BEACH-SIDE RESORT

“Let’s go inside.”

Erika nodded.

Hana reached out to grab Reina’s luggage, but I reached for it first and threw it over my back. “I’ll carry this.”

Then Hana handed me her bag too. “Well, please do, then!” she said, giggling at me.

I sighed and grabbed her bag. Then, Erika also handed me her bag while silently smiling from ear to ear. I grabbed her bag, and we then made our way inside the villa.

It’s an open concept villa with a large yard. A swimming pool is in the middle of it, with a gazebo a little to the side. The interior is quite lavishly designed, and there’s even a kitchen we can use.

While the girls all made their way to the gazebo, Alan went to our room to drop his bag, and I went to the other room to put down the girls’ bag.

Then I went to my room to drop mine off. With the girls hanging in the gazebo, I sat down on the couch with Alan.

“Oliver, sorry. I overheard a little of your conversation earlier.” He said as I sat down.

“Oh. I’d say that I’d rather you apologize to Erika instead, but as you had already heard..”
“Yeah.. Can you tell her for me later?”

“Sure. Thank you for being understanding.”

“It’s the least I could do, I had practically forced her here by forcing you to invite them. Sorry about that.”

“Don’t be. I’m sure they are all enjoying this a lot. As I am. I should thank you instead.”
“You’re welcome.” A slight smile played on his face

After settling in for a little, and enjoying the villa, we all changed into our swimsuits and went to the beach.

The villa itself is practically at the beach already, so we didn’t have to group up to walk together to the beach, so me and Alan went out first after we finished changing.

The reservation of the villa came with a little personal space on the beach reserved for our exclusive use. In it, there’s some beach chairs placed under beach parasols.

I immediately went to take a seat under the shade.

Lounging around on a beach chair, under the shade of an umbrella, with the sea breeze blowing against your skin. Everything just feels really nice. I close my eyes to take it all in and let myself go to the relaxing sound of waves crashing onto the sand.

The girls joined us not long after, and I can hear them laughing, talking amongst themself as they made their way towards us. Once I heard them walk past me, I opened my eyes and found Hana and Reina in front of me.

They’re wearing bikinis very much suited for the beach during summer.

While I had put on a lightweight hoodie to cover up the upper part of my body because I didn’t like the heat, it seems those two didn't mind at all.

As for Erika, I looked around and found her standing next to me.

She’s holding her beach hat down causing it to slightly tilt to the side, so I can’t see her face clearly, but she’s also wearing a lightweight hoodie with what seems like a one-piece swimsuit.

It looks something like a scuba suit, but with a skirt around the waist. I think those are called rash guard swim dresses or something.

When a breeze blows past us, her skirt flutters lightly, along with her hat, looking somewhat cute.

I should get something like hers, without the skirt obviously. It covers almost everything and seems like it can hold the heat back pretty well. I’ll look into it when we get back.

Erika had probably noticed me staring, as she suddenly turned to look down at me.

Hana and Reina went to the foreshore, splashing water at each other all giggly.

Erika, on the other hand, seems to be just enjoying life while sitting on the beach chair, with the sea breeze blowing against her face.

We seem to share the same wavelength, I thought, before closing my eyes again to enjoy the sea breeze on my skin.

“Oliver.”

“Yeah?”

“Should we get some drinks?”

“Sure. They have vending machines here?”

“Why are you looking for a vending machine on a beach? Let’s go to a seaside cafe, or a beach club.”

“I don’t think I’m up for a club.”

“It’s a beach club. It’s a different kind of club. But we can go to a cafe instead. There’s a few in this resort.”

“Alright, sure.”

“Reina! Hana! We’re going to a cafe!” Alan shouted to tell them.

I looked to my side and found Erika still sitting there. “Erika.” I called out to her, and she looked my way. “Let’s grab a drink at a cafe.”

She gave me a nod, and we all stood up and made our way to the nearest cafe.

We found the cafe at a more crowded place on the beach. It’s directly in front of the main building, which is the hotel in this resort.

It’s a good thing that Alan at least has sunglasses on, which helps to cover a little of his face. Otherwise, we won’t even reach the cafe with this crowd.

We were seated at a table for six and were given a menu for each of us.

We all ordered some sort of cold beverages, and talked about the resort, the cafe, and the trip in its entirety so far.

When our drink arrived, we all enjoyed it while still talking amongst ourselves.

