His third mistake was sucking in a quick, shocked breath when he hit the water.

It was cold - even here at the southernmost tip of the peninsula it was cold, the chill of winter still holding on with ragged fingers, and when he hit the water he knew he should hold his breath but the freeze was so sudden and unexpected that he couldn't help but gasp, liquid filling up his lungs. It was cold, cold, cold, but in his lungs it felt like fire, like he'd breathed in red-hot smoke.

It burned and choked him and when he looked up the salt stung his eyes. When he looked up he found himself sinking. When he looked up he saw the twisting, mottled surface of the sea breaking and crashing as bodies dove in after him.

The weight in his lungs cooled from fire to stone, weighing him down. Putting him to sleep. He'd tried to hold his breath after that first gasp but he was too heavy now and he closed his eyes. Opened his mouth. Gave in to the cold sting of the water in his lungs.

A hand gripping the back of his collar. His shirt pulling tight around his throat. The water churning around him as arms curled around him pulled him up dragged him back toward the uneven, swirling light at the surface of the water—

When his head broke the surface the air stung almost as bad as the water had before and he was stupid with it, coughing up salt water with his eyes closed as someone pulled him along. His ears were ringing (a sound similar to the gloing gloing gloing that he'd heard as a kid, sticking his head under the water in the bathtub) and his lungs were stinging and the arms around his chest were so tight that they hurt and the salt water in his eyes burned...

Somewhere someone was yelling. More than one someone, a lot of someones - he heard his name, he heard someone else's name, he heard Hoseok's voice saying I got 'im, I got 'im, help me haul him up and then he was lying on his back on the warm wood paneling of a pier with the world spinning around him and his lungs full of water and the wind plucking at the drops of water still clinging to his skin.

He's not breathing, someone said, Jin-hyung knows CPR, if—

I've got it, came a third voice, panicked and tight and desperate. He tried to breathe but his throat resisted, he tried to roll over but his muscles refused to comply, he tried to wake up but the darkness behind his eyes rose up - and he choked as someone's knees hit the wood next to him. As firm hands came down on his chest, pumping his lungs to make them work. As his head was tipped back, hand on his chin, lips on his, someone else's hot breath in his mouth—

He coughed, finally (finally), and the water came up as he rolled onto his side, heaving seawater all over the pier.

Hands on his back, hands on his waist, tugging him up so that he was curled up and shaking against the chest of someone who was warmer than he was but just as soaking wet. "God," said a voice over his head. "God, you scared me so bad."

"Sorry," he choked out, and gave in to the darkness rising up to swallow him whole.

NAMJOON
Monday morning, the first full day of Spring Break

When Namjoon woke up it was to the following accompaniment: an ecstatic banging on the bedroom door; Taehyung shouting something about coffee; the sun, shining through the goddamn window like it owned the place; Jin's neck, pressed up against his face (his cheek, his nose, his mouth) and his skin was warm and soft and fuck. Fuck. God damn it. Fuck. He was spooning. He was spooning with Kim motherfucking Seokjin and the only possible way this could be any worse would be if - well, fuck. Thank you, morning wood, for making literally everything terrible.

It took him a second to remember where he was. The bed was bigger than he was used to, the sun at the wrong angle through the window, the walls bright white and shining and the duvet thick and warm over them, trapping Jin's delirium heat close against his skin. It took him a second, blinking awake with the skin of Jin's neck pressed up against his face, to remember the day before - the eight goddamn hours in that goddamn van, the way Tae had gotten left behind at the damn rest stop and won all those stupid crane game prizes, the way...

... the way Jin had leaned into him in the warm dim light of the beach house guest room. Leaned his forehead on Namjoon's shoulder, curling his arms around Namjoon's waist, mumbled I miss you, don't leave into his skin and pulled him down onto the bed and trapped him there under the inescapable weight of guilt and warmth and home.

Namjoon shoved himself upright on one arm, head buzzing, ears ringing, eyes still blurred and bleary with sleep. His vision was tracking and he felt almost drunk he was so unbalanced and fucked up, and - and Jin sighed and rolled over onto his stomach and mumbled something almost unintelligible about webfoot octopus and pork into the mattress.

