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Renjun took a small step on the sand, glancing back at the blue beach house. Jeno had invited the squad to his brother, Doyoung’s beach house because he had left the country with his fiance, Yuta. They were attending some fashion show in Paris and being the responsible brother, Doyoung was, he had let Jeno invite his friends to watch the house.
The first night was beautiful. They went into town and used up all the money Doyoung had left them for snacks. Mark and Yukhei had turned twenty that year, so they had made them buy alcohol with the rest of the money, Mark having to pitch in his own money anyways.
The next morning they had woken up at noon with massive hangovers. Jeno had claimed they were never going to do that again. That was until Jeno had received an email saying Doyoung had sent him money online. Jeno and Mark couldn’t say no to Jaemin and Donghyuck because they weak and yeah maybe Jaemin and Donghyuck’s puppy eyes were hard to resist.
Yukhei had bought less alcohol this time and they spent the extra money they saved on six large pizzas. Renjun had choked Mark when he mentioned getting at least one hawaiin.
Doyoung’s beach house was big and spacious with enough rooms for all of them to sleep comfortably. There was a game room that the gang had found themselves in frequently. If they weren’t in the game room they were outside in the pool. There was a slide, but Yukhei and Jaemin had tried going down at the same time, which resulted in the slide tipping over and Yukhei bruising his ankle.
They went down to the beach after eating their pizza. Yukhei had wobbled over, holding an twelve pack of beers, his arm around Mark’s shoulder. It wasn’t enough for them to get drunk off. Renjun was sure he didn’t even feel a buzz, but Donghyuck being the lightweight he was had fallen asleep on the sand, while the rest of the boys were playing volleyball. He had woken up the next morning with a horrible sunburn and had claimed he was never stepping outside again. Mark had offered to stay with him and Yukhei had decided that it would be best if he didn’t put too much pressure on his ankle.
That’s how Jeno, Jaemin and Renjun found themselves sneaking into a club in town that night. The neon purple lights and the loud EDM music was enough to give Renjun a headache, but he had somehow made friends with some college kids that either ignored the giant X on his hand or saw it and felt the need to help.
They were tourists that were here visiting their friends. When they heard that Renjun also wasn’t from Korea, they had taken him under his wing, and ordered him the fruitiest bar drink they could think of. It came with an umbrella and everything and it tasted like cough medicine, but it had enough alcohol to get rid of Renjun’s headache.
Renjun had lost Jeno and Jaemin right when they got in, but he was sure they were dancing and if not they had found a booth to make out in. Renjun was too drunk to even be disgusted at how in love the two were. He had protested at first. He didn’t want to go to a club with a couple, but since they ditched him and Renjun was now talking to two very attractive college students, he didn’t mind.
He found out they were from America and Thailand, but they were attending a college in Seoul, where they had met their friend. It was their vacation and what better place to spend it than at the beach. Renjun couldn’t agree more. They had mentioned the rest of their friends being there, but Renjun hadn’t met any others.
At around one, the two had left, but not before giving Renjun their numbers, just in case they wanted to meet up again later on in the week. Renjun had managed to find Jeno and Jaemin a little after that. Jeno thankfully wasn’t drunk as he had claimed he knew Jaemin and Renjun were gonna get wasted, even though Jaemin had offered to be the DD.
On their way out though, Renjun had bumped into someone, almost falling back, except for the hand that hand held him steady. He looked up and saw Johnny, the American tourist. “Shouldn’t have bought you so many drinks.” he laughed, patting Renjun’s head. He sent a thumbs up to Renjun and left him to go to his friends. There were five of them. He spotted Ten talking to someone in a blue hoodie. All Renjun saw was a fluffy mop of brown hair. Ten waved at him when he noticed the other staring. The boy he was talking to, tilted his head slightly, so just his nose peeked out from his profile.
Before Renjun could wave back, Jaemin had tugged on his arm, pulling him over to Jeno’s car.
Renjun didn’t know why he woke up at five. He had only slept for maybe three hours. He remembered Yuta telling him once a few years ago that the sunrise was a sight to behold and for the past three days, Renjun was never able to wake up early enough to see it.
He was wearing only Doyoung’s old college hoodie and a pair of khaki shorts that Jaemin had made of him for buying. He had decided that since it was still dark outside he didn’t need his sandals.
He didn’t know how far he walked, but he could barely even see the blue beach house. Instead he was farther down, the houses getting smaller as he walked further. They all still had pools, but they lost a story here and there. Some houses didn’t even have a gate that separated their lot from the public beach. He almost crossed into someone's yard just to pet their dog, but he thought against it because his father had told him not to get in trouble and so far he's been doing good. He would hate it if his first time getting in trouble with the law would be because he tried to pet a dog.
He froze in his walk, when he noticed that there was someone else on the beach. He guessed it wouldn't be weird to see people. He was sure most of the older fit residents did their morning jog on the beach instead of the street. Who would pass up running along such a beautiful view. Renjun cringed at himself. He usually hated nature, but he had admit that the beach really was beautiful.
He stayed still, watching the person as they sat crouched holding a giant leaf over something. The person kept looking up nervously, as if searching for something. Renjun found it weird that he was just there standing, staring at some stranger, but for some reason he couldn't look away.
He took a seat on the sand, but face towards the water, so if the person ever looked over, they wouldn't be alarmed to see someone watching them.
Renjun was still too far to see the person's face, but he could see brown hair and the person was wearing a black hoodie.
The sky was getting lighter, turning the clouds a lavender color. The sand was getting warmer and Renjun was praying that he'd make it back to the house before the sand got hotter.
