Even the Sea Draws Flies
Yeoncheong, having dragged the apology out of the three friends through sheer stubborn persistence, stood knee-deep—or rather, waist-deep—in the water. Everyone had been caught up in her little tantrum and gotten soaked down to the scalp.
It hadn't been intentional, but after all that thrashing around, both her own swimsuit and her friends' felt considerably more settled than before.
Once Yeoncheong had calmed down, Suyeon sidled over under the guise of casualness and asked,
"Hey, Yeoncheong. Can I ask you something?"
"Depends on what it is."
Yeoncheong nodded along, unbothered. The voice asking was light and breezy, so naturally she assumed the question would be too.
But Suyeong's question sailed right past her expectations.
"What do you think of our swimsuits?"
At the question, her blue eyes wavered as if an earthquake had struck them.
What did I do wrong?
Try as she might, she couldn't think of a single mistake she'd made recently.
Yeoncheong rolled her eyes toward her friends and froze. Suyeon was watching her with an expectant look, waiting to hear what answer she'd give. Hasol and Nayun, who had been splashing each other just moments ago, had at some point also turned to stare at her.
There was even a faint undercurrent of tension in the air.
It was a completely different atmosphere from back at the lodging, when they'd all fawned over each other's swimsuits, cooing about how cute and pretty they were.
Yeoncheong resented Suyeon for suddenly handing her this trial—and thanked her lucky stars that Seoha, who looked like the type to demand a full ranking with a perfectly straight face, was absent.
Even Yeoncheong, whose entire dating history amounted to zero, could figure this out.
When there were three people to evaluate, singling one out for excessive praise was essentially suicide.
After agonizing over it, Yeoncheong licked her lips and spoke.
Nayun, in her mint bikini topped with an oversized white T-shirt, radiated her usual sporty charm—so that's what Yeoncheong praised. Hasol, in a modest one-piece dress swimsuit trimmed with frills at the chest and shoulders, was elegant yet adorable. Suyeon, in her orange-and-white two-tone bikini, had a bouncy, playful personality that showed through perfectly.
Rather than declaring whose swimsuit was prettiest, she pointed out the particular detail each of them had clearly agonized over—a diplomatic move to keep her friends from picking a pointless fight with each other.
Recognizing that their carefully chosen details had been noticed, Hasol and Nayun exchanged soft, melting smiles.
Did I survive?
Reading the room, Yeoncheong let out a sigh of relief.
Just as she was relaxing, thinking there'd be no more mischievous pranks today, Suyeon seized the moment while the others were grinning among themselves and slid up close.
"Just one more question."
Resting a hand on Yeoncheong's shoulder, Suyeon leaned in and whispered at her ear.
"Am I pretty?"
"Huh? I just said—"
Suyeon cut her off with a shake of the head.
"No, not the swimsuit. Me."
Yeoncheong understood then. The earlier question had merely been the setup, a way to divert everyone's attention elsewhere. This—anyone could see—was the real question.
And it was a question with a correct answer.
"Well, obviously. You're pretty."
At the word pretty, Suyeon flinched.
Was it the fact that she'd answered without a moment's hesitation that pleased her so much? Suyeon nodded her head, wearing a satisfied smile.
She really loves that stuff, huh.
Only then did Yeoncheong grasp the intent behind the question. Looks, figure, fashion—for a girl, these were always serious business. Even if they claimed not to care on the surface, of course they lit up when complimented and got a boost of confidence.
All the more so for high school girls at the peak of their sensitive years.
And especially coming from Yeoncheong, a former boy in her past life—her compliments had to feel different from those of ordinary same-sex friends.
Her friends did sometimes call her cute to her face, after all.
Watching her friends float on air, overjoyed at her praise, Yeoncheong resolved to keep paying them compliments like this from now on.
Swimming in the sea and nothing else got boring fast, though.
"Wait here a sec," Nayun said, and headed off toward where Seoha was keeping watch.
What did she bring back?
Yeoncheong shielded her eyes from the sun and muttered.
"The girl actually hauled a ball all the way out here."
Not a basketball, of course—it was the beach ball that practically defined the word 'beach'.