He was wearing the t-shirt he'd had on under his Yoshi sweater the night before, the same drab green with the Beta Tau Sigma sigil and coat of arms screenprinted on the back in faded white paint; he was wearing the jeans he'd had on during the drive, grayed denim skinny jeans that had stretched out a little over his hips; he was still wearing his socks, incongruent light blue with heel and toe and thin stripes in pink. He was wearing everything he'd been wearing when he overbalanced onto the mattress, dragging Namjoon down with him, and he was talking about food in his sleep and he had pillow lines on his face and the panic was rising quick and hot in the back of Namjoon's throat but still he couldn't quite get unstuck from the fact that Kim Seokjin was here, asleep, next to him in the bed.

"Fuck," Namjoon mumbled, rubbing at his eyes with the heels of his palms. "Fuck. Fuck. Jin - wake up, we're totally screwed, it's morning and the kids are awake."

As if to punctuate this, someone banged on the door again (it rattled dangerously on its hinges) and Jimin shouted something muffled about mothers needing to eat breakfast with their children.

"I'm not their mother," Jin moaned into the mattress. "Tell them to leave us alone."

"There is no us," Namjoon insisted, prodding at Jin's ribs gingerly. "There is especially no us when what sounds like the entire maknae line is on the other side of the door plotting a siege. Or maybe just turning Jeongguk into a makeshift battering ram."

The only response he got out of Jin was him sighing sleepily and settling gently into the mattress.

The door rattled on its hinges again. "Jin," Namjoon whined plaintively, "we are in the same bed and we will never ever ever live this down if you don't get the fuck up and, like, I don't know... maybe if we pretend we've been up for a while or something—"

Jin groaned and shoved himself upward on both arms as if doing the absolute laziest pushup in the world. His hair was sticking up and his eyes were all puffy from being asleep and he just took one long, deep breath. "Okay," he said finally, swinging his legs over the side of the mattress and setting his feet on the floor. "Okay. Okay. I'm up. What time is it?"

"I don't fucking know," Namjoon gritted out through his teeth, running a hand over his face miserably as he shoved himself off the mattress. Ah, jesus christ, he was so fucking stiff from the drive down from Seoul. He could only imagine how tense Jin was, driving the entire way by himself the way he had. "We gotta—"

"So we fell asleep," Jin sighed, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his palms. "It's not a big deal. Yesterday was a really long day." He glanced over his shoulder. "Is the door even locked?"

"Jesus, I dunno."

On cue, the door swung open and Taehyung came swinging with it, his grin showing every single one of his shining white teeth. "Parents!" he trilled delightedly. "You're awake! How did you sleep?"

"All right," Jin said, at the exact same time as Namjoon stuttered, "I slept on the floor."

Jimin stuck his head around the door jamb and fixed Namjoon with a skeptical look, his hair a veritable bird's nest. "You coulda just slept in the bed, hyung," he chided, Busan satoori lilting easily. (It was like being away from Seoul made him more himself.) "I'm sure Jin-hyung doesn't bite."

"Only if you ask nicely," Jin said, rubbing both hands over his face. "Were you saying something about breakfast?"

"Hoseok-hyung is making waa-aaffles," Taehyung sang, throwing his hands up in the air and grinding up against Jimin's hip in a series of excited body rolls. "It's the first day of spring break an' we're gonna eat waffles an' play video games an' go to the beach—"

"Since when does Hoseok cook?" Jin stretched hugely, back popping in four places. "Lord. Let me get into something more comfortable and I'll be out in a minute to make sure Hoseok-ah doesn't poison all of us." He glanced over at Namjoon. "The least you could've done was take my pants off."

"Um," Namjoon said.

"That's our cue," Jimin said quickly, looping an arm through Taehyung's elbow and tugging him out of the room, pulling the door closed after them. "See you in a minute! Have a good time getting naked! Don't take too long!"

"We're not getting naked," Namjoon yelled after them, over the sound of the door slamming and two pairs of excited feet running down the hallway toward the kitchen at the other end of the house. "Jesus fucking christ."

