Unseen, Untouchable, Unmade

[LIA'S POV]

Some things stop being beautiful the moment you try to keep them.

You convince yourself it's just for fun. A private joke, harmless entertainment. You tell yourself that breaking a moment down into pixels is a victimless crime as long as you're only watching. But the second you pull a living, breathing thing through a lens just to consume it at your own convenience, you aren't preserving a memory. You're taking a hostage.

Lia always told herself she was just preserving the chaos.

Minjun found her at the kitchen counter with her phone in a death grip and pressed a hand to the small of her back. He steered her toward the stairs while voices still bounced off the first-floor tile behind them.

They took the stairs in the dark. Minjun unzipped the big suitcase, hunting for the emergency Saeukkang, but his hand caught the heavy duffel instead. He dragged it over the zipper until something thudded against the floorboards and spread plastic and silicone everywhere.

Lia turned to find their toy bag emptied across the bedroom floor. The pink vibrator rolled under the dresser to buzz against the baseboard, while a bottle of lube landed sideways and spun to a stop. The silk blindfold they'd never used floated down right in the middle of the rug.

"Those are definitely crackers, jagiya," Lia said dryly.

Minjun dropped to his knees to pick everything up, killing the vibrator with a thumb press before tossing it back in the duffel. "Crackers are in the side pocket."

He dug the foil bag out of the outer pouch, gave up on the clean-up, and climbed onto the bed to rip it open.

She sat on the edge of the bed and ate three without tasting the salt. Her phone charged on the nightstand, holding the folder. Jeju D1 pool AM M/RJ+Y. 43.7GB. 6 clips. 142 minutes.

Minjun followed her gaze, already knowing what was on the device. "Are we dealing with that tonight?"

"Not right now." She didn't have it in her.

She got up and walked to the window, letting the quiet house settle around them as the pool filter hummed through the floor and a door clicked shut down the hall.

Lia pressed her forehead against the glass and looked down at the teal-lit water, where two silhouettes stood by the deep edge.

"Yeji and Minho are at the pool," she said.

The mattress creaked as Minjun lay back against the pillows with the cracker bag on his stomach. "Are they fighting too?"

"No. Just standing there." Minho faced the water with Yeji right behind him, her forehead pressed between his shoulder blades.

"What actually happened down there?" Minjun asked. "I only caught the screaming at the end."

"She picked a boy over a member." Lia watched Yeji's shoulders shake once, then twice. She was too far up to confirm tears, but the rhythm was wrong for breathing. "Yeji told her to back off. Ryujin went harder."

"Does she do that? Choose outside the group?"

"Never. They bicker like they breathe, but they don't fight. I've known her seven years. Never seen Yeji do what I just saw her do."

Minjun crunched a cracker. "You've seen her, like - with guys before, right?"

"Plenty." Lia kept her eyes on the glass.

Minjun waited, chewing in the dark, until she pointed with her chin. Below, Yeji stepped around Minho, her hand trailing along his ribs until she faced him. "She doesn't do this. She doesn't do the tender song and dance. The hold-me-together-or-I'll-fall-apart energy. That's never been her move."

"So what's -"

"Aggressive," Lia cut in flatly. "Intense. She fucks like she's training for ISAC." Knowing Yeji's psychotic scheduling, she probably justified it as cardio for the relay. Lia frowned. "This is - think she was crying just now. Into his back."

Minjun stopped chewing. "Yeji?"

"Yeah."

"Don't think I've ever actually seen her cry."

"Oh, she cries on stage when we win," Lia said, her voice dropping lower. "But never off-camera. When the label screams at us or the internet turns, she just goes completely numb and fixes it. She'll sing harder, dance harder, but never break. Haven't seen her break down since we were trainees."

Below them, Yeji tipped her head up and put her hands on his face.

"Are they about to kiss because they're in love," Minjun asked from the bed, "or because they're -"

Yeji grabbed his jaw and kissed him hard, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her whole body against him. They stayed like that.

Lia dropped her head against the glass. "Does it matter?"

Then Yeji broke the kiss, kept her forehead against his, and stepped backward off the edge to pull him in with her.

The splash shook the floor and sent foam everywhere before they came up gasping and laughing in the deep end.

The bedroom stayed quiet behind her except for the steady crunch of Saeukkang. Down in the teal water, Yeji splashed him, and he caught her wrist. They treaded water and talked, their voices too low to carry, but Yeji's laugh kept drifting up, bright and unguarded. She didn't look like the girl who used sex as competitive cardio. She looked like a normal twenty-four-year-old in a pool with a boy she'd kept hidden from the group's sexual Olympics for years.

"Are they swimming or making out?" Minjun finally asked around a mouthful of crackers.

"They were just talking," Lia said.

Down below, the splashing stopped. Yeji drifted closer, sliding her hands around his neck, and wrapped her legs around his hips while he got both hands under her thighs to hold them up.

"Wait. He's holding them both up," Lia said. "Treading water while she's wrapped around him. That's stupidly hard."

"So they're making out."

"Both. And -" Lia leaned closer to the glass. "Okay, she just pushed the bikini side-tie out of the way. Looks like they decided to stop talking and start fucking."

The crunching stopped. "In the POOL?"

"In the deep end," Lia corrected, watching the water churn. "Where neither of them can stand. It's insane."

"That's advanced." Minjun swallowed audibly in the quiet room. "How's the technique?"

Lia kept her eyes on the pool. "Do you want play-by-play or color commentary?"

"Both."

"Well, yesterday Ryujin and Yuna turned this deck into a bloodsport. They were screaming over tempo and fighting for who got him to finish inside them." She watched Yeji's hips roll slow in the teal water. "But he's holding her face with both hands. She's whispering into his neck."