Slowly, reluctantly, Bella loosened her hold around his waist. As her thighs slid down his sides and her feet met the pool floor, she felt his breath hitch sharply between them.
Yunho exhaled through his nose, a strained laugh caught somewhere in his throat.
"You're torturing me," he muttered, voice low and rough, "more than you probably realise."
Bella blinked, genuinely surprised. "What? I wasn't,"
He shook his head, his smile crooked, his gaze warm and exasperated all at once. "Exactly."
They stood close, barely an inch between them. The water lapped at their waists, but it did nothing to cool the flush in her cheeks or the heat simmering in the space between them.
"I don't usually do this," she said, quieter now. "I don't get carried away like that."
Yunho let out a soft breath of amusement. "You think I do?"
Their eyes met again and the smile that tugged at Bella's lips was hesitant but real, like it didn't know if it was allowed to stay, but came anyway.
A quiet moment passed between them. Not the silence of hesitation, but something steadier. Something that came after a shift, like they both knew, without saying it, that whatever this was… it wasn't just some passing spark. It had already caught fire.
Then Yunho glanced toward the far end of the pool, where the overhead lights had dimmed slightly, closing time.
"Come on," he said gently, reaching out his hand. "Let's get out before the lifeguard decides to chase us out with a whistle."
Bella took his hand without hesitation.
And even as the spell of the moment began to dissolve, she knew, some invisible line had been crossed tonight. Not rushed. Not reckless. But something had shifted between them in the water, something quiet and powerful and undeniably real.
And neither of them seemed in any hurry to let it go.
Bella's thoughts:
She could still feel the ghost of Yunho's touch at her waist, the warmth of his hand even as the cool night air wrapped around her skin. Her breathing had finally steadied, but her heart had not. Every time she replayed that moment in her mind, she could feel exactly how he had held her in the water, strong and steady, like he could have kept her there forever.
There had always been something quietly comforting about Yunho, a kind of steady presence that made her feel like she didn't have to try so hard. But tonight, standing in the water with him so close, he felt different. Or maybe she was just seeing it differently now. Or maybe she was seeing him clearly for the first time. His shoulders had been solid under her palms. His arms had been firm even with the gentlest grip around her waist. All that lean swimmer muscle she never paid attention to before was suddenly very real and very close.
It was overwhelming to feel so aware of him. The long line of his back, the way he had lifted her slightly in the pool without effort, how the drops of water slid over his collarbone as he leaned toward her. It was too much and somehow not enough. His voice had gone lower too, softer around the edges. And when he said her name just before kissing her, it had made her knees go weak.
And the kiss… she pressed her fingers to her lips just remembering it. Soft, slow, careful, but somehow consuming in a way she could not quite describe. He kissed her like he meant to. Like it was the only thing he wanted in that moment. No pressure. No rush. Just that warmth and the slide of his hand up her back, the way his fingers spread against her skin. It wasn't her first kiss, but it felt like the first one that mattered.
She rolled onto her back again, staring at her ceiling with eyes wide and her pulse still fluttering. She wasn't used to being touched like that; with both tenderness and certainty. With a kind of confidence that didn't scare her but steadied her. She knew she should be cautious, keep her feet on the ground, try not to fall too hard. But it was difficult when every single moment with him made her feel like she was floating.
She wasn't used to that kind of tenderness. The kind that didn't ask for anything in return, just existed in its own intensity. She knew she should be cautious, should try to keep her feet on the ground, but it was hard when every moment with him made her feel like she was floating again.
Still, something in her felt oddly certain. As if whatever was happening now had been waiting beneath the surface all along.
Yunho's thoughts
God, she's beautiful.
Yunho tried to focus on what she was saying, the softness in her voice, the way she stood so still and steady beside him, but his brain was lagging behind, still twenty seconds back in the water. Still replaying the way she had felt in his arms with her legs wrapping around his waist, the slick warmth of her body pressed tightly against his chest, the tremble in her breath right by his ear. The pool water had done nothing to cool any of it.
He hadn't expected that tonight. He had not expected her to kiss him back. Or to stay.
And just now, standing under the dim yellow light by the exit, her hair still damp at the ends, hoodie zipped halfway with her swimsuit peeking out at the collar, she looked… unbelievably good. Not just pretty. Not just cute. Unbelievably hot. And not in a staged way but more in the way she didn't even seem aware of how much she was affecting him. Her cheeks were still flushed, beads of water glimmered across her collarbone and her eyes kept flicking to his lips like she didn't even know she was doing it. A low, heavy ache settled in his chest. He wanted to kiss her again. Badly.
It wasn't just her looks that made his head spin, though that alone would have undone him. It was everything else. The way she had pulled him out of the water when his legs cramped, panic and concern written all over her face. That moment she wrapped herself around him without hesitation, instinct and care in equal measure. The way she had laughed when he teased her in the middle of all that chaos, water dripping off her nose, her laugh ringing in his ears. She hadn't retreated from him. She chose to cling to him and then look right into his eyes and stay there.
There was a fire in her which he could feel when she pushed back or called him out or rolled her eyes at him. But there was a softness too, a quiet, stubborn loyalty and Yunho suddenly had the dizzying realisation that he had only scratched the surface of who she really was.
He stood very still, grounding himself in the cool night air and the warmth radiating from her shoulder next to his. Not rushing. Not pressing. Just letting the moment sit between them.
She kissed me back.
She stayed.
She's still here.
His pulse roared in his ears with a kind of calm certainty he had never felt before. In all the chaos and pressure of training, competitions, school, nothing had ever felt this clear.
And Yunho had never been more certain of anything in his life:
He was completely, hopelessly gone for her.