As if to punctuate how very, very wrong he was, there was the sound of a zipper pulling down behind him. Then Jin's voice: "do you know where they put our luggage? I want to put on some pajama bottoms. Sleeping in skinny jeans is not my idea of a good time."

"I'll go look," Namjoon stuttered out, lurching toward the door without turning around.

Shit. Shit. Jesus shit. This whole thing was just... it was obnoxious, was what it was. He shut the door carefully behind him and wandered down the hallway, unfamiliar now in the light of day. He'd always assumed it was just some dumb ongoing joke that everybody in the house had, the Jin And Namjoon Are Married joke - it made a kind of sense, he'd always supposed, since they were the president and vice-president and they were sorta the parents and their friendship technically predated the frat - but the Events In February had changed all of that and now every joke and side-eye and elbow nudge traded between Jimin and Taehyung cut at him like the edge of a piece of paper, flaying him slowly and gently down to nothing.

It didn't help, he was pretty sure, that Jin was just so fuckin' cute. Like really cute, super cute, two years older than him but strangely adorable - like a puppy sometimes, like a kid, (almost) like a girl - and he couldn't help but be charmed out of his fuckin' mind sometimes by all the tiny little things Jin did. The way the cuffs of his sweater hung over his hands. The way he sang along to music in the car, slightly off-key and a little nasal. The way his eyes curved when he smiled, the way he leaned his weight against Namjoon's shoulder when he was sleepy, the way he made very slightly off-color jokes without really appearing to notice.

Namjoon had never noticed how goddamn cute Jin was before February, he was pretty sure. He'd just been Jin, his... his partner? His vice-president? (His spouse, whispered Taehyung's influence on his thought processes in the back of his head, just like it had back in February.) Just... Jin. Just Jin. His friend. His Jin. That was it. That was all.

He skidded a little on the hardwood as he popped out of the hallway into the wide front room. It was a living room, minimalistic and pristine - a few huge white couches and an ornately carved teak coffee table and a massive flat screen tv presiding over the entire space like a shrine to the ever-present gods of media and technology - but Taehyung and Jeongguk had apparently already completely taken it over, turning it into a wretched hive of scum and villainy already. There was a bowl of popcorn on the coffee table, Mario Kart on the tv, Jeongguk's legs hanging over the back of one of the couches as he was apparently absorbed in the act of controlling Luigi's go-kart while hanging upside down.

"Hey," Namjoon called out, throat a little hoarse. "Hey, where's all the luggage?"

"In the rooms," Taehyung yelled back, mouth apparently full of popcorn. He didn't turn around to look.

"No I mean mine. And Jin's."

"Oh shit, yeah—" Taehyung paused the game and shoved himself to his feet, prompting a squawk of protest from Jeongguk. "You two were totally zonked out by the time we got everything out of the van so we just stuck your shit in the dining room so it'd be outta the way. Gimme a second—" He vaulted easily over the back of the couch, slipping a little on the wood floor when he landed (cutesy lion socks losing traction on the polished bamboo), and skated back past Namjoon through the arched doorway into the next room.

It took a few minutes to gather everything up and drag it down the hall (Jin had almost infinitely less luggage than Namjoon did, a fact about which Namjoon wasn't sure how he felt) but he managed it, and when he got the door open and the bags into the room Jin was propped up against the headboard on the right side of the bed - shirtless, jeans off, socks off, wearing only a pair of black boxer briefs as he scrolled distractedly through something on his phone and chewed thoughtfully on his lower lip.

Namjoon lost his grip on the bag in his right hand, and it thumped heavily to the floor. "Um. Hey. I - I got the luggage."

Jin glanced up and smiled, setting the phone down on the nightstand. "Thanks," he said - and stood up, padding over the carpet toward Namjoon.

Namjoon took a deep breath. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah. No problem."

JIN

"So by 'making waffles,'" Jin said, pulling the egg carton out of Hoseok's unresisting hands, "Tae meant that you were puttering around the kitchen uselessly in the vain hope that I'd get up and make breakfast for everyone?"

