Emira opens the door to see a Park Seonghwa in front of their house, crisp suit and all. He is holding a bouquet of flowers and donning the silliest smile ever - one that she knows is because of none other than her sister. She chuckles seeing how eager the man is; Akira had told her that Seonghwa called out of the blue, saying that he wanted to go on a short trip with her to the beach, just a 2 day 1 night trip for them. The thing that's making her chuckle is that he doesn't look like he's going to the beach, but instead a high-end restaurant as he treats her sister to the most expensive dish.

"Akira!" she shouts into the depths of their unit, "your actual annoying boyfriend is here!"

Akira comes out wearing a yellow summer dress, and if it's even possible, Seonghwa's face breaks into a much bigger smile as he hands her the bouquet made up of baby's breath.

She takes it with a shy smile, even more as Emira whispers to her, "I hope that you don't come back and make me an aunt." Emira winks at the two before closing the door, claiming, "Have fun, but not too much! Please remember your poor sister at home too. Gosh should I open the tattoo parlour or not today and tomorrow? It would be too lonely."

Her voice is drowned out behind the closed door and Akira turns to Seonghwa, who has his arm out for her to hook with his. "Looking good with the new hair colour, Park Seonghwa," she greets him as she takes his arm.

"Anything for you, my-" he smirks, reaching out a hand to tuck a stray hair behind her ear. "-love."

They leave the apartment compound with Seonghwa driving one of the convertibles, letting their hairs whip in the wind as they cruise out of the district, passing by the concrete buildings and tall glass windows to change their scenery to rocky mountains, lush greenery and the ocean that glistens under the sun. Breathing in the fresh air, she puts out one arm to feel the wind caressing her skin, all the way until they arrive at the beach resort.

She waits at the lobby with their bags as he goes over to the counter to check in, the receptionist immediately standing up as he sees Seonghwa, a respectful bow following next. The receptionist almost does a salute but Seonghwa quickly stops him, saying, "Come on, you're over-reacting, Seoho. Glad to see you're doing well besides staying in Desire."

"Sure am." He sees Akira sitting on one of the orange sofas of the lobby. "Are my eyes deceiving me, or is that really the Akira Hwang?" A small smile plays on his lips. "Looks like you guys finally got together after all these years, I suppose? Gosh, we used to ship both of you so much back in Desire; the hottest and badass couple from Medusa. You're here on honeymoon?" He raises up his eyebrows.

Seonghwa waves him away. "Don't say it like that, you're making me blush. Yeah, looks like it happened that way, but it's only just starting." His eyes turn downcast as he thinks and looks back to her. Akira is using her phone to snap pictures of the statues and paintings in the lobby, nodding in satisfaction as she takes another one. "What about you, left your gang for good?"

Seoho shrugs. "Found out it's not the life for me, escaped from that district and here I am, happily running a small resort here. Took a lot of money but it's standing okay. You know, I was surprised to get a call from you saying that you wanted to book two rooms. Was expecting a large crowd but it's really just you and her, eh?" Seoho nudges Seonghwa as the former checks him in and gives him the keys.

Seonghwa blushes as Seoho points this out, claiming, "You really are going to make me shy from all of this. Thanks, Seoho." He picks up the keys and puts two fingers to his brow as a parting gesture.

"Sure, hope you enjoy your time at my humble resort. We don't get that many occupants as it's not a peak season, so you might even get the beach all to yourself."

"We will!"

Seonghwa slumps onto the sofa next to her as he puts the keys down on the wooden table, showing her which rooms they're going to stay at. He points at the row of beach houses facing the ocean through the curtains from the lobby.

"You booked two rooms," she merely says, picking up one key and inspecting it.

"Well... um, yeah." His face feels hot. "Because I know that we are uh, just starting to, you know... so it might be too... hasty if we were..." he pronounces as if he's a toddler trying out different words to form sentences. "So I booked two rooms so that we can have one each but they're connecting so if you want to come to-" He mentally slaps himself as he realizes what he's saying. "I'm not implying that you should, but you can- wait that's not it either. What I'm saying is," he places his palms flat on his lap, "I don't want you to be uncomfortable when we're just starting this... relationship. We haven't even-" he purses his lips as his voice drops to a whisper, "-kissed."

