Empress Handbook

Chapter Sixteen | King and Queen of Nowhere

Yeoreum slips into the pool, anxiously staring at the calm ripples. She has gone through many things out of her comfort zone in the past month. Seduction lessons that romanticise the process of sexually arousing someone and the pretentious socialising lessons that particularly drain her energy. They were hard, but Yeoreum persevered through them without much agony. However, this is different.

"Yeoreum," Yoongi says softly. "It is okay if you don't feel comfortable swimming yet."

"But you took the day off to do this for me. I can't make you waste your time."

Yeoreum takes a deep breath and thrusts herself through the water before fear can creep up on her again. She is nowhere near being a skilled swimmer but all these training days allow her to move through the water at an acceptable speed.

As Yeoreum sees the end of the pool, the weight on her mind begins to lighten. She can't even touch the bottom of the pool with her feet, but she has somehow managed to come this far.

The pool is too deep for her feet to reach.

Fuck, Yeoreum curses as she realises what that thought has done to her.

Yeoreum plunges into the fear of having no leverage to cling to, and her calmness disappears. Her legs halt at her sudden nervousness, worsening her situation. The end of the pool drifts into Yeoreum's vision. She is so close to the end. She is so close to success. But she just can't reach it.

"Yeoreum!"

Yoongi quickly begins to swim towards Yeoreum, rushing like he will die if he doesn't reach her fast enough. Hearing Yoongi's kicks and strokes, Yeoreum clenches her fists in frustration. Is she going to let fear take over her again? Is she going to fail even after all that training? No. Yeoreum doesn't want that to happen. But no matter how much she doesn't want that to happen, she knows it will happen. Yeoreum closes her eyes to wait for her defeat.

No.

A strong voice within Yeoreum suddenly bellows. She violently clasps the tranquil currents, causing the water to snap through her desperate palms. She doesn't want to give up. She wants to give it a try. Even if she fails, she will at least fail after putting up a fight instead of failing after feebly waiting for rescue.

Yeoreum forces her legs to move back to her previous kicking motion until she finally shifts in the right direction. She bobs her head up and down to bubble, precisely controlling the intake and outtake of her breaths. As the air begins to flow at a much more organised pace, the tension in Yeoreum's muscles begins to peter away. Before Yeoreum can commend herself, she has already reached the end of the pool.

Yoongi pulls Yeoreum into his arms with a broad smile, and she locks her arms around him too. The half-transparent water glints with the reflection of their shared excitement.

"I finally did it, Yoongi."

Yoongi rubs her head. "Yes, you did such a good job. Do you want to call it a day?"

Yoongi knows that he should make Yeoreum practice more to strengthen her swimming abilities, but when she drifted beneath the water like she was going to drown, an irrational fright overwhelmed him. A strong emotion still lingers in Yoongi's mind, forcing him to realise something he never previously thought of—he wants to protect her.

Yeoreum shakes her head. "No, I want to practice more."

Yeoreum swims back to the starting point and waves at Yoongi with a bright smile. Yoongi smiles back with a churning flutter beating against his chest. Yeoreum looks beautiful when she is determined, Yoongi muses.

Yeoreum occasionally loses her breath, but Yoongi holds back from intervening so Yeoreum can get back on track by herself. Yoongi grabs his laptop, but he fails to distract himself from Yeoreum. Every breath she takes feels attention-worthy.