Hoseok shrugged languidly, a pleased grin stretching over his face as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his flannel pajama bottoms. "Somethin' like that. We got all the ingredients for waffles, and my aunt's got this fancy belgian waffle maker, and I packed the cooler and she always keeps coffee and tea stocked up so until we can get to a grocery store we're pretty set."

"I do not," Jin said shortly, dumping the eggs carefully on the counter and proceeding to open every single drawer and cabinet trying to figure out where everything else, "intend to get back into that van again for a full thirty-six hours." He finally found a drawer full of tea towels and dug through it for a few seconds until he found an apron. Slipped it over his head, tied it around his waist. "Did everybody sleep okay last night?"

Hoseok pulled the carafe out of the coffee maker and padded over to the sink to fill it up. "I think so. Yoongi-hyung and Jiminnie I stuck at the other end of the damn house so we wouldn't have to hear 'em doing whatever the fuck it is they do, I'm in a two queen room with Tae and Kookie, and then you and Namjoon-hyung got the master bedroom next to us cause I know you're already used to his snoring." He sloshed a little water on the countertop as he stuck the glass carafe back into the coffee maker and hit the switch. "Tae an' Kookie stayed up played video games for a while but I think everybody else crashed right after the van unloaded."

Jin pulled a huge stoneware bowl out of an upper cabinet, setting it down on the granite next to the electric stove top. "Joonie doesn't like it when you call him hyung," he said, flipping the egg carton open and pulling out three in one hand, fingers twisting to pick them up. "Did you tell him we're all sharing beds? Not just him and me?"

"Nah. Didn't think about it. Not really important." Hoseok paused in front of the fridge, glancing up curiously. "Why?"

"Nn." Jin shook his head. "It's not really. Important, I mean." He bit his lip, cracking all three eggs into the bowl and reaching for a whisk. "He's just—"

"So by 'Hoseok's making waffles,'" came Namjoon's voice from the dining room, "Tae meant that you were just hangin' out in the goddamn kitchen waiting for Jin to get up and make breakfast for everybody?"

Jin rolled his eyes meaningfully at Hoseok as he pulled the bin of flour towards him over the counter. "He's helping," he chided. "Hoseok-ah, could you get me the milk? And plug in the waffle iron?"

"He wasn't helping until I came in," Namjoon said, leaning against the counter next to Jin - crossing his arms over his chest and glancing down into the bowl of whisked eggs on the countertop. "Is that gonna be waffles?"

"Not if you don't shove over so I can plug this in," Hoseok cut in, waffle iron in one hand and the plug in the other.

"He was making coffee," Jin said, dumping two cups of flour into the mixing bowl and tugging a big wooden spoon out of a drawer next to his hip, folding the egg and flour together like he'd done it a million times. (Because he had - a million times at least.) "Don't be too hard on him. Hoseok, could you go grab Tae and Kookie and have them start setting the table?"

Hoseok grunted in confirmation as he shoved the plug into the outlet, taking half a second to check that the iron was on and working. "Yeah. I'll get 'em. Might be a bit, I think they're on Rainbow Road right now."

Jin rolled his eyes. "Saints preserve us. Well... tell them that if they don't hurry up they won't get any waffles."

"Noted," Hoseok called over his shoulder, shuffling out of the kitchen.

There was quiet for a minute, broken only by the sound of the egg and flour becoming batter under Jin's hand. Broken only by him digging around for sugar, baking soda, vanilla. Broken only by the click of the waffle iron coming up to temperature, until Namjoon spoke.

"What do you want to do today?"

He didn't jump. He didn't. He hadn't really forgotten Namjoon was there, but he'd gotten wrapped up in what he was doing and so... okay, all right, he'd sort of forgotten Namjoon was there, leaning against the counter on the opposite side of the kitchen just out of his range of vision. "I don't know," Jin said carefully, sticking a fingertip in the batter before popping it into his mouth thoughtfully to check the taste. "After yesterday I'm kind of exhausted, honestly. I think I just want to lie around. You know?" He glanced at Namjoon over his shoulder, licking a splatter of waffle mixture off his wrist. "What about you?"

