One thing I loved about Lee, Marco, and even now Noah, was that I could have fun with them.
"What's this?" I glanced up from my book to see Lee plunking down four tickets onto the table. He flashed me a mischievous grin. "Behold. You are looking at four tickets to the biggest water park in South Korea." "Shinhwa Water Park?" I picked one up, scanning it over curiously. "That's right. Trust me, Elle; you've never seen anything like this before. They've got slides a mile high, and the wave pool- forget about it," he waved his hand. "Where did you buy these tickets?" "At that tourist attraction store downtown." "Were they expensive?" He lowered his eyes at me, still grinning ear-to-ear. "Elle, you can't put a price on fun- especially if it's at a water park." Uh huh, sure. "Have you told the others?" I set the ticket back down onto the table. My best friend waved his hand dismissively again. "No need; I already know they'll love this. Now go get ready! These tickets are only good for today!" Oh, ok then. So I guess we're doing this now. Needless to say, I didn't finish the breakfast I was in the middle of that morning.
And so the four of us hurried to grab our things and set off for the train to the famous waterpark. I'd personally never heard of it before, but judging by the looks of it, Lee did his homework. This was was huge! Like literally gigantic. Take the biggest wave pool in American and times that by ten. It was so massive, I feared we might lose one of us. But the boys didn't seem to share that anxiety. From the moment they first laid eyes on it, they fell hopelessly in love it- all three of them. We stood at the front of the ocean-size wave pool for a minute, taking in the scale of the place. But that didn't eat up too much time.
Lee was the first to run into the water, followed by Marco, and then finally Noah. They left me standing there by myself in my one-piece swimsuit, not hesitating to get all soaked and splash around. After a minute of pure enjoyment they all shared, they realized that I hadn't emersed myself into the pool yet. "Hey, come on, Elle! The water feels great!" Lee pronounced. I hesitated. "I'm coming…. eventually." "What's wrong, Elle?" Marco brushed the water off his face and looked my way. Noah was the last to pop his head up to the surface; he glanced at me and smirked. "What? You afraid to get all wet, Evans?" "I will! When I'm ready…." I countered, not so confidently. Noah rolled his eyes and marched right over to. My eyes grew as he proceeded to scoop me up princess-style and carry me forward. "Noah! Noah, what are you doing?! Put me down!" I began to freak out, seeing where this was going. Lee laughed hysterically. With one last smirk down at me, I was then dropped into the water, my back landing first. My head shot up as I took in a deep breath, and I shot Noah a monstrous glare- though I wasn't actually man. He responded with yet another cocky smirk. "See? That's not so bad, is it? Now we don't have to wait all day for you." This was met with a splash to the face.
We did it all- and I do mean all. We played in the waves, with Marco and Noah swimming up against them for some reason. We went to the diving boards, where we each took multiple turns diving into the deep pool. After that, we made our way back into the main massive wave pool. Lee and Noah both thought it was great fun lifting me up and tossing me back down again. "Noah, stop!" I laughed as he swooped me up again for the millionth time. When that was done, the boys thought it a great idea to get into a splashing war. News flash- it wasn't. Noah knocked Lee over twice, and I got caught in the commotion once. A big wave sent me flying back under the water, and when Marco dived in after me, he was met with another big hit by Lee. It should be no surprise that after all that, we needed a break from active swimming.
The hot tub was the perfect place to chill out- metaphorically speaking. I sat in between Lee and Noah in the bubbling water, while Marco sat next to Lee dipping his legs in. His arms were resting on the floor behind him and his head was tossed back in a lazy, content fashion. Meanwhile Noah grinned and turned his head in my direction. None of us had said anything for a few minutes, but it didn't feel out of place when Noah broke the quiet. "Getting hot, Elle?" My head shook mildly before I glanced to him, also smiling now. "No, just right. How about you? Getting too warm?" "Are you kidding? I could stay in here all day," he chuckled softly. I was about to say something else before a foreign voice cut me off. They weren't speaking to us per se, but to Marco in specific.
