She spends a sleepless night. A finger always hovering over a video she would never conjure up the courage to play - Hae Soo reflects back to the hard plains of anger that made up Hwang So. She knows him from somewhere. Her mind whispers to the last of dying stars.

It is not another one of her imaginations she is certain. Only the image belongs nowhere. She remains tangled in her sheets, staring at the ceiling as the gray light of dawn lights it up and tries to place the shifting bits of details into a sensible outcome.
She knows him. How? From where? Was that what Wook had almost hinted at the party?

Tossing a well punched pillow out of the bed into the floor, Soo gets up in the end. Her hair is a mess, her eyes a little bloodshot, but her mind hardly finds a moment to focus on that.

She opts to wash with cold water, just to wake up her half sleepy brain. The first jolt of ice against skin triggers something.

Behind her cold eyelids, she sees the yellowish green of the sunlit water. The darker green of the depth, the whitish yellow above her from the sky veiled with a layer of water that thickens each minute.

Sinking, she is sinking fast. The doors are locked handles jammed in - with breath burning in her lungs she bangs her palms against the glass. It doesn’t yield. She feels the weariness in her bones, the protest of her muscles and she knows - she admits - the end is drawing near.

Above her the sky goes dark, the edges of sun sparkle in a ghostly manner. The glass cracks due to a force outside. Her vision grows darker from the edges as a hand wraps itself around her wrist. It pulls her up against the weight of the water.

A dark pair of eyes. A face with a gash down one cheek, still bloody and raw against the pale white skin.

She knows him. She knows her saviour.

**

He wants her. And the intensity of his longing scares So witless. It goes beyond anything physical to the core of his very soul. He aches for her with a thirst thousand years old that it hurts physically to pull himself away. So he does what he does best. He runs away, afraid that he might lose his mind any second, drown in her eyes and do something irreversible. Hae Soo - that woman with a face of a saint and a soul of a storm.

She is not his. She will never be. He chants it back and forth all his drive back. But then he remembers that look in her eyes and he loses all his progress on that front.

There was that one moment - when they had been so close, when he had all but lost his reason - that she seemed to give in to whatever was simmering between them. His longing was mirrored in her eyes. He does not know what goes between her and Wook but she has never been loved the way she deserves. For all that she truly was instead of what she has been forced to be. Where there should have been the confidence of a relationship there is a void of insecurities and self - doubts that calls out desperately.

He curses aloud. It’s none of his business.

But then her thoughts cling to his conscience and refuses to leave, like the traces of her perfume on his shirt - lavender with an undertone of something more wild, spicy and citrus just like the woman herself. He wants her gone - he wants the smell gone, but a long after he has thrown the shirt in the wash basket and taken a long shower, it still lingers on his subconscious just like Hae Soo.

He takes the plunge with her thoughts still clawing at him. The instant chill that surrounds him wakes him up from the trance. So welcomes it gratefully, his muscles flexing, undoing the knots of suppressed tension. He channels his frustration into his strokes, the building up speed, increases the time he spends under water letting his lungs burn with the need of air.

He would let her go. He would forget her. Move on. He would. He would not.
He hoists himself up taking a gulp of air as coach Park presses on the timer. The old man gives him a strange look as So peels off his goggles and cap.

“You put too much energy into your flip turn.” He informs in his usual gruff. “Work on that.”

“Time?” So inquires nonchalantly stretching his shoulders.

“Best yet.” He smirks at that, knowing full well the value of an unwilling praise from his coach. Coach Park’s lips twitch as well. He loves the boy for his arrogance and the unbending spirit. “Next time keep the show minimum.” He admonishes with feigned anger and claps him on the back. “You’ve been down here for hours, get out and get a shower.

“Just one more lap!”

“Absolutely not!” The man grins at him, despite narrowed eyes. You stink of chlorine.” He scrunches his nose for good measure and leaves with the whistle in his mouth. “There’s somewhat promotional shoot - you were asked to free up your evening.” He adds with distaste as he walks away.

**
Wook wakes up with a hand clutching his head and a curse on his lips, then his blurry eyes take in the early morning visitor sitting by the window.

“Good morning!” Soo, sounds her normal detached self. “Coffee? Tea? Or juice?”

“When did you come?” Wook wonders aloud running a hand over his stubble and watching her with disbelief. “Coffee - please, with cream.”

She chooses not to answer as she prepares his cup, and the saucer clatters when she lifts it to offer him.

Wook takes a whiff of the strong smelling liquid and winces, looks at Soo and takes a tentative sip.