Unlike during the car and ferry ride, Erika occasionally interjected the conversation, having Hana translate for her.

Also, I noticed that she has taken the seat across from mine, just like how I usually sit across from her in Cafe Million.

This feels like we travelled all the way just to be in Cafe Million again.

After finishing our drink, we went to the other cafes in the resort.

It seems like each has a different theme from each other, which makes each visit feel like a different experience from the other. One of them was aimed at kids with cartoon characters drawn on the dessert, and another was stylishly themed, with a focus on latte art.

After trying out every cafe, we went back to the villa, and we all sat down on the beach chair, lounging around watching the horizon.

When the sun started to set, we all got hungry.

Instead of going to the resort restaurant, apparently, we’ll get a chef to come to our villa to cook for us in our kitchen.

As soon as we’re back inside the villa, Alan immediately called room service to call for our chef. Shortly after, our chef along with some other staff arrived with a cart containing an array of ingredients.

Once they found their way to the kitchen, we all sat down around the dining table. The chef then proceeded to explain each of the ingredients he will be using for our meal.

After that’s done, the chef then starts to cook in front of us, whetting our appetite during the whole process.

Not long after starting, the chef started serving our food, course by course. Starting from our appetizer, all the way to our main course.

An array of different desserts was then carted in after we had finished our meal. There were several options to choose from, and Reina was absolutely flabbergasted at how every each one of them looked like a luxury item. We ended up eating several dishes each.

It had been a very pleasant meal, I could see everyone’s eyes lit up every time the chef placed a new course on the table. I also noticed their eyes widen with a bite of every new dish.

I’d expected Alan to be less excited as I’d thought that he’d be used to this kind of extravagant dinner, but apparently the girls’ excitement got into him just as it had gotten into me.

It’s very refreshing to see them so excited about the meal. The chef even mentioned how fun it had been cooking for us, as the girls are very expressive at enjoying their dinner.

Erika hadn’t been as expressive as Reina and Hana were, but she was still joyously moving her hands with a slight smile on her face during the entirety of the meal.

Once we had our dessert, the staff tidied the place up and went to head back.

We thanked them for the meal, and enjoyed the after taste of our meal, while lounging around the living room.

The girls then took turns to use the bathroom, as Alan and I did.

I’d thought that the girls would take a long time for their bath, but Alan had to put on an array of skincare, so the duration the girls spent on their bath just paled in comparison.

After finishing their bath, Reina and Hana went to the gazebo to laze around. Not long after, Alan finally finished his bath and joined them at the gazebo.

I took a bath after him and left my room after finishing my bath at the same time Erika was leaving her room. We walked together towards the gazebo.

Because we had been high on excitement since morning, exhaustion hit us quite early today. It wasn't that late, but we had started getting sleepy. Especially Reina as she had been in high gear all day, running around all over the place.

But since we’d be leaving early tomorrow as our ferry would leave around noon as it did today, we decided to make the most out of it, and all went to take a stroll on the beach.

We didn’t talk much during our stroll. Just relishing the tranquil, serene mood under a starlit sky. During our stroll, we walked by some couples also taking a night stroll. Alan hadn’t covered his face, but luckily it was dark enough that he was only barely recognizable.

Then, at the edge of the beach, we found a huge cliff and turned around to make our way back to our villa. Once back, before going back inside, we lounged at the beach chair.

When walking out, we hadn’t noticed, but the staff had already folded the umbrella for us, so we could stargaze while lounging.

It’s these services that separates the lesser and the better. And we’re most definitely at one of the better.

Gazing at the stars, we’d point at stars that are close to each other and make guesses on what constellation they actually are. We then checked online for what the constellation we had just guessed actually looked like and compared them. We didn’t get anything right.

Sometime into our guessing game, Reina had fallen asleep on the beach chair. Seeing this, we all decided to turn in for the night.

“Come on, Reina! We’re heading back!” Hana tried to wake her up, shaking her vigorously, to no avail.

“Mmm.. I don’t want yakiniku anymore… I want steaks…” She said in her sleep.

“Should I carry her back?” I offered.

“I’ll do it. Doesn’t seem like she’d be waking up anytime soon.” Alan interjected. He walked closer to me and whispered to me. “You should keep your hands to your girl.” He took a quick glance towards Erika, and my eyes followed after his.

“She’s not my girl.”

He smirked. “Yeah? But you can’t tell me you haven’t been looking at her all day today.”