"Hey, you there! Get out of the hot tub!" One of two guys called out to Marco in Korean. We all looked and had a rough idea of what they said, but I'm the only one who truly understood. The boys all blinked confused. "Is he talking to us?" Lee asked to no one in particular. "The hot tub's at max compacity! You're not even in it! Get out!" The first guy kept yelling in his native language. "What does he want now?" Noah asked in general, but we knew I'd be the one to answer him. "Are you talking to me?" Marco questioned the pair in English, pointing to his chest. They ignored him, continuing their tirade. "Why are you even here? You're taking up space! Leave!" Then they called Marco a slur word I wouldn't dare repeat. The guys must have known something was wrong by the face my lit up with horror and disgust.
Noah looked from me, to Marco, and back to the jerks with an angered expression. "Look, just leave us alone. We're not hurting anyone here." But the men acted as if they couldn't hear us now. "He won't leave; what a disrespect douchebag!" The first guy pointed to Marco entitled and incensed. "Hey, man; back off. We're not doing anything wrong," having enough, Marco finally raised his hand in the air to calm the tension. The two men looked at him and frowned. The second guy said a real bad racial word which I wish I hadn't heard. That's when I'd had enough. "Hey!" All eyes were on me as I stood up to face the bastards head on. My hands balled into tight fists. It didn't take Noah long to figure out what had happened.
"What did those guys just say, Elle?" He asked me. "They called Marco a….. a very bad racist slur," I blushed embarrassed while saying this. It just felt so wrong to associate someone like Marco with that word- and clearly I wasn't the only one to think so. While Marco wore a horrified expression, Noah got mad- really mad. He turned to the creeps and stepped out of the pool. Lee, Marco, and I all watched him stare down the jerks with the upmost contempt. His hands were already clenched into fists. "You wanna call him names? You want to call him names? Well I've got some names for you! Go on! Get outta here, before I wipe that smirk off your racist mouths!" Noah! My jaw dropped open, as did the others; we kinda stayed there in a state of shock for a second. Luckily though, that was enough to scare the two dickheads off. Muttering cuss words under their breaths, they quickly wandered away. When we were sure that they were gone, Noah let out a long sigh and spun back around to us. Marco waited a second, then he stood up and walked over to Noah. The two men's eyes met before Marco gave him a soft, grateful smile. "Thanks, man." Noah blinked at him, then let a similar grin roll across his lips. "Not a problem." They clasped hands- you know, in that bro-style- and held onto each other hard for a second.
We had a light lunch after that. The mood was kind of dampened, but I reminded everyone that there was still so much for us to do that afternoon. I don't know who suggested that we play tag in the river, but that was great fun. That lasted for over an hour before we then decided that it was time for the big guns. That's right- it was time for the slides.
"I wanna do the Spinner first!" "Nah, let's do the Long Fall." "How 'bout we start little and ease our way into it?" While they were all discussing the various options of sliding order, I was scanning over the actual slides. Some of them looked… pretty high. I don't know why no one thought to spilt up and for us to each do what slide we wanted, but that never once came up. I guess it was just automatically assumed that we'd be staying together the whole time, which I didn't mind but…. While I nervously eyed some of the bigger slides, they argued on which to go on first amongst themselves for far too long if you ask me.
A decision was finally reached that we'd go on the Bowl first. The Bowl is this short but intense slide where you go down this tube into a toilet bowl-like structure. It's like you get flushed down into a pool below, falling from the bowl through a little hole in the middle. It was actually a lot of fun once you got used to the feeling of falling free style through the air. After that were these long twisty tunnels I didn't know the names of. We changed the order of how we went down the slides, with me always being either first, second, or third; never last. Either Marco or Noah took up the rear, which was fine by me and Lee.
