We spent a whole hour discussing what we wanted to do today. Suri and I were immediately in favor of staying here and going to the beach. After all, we came here especially for that. Besides, we read that a bad weather front is to be expected in the next few days. Therefore, we should still take advantage of the weather while it is good.

Emma, however, preferred that we all sit in the car in the heat and see the area. She even said that she insisted that we drive around. We should get to know a little bit of the culture here. She's so stupid, it couldn't be worse. Does she think we are in another country? Ah I would like to scream at her to shut up, only if she opens her mouth already.

Zhan thought we could go back to the city and see the sights. Sure, my arch-enemy is probably already waiting for me with her friends, so they can stare me into the ground. And who knows what they'll do to our princess Emma after she insulted the poor woman at the checkout in the supermarket.

Well, at least once Emma agreed with us and was against us going into town. And that although I told her with a grin: "You must remember, other countries, other customs. Wouldn't it be nice if you got to know the customs of this country?" Of course, I wasn't serious, but Emma nodded.

But then she said, "Well, we can still do that tomorrow when we go shopping again." I immediately had to swallow. Back to that supermarket? Then they'll surely be waiting for us with pitchforks and torches. Or else they'll stand here in front of the house at night and sing demonic songs to summon some evil spirits to haunt us.

Emma's next suggestion was that we all go to the ice cream parlor where she and Zhan were yesterday. Suri immediately got grumpy again and said, "Forget it, you guys already went there yesterday. I'll pass on that."

"What are we going to do then? Each do our own thing?" Emma asked.

"Sure, Yibo will take Zhan's car and drive me somewhere and then we'll come back hours later, say we're tired and exhausted, clear your suitcase out of my room and kick you guys out of the house so we can talk in peace." Replied Suri.

"Suri, we said the subject was over. So don't start it again now OK?" I reminded her.

Finally, Zhan had thought it over and agreed with Suri and me. So we went outside, our princess in a bikini you can barely see, Zhan a white shirt and black bathing trunks, Suri a bathing suit and me dressed similarly to Zhan.

When we were close to the water, Emma threw her bath towel aside and ran like crazy, shouting, "ZhanZhan Ge, look how fast I can swim in the water. She took a running jump into the water and attempted a lope. She dived headfirst and suddenly her legs were hanging in the air wriggling and she didn't reappear for at least half a minute. Her legs were just wriggling wildly back and forth. And all of a sudden she comes up and she's wailing, "My head was stuck in the sand, I couldn't get up." And she was screaming and crying. While Suri and I collapsed on the sand from laughing so hard.

With that, Emma's bath time was over. She held her head, whining. And of course, she had now found another way to get Zhan's full attention.

She sat next to Zhan, crying, and he held a cooling pad to her head, which he had fetched especially for her from the house. Suri was immediately back to 180 with her anger.

I lay down in the sand a bit away from this whining princess, because her weeping is really annoying, and Suri lay down next to me. We watched Zhan and Emma very closely. Again and again Suri tried to attract his attention. But whenever he looked briefly at us, Emma immediately started whining louder.

Finally Suri said, "Okay, that's enough. Plan B is going to have to happen!"

"What's your plan B?" I asked her.

Suri grinned, giving me the look of a madwoman, and replied, "You're going to go in the water with me now! And then we're going to stay in there for a few minutes. And as soon as we get out of the water, I'm going to call Zhan and you're going to show him your fucking abs. Any bets, when your white shirt gets wet, you can see everything through it. And that's going to look hot as hell and Zhan certainly won't be able to take his eyes off you and your abs!"

No sooner had she explained her Plan B than she pulled me up and into the water with her. We swam for a bit, frolicking around as I kept putting her on my shoulders and throwing her backwards so she could dive into the water with a backward roll. Every now and then, Zhan glanced at us. But Suri told us to pretend we didn't even notice. No idea why.

Finally, after half an hour, I was allowed to leave the water again. Suri yelled for Zhan, I thought my hearing would never return and he looked at us as we came out of the water. I then also had to do my hair back with my hand, as she said, as sexy as possible. She even pulled on the back of my shirt so that my abs could be seen properly.

And what did it bring? Haha, Zhan stared at my body and only looked away when I grabbed my towel and covered myself with it. But, Suri wasn't through with plan B yet. I then had to take off my wet shirt while Zhan watched. I felt like a lust object. But, I can't deny that Zhan looked like he has tooth dripping.

More than that, Zhan came over to Suri and me and sat down next to us. Only briefly, of course, because Emma was complaining about the bump on her head and immediately got louder again with her whining when Zhan sat down with us. And what did Zhan do when he sat with us? He stared at me. My free upper body, in other words.

