The crowd around them had mostly dispersed. The noise had dimmed. Coaches were yelling again, but this time about the next race. People moved on. But Yunho didn't.
He sat there, damp hair falling into his eyes, his towel clinging loosely to his shoulders as if he'd forgotten it was there. His heart was still thudding in a rhythm too fast for someone no longer in the water. Not because of the near-drowning, not even because of the embarrassment.
Because of her.
He glanced over at Bella, who was still sitting beside him on the bench. Her posture was relaxed, but her eyes were distant, like she wasn't sure if she should stay or get up and run.
"You know…" he started, voice deliberately casual, "I owe you."
She looked up, one eyebrow lifting. "I didn't save your life for payment, you know."
"I know," he said quickly. "I just meant, I should thank you properly. Like, off school grounds. Where I'm not dripping wet and surrounded by half the swim team."
Bella narrowed her eyes. "Are you asking me out?"
Yunho blinked. "Not, I mean, yes. Kind of. In a 'thank you for pulling me out of the water before I embarrassed myself to death' way."
Bella stared at him for a beat too long. Yunho rubbed the back of his neck, looking both too proud to take it back and too nervous to meet her gaze.
"Just one meal," he added, softer now. "My treat. You pick where. I'll even let you make fun of me the entire time if it helps."
Bella exhaled. "You're not gonna let this go, are you?"
"Not really."
She bit the inside of her cheek, eyes flicking to the pool, then back to him. The water shimmered under the overhead lights, still and perfect, like it hadn't just been the stage for whatever weird, life and death moment they'd just shared.
"…Okay."
Yunho blinked again. "Wait, really?"
Bella stood slowly, letting the towel fall loose from her shoulders. "Don't make me regret it."
A small, stunned smile spread across his face. "I won't."
Yunho finally released her hand. Bella took the chance to get up and walked off toward the locker rooms, her heart thudding in her ears.
She had no idea what she'd just agreed to.
And Yunho... Yunho was still sitting there on the bench, watching her go like she had just handed him a victory medal he hadn't expected to win.
The female locker room smelled like chlorine and cheap shampoo as Bella tried to wring water from her shirt when Emily burst through the door like she'd been holding back a hurricane.
"Okay, what. was. that."
Bella flinched, caught mid-blot with a paper towel. "What was what?"
Emily stopped in front of her, hands on hips, eyes wild, eyes wide with barely concealed excitement. "Don't play dumb with me. Yunho wraps his towel around you, holds your hand, leads you away from a literal crowd and then sits with you like some protective male lead in a K-drama?! Bella, what is going on?!"
Bella groaned and pulled the towel tighter around her shoulders, sitting down on the bench to stabilise herself. "It wasn't like that."
Emily raised her eyebrows so high they practically disappeared into her hairline. "You saved him. He ignored everyone else and made a beeline for you. That's pretty textbook if you ask me."
Bella opened her mouth, then closed it. She couldn't exactly argue.
Emily leaned in, eyes narrowing. "Wait… did he say anything after?"
Bella hesitated. Her heart thudded a little louder just thinking about it. "He… said he owed me."
Emily blinked. "Okay… and?"
Bella's cheeks flushed. "And he asked me to go out with him. Like… to thank me."
There was a long beat of silence.
And then Emily screamed.
"What?!"
Bella shoved her hand over her mouth. "Emily! It wasn't like that, he made it sound casual, okay? Like, not a date-date."
Emily pulled her hand away and shook her shoulders dramatically. "Bella, please. That boy has been circling you for weeks. Ever since Jason's whole meltdown. You're telling me Yunho Choi asked you out and you said…?"
"…I said okay."
Emily nearly slid off the bench. "Oh my god. I need to sit down. Oh wait, I am sitting down. Bella, this is, this is monumental."
Bella pressed the towel against her face. "I don't even know what to do. I'm not even sure what this is. What if it's nothing? What if he's just being polite?"
Emily lowered her voice suddenly, serious for a split second. "Bella… guys don't do that for politeness. He wrapped his towel around you. Like a scene straight out of a fanfiction."
Bella peeked over the towel. "You read way too many of those."
"I'm right, though. You feel it too, don't you?"
Bella let out a half-laugh, half-groan. "I don't know what I feel. He's… unpredicable. And I've barely figured out how I feel about anything lately."
She wasn't sure what to make of it yet.
Emily didn't answer right away. Instead, she stood up, glancing toward the stalls and the back of the locker room. Then, without saying a word, she started checking each of them behind every door.
Bella blinked. "Emily… what are you doing?"
"Making sure we're alone," she said, her voice low. "Because if anyone hears this conversation, it'll be halfway across school by lunch tomorrow."
She pushed open the last stall, nodded to herself, then turned back. "Okay, we're good."
Bella raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"
"You don't get it," Emily said, walking back toward her. "This isn't just swim team gossip. This is Yunho Choi. You saved him, he wrapped his towel around you, and then he asked you out. Do you have any idea what that story sounds like in someone else's mouth? People are going to lose their minds."
Bella shook her head, half-amused, half-terrified. "You're acting like this is some celebrity scandal."
"It is," Emily said firmly, sitting back down beside her. Bella groaned and covered her face again with the towel. "I don't even know what to call this. What if I imagined the whole thing? What if it's nothing?"
Emily's voice softened, all the dramatics gone in an instant. "Hey. It wasn't nothing. And you didn't imagine it."
Bella said nothing for a long moment.