My Summer in Seoul

To make things more comfortable, I even thought to bring blankets and pillows in case they wanted to stay the night.

I had my own tent so that propriety wouldn’t be an issue whatsoever.

Plus, I’d checked and double-checked the schedule; they didn’t have anything until ten a.m. tomorrow. As long as we were back by eight, so they could get ready for the day they had with choreography, interviews, and another photo shoot—all would be well.

Somehow, I’d gotten unlucky enough to have Lucas make sudden eye contact from the back seat. His dark Ray-Ban sunglasses didn’t even block out the scowl I could feel in his eyes as I pulled into a parking spot and killed the engine with a gulp. “So, I figured you guys could relax. I brought some balls—” Shit, just kill me right now. I was ready to hand over the keys to Lucas and lay down in the middle of the street. What? I brought them balls? Like they’re twelve? Okay, honey, go play with your ball in the sand now! I may as well say I brought along shovels and buckets.

Hey, maybe they could bury me alive!

Fingers crossed!

I didn’t mean to let out an embarrassed groan before saying as fast as possible. “I have snacks, drinks—wasn’t sure if you guys liked beer, water, and they had seltzer… Gonna stop talking now.” I sighed. “Anyway, I even have three tents if you want to set them up, and when I was researching, it looked like it’s not really busy, and you guys can—”

“Grace,” Rae interrupted. “You can stop talking now.”

“Okay, sorry, yup, I’ll stop.” It was physically painful to keep my mouth shut as the guys slowly piled out of the Jeep. At least they weren’t so mean that they didn’t help carry all the gear to the beach.

As promised online, there were a few families scattered around, and that was about it.

I smiled and grabbed the cooler along with one of the tents.

Success.

I took one step into the sand and tripped, face planting onto the sand as a flip flop went flying into the air, hitting me in the ass.

Lucas, of course, just had to be the one standing in front of me; he looked over his shoulder, smiled, and just kept on walking.

Surprisingly, it was Kai who helped me to my feet and dusted me off a bit; his hand was heavy as he moved it through my hair, getting sand out.

With a laugh, he grabbed the cooler and kept walking.

“Smooth,” Jay said from behind me. “Maybe take your slides off before you go on the sand.”

“Noted,” I grumbled.

He picked up the tent, leaving me without anything to carry except my flip-flops.

I took a deep breath and followed the guys to their spot on the beach. They started setting up the tent close to the surf but not so close that we’d drown in our sleep.

It was beautiful, with crystal blue water and white sand that I was still somehow crunching on in my mouth and finding in my hair.

Great, it was going to take days to get all that sand out.

Talking to myself, I started setting up the other tent, then spread out a towel outside of it and sat while the guys moved around. A few of them started playing catch, and for the first time in hours, I exhaled a long breath and just watched the waves.

I wasn’t sure how long we would stay.

But afternoon slowly turned into evening.

The guys ate—poor Sookie found a bag of chips and literally looked ready to inhale them—I had been careful to get veggie ones, but it was still against the rules.

I figured he’d played hard enough in the sand, so Solia wouldn’t kill me, and he was smiling, so it was worth it.

I took a swig of my diet coke.

For the most part, the guys had left me alone, most of them playing games, going into the water, napping in the tent.

I hoped it was relaxing.

I was just getting ready to ask them if they wanted to go back when Rae and Sookie went into the guys’ tent and crashed. I could hear their snoring from where I sat in front of mine.

Jay soon followed into his tent, leaving Lucas staring out at the ocean waves and Kai.

Kai turned around and walked toward me, then sat about a foot away, not looking at me but staring at Lucas like he was concerned.

“You think he’s going to be okay?” I asked, even though I knew he wouldn’t answer.

Actually, his answer was a sigh.

“Yeah, felt that,” I agreed. “It must suck always being in the public eye.”

He held out his hand.

What? Did he want a high five?

His grin was both playful and sexy as he pointed to my phone.

“Oh, sorry.” I unlocked it and handed it over.