LOUISE JULIA SANTIAGO doesn't think she's ever been this frustrated in her life before.

"For the last time, I'm not a bartender," she clarifies, a crease forming in between her eyebrows. "Now will you please leave me alone?"

"Oh, come on, babe," the stranger that has a piercing on his eyebrow coos. Intoxicated, his fingers grazes her arm as a sly smile dawns upon his lips. Louise arches an eyebrow, and jerks away from his touch. His smile only grows. "Don't tell me you're not one when you're dressed like that."

She grounds her teeth together, not bothering to look down at her skimpy outfit that Alison put on for her. Regardless, he didn't have to assume all female bartenders are supposed to wear revealing clothes and think it's okay for them to be touched inappropriately without permission. "And I suppose you're a lumberjack dressed like that?"

He scoffs in disbelief, and grabs her arm with a strong grip. A short breath heaves from her nose at the sudden impact as her lips are pressed tightly against each other. However, she doesn't wriggle out of his grip, because she knows that he's not going to do anything. He can't.

So she just waits for the right moment.

Her brown eyes turn into slits, and says vehemently, "I said leave me alone."

A sign of doubt and fright crosses the stranger's face, but he covers up with a growl and narrows his eyes at her as well to match with her anger. "You're one feisty bitch, aren't you?"

She purses her lips, and pretends to think while humming in amusement. "Feisty? Sure." Then, she straightens her back as a smirk finds its way to her pink, lip glossed lips. "A bitch?" In one swift motion, she lifts her right leg a little, and stomps right on his toes with her stilettos. The booming music covers his strangled cry, and he completely lets go of her arm. "Definitely."

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Louise still can't seem to find her friends for the next fifteen minutes.

She's starting to feel a little headache coming in, but that doesn't stop her. She can't just leave them here and take the car with her even though every part of her itches her to do so. Who do they think they are? To use her as the designated driver almost every time they go out to party.

Now that she thinks of it, it's not fair. She wants to have fun as well.

She raises her head high, and narrows at the scene unfolding in front of her. She doesn't need alcohol to achieve the same level of fun they're having, does she? No, it can't be possible that every person in this party's drunk. But then again, they're allowed to. They're not underage anymore.

All of a sudden, a person bumps into her. Catching her off guard, she stumbles back a little, the weight of the other person leaning onto her. Her hands fly up in some sort of defense manner, but as soon as she catches the familiar looks of her best friend, her face twists into a scowl.

"Jerome," she hisses. "Where the hell were you?"

He grins lazily. "I pretty much hooked up with three girls already."

"What? With who?"

"Guess," he says cockily. Her fingers shoot for the skin of his pale average muscled arms, and pinches them slightly in between. He instantly yelps in pain, and jumps away from her. "Ow! Lou!"

"Tell me."

"Okay, okay," he huffs out. "They were Fiona, Naomi, and Vanessa."

"Vanessa? The one who hosted this party?"

The corners of his lips quirks upwards. "Mhm."

She really tries not to slap his stomach with the back of her hand, but of course, she fails. However, she doesn't do it, because he's hooked up with three girls, but because her suspicions are confirmed. They are having fun; way more than she can ever have in this stupid party.

"I think I should just go home. I'm not feeling very well anyway."

His eyes instantly widen. "No!"

"I honestly have nothing to do here. Why don't you ask one of your hookups to drop you off?" Then, she grimaces a little when she realizes that she may have said it a little more harshly than she intended to. "I mean, I'm sure they'll be more than happy to offer a ride."

His eyebrows furrow in confusion. "Are you okay?"

Once again, she sighs. "I'll just go home, okay? Tell Alison I had tons of fun."

She's about to put her arms in front of her to block herself from getting elbowed from the people on the dance floor, but Jerome grabs one of them gently, and makes her face him again. He still has that concerned look etched on his features. "Hey, Lou. Seriously."

It's nice to see him concerned like this, but it's not effective enough. She manages a shaky smile, and lies smoothly, "I'm fine."

