going to remove those?" He asked, indicating the boy's bottoms.

Youngkyun said nothing but nodded, pink suddenly dusting his ears, strong enough to show in the feeble light.

Much to Taeyang's astonishment, when the brunet went to unbutton his pants, he saw bare skin, and when said clothing dropped to the ground, pooling at thin ankles, his jaw fell slack at the sight of Youngkyun standing fully in the nude before him.

He didn't want to stare － he wasn't － but the question of why the boy had nothing on underneath was tickling at his throat. He gulped his words down and turned his head to the side, attempting to fight his flush away.

Youngkyun taking hold of his hand didn't help with his current state of blushing, yet he forced his eyes to meet the other's and his heart stilled at the way his irises shone.

No words were shared but Youngkyun urged them into the sea, water lapping higher at their legs the deeper they went, and Taeyang was surprised to not see the shorter as scared as he had imagined him to be.

"You're handling this better than I expected you to," he complimented with a timid smile, happy that now both their waists were hidden in the water, "I'm proud of you."

The brunet said nothing, he couldn't, for his hands were beginning to shake and he wasn't sure he could form a coherent sentence anymore.

Instead, he gave one last smile to Taeyang prior to gently letting his hand go and wading off into the sea, leaving the former to watch him with wide eyes and an impressed grin.

"Oh, you're actually a better swimmer than I thought, Kyunie! You're doing great!"

His words of encouragement scarcely reached Youngkyun's ears, but were enough to subtly ease his thumping heart.

At a reasonable distance, he inhaled a breath strong enough to fill his lungs and then dipped under the water completely, disappearing from Taeyang's line of vision.

"Kyun?"

The older almost began panicking at the lack of a response and instantly kicked into a swim, in the direction of where Youngkyun had been merely moments ago.

His second call was halted before even leaving his mouth, as the brunet quickly resurfaced, long hair tracing his face until he flipped it back and it splashed to the nape of his neck and floated atop the water.