“I- what?”

Alan went ahead and carried Reina back to her room. Hana went with them to prepare their bed, while me and Erika followed a little behind.

Walking alongside her, even as we both kept some distance to each other, I can’t help but be conscious of her. Even more so because Alan had mentioned me looking at her all day.

It really bothers me that I can’t deny it. I’ve been noticing her all day, ever since our conversation this afternoon. I’ve even been paying attention to where she’s sitting in every cafe we've visited today.

I’m happy that she trusts me, but I can’t let it get to my head.

I shouldn’t do anything special and just keep acting the way I did all this time. I shouldn’t step too far inside her comfort zone.

I shouldn’t think about her, I shouldn’t even ponder about the current situation too much.

I had friends when I was going through my lowest, they never actively tried to help me, but they were there. And I appreciate it as it has undoubtedly helped me go through it.

I should do the same thing my friend did to me, to Erika.

But even as we all went to our rooms, I couldn’t fall asleep, thinking about Erika.

Alan is sleeping next to me. I’m surprised he could sleep so soundly. He’s supposed to be some big shot actor, so I thought he would have to worry about getting assassinated or something.

Actually, now that I think about it, there’s no reason why actors would get assassinated. Maybe political figures, considering their influence. But actors don't have that much influence to warrant getting assassinated.

Now I’m just thinking about stupid stuff.

Times like this, a walk should help to clear my mind.

Outside, I see Hana sitting at the beach chair.

Approaching Her, since I’m walking on sand, I made quite some noise with every step, and Hana heard me coming.

She looked my way for a little and looked back to the sea.

I made my way to her and sat on the chair next to the one she’s using.

“Oliver.”

“Yeah?”

“Are you gay?”

“No.”

“Hmm.”

Sensing that our random brief conversation had ended, I got up to take my walk.

Then Hana suddenly got up, and kicked me on the back, making me fall face first onto the sand.

“Idiot.”

I lie face down on the sand, looking up at her standing a little in front of me. “What’s that for?!” I asked as I got myself up, dusting myself.

“Do you like Erika?” She asked, looking at me over her shoulder.

“I suppose you’re not asking if I like her as a friend or person.”

“No.”

“I don’t.”

She turned around and looked me in the eyes. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Is it because she’s mute?” she started looking down.

“I- uh-”

“Just tell me!” She lightly punched my chest.

“I don’t know. I just don’t like her like that. I don’t dislike her disability, but I don’t know if that’s a factor on whether or not I like her.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah.”

“Then help me.”

“Help you with what?”

“I don’t know.”

I opened my mouth to complain, but once she raised her face, and looked me in the eyes again, I couldn’t say anything.

Her eyes are a little teary, and her expression plainly spells confusion.

“What do you want me to do?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why ask me for help, then?”

“Because Erika trusts you.”

I had confronted Erika about her trauma when I asked whether or not she fears men. I basically forced her into the situation, but there was still no need for her to answer me.

In fact, I had expected no answer from her, so I just walked away afterwards. But she had stopped me, not to answer my question, but to tell me that she doesn’t mind being around me.

I had been thinking too much about what she had said, about what she meant by being okay if it’s me. I had previously thought that she had accepted me as a friend, and after pondering, I had thought that she just meant it’s okay for me to be around her. That she didn’t want me too close, but there.

But in fact, what I should’ve thought about was what she had done. That is to say, she had stopped me as I was walking away from her.

She didn’t want me to just be there, she wanted me close by. That’s why she stopped me from walking away.

My friends never helped me, and I never wanted their help. I just wanted to go with the flow as I’m sure that everything would eventually be washed away by the flow of time.

But Erika is different. She wanted change, she wanted to better herself. She wasn’t like the coward that I am.

“I’ll.. do my best.”

“Please.”

I walked past her, and she followed behind me not long after. I unlocked the door and went in with Hana. After locking the door, I went to close the window. Hana had already gone back to her room when I went towards mine. Inside, I got onto the bed, under the sheets, and fell asleep not long after.

The next morning, Alan woke me up after his bath. He didn’t know I stayed up late last night, so he woke me up quite early to get an early breakfast. I was never a morning person to begin with, and having a significant lack of sleep after a tiring day is definitely making me extra sluggish this morning. I felt a little more refreshed after my bath, but still dragging my feet.

