Something had to happen.
The instant she took the jump she felt the pendulum swing up.
Best. Decision. Ever.
She loved the wind rushing against her skin and through her hair. She caught herself thinking this was what flying must feel like. The freedom. The weightlessness. Until bam! She slammed feetfirst into the water. The shock woke her up. But there was no stopping now. A smile stretched her lips as her body sank. The coldness banished the sparkling heat in her blood. Most people would have fought hard to break through to the surface. She wasn't most people.
Breath left her body in tiny bubbles. The salt water stung her eyes like tears. She struggled to keep them open, blinking a lot. What little of the sky she could make out grew farther and farther away.
This must be what unconsciousness was like. The silence. The cold. Away from hateful words. Hateful stares.
As she sank farther into the darkness, another shape dove into the water. A shadow she couldn't quite make out until he reached her and wrapped those long fingers around her wrist. Then, with a quick kicks, her rescuer pulled her body from the depths. She wanted to stay under longer. Just a little longer. But in seconds her head broke the surface. And as if by instinct, she gulped in the breath her lungs desired.
Two coughs later, an arm wrapped around her front, and soon she was pulled back toward the shore. Breathing allowed her body to float until her back was almost parallel with the water. She stared up at the sky. It's blue reminded her of the brushstrokes in Van Gogh's The Starry Night - how the light mixed with the dark until the dark won, even if technically it was still early afternoon.
Lost in thoughts of swirls of paint, she was surprised when two strong arms dragged her weak body onto one of the docks nearest the cliff. Then she was dropped like a wet towel. An oof escaped her mouth, then a giggle.
A face with the most startling brown eyes hovered above hers. No longer were the corners crinkled. Flames burned behind those irises. She reached up and touched his cheek. His eyes softened slightly. Even wet he was the most handsome boy she had ever seen.
"Wow," she said in an extended exhale, feeling the urge to paint him.
Her handsome boy's expression hardened. "Wow? Wow?" He closed his hands around the collar of her soaked shirt and lifted her. Then he shook her. "Wow? What the hell were you thinking?" He dropped her again, his eyes searching her face.
"My mom always says I don't make the best decisions."
"That part is oblivious." He wiped his hands over his still-dripping face. A deep sadness replaced the anger in his eyes. "Whatever you've got going on isn't worth killing yourself."
"Who says I wanted to kill myself?"
"Um, maybe the fact you walked to the edge and didn't stop until you went over? That shows a goal."
"No goal. Just what I needed. It felt so good." She cheered, then laughed up at the sky. Then she paused, remembering. "I still don't know your name other than 'Trust-Fund Boy' or Mr. Oh. I would like a chance to thank my hero properly. Not that I needed saving."
His face was so expressive. It was fun watching all the emotions flickering across his face. The brow-crinkling doubt. The eye-tightening anger. And most of all, the slacked-jawed shock. He closed his mouth and a muscle ticked along his strong jaw. Suzy reached up again and traced the line from his ear to his chin with her fingertip, making the angle to memory. He sucked in a breath. His wet hair dripped on her face like rain. When a drop landed on her lower lip, she stuck the tip of her tongue out and tasted it. His eyes widened for the brifest second before he closed them and exhaled. All the tension left his shoulders, causing them to lean toward her.
"Aish," he whispered. "You're crazy."
She laughed again. "Since the age of five. So? Your name?"
"Sehun." He flopped onto his back beside her and slung his arm over his eyes, breathing hard. He shook his head, rubbing the upper half of his face against his arm. "Fvck. I'm too shocked to think. I don't even know how I managed to rescue you without killing us both."
The way he said it, all serious yet resigned, she let out a laugh. "Gee, thanks," she said, annoyed. "I will repeat it as many times as you like. I didn't need saving."
In her boundary, Sehun returned his arm to his side and turned his head so he faced her. "What's your problem? Did some rich guy break your heart or something?"
The tsk left her mouth before she could stop it. "Sure, because I seem like the type to jump off a cliff because someone broke my heart."
Silence, then, "Is that why?"
Disbelief at his assumption forced her to face him, Both their cheeks touched the wood, the plank rough against the softness of hers. Inches away from each others faces. She felt his breath against her lips. Could he feels hers too?
"I'm not weak. If I was going to kill myself, it wouldn't be because someone broke my heart."