He glanced back at the person and saw that they had stood up, still crouching with the leaf, but they were walking slowly a hand out in front of them swatting at the air.
They paused and looked up, over at Renjun's direction. They stared at each other, the guy walking slowly still. The other person waved at Renjun, beckoning him over. When Renjun hadn't made any sign of movement, the person cupped their hands over their mouth and shouted, the giant leaf hitting his face.
Renjun stood up, slowly, and made his way over to the other boy, trying not to stare.
"Hi." the boy greeted, when Renjun was close enough. "Do you want to be a good citizen and shoo those birds away?" He asked, tilting his head over to where a flock of seagulls were standing, eyeing them.
Renjun looked down at what the boy seemed to be shading with the leaf. There were baby sea turtles. It all made sense as to why this boy was holding a giant leaf and trying to swat at the birds. He was helping them cross to the ocean. No turtle left behind.
"These little fellas were trying to crawl when I came out. I saw them before the birds did and broke this leaf off that tree." the boy pointed out.
"Why don't you just carry them to the ocean? They're walking pretty slowly." Renjun mentioned. The boy's smile fell slightly. He blinked slowly as if thinking about it. He looked down, counted the turtles and then looked back up at Renjun, smiling again, his nose scrunching up a bit.
"Okay, you can carry three and I'll carry the other five." the boy suggested, bending down to scoop the sea turtles up with the leaf. He balanced them, folding the leaf over so to cocoon them for safe travel.
"Thank you for helping. I'm Sicheng," the boy introduced. He glanced back to check if Renjun was following him. When he was satisfied, he turned back. "How has your vacation been?" Renjun paused, wondering what gave away he wasn't from here. Sicheng also didn't seem to be from here, given the accented Korean. "Your hoodie. Most people from that university come here for summer vacation and I haven't seen you around." Sicheng explained.
"Oh no. I don't go to this university," Renjun explained.
"Explains why I haven't seen you there either," Sicheng laughed.
They stopped at the shore, the waves barely brushing against their toes. SIcheng crouched down, careful to keep the leaf steady. Renjun followed suit, not caring that his shorts were going to get sandy. No turtle left behind and all that.
They let the sea turtles down carefully, watching as they made their way further into safety. Renjun knew they couldn't do anything to keep the seagulls away now, but he hoped the flock had moved on to better things and that they wouldn't be able to notice the sea turtles until they've passed the second sand bar at least.
They stood up when they could no longer see them. Sicheng brushed the sand off his butt and turned to the other. "Thank you for helping me. You're a great person and I hope you one day go on to getting the Nobel Peace Prize." Sicheng smiled, his nose doing the scrunch again.
“Your nose is cute,” Renjun blurted out. He paused. “I mean, thank you.”
“Your nose is cute also.” Sicheng complimented, his smile growing wider. Renjun blushed and turned away, his eyes widening when he noticed that the sun was already halfway up. He had missed the sunrise.
“Sicheng! Why are you awake so early!” someone shouted, scaring Renjun out of his thoughts. His head whipped up towards the sound. Someone was standing on one of the porches of one of the bigger houses. It was still smaller than Doyoung’s but it was nice and yellow. The person was tall and had their whole body hidden by a giant hoodie. “Sicheng! You crazy lad! Get in here! Who’s that with you?” The person stepped aside to show a shorter guy.
“Do you want to come in real quick? I can give you a Gatorade as a thank you for helping me," Sicheng offered. Renjun turned his attention back to him, slowly studying his features. He wanted to reject his offer because he knew his friends would wake up soon. Somehow he found himself saying yes and following Sicheng towards the beach house.
He nudged Renjun into the house, telling him to ignore his friends. The two outside, Sicheng had introduced to him as Jaehyun and Kun. There were two people on the couch in the living room, but Renjun couldn't see them.
"So, Mr. Nobel Peace Prize, you never told me your name," Sicheng mentioned, as he peered into the fridge looking through for the drinks. He pulled out a blue and red one and held them up for Renjun to choose.
"My name is Renjun," he replied, reaching for the blue Gatorade.
"Renjun?" Someone from the living room shouted. They both turned to look into the living room. Ten, the Thai tourist from last night, was perched on the couch, his head peeking just above the seat. "Oh my god ! It is you!" He shouted. He bent back down, only the top of his head showing. He popped back up along with someone else.
"You know Renjun?" Sicheng asked.
"He's the kid we met last night! The one Johnny wouldn't stop buying drinks for," Ten explained. "Glad to see you didn't die of alcohol poisoning!"
"Renjun is an angel! He helped me save sea turtles," Sicheng boasted, walking over to the living room, pausing momentarily to let Renjun know he should follow him.
Johnny smirked, eyes roaming the two of them. He stood up, pulling Ten with him. "We have to go make sure Jaehyun doesn't end up dead in the waves. He woke up drunk still," Johnny explained, walking out of the house.
Renjun turned his attention to Sicheng, who seemed to be already looking at him. He blushed, looking down at his feet. He needed head back to Doyoung's house, but he didn't want to necessarily leave Sicheng.
Definitely not.
"You should head back, before people start worrying about you," Sicheng said. Renjun nodded, the both of them not making an effort to stand up and leave. "Do you have plans tonight?"
Renjun shook his head, smiling at how Sicheng's nose was doing that cute scrunch.
"Great! I'll pick you up tonight and we can continue this conversation," Sicheng stated, standing up and walking over to the patio door.
"Ten and Johnny have my number. See you tonight," Renjun smiled, walking out on the porch, ignoring the knowing looks Sicheng's friends sent him.
He may have missed the sunrise, but he managed to save sea turtles and score a date. He'll just wake up early tomorrow.