After watching her struggle and wheeze trying to inflate it, Seoha pitched in from the side, and before long the translucent beach ball had taken its familiar shape. Nayun jogged back with the ball and, like a volleyball serve, smacked it straight toward Yeoncheong and the other two.
The ball carried farther than expected. Backpedaling to judge the distance, Yeoncheong decided there was no way she'd reach it standing still and hopped into the air.
With a smack, the ball stuck to her hands—but her body, tilted fully backward in the effort to catch it, went plunging into the sea as it was. Only the beach ball bobbed serenely on the surface, and a belated Yeoncheong surfaced from below, spitting out seawater.
Nayun, who had drifted close without anyone noticing, looked her over.
"You okay?"
"Ugh. Why'd you hit it so hard?"
"The ball's too light, that's why."
She scratched her head, insisting it hadn't been on purpose. To the other friends watching, it was clearly the product of someone getting carried away with a ball in hand, so Yeoncheong didn't bother making a fuss about it.
The beach ball drifted along on the waves until it floated up in front of Suyeon. She bounced it a few times, then looked around at her friends.
"Hey, let's make a bet."
"What kind of bet?"
At Yeoncheong's question, Hasol thought for a moment and then offered from the side,
"Drinks? Ice cream?"
"I'm in."
Nayun agreed, and Yeoncheong, wringing out her soaked hair, nodded as well.
When Yeoncheong asked what game they'd be playing, Suyeon bumped the ball upward from below.
"Whoever drops it in the water loses?"
"That's the whole rule?"
Nayun raised an objection to the absurdly simple rule set. A vague reply drifted back—something about figuring out the details as they went. Faintly, that is. Yeoncheong wasn't in any position to worry about it at that particular moment.
The ball came flying, aimed straight at her. And this time too, it sailed just a little long. She jumped anyway, like before. As long as she could send the ball back to someone, she'd have plenty of time to shake herself off.
Wham.
Yeoncheong smashed the ball with all her might and, with a splash, plunged back into the sea. Surfacing again and checking where the ball had landed, she cried out in desperation.
"Foul! FOUL! We are not on the same team!"
The beach ball was suddenly right in front of her face. Flailing, Yeoncheong knocked it as high as she could and protested.
"Wasn't this a free-for-all?"
"It is."
Even as Suyeon answered her, the ball kept moving from moment to moment.
"Then why am I the only one getting attacked?!"
"You just look like the weakest one right now?"
Nayun set the ball up over her head with the steady ease of a volleyball toss. Hasol, locking her sights on the utterly defenseless Yeoncheong, spiked it straight down.
Yeoncheong barely managed to pop the ball back up as she dove into the sea. Hasol and Nayun burst out in genuine admiration for their friend's reflexes.
Spitting out the seawater in her mouth, Yeoncheong wailed miserably.
"I—I complimented your swimsuits, and this is how you treat me?!"
"Yeoncheong."
Suyeon, waiting for the ball to drop, grinned wickedly.
"That's that, and this is this."
Suyeon's spike sent the beach ball smacking into Yeoncheong's chest and into the sea.
"First game goes to Yeoncheong—dead last."
At Hasol's ruling, everyone cheered. Everyone except one.
Yeoncheong, who had toppled backward into the water, rose up with a churning storm in her gut that she could barely contain.
Seeing her friend about to blow her top at any second, Hasol softened the stakes.
"Since it's the first game, let's keep the penalty light. Run over to Seoha, tag her, and run back."
Yeoncheong ground her teeth as she passed by her friends.
"You guys... just you wait."
"It's a penalty, you can't WALK it! Run! Run!"
Her friends slapped her on the back as if to say, what could you possibly do to us anyway, hurrying her along—and Yeoncheong, fueling herself with her boiling rage, began to run. Slowly.
Seoha, leafing through the book she'd brought just in case, lifted her head. From far off, faintly carried on the waves and the sea breeze, came the sound of her friends' laughter.
Ever since the beach ball had come out, the warm, lively atmosphere had grown even brighter.
Her heart ached to toss aside her things and go play happily near Yeoncheong, but one glance at the water lapping at waist depth, and she'd shaken her head. And if she kept watching, she had a feeling she'd stir up jealousy in her friends for no reason, so she turned her gaze back to the book.
