Chapter Text
Yoohyeon woke up to the smell of rain.
She let out a sigh, but managed to force herself out of bed. Rain wasn’t bad, just less customers. She did curse it for coming on today of all days, though. She liked the rain, but not the day.
Judging by the windiness outside and a distinct lack of raindrops hitting her roof, she could assume that the rain would come soon. She still had a job to do.
She didn’t do much to get ready. Mostly throw on a random tank top, some shorts, and run a brush through her short sandy blonde hair to make it look somewhat decent. A bowl of cereal for breakfast, quickly brushing her teeth afterwards, and she was done. And it went without saying how she made sure to feed Pie and give the pup some attention before she went.
In the entryway to her tiny apartment, she slipped on her flip flops, double checked that she had her useless phone on her, and off she went. The only important thing she carried with her everywhere always lay around her neck, even if she thought about taking it off everyday out of spite.
She chose to not think too much about it.
She’ll grow the balls to do it one day.
“Bye, Pie,” she said quietly, bending down to quickly run a hand through her pup’s fur.
Locking the door behind her, Yoohyeon made her way down the steps behind the deck of her apartment, then towards the front of the overall building.
The building was two stories tall. It was small, but her apartment was smaller because of the deck that also acted as a roof and an overhang for the first floor. It was something one would stereotypically find on a beach. Wooden, except Yoohyeon also made sure it was up to code because there was no way she wanted a leak or for it to collapse on her at the slightest breeze. The bright blue was slightly faded, but Yoohyeon has been saving up to buy some paint for that exact reason.
Yoohyeon opened up the front of the shop that took up the first floor, keeping the door wide open. Flimsy building, flimsy walls. No way could she get an air conditioner. A fan plugged into a stray outlet and the open door for the sea air to come in was how Yoohyeon tried her best to keep cool. If it got worse, she always wore a bikini top underneath her tank and kept a random magazine with faded out pages from how old it was under the counter.
There wasn’t much setting up to do for a surf shop that was mostly used as a quick stop for emergency supplies. Sunscreen, goggles, maybe swim shorts if somebody decided their swimsuit was way too flimsy for the public beach, and snacks and water. The usual. Sometimes a surfer came in for some wax for their board, but mostly, Yoohyeon’s shop was chill, with enough customers to keep her afloat, but not overwhelmed. Summer really kept her afloat enough to survive the winter, which is what was important.
Sometimes she wondered how she ended up here. How she ended up falling so far. Sometimes it felt like running a surf shop was just a desperate attempt to hold on to something she couldn’t even see anymore.
She shook her head, breaking out of her thoughts.
Not today.
Not during the rain.
The last thing she did after making sure she had supplies in stock and that everything was working was to turn on the blue and red ‘Open’ sign on the front.
It’s not like she had a lot to do. She just had to sit and wait for people to come in. If they came in with the incoming rain. But she knew that it wasn’t gonna storm judging by the clouds in the distance. Not too dark. Maybe slightly heavy rain, but nothing that would put a damper on a nice beach day.
Or a nice day to surf.
Yoohyeon shook her head again. Shut up.
Just like she thought, a light drizzle started up soon enough. Also like she thought, there was no thunder and lightning. If anything, the rain seemed refreshing, and Yoohyeon longed to step into it.
But alas. She had a shop to run.
Some people came in for exactly what Yoohyeon thought they would. A man, shirtless and his skin slightly red came in looking for sunscreen. Who would tell him it was too late? Not Yoohyeon. She had bills to pay. A woman, who had on more of a thong than a bikini, came in looking for swim shorts. Yoohyeon wasn’t about to encourage the woman to own her body. Cash into the register for her.
Then a surfer, wetsuit on, sand on his cheeks and his hair drenched from the water came in looking for wax. Yoohyeon ignored the pang in her chest as she wordlessly took his money.
The rain was on and off for the rest of her shift, and Yoohyeon still wanted to step out into it. Wash away every negative thought with it, every ounce of imaginary pain, and every memory of that one person who could’ve made it better if she was there.
But she wasn’t there then, and she wasn’t there now.
Stop it , Yoohyeon. Stop dwelling on the fucking past. Maybe today’s date was what was messing with her. Tomorrow she’d be okay again, back to dodging Yubin’s calls and keeping the back room locked up better than a maximum security prison. Back to a life of toeing the edge of the beach during the day and staring at the red lamp post lights at night.
Maybe tomorrow she’d take off the damn necklace. There was no need for it anymore after all.
But not today.
Today she’ll let the weight of it sit heavily around her neck, making her feel sluggish and lethargic as she went about her day.
“Yoohyeon!”
Her head snapped up at the panicked voice in the doorway, seeing the local surfing teacher with a scraped up kid.
“Another one, San?” She asked, already reaching for the first aid under the counter.
“He doesn’t listen,” the man justified, sitting the kid down on the chair Yoohyeon brought him. “I told him not to surf in the rain, and there he goes. Surfing. Guess what happened.”
“Wiped out near the rocks.” She opened up the first aid kid. Alcohol. Oh, this poor kid was gonna scream.
He nodded. “Wiped out near the rocks.” He ran a hand through his wet hair before heading over to the fridge to grab a bottle of water. He reached into his shorts to pluck out his wallet and drop the money for it on the counter, and returned towards the boy. “Swear, what the hell were you thinking, kid? Do you have any idea how serious this could’ve been?”
The kid only pouted, accepting the offered bottle of water. “I just wanted to practice…”
“Yeah, well you can do the workouts at home, not in the water,” San scolded.
“Breathe,” Yoohyeon told the kid, before pouring some alcohol over the wound.