Namjoon looked like he'd been struck off-balance for a second, eyes wide and fixed on Jin's wrist, at the place where he'd licked himself clean. "I..." Then he seemed to wake up again, shaking himself a little. "Yeah, I... I was kinda thinking the same thing actually." He scratched his head, that awkward movement that only showed up when he wasn't really sure what he was doing. "School was just totally crazy this last term and - and I've been missing, um, just like... hanging around. With you. I guess."

Jin froze - just for half a second, almost but not quite long enough to overfill the waffle iron - before setting the bowl down on the counter again and closing the iron very, very carefully. "Yeah," he said, trying not to give away too much. (Had he said something last night? Had he been stupid? Had he said the wrong thing? Had he said too much? God, he couldn't remember - he could barely remember shifting the van into park in the driveway.) "Yeah. I think Hoseok said they were going to go down to the beach, but... but yeah. That would be nice, I think. Spend a day just hanging around." He glanced up - and smiled, hoping against hope that he wasn't being stupid. "With you."

"Awesome," Namjoon stuttered, jerking his head once in quick confirmation.

There was a raucous cacophony of screams from the general direction of the living room and they traded knowing glances. "Rainbow Road," Jin sighed. "Better get out of the way, they'll be in here in a minute to set the table."

"Yeah," Namjoon said, pushing off the counter and heading out of the kitchen toward the dining room. "Thanks, babe."

Jin looked up, but Namjoon was already gone.

He was probably hearing things.

NAMJOON
Tuesday morning

Namjoon opened his eyes and couldn't figure out where he was.

There was an odd sort of humming noise in his ears, just under the volume where he could recognize it. It sounded like air blowing through a vent, maybe, or a distant hairdryer, or maybe someone showering somewhere not too far but not too close. The sun was arcing in low through the window but it was a strange golden light, diffused and oddly charged with electricity, illuminating every speck of dust floating in the air.

The air was warm on his skin, the pillow was too soft, the mattress seemed to almost be sucking him under like quicksand - but he heard a sigh behind him and he couldn't stop himself from rolling over, propping himself up on one elbow.

Oh, hell. Right. They were on vacation, on spring break, they'd driven down to Yeosu to stay in Hoseok's aunt's beach house for a week and he and Jin had been stuck in the same room and here they were. In an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar light and unfamiliar morning sounds and the bed (the bed) vast and warm with white sheets and a white duvet and white pillows that were just a little bit too soft... and Jin, sighing gently in his sleep as he turned his face up to incline in toward Namjoon in the golden early morning light.

The light was strange and golden and oddly charged with electricity and Namjoon felt warm, he felt hot, he felt deeply uncomfortable and deeply at home at the exact same time. He wanted to get up and shake this off, he wanted to get out of this room (with its strange light and its strange noise and the heady warmth of Jin's volcanic metabolism), he wanted he wanted he wanted—

Jin opened his eyes and their gazes locked.

"G'morning," Namjoon stuttered, and found himself frozen in place. Any other morning and maybe he would have tried to save it. Any other morning he would have glanced away and tried to act like he hadn't been watching Jin sleep like some kind of weird creepy asshole. But this morning, here, now, with the strange golden light (diffused and oddly charged with electricity) and the humming noise in his ears and Jin's warmth filling him up slow with amber... he couldn't save it. He couldn't act like he hadn't been watching Jin sleep. "Did you want to get up?"

There was a moment where Namjoon wasn't sure if Jin was awake. Where Jin just looked at him, eyelids heavy, lips slightly parted, skin flushed pink with heat and sleep. There was a moment where Namjoon started to wonder if he hadn't had to try saving it after all, started to wonder if maybe he should just get up quietly and let Jin sleep a little more, started to wonder if maybe it was better this way.

There was a moment, but it was over almost before it began when Jin reached up. Slid one hand over Namjoon's shoulder, over the back of his neck, crooked fingers hooking to scrape his nails gently over the back of his scalp - and pulled, arching up a little off the bed with the force of it. Chin tipping up. Eyes fluttered mostly closed.