Or tried to.
"Um, excuse me..."
—if not for the man's voice at her side.
A sigh, so small it was nearly inaudible.
Seoha snapped the book shut with an audible thump and looked up at the owner of the voice.
A man who had called out to her first, only to now look sheepish about it. Judging by his youthful face, he seemed to be around her age—which was, presumably, why he'd approached this side of the beach where people looked to be in the same bracket.
Her red eyes rolled backward, following the sheepish man's gaze. There stood a cluster of girls, looking her way.
Since his friend was standing there awkwardly rooted to the spot, another man eventually wandered over as well.
Having sized up the situation in broad strokes, Seoha waited until the second man arrived before opening her mouth.
"No."
The man, who'd barely walked up before being told no, tilted his head in confusion.
Seoha let out a sigh this time loud enough to be heard, then spelled it out a little longer.
"I have no intention of hanging out with you."
The latecomer, apparently more socially adept than the first, kept a smiling face even at this blunt rejection.
"Aw, come on. You came all the way to the beach—wouldn't it be more fun to mix around a little than just play with your own friends?"
Even as he said it, the man kept glancing sidelong at Yeoncheong and her friends in the water.
Ah.
At the sight, Seoha smiled faintly.
They were all decent-looking, with decent builds, so they'd love to join in—but that group looked hard to crack with so many people in it, so the plan was clearly to work on the lone girl reading a book instead.
"Even the sea draws flies..."
She said it absently, offhand, gazing out over the wide stretch of sand—but the man knew it was aimed at them.
"If you're not interested, you could've just said so. Why start a fight?"
His tone switched from the polite register he'd barely been maintaining to outright informal speech.
The smile on the man's face cracked in an instant, and the expression he'd been hiding beneath it surfaced. Muttering curses, the air around them turned ugly. The friend who'd come first tried to calm him down, but he wouldn't settle easily.
Just as Seoha was wondering how to shoo off this nuisance—
"Wh-what's going on?"
Yeoncheong appeared out of nowhere and planted herself in front of Seoha, squaring off against the men.
Seoha glanced discreetly downward.
Yeoncheong was holding her hand, apparently meant as a reassuring gesture—but Yeoncheong's own hand was trembling even harder.
The man fired his words at this sudden newcomer.
"You, get lost. I've got something to talk about with her."
"Th-that's a no for me..."
Strength flowed into Yeoncheong's hand, and Seoha, holding it in return, felt it too, naturally.
The hand should have been cold, soaked in seawater as it was—and yet somehow, it was warm.
A faint smile bloomed across her face.
Seoha wanted to savor the moment just a little longer, but she didn't want Yeoncheong suffering any more than she already was.
Seoha, standing half a step behind, wrapped her arms around Yeoncheong from behind.
The sudden soft sensation against her back threw Yeoncheong into a panic, but Seoha, as if nothing at all were out of the ordinary, looked at the man.
"She said no. So do I."
Confronted with skinship that flaunted the relationship between the two of them, the man let out an incredulous, hollow laugh.
"Ha. What exactly are you two?"
Before Yeoncheong could get a word in, Seoha pressed a light kiss to her cheek.
The man watching, and Yeoncheong receiving it, both wore identical expressions of what on earth just happened.
Only Seoha, a satisfied smile playing on her lips, looked the man in the eye.
"This kind of relationship?"
Unable to hide his bewilderment, the man stammered and fumbled. His friend beside him, who'd been trying to defuse things, also stood there stunned.
"Hey, what the hell are you two?!"
Yeoncheong, who'd gone off to serve her penalty, still hadn't returned, and seeing her caught up in some kind of standoff, the other friends came out of the sea and started heading this way.
As the group came swarming over—
"Crazy... what a waste of time."
The man who'd started the trouble kicked the sand toward his beach mat for no good reason and turned on his heel. The friend who'd tried to hold him back gave Yeoncheong and Seoha a small, polite bow before following.
In the brief gap where only the two of them remained, Yeoncheong's head creaked slowly around toward Seoha.
"Se-Seoha?"
Seoha smiled gently at her.
"A reward. For being brave enough to protect me."