Akira chuckles as she waits for him to finish talking. Besides Seoho and the other receptionist, there's no one else at the lobby. No other customers around; only the two of them. "This is exactly why I fell for you, Park Seonghwa. You're so brutal when you're in Medusa but you always respect me, and you can't even talk about this... thing without blushing even when we're full grown adults."

He scratches his head. "Am I doing bad at this relationship thingy? I tried to look up a manual on how to treat your girlfriend online but all of them seemed like bad advice." He grimaces. "I mean, one of the blogs told me that I have to make sure that I'm awake to accept your calls any time, or else you'll be mad at me. What if I'm sleepy and I couldn't keep my eyes open? They said that the girlfriend would become-" he animates by letting his arms open, "-a monster if you make them mad."

She shrugs. "Maybe it's not a bad advice after all." She narrows her eyes as she says threateningly, "If you ever ignore my calls I will haunt you in your sleep."

He widens his eyes as he hastily blinks before stammering, "Re... really? Is that how a relationship works?"

She enjoys seeing him flustered that she gets up and pats his head, before picking up the bags and keys, saying, "Come on, let's check out the rooms that we got."

Seoho looks at them from behind as they walk hand in hand, and there's a fatherly smile on his face as he follows their every movement. It's like he's seeing his son finally getting down to confessing to the girl he likes, but as they walk onto the sandy surface to get to the rows of rooms facing the beach, something Seonghwa said to him when he placed a call to book the rooms keeps tugging at the back of his head.

"Are you spending your time with your other team members?" Seoho had asked when he received the call. He had expected an answer of 'yeah just to spend time with the boys' or maybe 'we thought that we could use some time to wind down'.

"Nah, I'm just trying to spend the time I have left. It's only starting but I already have to put an end to it; I don't know how I'm going to go about it," Seonghwa had replied without context, putting him into further confusion.

He didn't get to ask more though, because Seonghwa quickly cut off the call. Part of him wanted to call back and ask whether everything's alright, but part of him told himself that it should be none of his business.

But as he looks at him and Akira smiling as they walk to their respective rooms, he wishes he had taken the time to ask.

---

"This room is bigger!" Seonghwa stretches out his arms before snatching the key from Akira. "This one's mine."

"Park Seonghwa you are testing my patience right now. I'm going to-" she jumps towards him to steal the key, and like kids they run around the room trying to steal the key from one another. They laugh and shout, completely forgetting that there might be other people in the rooms on the same row as them.

Both of the rooms that Seonghwa booked have a queen-sized bed, with windows behind curtains that give them the perfect view of the beach; the rooms are clones of each other except for the fact that one room is at the furthest end, so a little bit of extra space is given. It's the room they're playfully fighting over, resulting in her cornering him and reaching out to grab the key from him.

She slams a hand against the wall, trapping Seonghwa with a sly smile and her eyes drop to the level of his lips and for a moment they're frozen in time. Instinctively, he puts both his hands over his mouth so Akira uses this opportunity to snatch the key from him.

"Look at you being all shy," she mutters before moving away from him. She twirls the key in her hand, a look of victory over her face as her eyes sparkle with something mischievous.

"Stop it," Seonghwa mutters, before taking the key to the other room.

"Are you mad at me?" she asks. "Because I took the bigger room?"

"No." He looks down before heaving up his bag and going through the connecting doors to plop onto the bed face-down.

When the connecting doors are left open, anyone on the bed in one room can see straight at the person on the bed in the next room. She plops on the bed in her room, looking through the opening as he curls on the bed like an angry kitten, a black heap on the white bedsheet.

Seonghwa feels something weighing down on his bed, and he lifts up his head to see Akira with an amused look on her face. He pouts before burying back his head into his body, refusing to look at her. He feels a nudge from her as she pokes his shoulder, his stomach then his back.

"Park Seonghwa," Akira says. "Do you want to go and waste time at the beach? We can do nothing and just laze around, maybe have some coconut water and seafood."