"Jin," Namjoon breathed, but couldn't find the strength to resist, letting Jin drag him down. "Jin, you're half asleep—"

Jin opened his mouth, but didn't speak. Just pulled Namjoon down inescapably, inexorably, until their faces were less than a centimeter apart - and stopped there. His eyes blinked open, and Namjoon could hear Jin's voice in the back of his head, the way Jin had been so exhausted that first night after they'd arrived, the way Jin had tipped into him and slipped careful hands around his waist and pulled him down onto the mattress.

I miss you, Jin had said, voice thick with sleep. Don't leave.

Namjoon was always sure. About everything. He thought everything through, he made sure to figure out everything, he made his decision before he moved. He was always sure, even all those times when he looked back and flinched and wished he'd thought instead about all the little tiny things that had ended up going wrong.

Here, now, with Jin under him - he wasn't sure. He was unsteady. He was scared and uncertain and all he knew was that as much as Jin missed him Namjoon maybe missed him more, even here, even with Jin literally a breath away. All he knew was that he missed the hell out of Jin, he missed him so bad, they could be right next to each other with elbows bumping, talking to each other about whatever, and still Namjoon missed Jin. He didn't even know what it was he missed besides everything, and so he made a really, really stupid decision - and closed the distance.

Jin's lips were just as soft and smooth and perfect against his own as they looked like they would be. They were soft and smooth and perfect and Jin opened his mouth, sighing a little as Namjoon curved down into him, curious and desperate and afraid as the kiss turned from innocent and chaste to something hotter and wetter and deeper. Jin opened his mouth, Jin pulled on Namjoon's neck, Jin moved underneath him to slip one leg between Namjoon's knees and Namjoon found himself over him - rocking his hips against the swell of Jin's thigh, hand slipping under the hem of his t-shirt, the heat and wet of Jin's mouth driving him just a little bit out of his mind.

God - he missed Jin so bad, he didn't know if this was what he was missing but he just missed Jin so bad and Jin smelled like sleep and clean laundry and the golden light filled him up with electricity and so when Jin arched and gasped under him, slipped a hand down to palm Namjoon's dick through the thin cotton fabric of his boxers, arched up against him and made a noise in the back of his throat that didn't quite sound human—

Namjoon opened his eyes - just long enough to realize that it was late morning and there was no strange golden light, there was no odd humming noise, there was no Jin in the bed next to him and this whole time he'd been dreaming - only to close them tight again as the inescapable release shuddered through him.

Jesus fucking christ this was so goddamn embarrassing, he hadn't had a wet dream in years (what was he, fourteen goddamn years old?) and not only had that been the tamest almost-sex he'd ever had in a dream it was also, extremely notably, with a) a dude and b) a dude he knew. Namjoon lay on his side trying like hell to catch his breath, aftershocks pulsing through him and gradually subsiding as he tipped further up out of sleep and into consciousness. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck! What the hell was that, seriously?

Behind him the door into the master bathroom clicked open and as the sound of the vent whispered out into the room, the steam billowed against the ceiling, he realized that the humming sound he'd been hearing in his sleep was the sound of the fan, the sound of the water while Jin was showering. At least Jin hadn't been next to him while Namjoon had been dreaming about kissing him. (Small mercies.)

"Hey," Namjoon croaked, starting to roll over and then immediately thinking better of it as his legs slipped against each other wetly in his pajama bottoms. (If there was any justice in the world none of it had escaped the flannel and he had half a chance at concealing the mortifying truth of it.) "Hey, you up already?"

"It's almost nine," came Jin's voice, still low with the gravel of sleep. Namjoon closed his eyes tight at the sound of Jin opening his luggage. The shuffling of Jin tugging fresh clothes out of his bag. The creak of the mattress as Jin sat down on the edge of the bed to tug his socks on. "Tae wouldn't stop talking about going out to the pier yesterday, and I'm pretty much recovered from the drive down. I was thinking we could drive over, make a day of it. Go tide-pooling or something. Eat a bunch of seafood."

"Catch crabs," Namjoon mumbled into the pillow.

