Saturday morning at the lookout point had been blazing hot, so to cool off, the group had settled on a few rounds of water wars; multicoloured water balloons filled with cold water. The game had been played with partners: Carsyn and Ziro versed Evan and Alex. Evan had volunteered to partner with him, eager to garner a friendship with him such as Carsyn had over the past year.

What had initially been planned as a friendly game had immediately become a rousing competition when Ziro offered up a fifty-dollar gift card for the local bakery in Riviam Point, Bread and Batter, to whichever duo won.

With such a valuable prize on the line, Alex knew he had no other choice but to step it up from start to finish. He had zoomed across the field like a pronghorn antelope and glided past the opposing team the way peregrine falcons soared the skies. From all the years he had played it, Alex couldn't recall a time he had made use of any of the skills he had gained from basketball, outside of a basketball court. It wasn't until the water balloon war that he truly felt grateful for having taken up the sport.

Doing much of the heavy throwing, Alex had led himself and Evan to victory which had amazed both Evan and Carsyn but left Ziro bitter, as Carsyn had called out, to which he had decided after his defeat to impose a bonus round that would to the fullest degree crown the winners of that fifty-dollar gift card.

And now there they all were, down in the gravelly recesses of the lookout point's concealed grotto, a metal tub filled to the brim with a scattered selection of insects and spiders found around the area, placed dead in the center of the space.

Evan and Alex stood a few steps away from it; Evan more calmly, seemingly even studying the creatures inside from afar; Alex more nervously, cringing every time an insect unintentionally flipped over and exposed their disturbing leg structure.

"So...what do we have to do again?" Alex asked.

"It's simple," Ziro started. He sat upon the obsidian boulder at the head of the room, as a king would on his throne, with one leg folded up and the other swinging back and forth to knock against the boulder's side. "The gift card's buried somewhere in there. You two just have to dig around and find it. Once you do, it's yours. You win."

Alex stared between Ziro and the tub. "Dig with what though?"

"Your hands. Everything in there is harmless to a person, so it should be fine." Ziro shrugged as he glanced inside the tub from where he sat, as if he were looking at a mass of candy instead of earth-prowling creepy crawlies.

"...literally never met anyone more spiteful..." Carsyn began to mutter from where she lay sprawled out on the hollow log to the right of the grotto. Ziro rolled his eyes and scowled at her.

"Don't worry, Alex. You carried us the last round, let me take the lead now," Evan assured. Ziro tried to protest, but Evan stopped him, "zip it, Mr. Sore Loser. This is still a game, so we should always be having fun."

Ziro looked even more vexed than he did a minute before, yet he waved a curt hand and dismissed the argument. Alex stared at the inconceivable sight seemingly forever, then he looked to his right to stare at Evan, wondering if she had always possessed a feisty side to her. He had only known her about a week, but it had only been today that he witnessed her wearing this gutsier side on her sleeve both now, and earlier in the water wars when she had managed two hits on Carsyn and Ziro.

"Can we get this arbitrary show on the road already?" Carsyn shouted. "I'm getting hungry." Alex gave two forceful pats on his stomach; his own appetite for food was swelling as well, even as he continued to eye the insect receptacle.

Ziro said to Evan and Alex, "ready?"

Evan moved first, going straight up to the tub and getting down on her knees before it. Alex followed, a bit hesitant, though he did a satisfactory job of hiding it as he kneeled next to Evan. He mimicked her as she hovered her arms overhead of the tub, and he was perturbed for when the moment came that his hands would have to descend into the mass of insect life.

Ziro watched them until they looked prepared enough. "Go."

Evan dived in first. Alex watched as her hands plunged in; roly polies and ladybugs and red velvet mites floundered around to get away. She began a steady pace of plowing; sinking a hand in and retracting it, back and forth. It was nearly a minute when Alex realized he hadn't moved his own hands. He took a deep breath, and let his hands drop. He froze for a moment as he felt the hair-raising sensation of roly polies clinging to his fingertips, and ants crawling over his skin.

"Just go at it slow," Evan coached.

"You've done this before?" Alex asked her.

"Something like it. Back then, my mission was a scavenger hunt around the lookout point. Bugs, snakes, spiders, a few plants — I basically ransacked the entire place. One thing I've learned from that crazy day: if you don't freak out, then they won't freak out either, so just move your hands slowly. Steadily. Steadily is a real word, right?"

"I think so," Alex reassured. He grimaced when something that felt larger than most of the other bugs and spiders he was seeing on the surface, wriggled frantically in between his fingers to get past. "And wow, you're pretty fearless."

"Hardly," Evan chuckled. "Nah, Syn's the real gutsy girl of the group. Took Ziro on head to head once, came out of it actually winning. Some kids from our school saw their fight here at the lookout, and they started calling her 'girl with a short fuse and short fist' after she won."

"That was you," Carsyn said, jabbing a finger in Evan's direction. "And that was a really icky rumour that got around for a while."