I haven’t packed last night, but since it was only a one-night stay, I only had little things with me, and I can just throw them all into my bag. Once I’m done with everything, I went out to meet everyone else.

Outside, everyone is already waiting on me. I’m surprised to see Hana also sitting on the couch with everyone as she had stayed at least as late as I did last night. That is, until I got closer and saw the dead look on her eyes. The lack of sleep is definitely getting to her as much as it is getting to me.

In contrast, as she was the first to fall asleep last night, Reina has been fully recharged and is already high on excitement first thing in the morning. Thus, she went ahead and led us to the hotel’s dining hall, where the breakfast buffet is being held.

It’s kind of worrying to eat a buffet with Alan, but he has sunglasses and a hat on, so I guess we’ll manage to get through breakfast somehow. We did get to at least finish our meal when we met at Cafe Million, after all.

On our way to the dining hall, I walked straight behind Erika. Due to our walking position, I can’t help but stare at her back all the way until we reach the hotel’s main building, where the dining hall is located.

Walking up the stairs to get inside, I saw Hana glaring at me. She silently mouthed “idiot” to me.

Seeing this, Alan lightly elbowed me and got closer to me. Quietly, he whispered to me. “Two birds with one stone? Or chasing two rabbits?”

I just don’t have the energy to deal with this, so I only let out a small sigh.

“That said, you and Hana sure look very tired this morning. Not something you’d expect from people who had fallen asleep early, as we all did end our night early yesterday.”

“What are you implying?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “Grumpy in the morning, huh?”

It’s early morning, so not a lot of people have started their breakfast yet. Thus, the place is not yet crowded. But it’s nowhere near empty, there’s still quite the number of people here.

And as expected, someone had recognized Alan without anything to cover his face.

What had first started as some “is that?” had quickly turned into a crowd flocking into him. The security had to step in to separate us from the crowd that had built up. The people were asked to respect our privacy, and as Alan had company, he apologized for not being able to give any fan service. Luckily, the people were understanding, and they held themself back to only taking pictures from afar and gossiping about Alan and his group of ‘friends’.

This might be the norm, or maybe a good thing for someone as popular as Alan. And this might be a very dazzling and fun experience for one yearning for such popularity like Reina. But Erika on the other hand, is visibly struggling with people murmuring about us, and taking pictures of us.

Hana is glaring at everyone taking pictures, and at anyone mentioning “that girl”. But we would be eating at the same table, and it’s unlikely that this will stop anytime soon, as people eating buffet will continuously come and go. There’s always the option of skipping breakfast and ordering breakfast to our room. But it seems like Reina is enjoying this too much for us to do that.

We can’t leave Alan and Reina alone, as that would ruin Alan’s reputation. That’d be very bad in his line of work. Hana and Erika could go back on their own, but I definitely don’t want to be here with this either.

To be honest, I was actually expecting people to have more decency to respect another’s privacy. I knew that they’d want pictures, but I thought that they’d take a picture and move on with their life. But some people here are recording every step that we’re making. They’re talking about every move that we make, even before we walked into the dining hall. Imagine their behavior when they see what Alan picks up from the buffet assortment of foods.

This is going to be hard on Erika. Guess I’ll just have to suck it up and accompany Alan and Reina if Reina doesn’t want to go back.

I walked faster to catch up to Erika and Hana. They had walked a little ahead of us to get at least some attention off them. Once I had caught up to them, I opened my mouth to call them but decided against it. Mentioning their name here would likely just cause trouble.

But they are preoccupied with the people around them that they hadn’t noticed me catching up. Since Hana’s arms are wrapped around Erika’s shoulders, I reached out to Erika’s arm, and grabbed it, holding her back.

Startled, she immediately turned around to face me. Following her surprise, Hana also looked back to find me grabbing Erika’s arm.

Her hands had been visibly shaking, and she really tensed up when I grabbed her. It’s no surprise, considering I had suddenly grabbed her out of nowhere.

But it seems like she had calmed down a bit, I can see her shivering less as she’s taking deep breaths after realizing that it’s just me that had grabbed her.

“Erika, you can go back if you want.” I said in a low voice to not get heard by the people around us.

She just looked down and stayed silent for a while.

“I’ve been trying to convince her to go back, but..” Hana seems extremely concerned.

“You can order breakfast from the villa. I have some cash in my bag, you could use that.”

Erika immediately grabbed my hand back and shook her head quickly at the idea.