Jin laughed, and god - his laugh sounded warm and delighted and amazing. Namjoon felt like he could fall back asleep just listening to it. "Yeah. Yeah, we can try catching crabs. Run around on the beach a little, I don't know. I'd like to get some pictures, you know? Of all of us together. Before everybody graduates and we all scatter to the four winds."

"Yoongi's the only one graduating," Namjoon said, taking a chance and rolling over carefully, keeping his knees together. "And now that he and Jimin are together we'll be seeing him all the time. Hoseok's going into the music therapy doctorate program and he'll still be eligible to live at the house."

Jin was sitting on the edge of the bed - jeans on, undershirt on, over-sized sweatshirt on his hands - and he glanced down. "Yeah," he said after a second. "Yeah. Yoongi." He pulled the sweatshirt over his head, head popping out of the collar, and turned around to flash Namjoon a grin. "Go get showered. Let's go catch some crabs."

"Crabs," Namjoon echoed weakly, feeling his own come dribble slightly down his leg. A memory of the Jin in the dream, arching up into him, crashed through him like a bolt of electricity. "Awesome."

JIN

"No," Jin said, waving a hand at Hoseok to get him to step back, "just tuck in with everybody so I can get the stupid picture, all right?"

"You need to be in it too, hyung," Jimin whined, stepping forward. "It can't just be—"

"It's an instax! There's no timer! And anyway I've seen you updating instagram all day, I'm in tons of photos." Jin brought the viewfinder to his eye. "They're probably all very unflattering and I'm already annoyed with you. One, two, three—"

At the moment the flash went off Taehyung kicked Jimin over into Yoongi and Jeongguk overbalanced backward and Namjoon tried like hell to catch everyone at the same time and only succeeded in dragging everyone down simultaneously, six bodies hitting the wood paneling of the pier in a series of sickening thumps. There was a moment of shocked silence, broken momentarily by the pleased little buzz of Jin's instax spitting the photo out proudly - like a dog presenting its owner with the carcass of a dead possum.

He pulled it out and waited for a second. "Well," he said finally, trying to keep the smile off his face and finding it an extremely difficult prospect, "it's certainly very representative..."

"We all look," Namjoon announced miserably to the sky from where he lay in the pile of awkward limbs on the pier, "like a bunch of goddamn nerds."

"Terrified blurs, mostly." Jin picked his way through the groaning tangle and dropped into a squat next to Namjoon, presenting the photo with arched eyebrows. "I especially like how it looks like you have five arms, Joonie. This one's going in the fraternity scrapbook."

Namjoon shoved himself up onto his hands, glaring blurrily at the photo. "We don't even have a scrapbook, Jin."

"I'm making one. Just for this photo. It'll have a place of honor." Jin tucked it lovingly into his wallet. "There. Safe."

Namjoon glowered at him. "I ever tell you that you're kind of terrible sometimes?"

Jin beamed at him. "Only every other day." He held a hand out, standing up. "Come on. I want ice cream."

"Ice cream!" Taehyung yelled, voice muffled where his face was shoved awkwardly into Hoseok's armpit. "Yes! That's a great idea!"

It took a few minutes to get everyone untangled and upright and dusted off and (in Yoongi's case) properly mollified; a further ten minutes to find the closest place to acquire ice cream; five minutes to figure out what on earth everyone wanted... so in the end it was at least half an hour total before the seven of them were sitting on the edge of the pier, feet dangling off the side, eating their ice cream and watching the sun on the water.

They'd spent most of the day out here - having races on the beach, trying (and failing) to catch crabs, Tae had built a sandcastle and then promptly declared war on all other sandcastles which then prompted a heated sandcastle competition resulting only in the high tide destroying everyone's hard work before a winner could be decided once and for all. It was late afternoon now, and Jin was... he was happy. He was happy most of the time, really - living in the frat, being with the kids, running with this strange pack of nerds... it was good. He liked it, and he had a good time, and he was happy.

But right now. Right now he was just happy. He could forget about all the things behind him, all the things in front of him. He could sit on the pier with his legs dangling over the side, sucking on the ice pop and letting the conversation roll over him. Namjoon was on his left and Jeongguk was on his right. Namjoon had leaned over to holler something at Hoseok and his chest was pressed tight against Jin's arm, Jeongguk was laughing so hard he could barely breathe, Taehyung was singing something, some trot song about butterflies, and this... this was, maybe, the most beautiful moment in his life.