Since I didn't plan to let the sun burn my skin, I put on another top. Actually, I thought I could surf here, too, and that's why I brought it. Now I used it to play volleyball with Suri. It was really a lot of fun and Zhan watched enviously all the time how we enjoyed ourselves while he had to take care of whining Emma.

Dinner today was from the grill, which meant we could stay outside and not have to go inside.

Emma continued to do her best to claim Zhan for her own. She even tried one of her tricks again. She whined and whined and then asked Zhan several times if they could both drive around a bit and maybe her headache would go away.

Zhan looked at Suri and me, shook his head, smiled at us, and said to Emma, "If you have such a bad headache, take a pill now and go to sleep. I didn't even get to go swimming or have any fun at all because I had to mother you all the time. At some point enough is enough. I want to spend time with my little sister and Yibo now." He sounded really angry.

All of a sudden, Emma's headache was gone. Just disappeared from now on. And she didn't even have a problem getting most of the smoke off the grill. And that even though Suri and I told her to sit closer to us so she wouldn't get any smoke. She was brave and said, "That's ok, I can take it."

As it started to get dark, our group split up. Suri went to bed as she was tired from all the swimming and frolicking on the beach. Emma wanted to watch something on TV and Zhan asked me if we wanted to look at the starry sky today. So he and I walked along the beach and I asked him about Emma. "How did you meet Emma and is she usually like this? I mean she cries easily and then wants to be pitied."

"Mhhh how was that then? Oh yeah. Emma was my roommate's girlfriend in the dorm and we were in choir together. We didn't become friends until we were in our second year though. That's when we got to talk more often and do things together from time to time. And no, like I said before, I don't know Emma like that. I mean ok, she acts like a princess and likes to be treated like one. But the way she's been acting here the last two days, I don't know her."

"Mhhh, what do you guess that's because of?"

"Well, she told me yesterday that she feels that you and Suri don't like her and are obviously shutting her out. You guys don't talk to her and she doesn't know how to act towards you guys. And that's why she clings so much."

"I've said it before, I think she's just jealous when your full attention isn't with her. Suri and I have tried to talk to her and get her involved, she hasn't responded at all and has always refused. She doesn't talk to us. Even earlier at the barbecue we told her to sit closer to us but she refused. It is very obvious to Suri and me that she would rather be alone with you. And she confirmed that in my eyes this morning."

"In what way did she confirm it?"

"She told me, about your girlfriend you had in university, and told me very clearly to stay away from you."

"She told you what? What girlfriend? I don't think I quite understand."

"She said to me that when she met you, you had this girlfriend and that you broke up when you went in different directions after university."

"Well, that's not true. I mean all of that. None of that is true at all. I never had a girlfriend. And I should know, shouldn't I? Why would she say something like that?"

"Because she's jealous. Told you."

"Well, I'm definitely going to clear that with her! She's crazy!" Said Zhan angrily.

I didn't say anything else and pointed at the night sky. It was incredible to see how many stars were here without the light of the big city. Zhan also looked up and seemed to have calmed down, at least for the moment. 

We also sat down in the sand for a while, listening to the sound of the ocean waves and looking at this beautiful starry sky. It was just as I imagined it. The only thing missing was our hands touching.

After maybe half an hour, we slowly walked back. Since it was dark and we could barely see anything, Zhan tripped over something, I just barely managed to grab him before he fell and he landed in my arms. And I swear I could feel Zhan's heart beating as he landed in my arms and clung to me tightly. His breathing was fast and his heart was racing.

After that brief moment of shock, I took Zhan's hand and said softly, "I'd better hold on to you, I don't want you to fall." But actually, I just wanted to hold his hand while we walked back to our beach house.

And when the house was in sight, Zhan said, "Wait a minute Yibo."

I stopped and he asked me, "Can I hug you again? Are we friends again?"

"The day was better than yesterday. I'll give you another chance. You are allowed to hug me again." Zhan immediately threw his arms around me and clung tightly.

"Thank you for giving me another chance Yibo." He whispered and gave me a little peck on my cheek. Then he let go of me, took my hand again and we went into the house. I was speechless and just followed him.

Once inside we saw Emma lying on the sofa asleep. The TV was still on. Zhan threw a blanket over her and then we went to our room. We were each lying in our beds, but our gazes were fixed on each other, we looked into each other's eyes and it felt like we were close, very close.

A/N: I know some readers don't like it when pictures are included. But hey, these pictures had to be today. They just fit the chapter too perfectly.