“It’s fine, you could just buy me a drink or something in Cafe Million later.”

She shook her head even quicker.

“Erika…”

Soon, I notice Alan walking towards us. He looks concerned as he must’ve noticed how Erika is doing by now.

I feel bad doing this to him, but he’d just make this worse by coming here right now. I quietly waved to him, telling him not to come closer. He seems to have gotten the message and instead went to Reina, and they both went inside the buffet area.

Even with Alan gone, some people still linger around. Sometime later, someone even came up to us, asking us about Alan.

Hana glared at him, and I could feel Erika’s hand trembling harder as the guy got closer.

“Excuse me. But could you not bother us? Please respect people’s personal boundaries.” I tried to be polite, but my hostility must have shown as he immediately walked away, murmuring “What’s his problem?” all the while.

Honestly, I could have handled that better, but I didn’t have the energy nor the time to think things through.

The problem now is with Erika. I don’t know what she wants to do. She had seemed reluctant to go back, but it’s obvious that she doesn’t want to be here. If we could just get rid of these fans somehow.

I looked around to look for anything that could help.

Since we’re in the lobby of the hotel, there’s some stores around, a mini market, clothing store, some jewelry, and souvenirs.

If we can’t get rid of the fans, then maybe we could ‘get rid’ of Erika somehow.

Since she hasn't said that she wants to go back, I’ll assume that she still wants to eat at the buffet. I don’t know how much it’ll help, but she’s only wearing a shirt and jeans right now. She could use a little more covering up.

“Come with me.” I basically dragged her towards the clothes shop.

“Wha- Oliver! Where are you taking her?”

“Just come with me.”

Inside the store, I immediately went to a jacket I saw through the window. It’s quite thin, most likely to be used at the beach, but it feels quite comfortable to the touch. And most importantly, it has a hood. I gave the jacket to Erika, asking if she likes it. There are some other jackets in the store that I hadn’t seen yet, but as I thought that she would only be using it this one time, she may not need to get one too much to her tastes.

She slowly took the jacket from me and inspected it for a bit. After a while, she brought it closer to her chest, and hugged it lightly, looking at Hana.

Maybe she’s asking if it looks good on her. I don’t quite understand, but Hana nodded after seeing the jacket close to her friend. Erika then looked at me briefly, then towards my hand, still grabbing her arm.

“Oh! Sorry.” I hadn’t realized that I was still grabbing onto her arm.

After I let go of her, she looked around the store for a bit before putting the jacket on. It seems to fit her well, and she seems like she doesn’t dislike it either.

I immediately went to the cashier and told them that I’d like to pay for it.

As soon as Erika realized what I was about to do, she immediately ran to me and grabbed my arm. When I turned to look at her, she shook her head quickly, and waved her hand to say no.

I just grabbed the price tag on her jacket and showed it to the cashier.

“Please.”

The cashier then scanned it, and the item’s price showed up on screen, and I paid there and then. Erika is still trying to hold me back, but despite her best effort, holding my hand back one by one, I passed my wallet from one hand to another after grabbing it from my pocket, and immediately paid.

After the cashier took my money, Erika finally stopped trying, and she just gave me this big, cute pout.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s my idea to get you to cover up a bit. Besides, you’ll probably only wear it this one time.”

She then lightly punched my arm, still pouting. And I can hear Hana giggling behind us.

Once the transaction was finished, we joined Alan in the dining hall. There were still some people taking pictures, but most of them had probably been shooed away, or bored.

That’s good, as it means Erika can relax a little. After putting our stuff down on the table, the three of us went around to get food.

Me and Hana tried our best to block other people’s vision of Erika, standing on either side of her. Thankfully, Erika was able to take her time picking from the wide varieties of food served in the buffet.

It seems like she’s already enjoying the buffet as she seems somewhat cheerful while picking food. If not for the earlier commotion, she might even be beaming right now.

After getting all the things we wanted, we made our way back to the table.

Reina had taken a seat next to Alan, with their back facing the wall. So, we took our seats across from them.

Erika is still sandwiched between me and Hana. Thanks to the jacket, and our position facing the wall, Erika seems to be able to enjoy eating her food.

Every now and then, a person having just walked into the dining hall would talk to Alan, asking for a photo and stuff, and Erika would pull her hood down then until they left. But she’s still enjoying her breakfast nonetheless. I could tell because she had been shaking before but completely calm now.