"Wanna talk about it upstairs?"

She bursts into laughter. "If this is how you get girls into bed, Jerome, then no. No, I won't talk about it upstairs."

He immediately realizes what he said, and laughs as well. "No, Lou. I was just—you know what I mean."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. But it's okay. I'm fine, remember? I'll just go home, and sleep on it. Nothing big, really."

"At least let me drop you off at the front door."

"How charming."

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Jerome absolutely doesn't drop Louise off by the front door. And of course, there's only one reason to this.

Girls. And him being the weak one, he can't help but reject a dance offer.

He should be lucky that Louise is indifferent at the moment, because she's just too focused on something else rather than him being a douche as usual. As she steps out of Vanessa's house, the chilly air wraps around her exposed skin. At least, there's less exposed skin since she's now wearing a trench coat over her dress and a scarf wrapped securely around her neck.

She mindlessly rubs the area where the stranger touched that left a burning sting on her arm and exhales deeply, her breath turning into smoke. Her eyes wander left and right, not seeing much people outside. There's nothing to her left, just bushes and a fence between her neighbor's and her own.

However, there's a lot of space to her right. According to what Alison told her right before the party, it's an outdoor swimming pool just a few meters away, but it's somehow hidden behind the bushes so it's not easy to spot who's in it.

Albeit she knows that the outdoor pool is strictly restricted, she walks towards it. Going for a swim isn't something on her list, but there's just something that's reeling her in. Perhaps it's because she wants some peace and quiet, or because she's merely curious; she doesn't know.

Just as she inches closer to the bushes, she hears something.

It's something that sounds like a yelp. A muffled scream. And it's coming from right in front of her, straight from the swimming pool.

Her heartbeat quickens and she's not sure whether it's a trap or someone's actually calling for help, but the screams just keeps getting stifled by the second until she can't hear it anymore. Suddenly, she's running towards the opening of the bushes, alert and afraid. Who can it be? Nobody's supposed to be there anyway. Is it Vanessa?

Despite the fact that she lacks in the running and stamina department, she thinks that this may be the fastest she's ever run compared to all those useless classes in gym and short sprints when playing badminton back in school.

Her arms flail around as she finally emerges from the bushes, and her feet stumbles forwards due to the uncontrollable speed she'd used. When she takes in the sight before her, she gasps, realizing that she didn't know what to expect. She'd guessed it was Vanessa, but somewhere deep down in her whispers that she heard a masculine voice, not feminine.

Sure enough, it is.

And in the pool, he's drowning.

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Louise would always try to stay away from open water.

Drowning has been her fear since forever, and one of the reasons is because she doesn't even know how to swim. She can't bear the thought of swallowing and breathing all water in until she suffocates and dies. It's horrifying. Avoiding the deeper side of the pool is one thing she's always done.

However, when she sees that someone's life is at stake—drowning, that is—she goes through a lot of thoughts and feelings at once. Should I go call someone for help? No, they won't make it. It's almost as if she's going into a coma; body paralyzed. She can't process anything, or move a muscle. Save him. Now. He's drowning, for goodness' sake.

Louise has always been about making decisions, but right now, there's too much pressure, and time's ticking away. She can't think straight.

But she is also not one to let someone die right in front of her eyes.

So she instinctively jumps into the pool.

She hits the cold water, and the impact of the collision sends a jabbing pain to her arms for a second, but then fades away as she's gradually sinking down. Just as she forcefully opens her eyes, she's finally realized what the hell she's done. Panic strikes and she's suddenly hit with the urge to inhale and exhale deeply to calm herself down, but stops herself before she breathes all the water in until she can't anymore.

Frantically looking around the water filled with chemicals, she searches for the drowning boy. She can't afford to lose sight of him; no, she can't afford to lose anything tonight. Not his life, not hers. If she isn't underwater, she surely would be screaming right now, because her lungs are starting to hurt. She kicks her feet, but it doesn't work. She just keeps getting dragged under. Then she realizes why.