He remains mum but he uncurls himself, searches for her hand and pulls her together with him to the beach, with Akira looking at their interconnecting hands with some kind of pained expression. She doesn't let it show, though, because as he turns around to look at her she smiles, not wanting to make him worried.

Not before it's time.

The weather is perfect as they sit on the beach chairs provided by the resort, while Seoho comes at one point to serve them some light snacks and drinks while giving a proper greeting to Akira. They take the drinks from him, have a little chat for a while before the receptionist-slash-owner of the resort excuses himself and they are both left alone again. They sip on their drinks until the glasses are empty, but still no words are exchanged between them.

She closes her eyes as she hears the waves rolling onto the shore, the birds flying over the ocean as they make their way back home and the gentle breeze whispering in her ears. She wants to start the conversation but it's all too hard for her, when she knows exactly why Seonghwa had wanted to spend time with her. All through, they remain quiet even as the sun sets and the day is shifting into night. She opens her eyes when he tells her that he'll be going somewhere and he'll be right back.

What she doesn't expect is him to return with two cups of recently-boiled instant noodles and two water bottles hugged to his chest. He drops the water bottles onto his chair, before giving one cup to her and one set of cutlery. He settles down, traces his eyes along the edge where the sky meets the sea and lets out a heavy breath.

Akira holds the cup carefully in her hands, the steam rising from under the lid as she looks at him from the side. She can't believe that this has been the boy who had been with her ever since they were young teenagers.

Seonghwa back then used to be this scrawny kid who always second guesses himself, insecurity trailing in his wake before he became a part of Medusa. Their first meeting was one of the most unconventional ways one could imagine, where she had raised the brick to bash him in the head when she thought he was following her. A mistake was all it took before they became attached, but separated after he was discharged from the hospital. She decided to become reckless again; lo and behold there he was being the youngest member of Medusa with a body that he had bulked up, surprised etched on both of their faces as they came face to face yet again.

They went through so much together, yet she never found the courage to say how much he meant to her, because it seemed that their actions for each other spoke louder than their words. When he was taken away to KTC, Akira Hwang - who never let the tears fall even when the odds were all against her - broke down and cried, regretting her decision of not saying the three words she had been wanting to say all along. But he came back, having went through all the harsh training he had described without even batting an eye - as if it wasn't him who was subjected to the inhumane modules - still being the same Park Seonghwa as he was when they first met.

She wanted to say it to him before she regretted it again, but casually, so casually he told her that agents like them couldn't be in any relationships while they're still under the contracts. So the words got stuck in her throat, knowing that she would only bring misfortune to him if she led him on. The feelings never changed, but they were never spoken.

On the day they went to the water park she finally said it to him, but she knew that it was all too late. It was when Hongjoong came up to her, dutifully handing her the DNA test kit to ask for hers, and she didn't even have the time to give a proper reaction when he told her that Han Byul was Hwayoung's mother, but didn't want the test to come back as positive. It was even before they went on the mission at the hotel, before Yunho and Byul sent Hwayoung to stay at her and Emira's place for one night.

As she looked at the three of them, she understood why Han Byul had wanted to leave without any feelings attached.

"Remember that you said you'd like to sit by the beach, watch the sunset as you eat hot instant noodles?" Seonghwa asks as he tears off the lid of his cup. "I thought that I wanted to bring you here for that. You said you didn't want any fancy dinners and all that stuff by the beach, just instant noodles. That was back when we were in Medusa, so I don't know if you changed your mind about that."

She grips her cup tighter, feeling the warmth produced by the soup inside, hoping that it could keep her warm when inside, she feels like it's winter with her heart frozen. She knows he's only delaying the time before he says exactly why he had brought her here.

"Thank you," she manages. "For being one of the people that I could trust, and for being one who was there for me since the start."

He gives a pained laugh, claiming, "Why are you being so sappy? I just wanted to bring you to where you always wanted to go. Nothing too much to think about."

