A/N: A two-or three-shot while I take a break from another project.
New Caledonia was, without a doubt, a beautiful place to visit; its white sand beaches, glistening aquamarine ocean, and pristine air ready-made for a tourist brochure campaign advertising glamorous destinations. To the somewhat jaded eyes of a young man who had been there numerous times already, however, it was nothing remarkable.
Still, Yi Jung, lounging in a comfortable rattan chair set up under an umbrella near the water, had to admit that he was enjoying himself more this time around. He wasn't entirely sure who or what was responsible for that. He'd more or less resigned himself to the fact that Jun Pyo expected him to be the babysitter of Jandi's little country friend Ga Eul while they were all here. It hadn't been that bad..yet. He'd been stuck dragging her around to all the touristy things but they had shared a few entertaining exchanges--for all that she was ignorant, she wasn't stupid--and she had surprised him more than once with her pert replies.
He took a sip from the imported water that had been brought out to him earlier and tipped the chair back a little to stay in the shade, as the sun slowly drifted further along the sky.
There were definitely worse places to be than here.
Yi Jung squinted through his sunglasses, wondering where everyone had gotten to. Woo Bin was still busy charming the pair of western girls; he could hear the trio's laughter beyond the beach, up near the tree line. Jun Pyo and Jandi must have gone for a walk; they'd been alongside him earlier in their own chairs, arguing loudly the whole time in that way that seemed to work for them, but they must have slipped away at some point. He could see their footprints straggling off in the sand, which seemed to stretch away endlessly, like a pale ribbon bordering a blanket of rippling blue-green that was the ocean.
He glanced over to his left. Ga Eul was probably still taking pictures of herself. He rolled his eyes inwardly, remembering. Not that she hadn't been sort of cute when he'd spotted her doing that earlier. In an obnoxious country yokel kind of way.
But he realized she wasn't there, either. Well, she'd probably gone back to the cabins, then, or discovered some new wonder to marvel over. A smile tugged at the corner of his lips. Girls like her were so easily impressed. It almost made him want to try...especially considering the fact that lately just the sight of him made her nose wrinkle as if she were displeased. He'd turn her mind around fast enough...
Oh, don't even go there, Jung-ah, he told himself. You know the rules. You made the rules.
This is what happened when you let yourself get bored. He wondered how much more time Jun Pyo planned on spending here. There was one thing he knew for sure and that was that Jun Pyo wasn't going to let any of them go home until he was good and ready...
Yi Jung saw, now, out of the corner of his eye, that Ga Eul was in fact approaching from the left. He watched her small figure appraisingly as she made her way slowly along the sand. It both amused and oddly pleased him that she was more modest than the other girls, wearing shorts and some type of cover-up over her swimsuit.
When she drew close enough to be heard, he said, "You look like you're getting burned." She didn't actually, but he wanted to see her reaction.
Her eyebrows drew together. "I put on sunscreen," she said with a touch of defiance.
He replied, with his practiced smile, "Come under the umbrellas."
She looked uncertain for a moment, glanced up at the sun and finally came over to sit down, gingerly, on one of the nearby chairs. Not *the* nearest one, he noticed.
"Where are the others?" Ga Eul asked after a few seconds.
He shrugged, and, realizing that she was eyeing his bottle of frosted water, took a long drink from it.
Ga Eul's eyes narrowed.
He smiled ingratiatingly but didn't answer her question.
A trill of laughter sounded from up near the tree line, and as she glanced in the direction of the sound he noticed that she made the tiniest of faces.
"Why?" Yi Jung wanted to know. "You don't like Woo Bin's friends?"
"No," Ga Eul defended, and when she glanced up to meet his eyes she added, reluctantly, "They're nice--only--loud."
A silence passed between them, while both of them looked out over the waves.
"Want some water?" he said, holding the bottle aloft, knowing that she did.
She gave that little grimace again. "No."
"You say that a lot," he observed.
"N..." Ga Eul began to object and looked flustered.
"Well," Yi Jung said, rising and stretching, knowing that his unbuttoned shirt revealed his chest and stomach to their advantage, and catching her noticing that too, he smiled. "I'm going in."
"Bye," she mumbled.
He left the bottle of water on the chair and began the walk back up to the treeline, beyond which were the main buildings. Turning when he was almost there, he saw Ga Eul stealthily opening the bottle of water, and, holding it carefully above her lips so that her mouth didn't actually touch where his had been, drinking from it.
Aissh...maybe I'm the one who's been in the sun too long for even thinking about playing with her...