She's still wearing her pumps and coat.

Holy shit, she thinks to herself as she brings her knees to her chin and clumsily pulls her shoes and coat off. Suddenly, she feels a lot lighter. She's sinking faster. Her feet touch the floor of the swimming pool, and this terrifies her. She's already in too deep, and can't hold her breath anymore. As though her brain gives her a signal to take a deep breath, she does. And she feels so, so, so stupid to have done it, because she doesn't have much more oxygen anymore since she opened her mouth.

She doesn't know if she's crying underwater, but if she wasn't, then she's sure that she will be any second now. Through her blurry eyesight, she sees the drowning boy just right above her. His face isn't clear so she can't recognize him, but what matters is he's not moving at all. What if he's already dead, and her effort is useless, and she herself will die with him in this pool in this very night.

No, she can't let all this go to waste. She needs to try. She can do this.

With all her energy and new-found determination, she pushes herself upwards with her feet. Albeit she's not a strong person, a flood of hope rushes through her as she springs up, high enough to grab the boy's body. Then, she starts to kick, and flaps her right arm up while pulling the collar of the boy's jacket with her left.

But as she goes through an open door, another door closes, because suddenly, black spots start to appear around the corner of her eyes.

She continues to move her limbs, though. The sight of the moon above the water is becoming brighter, closer. The boy's definitely heavy, but she pushes further and further. She's starting to get tired, and it's painful to keep pushing through this much pressure. I can't . . . I can't. She screams, bubbles of carbon dioxide exhaling out of her lips. Her head hurts so much due to the water being swallowed in, and no oxygen being inhaled. She's lost. And before she can give hope up, she goes for one more push, her right arm reaching up, and her feet slowing down their pace, a sign of surrender.

Her hand finds the cold edge of the swimming pool.

She pulls herself up with all her might, and breaks through the surface. She's engulfed with cold air, and her throat and lungs hurt, because it's almost as though she's swallowing icicles. As she coughs out the remaining water she's swallowed, she tries her hardest to pull herself up on the edge by placing her weight on it sideways while holding the boy's head above the water so he can breathe.

Finally rolling over, her body completely on the hard floor, she opens her eyes and mouth wide open. Stumbling on her feet, bending, her hands curve under the boy's armpits. With a deep breath, she pulls him over, but because of his heavy weight accompanied with the amount of water stuck on him, it's difficult.

As soon as almost more than half of his body—from head to knee—is above the water, Louise crumbles onto the ground along with his limp figure. Her eyebrows knit in exasperation, and she immediately rubs her face, her chest still heaving up and down.

Then, she places a hand over his chest and leans down to hear whether he's breathing or not. Her ear is near his mouth and nose, because she doesn't want to miss a single confirmation that he's still alive. After a few seconds, she opens her mouth in disbelief, unable to feel any warm breathing against her or heartbeat under her palm.

"Hey!" she whispers aggressively through clattering teeth, now adding another hand over his chest. She's no expert in this, and has absolutely no knowledge about this, except the scenes she's watched from movies. Her shaky fingers go over each other, and she presses a little right on top of his chest, hoping that it'll give him a push to breathe in oxygen.

She senses a breakdown coming, but covers it with murmurs, "No, no. Please. Wake up! Breathe, come on. Don't—don't give up." She did not almost die just to save a dead body. All of a sudden, she hears weak splutters of cough coming under.

She's relieved, so relieved that she can almost kiss the boy for being alive, but restrains herself and lets out a long sigh of relief instead. "Oh my gosh. Yes. Breathe." The boy's head turns sideways, and water spills from his mouth.

It is then she feels the faint heartbeat from under the palm of her hand, and she smiles weakly.

After that, she leans back, and sits comfortably. She's going to wait for the boy to open his eyes, but until then, she stares at him. She stares at how his knotted chestnut brown hair is sticking to his forehead, not long enough to reach his eyes and not short enough to keep straight. She stares at his shining olive skin under the bright moonlight, accompanied with the shadows of soft cheekbones and long lashes. She stares at his lips that are so pale; it almost looks like glass. And for a long time, Louise hasn't seen a boy this striking.

