I Like You || kyy || completed ||

Chapter 19

"Are you coming in?" Jackson, with his bleach-blond hair, plastered to his temples, water dripping from the tips and back into the pool, hovered at the edge, his arms braced against the cement of the sidewalk, his bicep muscles bunching under his tanned skin. His dark eyes held a mischievous glint to them as he watched me, the edges of his pink lips upturned in a smirk. I chuckled nervously and nipped the skin of my lower lip, tightening my fingers in the fabric of the towel that Jaebum had silently grabbed and handed to me upon everyone scattering and going their separate ways. 

"I'm not sure," I muttered, picking at a loose strand of fabric before clearing my throat and looking up at Jackson once more, managing a forced smile. "This will be my first time swimming with you guys and I'm not the most-" 

"You look fine." I stared at him with wide eyes, at the sudden seriousness in Jackson's voice. I had been with this group of boys for close to half a year now - the warm summer days were becoming less frequent, and fall was slowly approaching- and I hardly ever saw this serious side of Jackson, it was something that was only ever glimpsed in the hardness of those dark, brown eyes, but no one ever brought it up. I felt my cheeks heat up, and I directed my attention back to the coarse towel draped over my legs. "Just come in, no one is paying attention to you."

No words built on the tip of my tongue, and every thought became a scattered mess, so Jackson and I sat with silence between us, a silence that was only disturbed by the distant sounds of the 6 boys whooping and screaming back and forth in excitement. I cleared my throat before forcing myself to stand, keeping my gaze locked on the ground that I now stood barefoot on, the cement burning into the soles of my feet, making me grit my teeth. "Fine." I caught a glimpse of a smile stretching over Jackson's face before I clenched my eyes shut, held a gulp of air in my lungs, before I trotted to the edge of the pool, before launching myself off of the edge and into the cool embrace of the water. 

The cold that rushed to surround me was short of overwhelming, almost driving the air from my lungs, before I kicked off of the bottom of the pool, breaching the surface of the water, gasping in air once more, wiping the water from my eyes. Jackson's loud laughter filled the air, and I turned towards the sound, watching him with slightly blurred vision as he waded towards me, the water moving away from his muscled body in small ripples. 

"That wasn't so bad was it?" He mused, patting the top of my head before taking a step away from me, letting out a sigh, placing his balled fists on his hips under the water, a light still twinkling in his eyes. "Now, are you ready to go see your boyfriend?" The word slipped teasingly from his tongue and he wagged his eyebrows at me, bumping his shoulder against mine. My face heated up, once again, and I nodded stiffly, struggling to keep my head above the water which lapped against my neck, and I suddenly loathed the fact that I was hardly 5'5. 

Jackson heaved himself out of the water, shivering quickly before he grabbed the towel I had been using, wiping at his arms. "Jackson," I whined, grabbing ahold of the wall of the pool, and bracing my feet against the rough cement, "I was going to use that while we walked to them." Jackson playful stuck his tongue out at me before darting off towards the frantic sounds of the other 6 boys' shouts. "Hey!" I shouted after him, before heaving a sigh, and heaving myself out of the resistance of the water. 

I gritted my teeth against the cement that seemingly burned the skin off of the bottom of my feet, before darting after Jackson, who had disappeared around a corner. "Jackson!" I called again, my voice annoyingly bouncing off of the empty, plastic slides that loomed, twirled, and dipped above my head, occasionally dripping water onto my hair. I shivered in turn, wrapping my arms around my body and walking faster in the directions of the now hushed voices, nipping at the skin of my lip until it grew sore. 

"Anora." I jumped before clutching at my chest, whining softly as I turned towards the person who had called my name, seemingly appear out of nowhere. Jaebum stood beside me, his black hair plastered to his face, somehow illuminating his thin face. His swimming trunks also clung yet seemingly hung low on his toned waist, his v-line prominent. I swallowed against my quickly drying mouth and turned my attention back to Jaebum's narrowed eyes. 

"Y-yes?" My tongue felt heavy and I cleared my throat, turning my attention to my feet. Maybe the sight of my unpainted toenails would calm my now jumbled nerves. 

"Yugyeom is this way." His voice had such a soothing tone, and it took everything I had not to swoon. Instead I nodded curtly, simply settling on trailing after him, stealing quick glances at his back since I otherwise had no idea of where we were supposed to be going.

We padded along the hot sidewalk, with nothing but the sound of our bare feet smacking against the ground. Eventually though, we must have reached the correct pool side because when I lifted my head, Mark was rested on top of Jackson's shoulders, his swimming trunks plastered against his skin. Bambam was being lugged around on a blue and white whale floatie by Youngjae.

The talking was originating from Mark, who was speaking quickly in Chinese to Jackson, who nodded in understanding. Yugyeom and Jinyoung seemed to be missing from the action. "Where is-"

"Anora!" Yugyeom's familiar cry startled me, abruptly ending my train of thought as he struggled into standing position from where he sat on the edge of the pool. He walked briskly to my side, smiling widely before glancing at Jaebum who wandered off to join Jinyoung at the pool edge as well, before taking my hand into his. He leaned his face close to mine, so his cool breath fanned against my face, making my mouth dry out once more.

"Go play?" He muttered, and I could have sworn I felt his lips moving against mine.

"Huh?" I asked, somewhat breathlessly, my face heating up.

Yugyeom giggled softly, stepping back from and regarding me with a playful smile. "Play." He nodded in the direction of the boys, who were no longer playing the chicken game, but solely laughing as Jackson quickly tossed BamBam around like he weighed less than a feather.

"Ah." I nodded, trying to clear my head from my clouded thoughts. "Ah."  I nodded once more before looking at Yugyeom with a wide smile. "Yeah, let's go play." I quickly grabbed his hand, ignoring his loud objections as I intertwined our fingers, darting towards the edge of the pool and jumping in, forcing Yugyeom to leap in after me.

Once I kicked off of the bottom the pool and managed to breach the surface, pulling in large amounts of air, Yugyeom followed shortly after. He gasped loudly, exclaiming softly under his breath as he did so. His purple hair fell in front of his eyes, and I could barely see through the soaked mess of hair as he clenched his eyes shut, wiping the water from his eyes furiously, before he pried them open to gaze at me.

I smiled widely, watching my boyfriend watch me, before I moved my hands quickly, cupping them and drenching him once more with water. "Yah!" He shouted, shaking his head like a wet puppy, before following my example, splashing me with water. I giggled and dunked under the water quickly before breaching the surface and splashing him simultaneously.

Yugyeom smiled widely, despite the chlorine centimeters from his eyes, and moved towards me, wrapping his lean muscled arms around my shoulders, and bringing my face to his soaked black tank top. My eyes widened at the open display, but I didn't question it as I listened to the sound of  his heart racing under my ear.