"Because I didn't want to regret when I don't get the chance to say it later; like it was too late when I said I love you. Why are you like this Seonghwa? How do you always manage to pretend that nothing is wrong when everything is?" She looks down, puts away the uneaten noodles and presses her palms against her eyes, her tears pouring down like a broken dam.

He gets speechless when he sees her crying; Akira is not the type to cry easily, and in all his life he had never seen her do.

"You... always act like everything's okay... when it's not... You always feel like it's your responsibility to see everything in order because you're the oldest among them. Just say it, say that you're going away and you're doing this because we won't get to see each other again."

His arms wrap around her as she sobs harder, unable to form any words. He doesn't say anything either, only letting her tears soak his undershirt as he caresses a hand on her back. Her hands circle his waist, gripping him tight. He rests his chin on her head, simply letting her cry to her heart's content before it's dialed down, and she fists his undershirt in an effort to completely stop crying. He doesn't let go as she buries her head in his chest, silent.

"Ever since I met you when we were just stupid teenagers I've always tried to find ways to impress you, and although you never did seem to be fazed with it, I knew it was there. I've always wanted to be a hero to you, as silly as it was."

She mumbles, "You've always been one to me, Park Seonghwa. You don't have to prove anything to me anymore."

He cups her face to use his thumbs to wipe away her physical evidence of crying, but her red eyes stare back at him like she's trying to say something more but can't. Then softly, he gives a peck on her lips, before he kisses her forehead. He looks at her eyes again, giving more time for her to react as she sticks out her lower lip and her brown orbs slightly dart towards his lips.

She seems to be thinking for a moment before she gives him a proper one, as much as he doesn't know what to do besides letting her nails dig into his flesh and her lips to crash onto his. It's probably the shock that the girl he had always wanted to be his first kiss now is, or maybe it's because he literally has zero experience in this that he's staying still like a deer in the headlights. He doesn't know what to do with his hands or his eyes even though his body feels like he's on cloud nine.

When she's finished though, she clears her throat and tries to fix her hair as if that's the most pressing thing to do right now.

"I'm going to shower," she says - red eyes, nose and cheeks. Even her lips feel swollen. She avoids looking at him, her dress billowing behind her as she practically runs towards her room, taking off her slippers in a hurry as she shuts the door behind her.

"But the noodles-" he stupidly says to no one as he looks at them, already soggy.

He picks them up, tidies up their belongings and strolls back to the room, giggling to himself when the image of Akira cupping his face comes to him and his cheeks feel like they could be used to grill some bacon. As soon as he arrives in the room, he throws himself onto the bed, buries his face into the pillow and screams. It lasts for what he thinks about a minute as he kicks his legs in the air, his body jerking as he still can't get it out of his head.

26 years... and he finally got his first kiss. Even more, it's from the girl he liked since day 1.

He hears Akira coming out of the bathroom as the door slams shut, and he tries to compose himself to avoid from being heard. He prepares to shower too, his body still tingling from her touch and even under the shower he keeps on thinking about her, until he must have spent about 15 minutes wasting water. He steps out of the shower, dries his hair and looks at himself in the mirror, slapping himself a few times to make sure it's the reality.

Oh it sure is, and that's exactly why they're here.

There is a knock on the connecting door and he opens it, forgetting that he only has a towel to cover himself. Akira is already in her pajamas and she almost chokes when she sees him with the towel, only covering the lower half of his body as he lets his upper bare.

She puts a protective arm over her eyes and waves him away, "Go put on something you freak, or a brick's going to find your head again."

He grimaces with a frantic 'sorry' and shuts the door. He dresses up as quickly as he can, as if he can't go away for a minute without looking at her again. Then, as if worried, much to his relief he opens the door to see her sitting on the bed, her reading glasses perched on her nose and a story book spread in front.

"Am I disturbing you?" he asks as he sits on his own bed, feeling as if both of them are in different dimensions as he's talking to her through the opened connecting doors.

"No." She puts down her book but keeps the glasses on. "I completely forgot about the noodles. They must be soggy by now."

He walks over to the desk where he placed both cups before lifting them up and showing them to her. "Do you still want to eat it though? It's still fine if you don't mind it soggy and a little bit cold."

