Page 70 of Wish Upon a K-Star

I almost have it, I’m sure of it, when I go tumbling into the pool.

It’s like being submerged in ice water. The pool lights spin around me in distorted waves. The light material of my skirt, which swayed gently earlier this evening, is now wrapped around my legs so tightly that I can barely kick.

Terror has a scream trying to let loose. The chemical taste of chlorinated water fills my mouth.

Desperation takes hold of me. I can’t swim. I can’t breathe.

I see Minseok’s face.

Is this that moment when your life flashes before your eyes? But he’s not smiling the way he always is in my memories. His eyes are wide with anxious fear. And he reaches for me.

It takes me another beat before I realize he’s really here. I grab him, let him pull me to the surface.

My first attempt to breathe causes me to cough up the water still lodged in my throat. Minseok hauls me onto the pool deck and I collapse like a rag doll.

The tile is cold against my cheek, but I don’t care. I can’t find the strength to sit up.

“Hyeri,” Minseok says by my ear as I’m gathered into a towel. “Hyeri, answer me.”

I try, but it just comes out a sobbing gasp.

“Okay, just breathe,” he says.

I obey, leaning my head into his shoulder. And I don’t even know when I went from gasping to crying, my tears joining the chlorine and pool water soaking his shirt.

“It’s okay, you’re okay now.”

I burrow deeper into him, his body heat the only thing that I care about as I shiver so hard that my teeth chatter.

Once my crying has slowed to little hiccupping gasps, I feel his hand rubbing small circles on my back. My arms are still looped around his neck, holding him close.

“Minseok?” I’m finally able to croak out.

He leans back a bit, and I whimper in protest from the lost heat.

He immediately runs his hands up and down my arms to warm them. “What happened, Hyeri?”

I try to remember. I must have slipped, except it felt like I was somehow pushed. And, for a moment, when I was submerged, I thought I saw a shadow running away.

No, I must still be out of it. I was alone, I’d have heard someone else coming in. “I was reaching for the sandal,” I say, “and I think I slipped.”

“Okay, well, wait here and I’ll get Hongjoo-noona.”

When he makes to stand, I grab desperately onto him to hold him in place. “No, please, can we…” I trail off, embarrassed, but honestly, I don’t care about decorum. “Can you just stay here with me?” I shudder at just the thought of being left alone right now.

“Yeah, of course,” he says, holding me closer. “You scared the shit out of me, Hyeri.”

“I scared the shit out of myself,” I admit.

“You must be freezing.” He wraps one of his hands around both of mine. “Your fingers are like ice.”

“Yeah, the water was cold.” My teeth chatter as if to prove it. He starts rubbing his palms over my frozen fingers, leaning in to blow his warm breath against them.

I blow onto them as well, hoping to warm them faster. His eyes lift, meeting mine over our joined hands. His expression moves slowly from concern, to confusion, to something that makes me shudder again. This time not from the cold.

He slowly lowers our hands until there is no longer anything between us. He swallows, a motion that makes his Adam’s apple bob.

There’s a part of me that knows this is ridiculous. I almost drowned just now. I should not be feeling the urge to press my face into his neck, right beside that Adam’s apple.

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