There was this one slide where you went down on innertubes. It was one tube per person, and you had to wait for the green light to go. This was one of the only rides where there was an attendant present. He would wave us forward and set our tubes in the water for us. Noah went down first, followed by Lee, and then me. Marco was in line right behind me. A minute after Lee's tube slid down, the attendant waved me forward. I came up and gave him my tube, which went straight down into the water. I then went to climb into it but kept slipping and failing to sit down inside. The attendant was about to come help me, but Marco stopped him. I looked to see Marco set his own tube down on the floor outside the slide and climb into the water with me.
"M-Marco?" "Here, I'll hold this still. Climb in." "O-Ok….." Blushing slightly, I easily climbed into the tube this time. While I was in the process of sitting down, my arm brushed up against Marco's hands. I flinched as my eyes widened; my heart was racing so fast. Once secure in the tube, Marco flashed me a smile. He didn't remove his hands until the light was green and the attendant gave me the ok to go. "Have fun," he told me, then ran me forward. He was right behind me a minute later, but it felt much quicker than that.
Around three o'clock is when it got…. interesting. Honestly, sometimes I forget that I'm not of the boys, and sometimes I can't forget. But these three- they never forgot, oh no. This is one of times that it really showed.
"Behold, gentlemen. The big one; the mile-high slide," Lee announced to the others. Now, the slide wasn't a mile long of course, but it was still the highest one any of us had ever seen. Truthfully, I had no intension on going on this thing, but I assumed the choice was mine. Oh, silly me. That would be giving me too much autonomy. "The time has come. Let's go. You can go on the twirly slide while you wait for us, Elle," Lee said like this was the most natural thing for him to say. What was both more surprising and not surprising at all was Marco and Noah nodding in agreement to this. Hey? What about me? What if I didn't want to go on the twirly slide again? That slide's for kids….. which means it's perfect for me, but still!
I frowned, planting my hands onto my hips. "Isn't that for me to decide, Lee? What if I want to go on the really tall slide?" They all seemed a bit surprised by this. "Y-You want to go on the slide?" Lee scratched the side of his head. Marco looked concerned. "I'd rather you not, Elle. It's very high and could be dangerous for someone your size and weight." Shockingly, Noah shared this sentiment. "Marco's right. It'd be safer for you on the little slide. Go there and wait for us; we won't be long." What…. What is this?! Protect Elle Day? It didn't help anything when Lee motioned for me to get a move on with his hand. "Have fun! We'll come get you after one round, or three," they began to take off. "Wear an innertube if you go in the deep end!" Noah called back as they headed for the long slide. I watched them go with low, unimpressed eyes. My lips let out a sigh. I guess it can't be helped….. And I couldn't help but grin to myself.
I went on the twirly slide twice, and even then they still weren't done! Having enough of the slides for one day, I decided to go wait in the wave pool where I could still watch for them. But that got boring ten minutes later. I floated on my back, drifting progressively closer to the deep end. My eyes lowered gently as I stared up at the ceiling. Admittedly this felt really good right now. "Elle!" Well, it did. I swam upright to find Marco and Lee swimming over to me. I grinned at them until something suddenly slipped over my head. Blinking behind me, I saw Noah there putting an innertube over me. "I thought I told you to wear one of these in the deep end," he said, though he wasn't angry. He wrapped his arm around the tube and pulled me towards the others. Then they told me all about the scary big slide, the long line they had to wait in, and what a thrill it was. I'm still glad I didn't do it, and I never regretted that decision.
Overall it was a glorious day at the pool, minus a run-in with those creeps. We were all exhausted by the time we boarded the train to go home. Marco and Noah sat on one side of the carte, with me and Lee on the other side. I rested my head on Lee's shoulder, and he put his head up against mine. He was already snoozing by the time we left the station, and I wasn't far behind. Before I shut my eyes, I took one last look at the two men across from me. They looked knackered, drifting in and out of sleep themselves. I saw them and smiled. We didn't realize we were making memories at the time; we just knew that we were having fun.
With that, I shut my eyes and fell right to sleep.