"Sure." She slides down to the floor, inching towards the boundary where the doors separate their rooms. She sits cross-legged as she waits patiently for Seonghwa to give her the cup of noodles. As he can't cross his legs, he struggles to find a comfortable position as she looks at him with amusement.

Still in their own rooms, they sit on the floor facing each other, the boundary of the doors seemingly a line to keep them separated. They eat in silence, the occasional slurping sound and the cutlery hitting against the paper cup being the only sound in their rooms. It's not an uncomfortable silence as they occasionally steal glances at each other, pretending to be shy when they get caught. The noodles are gone in under five minutes.

After cleaning up and brushing his teeth, he sits on the bed with his back straight, browsing through his phone as he feels the tension rising up. They leave the door open, and Akira continues reading; a snicker sometimes go past her lips when something funny comes up in the story. He looks away from his phone when he hears nothing more from her, to find her standing at the boundary looking sheepish, clasping her hands and her mouth moving to ask for permission.

"Can I... um, come in?"

As much as he's surprised his response is immediate, as he nods and she steps inside while she holds on to the hem of her pajama shirt. Thinking that it would be much more embarrassing if she were to delay it, she quietly makes her way to his bed and sits on it, and lays her head on his lap. She folds her legs so that it won't dangle off the edge of the bed and he chuckles at her silent show of affection. He throws away his phone on the side table before he runs his hands through her hair, twisting them around his fingers and tugging at them slowly.

"As much as I wanted to tell you don't go, I know that it's what you chose to do," she mutters as she looks up at the ceiling.

"Someone has to, and I decided to be a part of that. It's my responsibility too."

She nods, understanding that tonight is the last she'll be able to spend with him before he's... gone. If he's gone.

"Can I hear you say it one more time? Before I go."

She tears away her attention from the ceiling and looks at him, a weak smile decorating her face. She holds up a hand and he intertwines his fingers with hers as she says, "I love you, Park Seonghwa."

"I love you too, Akira Hwang."

He tangles her in a messy hug because they're both lying down on the bed, showering her with words to tell how lucky he is to have met her, despite the first time warranting an open wound on his temple. She can't help but laugh as he won't let go of her, making her ticklish and peppering kisses all over her face.

Despite having rented two rooms for the night, Seonghwa and Akira spend it in one room instead, falling asleep in each other's embrace as they sleep through the alarm and wake up when the sun has started to show itself again.

Sunlight shines on them as she wakes up first, finding Seonghwa's arms tightly wrapped around her. She shakes him softly to wake him up and he mumbles "another 5 minutes" before hugging her tighter, essentially preventing her from moving out of bed. So she stays in the same position, drinking in the peaceful state he's in as his eyes are closed. Giving in, she closes her eyes again and buries her face at the crook of his neck, both of them falling asleep much longer than they expect.

As soon as they do wake up, they get ready, have some breakfast, pack their bags and return home; Emira isn't home as she's at the tattoo parlour. At the door before leaving, Seonghwa kisses her, this time seemingly knowing what he needs to do. The kiss itself feels like it's something that he's taking his time on, but at the same time she can feel the hastiness, as if he's trying to take all that he can before stepping away. As he finishes, he takes her hand and plants a kiss on the back of her hand.

He ruffles her hair and reminds her, "Take care of our plants, yeah? The cacti, make sure they're alive and healthy. The boys and Hwayoung too, make sure they're not putting themselves into danger or doing anything stupid. You're the only person that I feel I can trust with them."

"I will," she says while restraining herself.

"When I can't visit you anymore, don't cry," he adds.

"I won't," but she says it through gritted teeth.

"I'll be leaving now, and I love you."

He steps away and turns around, looking as if he doesn't want to hear her say it back, and her lips are locked from saying it. She looks at his back while she desperately tries to breathe in and out. He disappears from view as he steps into the lift, and he doesn't even look back to her, who's still standing in front of the door.

She stumbles back into the apartment, closes the door and all that she can hear is the deafening silence echoing throughout the empty unit. She crashes into her bedroom, her legs buckling to the floor as she does exactly what Seonghwa told her not to.

She cries.