"Hey, boy," Yulia says, blatantly snuggling against my arm in front of everybody. Her cool temperature is a nice contrast to the toasty weather. "Thank goodness you're okay, I thought something bad happened to you when you didn't come down after five minutes!" Large breasts constrained against the bikini hold my arms with pressure.
I didn't even realize I napped for a while.
"How long was I gone for, sorry?" I scan across the pool, seeing Lorette by the bubbling jacuzzi section, Sky lounging on the calmer section, while Natasha's reading a book under her parasol.
"I think for an hour? We didn't really notice until Lorette asked you for something, then realized you're gone. Sky said she was heading to her room to grab something, so we asked her to check in on you and maybe bring you down if you're available!" Was her lay of the land.
Everyone's enjoying the sun in their own way. "I'm sorry, after I took another shower I felt really sleepy."
"That's totally fine, I get it!" Yulia playfully slaps my pecs, dragging me towards the edge of the pool. "Come on, you haven't taken a dip yet, let's play!" She wouldn't give me much leeway to refuse, so I resign myself to the fate of the playmate.
The pool is surprisingly chilly despite the sun's intensifying heat. A lingering memory of summer school's pool lessons float back.
I was still a pudgy kid back then. The sun was sweltering hot, sweat sticking to my skin like a layer of melted sugar. Fingers pointed at me, mocking laughter directed at me, and disgust physically shown when walking near other kids. I used to be called a buoy amongst other names back in middle school, since people can hold on to me when they get washed away while training how to swim.
And since I was heavy, the water was harder to move on than other kids who were thinner. I had trouble even doggy paddling across the surface, and other kids laughed at me to call me a tadpole because I wriggled in the water to move around. Could you imagine how hard it was for an insecure fat kid to ask their teacher to give them private swimming lessons just so he doesn't get bullied anymore? Chills crawl up my skin just from remembering.
"...hey!" A hazy voice calls to me in my recollection, leading me to turn around. A kid with snow white hair and sapphire eyes looks at me, standing out amongst the others, with a bright and cheery voice any middle-school boy would never forget.
"Hey, Jona!" She'd call again, waving a hand in my face.
Wait. I don't remember anyone like that. Who's this? Her voice sounds familiar...
"Hey, Jona! Hello? Are you there?" I blink, taking me back to the present. Yulia is inches away from my face, staring into my eyes all confused.
"Oh, sorry, I spaced out for a moment." I shake my head, giving her a small smile. "Dipping into the pool just reminded me of something."
"Are you sure you're okay? We're not being too much on you or anything like that, are we?" Her worries leaks out of those cutely creased brows, looking like a baby malamute staring up at me.
"No, no, nothing like that. What did you want to do?" I ask her, stepping away from me as she flashes me a cheeky grin.
Instead of telling me, she cups water into her hands and splashes it into my face. Through my drowned hearing, I hear her giggling.
"Play, I say, Play!" She reiterates, bouncing up and down as she tries to retreat from me. A creeping warmth blooms from within my body separate from the sun's rays.
"Okay, play it is." I say, digging my hands past the water's surface. With a simple motion upward, I summon a large wave that cascades onto the snow-lady.
"Mbhngldpsgasg!" You can hear her cries buried under the curtain of water I made. As she rises back up, "Now we're talking!" and she uses both of her hands to start overwhelming my vision with rapid barrages.
The cool water feels so refreshing. Maybe she's making the water slightly cooler by being inside of the pool. Feeling it all rain down on my body as I protect my vision, I stick my hand into the water once again, swiping upward in an uppercut motion, summoning a wave that contests Yulia's torrent.
"Ugh...! You're so strong..." Yulia rises from the wave, spitting water out, pouting.
"I'm not even doing anything complicated..." I retort weakly, putting my raised hand down. Yulia looks like a wet cat with her luscious hair watered down. But she also looks so charming, so beautiful. It makes you wonder; is she presenting herself as single, or is she getting away from a bad marriage?
"Yeah, that's the thing!!" says the yuki-onna, who then dives into the water and starts slithering like a fish. I cannot perceive her actions from under there- she even swims like a mermaid.
As her figure nears around me, I thought to try and catch her if she ever dives at me from below. But her form is too fast. I get speared across the chest with a giddy snow lady that has me splashing down into the water with her.
Everything is dull to the ears. The motions of the water wash against my eardrums. My eyes only see blue, the white sun, and the graceful, playful figure above me. Her hands paw at my biceps as she grins at me, stealing a kiss, before dipping back up by using my abs.
It hurt. Good thing the pool is slightly deeper than usual, so I only nudge against the floor before rising back up to the surface. As I rise, I am once again intercepted by the very same clingy and giggling Yulia.
"Muahahaha! How's that, huh?" She pinches my ears as her face nuzzles into my collar bone. In front of everybody.
"It's a novel move for sure. I couldn't react to it." Frankly, a snow lady with great swimming skills sounds terrifying if she can freeze and influence freezing points.