#psplash
splash.
“i’m not worrying, believe me,” chaewon responds, cheekily flipping her hair over her shoulder. he’s being sweet, she thinks, so she probably shouldn’t be so mean to him. she pouts back at his grin, though her lips quickly fall back into neutral, the hint of a smirk pulling at one corner of her mouth. “uh, no. i don’t think so. i haven’t cycled a bike since i was a kid. i’ll sit on your handlebars, though.” then he can push the peddles for her on a bike too. she doesn’t intend on leaving all the work to him though – she’ll join back in after a few minutes break.
or, she would have done, if she hadn’t fallen into the water like an idiot.
eric landing in the water almost on top of her head does nothing but elicit a scream from chaewon, as it splashes over her head. she’s submerged briefly for a second time, but she manages to keep a hold onto the side of the boat. as eric laughs, chaewon scoughs (that’s a scoff and a cough). she gently kicks him, letting out a wordless whine.
“this isn’t funny! eric, this isn’t funny!” she’s yelling in english, and hits her hand off the side of the boat. chaewon gets a better grip on the side of the boat and tries to pull herself up, but she doesn’t have quite enough upper body strength to do so. she looks at him, a fierce determination in her eyes, fueled purely by the desire to get the fuck out of the water. “hoist me up.” she shakes her legs around in the water to demonstrate where she wants him to lift her from. she’s not sure if it’ll work partially underwater, but it might.
the thought of riding around with chaewon on his handlebars doesn’t sound too bad, to be honest. in fact he can’t help but smile at the thought. maybe he’ll take her out somewhere and transport them via bike soon, just so he can have her ride on his handlebars - just so they can say they’ve done it. “i get it, make me do all the work, huh?” he responds, laughing, even though he doesn’t mind it.
all those thoughts, however, are pushed from his mind once he’s in the water. he notices how cold it is almost instantly, giving a little choked scream to emphasise just how cold. he only half agrees with chaewon that this ‘isn’t funny’ because to him it’s kind of hilarious, seeing her with her hair plastered to her head, bobbing up and down in the water. though pretty soon the hilarity of it wears off, and he’s just wet, cold, and slowly realising they’re both wearing white, which is now see through.
he stops laughing when she hits her head, frowning in concern. “okay! okay! stop wriggling!” he responds, also in english, defaulting to the easier language. he moves a little closer to her, then pauses to try and figure out how to lift her up, the thought of possibly having to shove her by her butt up into the boat making him flush from the apples of his cheeks to the tips of his ears. he eventually grabs the boat with one hand and leans as far down as possible, ducking slightly under the water to wrap his other arm around her.
he’s still blushing as he holds onto her, holding himself steady on the boat as he lifts her as best he can with one arm. “push up from my shoulders.” he tells her, trying his hardest not to look at her, because her white dress is now translucent and he’s terrified of possibly seeing her underwear. he’s shivering now too, the cold water chilling him right through to his bones.
splash.
for @rkxric. ✨
chaewon has been on a swan paddle boat once before. she was really young at the time and hadn’t actually done any of the paddling. her legs couldn’t reach the peddles back then. all these years later, at the grand height of 157cm, she can only just about reach them. she pushes along regardless, making the most use of her toes and the ball of her foot in the process. and it’s fun, really, it is … for the first fifteen minutes anyways. after that, the novelty is all gone.
“my legs hurt,” she whines, pulling her feet back from the paddles. chaewon turns to eric with a roll of her neck and pouts at him, hands lying dejectedly in her lap. “whose idea was this again?” she asks, crossing her arms over her chest. she knows all too well that she was the one who originally pointed out the swan boats in the first place.
“urgh …” it feels like the last few weeks of training are finally catching up with her. this is what happens when she takes a day off. her body is fighting back against her new daily routine, it seems. she’s always been active, but she hasn’t been this active in a long time. “i just need to stretch my legs.”
hindsight is 20/20. chaewon doesn’t mean to stand up, she only lifts her butt off the seat by the tiniest bit as she leans forward to stretch, but it’s enough for the swan boat to start rocking back and forth. bent over as she is to try and stretch her hamstrings, chaewon’s sense of balance is thrown off, and that’s all it takes to send chaewon off the side of the boat. she lets out a yell, and quickly scrambles to the side of the boat, trying and failing to hoist herself back on. she holds on to it with one hand, and reaches up to eric with the other. “help! fucking help!”
eric had only ever been on a paddle boat once before. it’d been one of those weekends his dad had taken him out when he was young, back in LA. they’d gone to a really big lake where there were these same swan paddle boats and eric had begged him to go on one. he’d laughed and agreed to one short ride. they spent ages on the boat, eric staring around him in awe and his dad doing all the leg work.
now, he’s tall enough to paddle himself, finding it not too difficult thanks to all the cycling he does. “i’ll paddle then, don’t worry.” he says with a smile, enjoying himself too much to want to head back yet. he likes being out on the river with chaewon, noticing how the sun reflects on the little ripples in the water, and gazing at the buildings on the other side of the river and their outline against the blue sky. he deigns not to answer her question, since he knows it was her who pointed them out - though he was just as enthusiastic, if not more so, to take them out on the water.
“well, maybe you should cycle more, like me.” he says teasingly, grinning mischievously across at her. he doesn’t mind being the sole paddler, though he can see this getting tiring after a while. it’s a lot more difficult to push two people around in a boat with no help than it is to push two people round when both are pulling their weight.
it’s a good thing they left their belongings back in the rental booth for the swam boat, as the next thing eric knows he’s watching chaewon topple overboard into the water. a horrified cry escapes him, hoping to god she can swim as he leans over the edge to grab her hand. he’s trying his hardest to pull her in without letting himself get pulled in, but he must’ve messed up his balance, because seconds later he too is falling into the water, almost toppling in right on top of chaewon. he bobs to the surface and spits out some water, blinking in shock, before he slowly starts laughing.