“I got carried away last night,” he tries to sound light, but finds his courage failing as he notices that her expression remains unchanged. “Are you still very angry?”

Soo stands up, her hands clasping and unclasping. There is tension at her jaw, on her shoulders, in her rigid posture. Wook climbs off his bed to take her into his embrace, where she remains stiff, unyielding.

“Tell me how to make amends,” he mutters nuzzling against her hair. “What would please you?”

“You lied to me…” her words are barely audible but he freezes abruptly.

“What do you mean?” He asks his voice trembling.

Soo turns in his embrace so that her deep eyes are fixed on his.

“So.” She says and watches the effect of the word on his face. Wook pales if only slightly. He tries to smile but ends up grimacing.

“What about him?”

“I remembered from where I knew your brother.” Soo tells him.

“Eh?”

“He was the one who saved me.”

There is a pause in which she pulls herself free of his arms. He lets her, his limbs suddenly numb.

“I remember him reaching for me as I was drowning. That man with a gash on his face. Only it healed later. You told me it was a random lifeguard. It was your own brother! Why?”

“I -” Wook hesitates and Soo shakes her head, stepping away from his outstretched hand.

“We promised there will be no lies between us. You said we could make this work. This arrangement they want us to take forward.”

“Soo ya - it’s not that important.”
“You made me believe I was hallucinating and it’s nothing important?” Soo draws in a breath. “Nobody believed a word I said and it’s nothing important? I thought my memory was gone and my brain was coming up with false memories and you dare say it’s nothing important?” Her voice turns shrill and she wipes an angry tear off the corner of her eyes.

“You lied to me!”

He reaches for her again and she pulls the door open, creating a distance between them with that cold look in her eyes which he dares not to cross.

“You lied to me!”

She descends the stairs as fast as she could and catches her breath leaning against a stone pillar outside the house. Wook’s reaction had been the last thing she hoped for, Soo muses darkly. She had a little faith left that he would have a better explanation - a solid reason. Why would he try to falsify her accurate memories? She cannot think of a reason to validate that.

She opts for the next best thing to do, finding a distraction. Fishing for her mobile inside her bag, she dials up a number.

“I’m in -” she tells the caller on the other side. “I want to work.”

**
Inside the locker room stall, So lets the hot water drum against his scalp. It is almost therapeutic with the steam relaxing his weary tendons. So holds his thoughts on a tight rein from running back to her. His resolve last until he exits shower and finds himself face to face with Wook.

“Brother,” is his greeting. So looks at him wearily, wondering why they are all hell bent on testing his patience in one way or the other. With the ghost of Hae Soo still haunting him the last man he wants to chat with at the moment is Wook.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?” He says, trying to sound genuinely pleased when in fact a dull ache is developing behind his eyes.

“I just came to watch you train.” Wook is a bad liar. His fake smile makes him look like he is suffering from a tooth ache. So narrows his eyes and walks to his locker running a towel through his hair as he does. “And thank you for taking care of Soo last night.”

So shuts the locker with a snap and turns to his brother. His lips are pressed into a hard line as he waits Wook to complete his little speech.

“But it was not necessary. She is capable of managing on her own.”

“Sure.” He says with a shrug. “But if someone giving her a ride home throws you out of the loop - better be careful brother.”

“Who should I be careful of brother? You?” Wook’s tone drops in to a threateningly low whisper.

So pulls on his shirt and starts buttoning, his temper close to its boiling point.

“I don’t know. Perhaps.”

Wook chuckles at his words in a hallow sound void of any real humour.

“You’d do it again?” He says darkly, his eyes suddenly cold. “Betray a brother?” He adds after a pause. “Why do you always desire what already belongs to one of your brothers?”

So’s hands still on the last button and Wook closes in on him, his cold eyes intent and basking in satisfaction of the hurt he sees on his.

“She is not yours. Nothing here belongs to you. You’d do well to remember that...little brother.” His tone is clear, each word leaving a heavy stamp of bitterness between them. So takes in his new persona with a hint of wonder, Wook he remembered had always been gentle and reserved. The open hostility in his face is startling. “Hae Soo is mine - my person!”

“I’d love to prove you wrong,” He tells him with a cold grin that remains short of his eyes. Instead they burn with all the suppressed frustration. “But she is her own person and belongs to neither of us.”

He brushes off Wook’s hand on his shoulder and walks out, only to stop at the threshold to add.

“And don’t call her yours, she gets annoyed at that.”