Stay With Me - Yeongyu FF

Chapter 31

I suddenly feel arms around my waist again, pulling me out.

"Beomgyu! Beomgyu please! Please!!!!!" I hear Yeonjun say.

"I... I'm okay. I just... The flashbacks took over and I... lost control" I say, slightly shocked at what just happened.

"Take deep breaths, damn, we'll never be able to go to the lake a single time without you getting hurt. Should we really keep going here-"

"Yes yes yes, we should. I need to get over this. My brother hasn't come to see us in so long, he's probably forgotten about 'Ma and I, and I need to forget"

Yeonjun nods, pursing his lips, probably still feeling guilty like he always is whenever I get hurt or feel sick, sometimes it's even when I feel sad.

"I swear, it's fine. I just... need a little more time- I know, it's been 9 years, but it was traumatizing, no joke, and it's not like I do some swimming everyday, which doesn't help get over it"

Junie keeps his head low, knowing now that I've noticed his habit of pursing his lips when guilty. I then realise how awkward and tense it all feels right now, and decide to do something to keep our minds away from guilt and my brother.

I get out of the water and behind Yeonjun, pretending to hug him, and push him into the lake.

"Ha! Your turn to get wet!" I shout, pointing at him.

"Dude, I was already wet, I saved you"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, Super-Junie"

He smiles, and I walk back to the water, carefully this time.

By the time the water reaches my shoulders, I hesitate.

I want to swim around like him, to not have that fear of putting my head underwater, to not be scared of diving down. So, I take a deep breath, and ask Yeonjun a favour.

"I'm gonna... try to swim on my own, maybe try to put my head underwater. Could you... stay beside me, swim beside me, so that I can feel a little less worried"

Yeonjun looked a little shocked, and I could understand why. I literally almost drowned.

"I-I... Should you really?" he asks.

I nod. I want to swim again, like I used to. And something tells me that, because my brother isn't here, everything will be alright. I just need to get Yeonjun on my side, so I can still have someone in case anything happens. I haven't swam in years and I need him to help me get back to it.

"Please" I just say, looking at him with some wide, hopefully-not-creepy eyes.

"Beomgyu... I don't want you to get hurt"

"I won't!" I say, a little bit more confidently than I intended. He's probably going to think it's fake because of how confident that was.

But he still believes me, and after a groan, he swims back a little farther so that I can go in. I take a deep breath and go in. I try to make the same movements as I used to all these years ago, but most of them I forgot, so although I manage to keep my head out of the water, I'm not actually moving. Yeonjun comes closer to me and carries my waist up slightly. He moves my arms around one by one, telling me a bunch of tips to help me get my swimming skills back. I was never a really good swimmer, so I find it normal to forget, but Yeonjun probably does competitions and races, because he found my swimming pretty awful. Even if he was only saying it in a teasing tone, I could sense the 'I know better than you and you suck' in his voice. I didn't feel offended though, and just kept doing my thing.

After thirty minutes or so, I could swim correctly again, and I followed Yeonjun around like some dog. We were having some fun in the deeper parts of the lake, doing water fights and races. After a while, Yeonjun wanted to dive down, and suggested I come with him. My heart started beating insanely fast. It all seemed terrifying. Even if when I swam with Yeonjun I usually had my head underwater as I swam, thinking of going deeper scared me. I think it's because I'm not sure how to dive anymore. I know how to get back up though. That's only half as hard.

When I tell all of this to Yeonjun, he suggests explaining first, before he went down so I can see how to do it - the lake's water being so clear you could see the bottom of the deepest point of the lake - and then if I was okay with it, we could go to a shallower area so I can try it out, with Yeonjun beside me. I agreed, feeling only so safe thanks to how Yeonjunie was handling it all, and listened carefully to his diving lesson.

When he got back out of the water, we started swimming around to find a place where diving down was possible, without it being too deep. We searched for a good ten minutes because the lake suddenly deepens around the middle and on the step right before it does, Yeonjun was too tall. I'm not much shorter than him, hey!

We finally found a place that Yeonjun judged acceptable. Here, he gave me a few last tips and dove down.

I try to calm down. I've been mildly panicking since we agreed on the plan. Now, I was panicking like crazy. When Yeonjun comes back up, he asks if I'm ready. I take all the time I can, asking him extra questions and requesting him to dive again.

But after two dives, he realises that I'm just scared.

"Beomgyu, you'll do fine. I'm here for you, you know?"

I nod, unable to whisper word.

"Now come on. Stop panicking too much and let's go. You'll panic more if you keep waiting. Dive!"

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Update!

It's been a while, I almost already failed to keep my one-chapter-already-done plan because I was so out of ideas.

The next update might be faster though maybe, because I already have the main idea.

Hopefully...

Welp, have a good day/night