Having finished our breakfast, we quickly made our way back to the villa.

Reina is even higher in excitement than we had been before eating breakfast. The food must have fueled her.

Either that or she’s actually getting high off the temporary stardom. Let’s hope she doesn't develop star syndrome or something.

Once inside, we all sat around on the couch. Lounging around before our boat docks. We had gone to breakfast really early, so even with what had happened, we still left quite early. Meaning we still have a few hours to kill.

Reina wants to take a walk on the beach, dragging us with her. But I’m still sleep deprived, and the event earlier had left me even more exhausted.

Also, I just realized that Erika had been sandwiched between me and Erika ever since we went into the dining hall. And now I’m still sitting next to her on the couch.

Having realized this, I immediately moved away from her, maintaining a distance from her. She seems to have relaxed a bit more after I had done so, her shoulders lowering down a little. She then rests her head on Hana’s shoulder, and Hana responds by patting her.

Having moved further from Erika, Alan moved closer to me.

“Did I do something I shouldn’t have?”

“Not really, I guess. Not you. But I guess it was never a good idea for us to go to a place with that many people.”

“I thought the buffet experience would be a good one for everyone.”

“Well, the buffet itself was.”

“I see.. I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks for telling me.”

“On that note, you do look like you’re used to it.”

“You can say that. But I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it, in a sense that I’ll be able to ignore it. I have to be constantly aware of where someone is doing what. Otherwise, it might hit me in unexpected places.”

“It’s a tough job, huh?”

“Well, at least it pays nice.”

We continued chatting while waiting for our boat. We just started the day, and we already talked about the events of yesterday last night. Reina had already calmed down quite a bit. Thus, the conversation is a little dry.

When it’s just me, Erika, and Hana in Cafe Million, Hana always leads our conversations. But maybe because she’s currently caring for Erika, she’s being quite quiet right now. As things went by like so, it was about time for our boat to dock, so we all grabbed our luggage and started preparing to leave.

Usually, when leaving a hotel, you’d go to the reception to check out. But since we have a VIP with us, after Alan called to ask about checking out, they sent some staff to check us out instead.

Once they arrived, we immediately left.

We gave them our keys, and they thanked us for our stay, and that was it. Guess they’ll take care of the complicated stuff on their end.

Once we arrived at the docks to board our boat, just like last time, we were given the fast pass to skip through the line of people boarding the boat, and they led us to our room.

The events this morning was really hectic, so I appreciate these kinds of things.

The boat that we’re on now is the same one we rode on the way here, so we’re no longer very keen on exploring. Or maybe the hype had just died down. Thus, we just stayed in one of the two rooms.

At lunch time, we still made our way to the boat’s restaurant, and we were led to the private room again.

They served us different meals than the one they had served us yesterday, and we all really enjoyed the meal again. Although not as hyped up as when we first had lunch here, the quality of the meal is still so good that we can’t help but relish it.

After our lunch, we went back to our room, with a newfound topic, that is our meal just now. We talked about the ingredients, how they store food on the boat, with Reina showing us videos that she had previously watched about it. The conversation went on until the boat’s staff alerted us that we’ll be soon docking on our destination.

Hearing this, we all went out on deck to watch the docking process as we did when arriving on the resort island.

This time, we immediately went further to the front part of the deck before more people had gathered there. We almost got to the very front and got a good look of land.

Reina is leaning against the deck railing, pointing to land very excitedly, that I’m actually worried she might jump off the boat out of sheer excitement. Hana and Erika later joined her leaning against the railing, while me and Alan stood a little further from the railings.

We all watched the island get bigger and bigger as we approached it. The sound of another boat’s foghorn rings loudly as they are leaving the dock, and we can see smaller vessels below us.

We had been looking towards the ocean when leaving this dock, and arriving on the island resort’s dock, there weren't that many other boats there. So, this was a new sight for us. Or most of us, at least.

As our boat’s foghorn blew to signal that we were approaching the dock, a gust of wind blew from the front to the back of the ship. When the wind hit my face, I immediately looked away to the side so the wind wouldn’t blow straight to my eyes. It just so happens that my eyes landed on Erika.

The wind is sweeping her hair back, and her face is illuminated by the radiant reflection of sunlight off the glistening sea. Her sundress is somewhat plain, but with the wind blowing on it causing it to flutter, paired with the scene behind her, she looks absolutely beautiful that it causes me to freeze for a while.