"Hey!"

It was Jimin's voice, floating down over them. Jin glanced up - Jimin had climbed up on a small platform about five meters up off the pier and was standing at the edge, staring out over the horizon with his hand shading his eyes from the sun.

"Jimin!" Namjoon groaned and popped his melona bar out of his mouth. "Get the hell down from there before you hurt yourself, Jimin, seriously—"

"I think I can see Jeju from here!"

"You're looking in the wrong direction, idiot," Yoongi hollered up after him, a stupid grin on his face. "Get down!"

Jin sighed and shoved his empty ice pop wrapper into Namjoon's hands, shoving himself up onto his feet. "I'll get him."

"No, I'm pretty sure!" Jimin was at the edge of the platform, leaning forward dangerously. "I mean... there's something out there, anyway..."

"This whole area's an archipelago," Namjoon yelled up. "And stop jumping around so much, Jin's coming up to get you and if either of you fall off an' die I'll kill you myself!"

Jin hauled himself up onto the platform, grunting with exertion. "Jimin," he gasped up, hauling himself to his feet. "Come on, I don't think you can see Jeju from here."

"Seriously, hyung!" Jimin tipped out over the edge, eyes narrowing. "I think you can—" He almost lost his balance, tipping forward and then back nauseatingly, and Jin lurched forward to grab him back, heart in his throat.

His first mistake was climbing up on the platform in the first place.

His second mistake was stepping into the pool of seawater at the edge, losing his traction as he yanked Jimin back to safety.

His third mistake was sucking in a quick, shocked breath when he hit the water.

NAMJOON

Namjoon was standing up the second he saw Jin tip over the edge. He was jerking out of his sweatshirt and running closer to the platform when Jin hit the water. He was stepping up on the railing when Hoseok grabbed his elbow and pulled him back. "It's okay," Hoseok gasped. "The water's deep here, he'll be fine, he can just—"

"Jin can't swim," Namjoon choked out, jerking his elbow out of Hoseok's grip and diving into the sea.

Under the water it was dark but the white of Jin's t-shirt flashed in the deep and even though the saltwater stung his eyes and the quick breath he'd taken before leaping in headfirst burned in his lungs Namjoon raced downward as fast as he could, reaching out—

His hand found purchase on the back of Jin's collar and yanked hard, letting the air in his lungs drag both of them up to the surface. They popped up again on the surface of the water and Jin let out a choked gasp of seawater and then nothing, jesus, nothing nothing nothing - Namjoon dragged him through the water to the pier and Hoseok and Taehyung hauled Jin up onto the pier and Yoongi hovered over him and Namjoon pulled himself up and heard Jeongguk saying he's not breathing—

"I've got it," Namjoon gasped out, soaked and shaking in the wind off the sea. He dropped to his knees next to Jin, and... and it was almost like that goddamn dream he'd had that morning. That goddamn dream with Jin laid out still in front of him, chin tipped up, lips parted. But now his skin was deathly pale and soaked with saltwater, his hair was clinging together, his chest wasn't moving and god god god god god Jin don't fucking die, don't fucking die, this was Namjoon's worst fucking nightmare this was, this was every moment of panic he'd every felt in his life rolled up and magnified and as he leaned over to pump desperately on Jin's chest, to pull his head up, to tug his mouth open, to force air into his lungs...

Namjoon didn't believe in God. He was an atheist. He'd always been an atheist. But right there on the pier with Jin cold and motionless in front of him he made a deal - I'll give up everything, anything, just to make sure Jin makes it out of this alive.

Jin coughed, finally, and rolled over - heaving seawater all over the pier.

Namjoon waited for just a second, let him get it out, before grabbing him and pulling him and tugging him close against his chest. Jin shook and curled against him blindly, hands twisting in the soaked-through fabric of Namjoon's t-shirt. "God," Namjoon gasped out. "God, you scared me so bad."

"Sorry," Jin choked, and slipped gently into unconsciousness.