"Would you stop?" I slap Minho against the back of his head. "It's no longer funny."

"Yeah. It's hilarious."

The past hour, he's been constantly pushing me underwater. By pressing his hands on my shoulder, or on my head, or literally pulling me ankles.

"And don't feel special, Blake. I do this to everyone," he adds.

"Go on and annoy other people with it, then."

He splashes water onto me. "Your reactions make it funnier. And more desirable to do it to you."

I splash water back onto him, and give him a push. "Stop."

"You like it."

"I don't!"

Minho grins. "You do."

"And what part of my body language and face expression tells you that?"

"The fact that you haven't left yet." He cocks his head to the side as if he just stated the smartest thing in the world. "You could've gone out of the water minutes ago. Yet you didn't."

"A stupid boy splashing water onto me would be a weak reason to leave the water."

"All excuses," he replies.

I roll my eyes. "Whatever helps you sleep at night. Just leave me alone. Let me talk to Teresa."

"Absolutely not."

Just like that, he stops me from swimming away by grabbing my ankle and pulling me back beside him.

"Hey!"

"Don't you see?" He points into the distance. "She's talking with Thomas! If you interrupt that, everyone will kill you."

I see Teresa laughing at something Thomas must've said. He laughs too, but nervously as he looks down at his fingers in the water.

"This is awful to watch," Minho mutters.

"Better than watching your face," I say.

Okay, that was a lie.

He ignores that. "I need to help that guy out. How?"

"Maybe just let him do whatever he's doing without us interfering. Can only make things worse. Let's stop watching, too. We'll for sure get all the tea later!"

"Okay, fine." A sigh escapes. "What now?"

"Quit annoying me and go to Newt or something."

"No. Newt's also busy with his crush."

I follow his finger another time, and am then watching him laugh with Lyndon. It shouldn't have surprised me that out of all people, he's with my brother again.

They're basically that duo; if one's gone, the other one is either gone too, or the teacher asks the other one where the first one is, because even the teacher assumes they're always together.

"We still ship it?"

"Definitely. They're not just friends."

I stare for a few more seconds. Lyndon dives into the water, followed by Newt, and then they're talking again. "Okay. But don't tell them that. Lyndon isn't sure about his sexuality and neither is he comfortable with you mentioning it."

"You got it."

"I mean it," I add.

"I know," Minho says. "And I swear, I won't mention it."

"Good."

A short silence. "What about you, though?"

"What about me?"

"Your sexuality."

"Straight. And you?"

"Straight," he answers. "Did you know there's this sexuality that everyone in the world has? Scientists figured it out. Gay or not, everyone has it. It's even in their genes."

Curious, my eyebrows raise as I turn to him. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. It's called minhosexual. Even I'm minhosexual."

I stare at him. His smirk starts to grow bigger. I blink. The corners of his lips curve up. I pull a face. He chuckles. I push him. He pushes me back.

"Come on! Admit it! You're definitely minhosexual."

My pushes get harder. "You're delusional."

"I'm suitable."

"For what? The delusional center?"

"For anything, Blake. Anything."

I start swimming closer to the surface, rolling my eyes again. "Not for me."

"Mostly for you."

"Are you flirting?" I spit out, ignoring all the feelings in my body right now. "Because I'm not
interested."

"And why's that?" He asks, his tone half serious and half teasing. He leaves the question unanswered.

I give him a glare. "Because..."

"Because...?" His eyebrows start to rise.

"Just because," I state.

"Just because."

"Yup."

He's annoying. I'll cross the line at that. Pulling me into pools, pushing me underwater— yeah, okay, that's not the most annoying someone can be, but alright.

Minho hums. I can't read him, except for the realization in his eyes. His head tilts to the side. "You're the exact opposite of your brother."

"Yeah, I'm a girl, if you hadn't noticed."

"I mean in personality. He's a sunshine, you're grumpy as hell."

"I'm not—"

"He's open about emotions and shit, you're not. He's creative, you're sportive. He's introverted, you're extroverted."

I bite my lip. "Lyndon is everything I'm not, I know."

"In a good way," he adds.

"You literally just said I'm grumpy and closed up."

He flashes me a smile. "So? Doesn't mean that you're not likable. Also, you're optimistic and he's pessimistic."

"And how exactly do you know all of that?" My eyebrows furrow in annoyance. I don't like how this is going, and I don't know why.

I do want to talk about emotions. There's something about deep talks that I like, even though I never have them. Only when I'm drunk. So far, Thomas has been the only one who seemed to really listen. But he has also been the one who wakes up with no memory of what happened while he was drunk.

I don't mind. Not everyone has to know everything. Lyndon probably does know everything. In some way, that's nice. I trust him.

"Because I observe," he responds.

I sink underwater for a second. Both to wet my skin again and to tune the laughs and screams of others out.

Amina sometimes reads books. She tells me about them. I don't know why. She says that it's always the same; either the female main character is a badass with a cold heart, or a softie desiring love. And she says that she doesn't like it. As if longing for love and other things than power is a bad thing, she had said. Don't you think?

And I said, I don't read books.

But she didn't get the hint ("leave me alone"), and just smiled. And said, you should.

And I pulled a face. And I said, I don't want to read about love. Neither do I want to read about people who think they're cool only because they're cold-hearted.

And then she said, do you want to experience it, then? At least?

I had shaken my head.

A week later, I joined her on the couch and interrupted her from reading. And I said, why can't the female be badass and long for love at once?

And she replied, because maybe that only exists in real life.

And I say that's pretty close to me, except it is ridiculous to call yourself a badass. But I don't think I'm cold-hearted. I'll say that. Though I don't long for love, I'd like to learn. Probably because of Lyndon. Like always.

Also, why did that just get so deep? Ew.

"Earth to Blake." Fingers snap in front of my eyes.

I blink. Turn back to Minho as I shake my head a bit. "What now?"

He chuckles. "You also have things in common with your brother. Zoning out, for example."

"Oh, shut up. You also have things in common with Randall Boggs."

"Who?"

I gape at him. "You've never seen Monsters, Inc? Ridiculous!"

"Oh, that." He nods knowingly. "But nope, haven't seen it."

"Then I'll force you to watch it. I won't allow you to die before you've seen it, Lee."

"Well, I may hope we have like seventy more years to watch that movie."

"Sixty nine at least."

Now he rolls his eyes, and I smile.

"I'm glad we can get along a little bit now, though," he suddenly announces. "Before we have to run as partners tomorrow."

"Well, I'm not so sure if I get along with you."

"Another thing in common with your brother. Saying well."

"Well, I think that you're observing him so much at this point, that you're the one who's crushing on him."

"No, thanks. Too much sunshine."

"Wrong word choice. Don't say things like that about my brother."

"You somewhat forced me to say that in defensive of your words!"

"Whatever. I'll kill you."

He pushes me back, once I've pushed him. And since we're walking onto the surface by now, we do almost fall onto the sand. "Such a romantic gesture."

"Can you ever shut your mouth?"

"Nope."

"I can't stand you."

He plops down on a beach chair, motioning at his lap. "Then sit."

"Oh, fuck off."

Minho just laughs as I walk off to Lyndon.