Vantage || Hwang Hyunjin

~Chapter 1.~

"Aeri! Where are you going?" Her parents yelled, as she walked towards the cliff on the beach.

"Don't worry! I'll be back in a while, you guys go ahead!" She waved at them before continuing to walk.

It was the last weekend before school started again, and Aeri wanted to appreciate the sunset one last time before leaving back to the city.

As she was getting closer to the trail of the cliff, she noticed the tide had gone low, which was odd, since it always was high at those hours. The low tide uncovered a large segment of plain rocks, so Aeri decided to head to the long end of it to sit and admire the sunset, instead of climbing up the cliff.

She walked through the rocks, being careful not to slip, as the rocks were covered with wet slippery seaweed. Aeri finally managed to get to the end of the rock to sit down, just in time to admire the already started sunset.

While enjoying the view, she felt water wetting her  hand, rested on the rock. Aeri took a look at it to see what it was; She had playfully scratched the seaweed a bit too deep, revealing a sort of hole, full of water.

She frowned looking at it, and even leaned closer to inspect it, it had a funny shape. Inside the hole were small sea urchins and little shells attached to the walls, however, what got her full attention was a beautiful shaped double shell on the bottom of the hole.

If there was something Aeri loved to collect, it was sea shells. She loved walking through the beach picking up the ones the sea had pulled out, especially in the mornings.

She hesitated for a few seconds if she should take the shell or not. "I know you still belong to the sea, but you're so pretty, I've never seen a shell like you." She spoke to the shell.

Aeri managed to fit her small hand inside the hole, avoiding contact with the urchins. Luckily, she grabbed with her fingers the tip of one of the shell's peaks, and successfully pulled her hand back up.

The shell was the size of half her palm; it had yellow and purple pearled colors, with small peaks across it. She noticed the edges were loosen, so she tried to open it carefully. After a minute of trying, she finally opened the shell, widening her eyes at what she was holding.

Two small perfect pearls, one on each shell.

"Am I lucky or what?" She chuckled, "Finding one pearl is difficult, but two?!" She couldn't believe she found something so precious. If the tide hadn't been that low, she would've probably just walked straight to the cliff and gone home without a treasure like that shell.

"How did you manage to get here without falling?" She heard a male voice talking. Aeri turned around to see who it was; definitely shocked unpleased as soon as she realized it.

Hwang Hyunjin.

Aeri was always a very friendly girl, it was unlikely she disliked anyone; except for Hyunjin and his group of friends, which she certainly despised. She considered they were superficial, would constantly make fun of others at school, including her own friends, and of course, to Aeri's eyes, they took advantage of their looks to flirt with every single girl at school, legit playboys. She hated their presence, and avoided them every time she could.

Aeri had gotten too distracted with the shell and pearls, as the sun had already gone down and water was starting to go up again, covering her feet. She stood up abruptly and walked past Hyunjin, ignoring his question.

"Hey, hey, what's your pro-" Hyunjin was about to say, when Aeri slipped because of her wet sandals and the slippery seaweed. He rushed one step to catch her; with one hand he held her waist, and the other one her arm. Their bodies and faces were way too close but Aeri couldn't feel anything more than hate towards him.

"Get your hands off of me, Hwang Hyunjin. I'm not as stupid as other girls. " She grinned, shaking off his grip and turning around to keep walking.

"I- you're damn welcome! You could have fallen into the water or hurt yourself!" He raised his voice, "and do I know you?" He asked annoyed.

Aeri stopped, turning around and rolling her eyes at the sudden question.

"of course you don't know who I am." She scoffed, "Why would you?"

"I don't know, but you sure know me. Who are you? He took a step forward.

"Stay the hell away from me." Aeri turned around again and continued to follow carefully the trail back to the beach. She felt angry; why him, out of all people, had to appear there, ruining her last sunset on the beach?.

After 10 minutes walking faster than ever, Aeri finally got back to the hotel, straight to her room. She wanted to show her parents the beautiful shell she found back there.

Hyunjin's POV:

What the hell is her problem? I don't even know who she is. I turned around to admire the cloudspace the sun had left. It was the last weekend before school, I just wanted to enjoy the view.

The tide was raising quickly, and had started to cover where the girl was sitting, so I tried to make my way back to the shore. Seriously, how did she manage to come all the way here without any help?

Unluckily, I slipped with the damn seaweed, but quickly threw my weight to the side, supporting the fall with my hand; even more unluckily, my hand landed on a little hard rock, making me move it away quickly out of pain, so eventually I fell on my butt.

I raised my hand to see if it had cut me, looking down at where I put my palm. I quickly grabbed the rock to examinate it carefully, except that it wasn't a rock.

It was a pearl.

A real sea pearl. How lucky am I? I would have never been able to get to this section of the beach if it weren't for the low tide; the rocks would've been covered by water, like it was all week long. Did the sea brought out this pearl just for me to find it? what are the odds?

I guess everything happens for a reason.