"So you admit to the attempt." His features turned serious again. "What would have happened if I weren't here, huh?"
She rolled her eyes. This was even more absurd than her actual decision to jump. And he'd asked her what's her problem was? "I'm starting to think you have some sort of unhealthy obsession."
In a flash, he was on top of her, securing her wrists with his hands above her head and trapping her with his weight. That fire she had seen in his eyes earlier came back. "Suzy, promise me, that for whatever reason, you won't do that again."
Her brows met. "You're not making sense."
He sighed. "Attempting to take your life."
"It's called suicide."
"Suzy," he said between this teeth. "Fvck."
"Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?"
As if she had struck him, Sehun let go of her wrists and returned to his position beside her. "My mother's dead."
This time it was Suzy who shifted her weight so her face hovered above his. She looked into his eyes and found the pain she had been searching for. "Suicide?"
His nod was so blunt she barely noticed it.
Ah, that explained it. No wonder she wasn't willing to let go of the idea that she was trying to off herself. She was about to speak her sympathy for his admission when he reached up and touched her cheek. His hand was so warm against her skin. It took all of her strength not to lean into the touch. Like being in the water, she felt comfort from the contact. He ran his thumb beneath her eye. If she had turned her head slightly her lips would have touched the center of his palm.
"I know we just met," he said. "I know I'm no one in your life, but as a favor to someone who saved your life, please . . . Sooji . . . Suzy . . ."
She closed her eyes and told herself the shiver running down her spine came from the chill caused by her soaked clothes. Yet in the back of her mind she knew the shiver was because her body reacted to the sound of her name in that smooth, steady voice of his.
"Has anyone ever told you you're demanding after being heroic?"
He chuckled. "You're the first girl I've ever saved, so I wouldn't know." He paused. He liked doing that. "Promise me you'll ask for help instead of taking matters into your own hands. You may not think so, but your life is important not only to you but to those you leave behind."
Having had enough, she moved away from his touch and sat cross-legged beside him. How to put this into words he would understand without giving him a backstory? She tilted her head, then said, "Sehun, you were there. I wasn't having the best day. Spilling on your girlfriend -"
"Ex," he added.
"Oh, sorry. The waterworks should have tipped me off. Ex," she emphasized. "Soaking her and having her scream at me just drove me over the edge. I lost it." She gave herself a mental high five. People lost it all the time. "Maybe working at the restuarant wasn't the best job for me." She curled her fingers around her ankles and shrugged.
Sehun rose to his elbows. "You're saying you got fired."
"I'd like to think of it as quitting without pay."
What she had been telling him all along finally dawned in his eyes. "So you really weren't trying to kill yourself . . ."
"Ding! Ding! Ding!" She looked left, then right as if addressing a gathered crowd before she began clapping slowly. "Holy chicken nuggets, I think he's got it."
His lips pursed like he was trying his best not to smile. "You were having a bad day."
"Getting more smarter by the minute, ladies and gentlemen." She crossed her arms and winked.
"I overreacted."
"There's hope for you yet, Sehun Oh."
He thre his head back and laughed. She shook her head and laughed with him. Her day was certainly looking up. This was the most fun she'd had in a while. Maybe there was something to be said about starting the day badly, but if she didn't have another one like it in a long time it would be too soon. Once was more than enough.
A different kind of shiver reminded Suzy of her current soaked situation. If she didn't get home soon, she was sure to catch a summer cold. That would definitely suck.
She pushed herself to stand and patted her wet bottom as if dusting it off. Sehun watched her in silence, a serious expression on the attractive planes and angles of his face. She definitely needed to paint him. That night. Another reason to go home.
"I can't say it was nice meeting you, Sehun, considering the silly chain of events that led to this stellar first impression I just made." She threw a thumb over her shoulder. "But thanks for the assist back there. I'm thankful for it."
"So you're admitting I did save you." He wiggled his brows in a creepy, suggestive way that caused her to laugh.
"Rich boys and their hero complexes," she said as she walked off, not willing to destroy what she considered an already perfect moment.
"Are you seriously going to leave without giving me your number?" he asked. "I say you owe me a dinner for saving your life."
When she looked over her shoulder he was still leaning on his elbows, a cocky smile on his face. She blinked, commiting the magazine-worthy sight to memory so she could paint it later. "Good-bye, Sehun."