𝑩𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒍 //𝑺𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒚 𝑲𝒊𝒅𝒔 𝑭𝑭//

~𝟰𝟴~

The four of us took a seat in the shade of a palm tree, watching the water. Han was a bit tired, so I suggested we rest for a while. I sat in between Hyunjin and Lee Know, my wet shirt clinging to my body and making me even more uncomfortable than I already was. I could sense the unaddressed tension between the two, hanging in the air like thick fog. I pulled my shirt slightly away from my body, needing some breathing room.

"You can take off the wet shirt if you want, Ava. I'll let you borrow my shirt. It's a lot dryer than yours," Hyunjin suggested.

"No thanks, it's okay. I just needed some breathing room, but it's okay."

"You sure? I don't mind-"

"I'm fine."

I sounded slightly curt, my voice coming out strong because of my heartrate spiking. He doesn't know yet. And no one else can know, I thought. The scars on my back and underneath my collarbone were haunting me. Then I remembered the previous night, when I got a fright from Lee Know. Did he see my scars?

Lee Know took hold of my fingers, squeezing lightly. I squeezed back, looking down at his fingers wrapped around mine. I pulled my hand out of his, instead interlacing our fingers and gently squeezing his hand. Sparks flew in all directions in my chest at the new feeling. It felt amazing. Butterflies erupted in my stomach when he gently rubbed his thumb over the side of my hand. I looked up at him, feeling my smile grow.

I squeezed his hand again before turning my gaze back to the water. We sat like that for another hour, and even after we stood up and started walking back to the house, our fingers didn't go for longer than a few seconds without brushing against each other.

...

"Ava, can I talk to you?" Lee Know asked, leaning past my door frame.

We had gotten home a few minutes earlier and I was sitting on my bed, folding my clean laundry. I put the shirt in my hands aside and patted the spot on the bed next to me. He came into my room and sat down, looking at his hands. I gently took his hand, making him look at me.

"You know that thing you said earlier? About being... more inconspicuous?"

"Yeah..."

"What exactly did you mean when you said that?"

I could hear the hesitation in his voice. He sounded worried, scared even.

"I just thought you'd want to keep this between us a secret," I said, gesturing at the space between us.

I got up off the bed, picking up the pile of neatly folded laundry on my floor and moving to the cupboard. I heard Lee Know move on the bed, turning around to see him directly facing me.

"So, what do you want me to do?" he asked.

"I don't know. I thought you would like to tell the boys on your own rather than having them find out about this by accident."

"Why would you think that?"

"I guess it made sense to me that you would want to tell them about this yourself."

"Don't you understand that I want everyone to know? I know this is really fast, but I want the whole world to know about my feelings for you. But if you want to keep things quiet for a while, I respect that..."

He went quiet.

"It seems like you have more to say," I said, turning to him fully. He looked up at me, still silent. I furrowed my brows with worry.

"It's just..."

I took a step closer to him.

"Is it something about this thing between us?"