The kid screamed, clenching San’s hand hard enough to turn his knuckles white. San didn’t complain. Yoohyeon only felt a little bad for the kid. Wiping out is never fun, but the important thing is that nothing is broken.
Once she was done, she capped the bottle of alcohol and got some gauze and bandages.
“You’ll probably start to see bruises popping up elsewhere,” she said, bandaging up the kid. “All I can see is your knee is kind of bad, but it should hopefully be disinfected. Go to a doctor, though. I mean, don’t you wanna get better faster so you can surf when it’s safe , right?” She sent the boy a conspiratorial wink once she was done, trying to send him a reassuring smile as she packed up.
Finally, through a sniffle, the boy sent her a toothy grin full of innocence and hope. “Yeah! Thank you, miss!”
Yoohyeon misses being his age. She wondered where her own hope had gone.
Probably somewhere at the bottom of the ocean.
She sent him a nod, not letting anything show on her face. “You’re welcome.”
San let out a sigh, helping the kid up to his feet. “Thanks, Yoohyeon,” he echoed. “You planning on heading out to the beach soon? Yeosang has been sick and won’t come surfing with me. Plus, I heard it was gonna be sunny tomorrow,” he asked innocently.
Sunny. Yoohyeon hated the sun. Even if it did bring her more customers.
She shook her head, sending him a tight lipped grin. What was he doing? He knew what her answer would be.
“Sorry. Got a shop to run. No time to waste out on the water,” she replied, turning around to store the first aid kit under the counter and to avoid San’s eyes. She didn’t want to see the pity in them. She thinks it was possibly the worst thing to experience after… everything.
Yoohyeon heard San sigh again from behind her.
“Another day then?” He asked.
Yoohyeon hummed. “Sure,” she lied.
He seemed to have realized it too, since he didn’t push to set an actual day for them to go.
“I’ll see you around then, Yoohyeon,” San said before shuffling out the door with the kid. Yoohyeon only heard them, still refusing to meet the pity in San’s eyes.
Once those two were out the door, she let out a sigh of her own, relieved that she could take her calming breaths in the privacy of her shop. As private as a shop can get, she supposed.
Only a few more hours left.
Yoohyeon wondered if that one person would show up.
***
Yoohyeon felt exhausted as she closed up shop.
She hadn't even done anything different today, and the rainy day definitely made it so she had less customers. It was probably just today. By tomorrow, everything should go back to normal. She could take off the stupid necklace and move on with her life.
She let out a sigh as she turned towards the beach.
In her mind, she knew she didn’t have to go towards the water, but that same mind told her that even the sand would hurt. Still, she told her brain to shut the hell up, and took slow, cautious steps towards the beach.
When her flip flops hit the sand, she nearly bolted. Fuck stupid promises. Those clearly didn’t mean shit to others, so why should Yoohyeon respect them?
Still, she took slow, hesitant steps towards where she needed to go. At least it wasn’t near the water, but being able to hear it much closer than she was used to definitely raised red flags in her mind.
After what was probably an hour of shuffling along the sand, having to take occasional pauses to shake out her flip flops and feet, she arrived at the damn bench.
Quickly, she took a seat on it, letting out a sigh of relief once she couldn’t feel the slight sinking of the sand under her weight. She dropped her flip flops on the ground and shook out her feet before sitting with her legs crossed on the bench. No need to feel the sand for any longer than necessary.
Now what to do?
She stared out at the open ocean, the waves hitting the shore and the sun beginning to set. To anyone, it might look beautiful, keep them captivated long enough for the moon to rise. To Yoohyeon, it looked like the waves would burn her if she got too close, the sun looking like fire against the water.
God, and did she remember what it felt like to be burnt.
She shifted her gaze down to the sand, deciding that counting the grains was a better pastime.
She’s not even sure what she was waiting for. Not that she expected anything to happen. The meeting time was set for the sunset, so she could leave once it was nighttime. In Yoohyeon’s eyes, that one person was late. Never has she wanted time to move faster than now.
By the 1,004th grain she counted, she could hear footsteps shifting the sand.
Yoohyeon didn’t look up. It was probably one of the many townspeople out on a walk to see the setting sun. Maybe it was San with Yeosang. She hoped not. One of her friend’s disappointed faces was enough for today, and she still hadn’t responded to Yubin yet. Nope. She didn’t need to see anyone she knew today.
Eventually, the footsteps stopped a little too close for comfort. Was it some good samaritan checking up on Yoohyeon? It’s happened often enough. Maybe it was someone who wanted her autograph. Damn it.
“Go away,” she groaned out. “I don’t want to deal with anyone right now.”
Still silent. Yoohyeon turned her head enough to look from the corner of her eye. All she could see were bare feet in the sand, and a hand holding up a pair of heels. Who the hell wore heels in town? It wasn’t exactly a corporate hub like the big cities had. Date gone wrong? Whatever. Yoohyeon didn’t care. She just wanted to be left alone until nightfall.
“I said-”
“Yoohyeon.”
She froze.
There was no fucking way. Not the slightest chance of this happening. She had to be hearing things because there was no way in hell she was hearing that voice again. Not after all these years. Not after all the broken promises. There wasn’t any way that she was hearing her name wrapped around that undeserving voice that had haunted her nightmares all these years.
Slowly, she followed the length of those legs upwards. Slacks, button up, blazer hung over the other arm, very corporate, very out of place on the goddamn beach, up until she could see the person’s face and-
She felt her blood run cold.
“You,” she breathed out.
Minji visibly swallowed.
“Me.”
It started to rain.