But there's a nagging feeling at the back of her head. Something tells her that she's seen this guy before, but her mind comes up with a blank. Along the with question 'Did we go to the same school?', there are also 'Why did he come here?' and 'Why was he drowning?'.

Suddenly, she hears footsteps behind her.

Turning around, her eyes latches onto a familiar figure of her best friend, Alison, whose jaw now drops at the sight before her. Jerome appears behind her. Due to the freezing weather and wetness, Louise splutters in soft whispers, "Ali—Alison—"

The aforementioned girl runs over to her. "Lou, what—what happened?" She looks down at the boy, and her eyes widen. "He—he's . . ." An unreadable expression falls upon her face and her eyebrows knit, but Louise notices a spark of familiarity in her eye.

She looks back down. "I . . ." she trails off, breathing heavily. "I don't know him, but he was drowning, and I . . . saved him."

Alison continues staring at the boy, and Jerome looks back up at Louise, asking, "You're not kidding, right?"

She gapes. "Do you really think I'd be kidding at this state?"

"But you don't know how to swim!" Alison exclaims, her eyes looking like it can pop out of its sockets any second now. "Hell, you can't even go near open water. What—?"

"At least he's here! He's alive, Ali. And so am I. Stop worrying. I'm okay."

Alison purses her lips, a pained look etched across her face. "Are you sure?"

She pretends she didn't hear that.

Just then, she feels the boy move from under her hand, and instantly glances down at him, biting her bottom lip in anticipation.

He opens his eyes.

She shuts her eyes in relief, and the corners of her lips stretches into a small smile. She opens them up to see those beautiful gray eyes of his again, staring back at her. And truly, they are. His eyes are vivid and glistening.

But something about the way he's looking at her seems a bit off. Confusion's written all over his face. He doesn't look grateful at all. Maybe he isn't aware of what's happening. His lips are shaking; so much that she thinks she's hallucinating when she hears him breathe, "Lou?"

She blinks. "What?" She opens her mouth to say something, but doesn't know what, so she pulls her hand away form him as if his skin burned her and watches him. Did she hear him right? He plants his palms on the floor and pushes himself away from her, his eyes never leaving her. How does he know my name?

Jerome stumbles forwards, finally taking action. The boy finally breaks gaze with her, and then looks up at him. "What just happened?"

"Dude, you okay?" Jerome asks, bending down to his position, placing a hand on his back. "Why are you—?"

"I need to go," the boy says in a raspy voice, constantly switching his gaze between Louise and him.

"Okay, buddy." Then, he helps him up with a hand, and wraps an arm around his waist for support. As he passes by the girls, he murmurs to Alison, "I'll call you guys if anything happens."

Her face paler than before, Alison nods once, barely letting out a high pitched, "Mhm."

Once they're gone, leaving Alison and Louise alone, they finally find their own voices to speak up. Louise arches an eyebrow, noticing her odd behavior. Did she know the guy? "Why do you look like you've seen a ghost?"

"What? Nothing." She then glances at the pool. "God, Lou, you're freezing and your coat's gotten all wet." Then, she starts taking off hers. "Here."

Louise shakes her head as well as her hand. "No, no, just wear it. I'm not even—"

"Your chattering teeth and shaking body says otherwise," Alison interjects, giving her the 'you don't fool me' look. Next, she raises her red coat and brings it around her shoulders and tucking it in place. "Besides, I don't get cold easily, remember?"

Louise can only smile in gratification. Then, she remembers something. "Did you hear what he said?"

"Other than him wanting to go home?" She pauses, then looks away. "No. Why?"

Louise presses her lips together, and shakes her head in reply. "No reason."

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if u feel like u have read this chapter from before and skipped all the way to the end, pls go back to the beginning bc trust me everything's changed. except the pool part. legit. even uriah's dialogues are changed so. that's all.