"¡No, no, no!" Evan cried in defense, a sharp European accent suddenly exuding for a moment. She looked at Alex and pleaded, "I swear I didn't mean it to go like that, I meant it as a good thing! The short fuse is like she gets 'heated', 'passionate', ready to fight and go all out when she wants to, you know? And short fist is like...quick, you know? Like 'flying', a flying fist, like...geez! People just talk too much. It was not a rumour, it was a compliment."

Carsyn lifted her legs onto the log as well and crossed an ankle over the other. "Your blamelessness speaks volumes, Eva." Evan scoffed and pouted as she tunnelled her hands further into the tub.

Alex asked, addressing both Carsyn and Ziro, "how was it then? The fight?" Ziro looked like he was truly considering the question, but Carsyn answered first.

"Bloody. Violent. Muddy — it was kind of raining that day, so, yeah," Carsyn explained. "It also didn't last long cuz the rents came to break it up, but, I did manage to get the last blow and had him pinned to the ground for at least three seconds."

"Pinning isn't winning," Ziro added.

"Yeah, yeah, not in taekwondo or karate or whatever's terms," Carsyn went on, dismissive. She slanted her head downwards to view the duo by the tub. "Can you believe him, Lexy? Wrestling, boxing, MMA — lesser fighting styles, he says. Meanwhile MMA literally incorporates other martial arts techniques-"

"It's aggressive, and too focused on competition-"

"Excuse me! What does that make you then? You're one of the most aggressive people I know-"

"I found it!"

Heads spun towards Evan as she held up a square, mud-caked black envelope, covered partially in velvet mites and ladybugs. Evan flicked them off one by one while Alex quickly withdrew his hands and started to shake off the few hitchhiking insects that lingered on his skin. Carsyn sat upright on the log while Ziro leapt off the obsidian boulder, both placated by Evan's find.

"What was that? Like five minutes? Best record over here!" Evan cheered. She reached over to grab Alex's arm and raised it in air along with both her own, waving them wildly side to side in victory. "See if you two can beat that!"

"Pass," Carsyn said. "A fifty-dollar gift card to a bakery shop literally means nothing to me when I get free desserts at Halcyon. And no way am I going anywhere near that mini swimming pool of bugs when I'm running on an empty stomach. And seriously, Ziro, no way were you actually planning on sticking your hands in there either, so just give them the win already and let's call it a day."

Ziro's offish gaze stared between the dirty gift card still in Evan's hand, and bug-filled tub crawling with panicked movement of insects. "Okay, 축하해 (chu-ka-hae) congratulations."

Evan pumped her arms in the air, ecstatic, but Alex just watched her, confused.

"It means congratulations," Evan said. Alex' lips formed a silent 'oh'. It had been a few days since Carsyn had told him about her pastime of learning Korean along with Ziro, and since then any time she uttered the language he usually had a pretty good idea of what she was trying to say. Though whenever he heard Ziro speak Korean, it somehow always seemed like he was speaking an entirely different language.

Alex flinched as Ziro started walking towards him and Evan, as if he somehow heard his very thoughts. Whether Ziro noticed Alex's alarm or not, he didn't show it because he ignored Alex and went straight to Evan.

"How much did you take?" he asked her. Alex looked over, confused once again.

Evan giggled. "Just a lil. It's fine, I'm fine. Don't give me that look, Acera. I haven't dusted in a week basically. I was like, dying."

Alex's eyes widened. "You're high?" Evan giggled again, which must've been the answer. That explained her daring behaviour today, he thought.

Ziro sighed as he helped her to stand. "Syn, walk with her. The rents are all hanging out at my house, so we'll go to Evan's since it's closer."

"Come on, girlie. Let's get you some water and something to eat." Carsyn had materialized next to Ziro, and wrapped an arm around Evan's shoulders as she steered her towards the grotto's exit.

"Ooh! Let's do Chinese. No, pizza!" Evan said on her way out.

"Both sound good," Alex commented.

"Good thinking, Alex! Guys, for the winners, pizza and Chinese, let's make it happen!"

Evan and Carsyn disappeared up the stone steps, and it was only four seconds before Alex realized he was left alone with Ziro.

"Get up," Ziro calmly ordered, spooking Alex yet again. "Come on. We have to empty this outside," he gestured to the tub, "before we follow them."

Though reluctant, Alex nodded and sprung to his feet. He grabbed one handle of the tub while Ziro took the other, and they heaved it up together.

"...is it true?" Alex asked Ziro as they plodded to the steps.

"What?" Ziro questioned.

"What Carsyn said before, this whole time you never planned on doing the bug competition?" Ziro Stayed quiet. "Which means you only added that last minute after me and Evan won the water fight because...you didn't want me to win?" Still, Ziro said nothing. "If that's true, then it must be an undeniable hint that you still don't like me."

Ziro huffed, his grip tightening on the handle which Alex felt as the tub trembled for a split second. He glanced at Alex, unconcernedly, and said, "we'll get Chinese and pizza, okay?"

It was jarring, Alex admitted to himself, a little more so than the insects in the tub trying to jump ship before he and Ziro even reached the steps. It was a little disheartening as well, but Alex still thought of it, to some degree, as progress.

He felt so hopeful about the relationship, that he decided to try out a Korean term Carsyn had recently taught him. "좋아 (Jo-a) okay."