In the following days, Jin and I ran or swam into each other from time to time. I couldn't get rid of the feeling that he always kept a little eye on our house, in order to be able to meet me 'purely by chance'. But I enjoyed our spontaneous meetings. Jin was a very pleasant man to be with, and I not only felt very comfortable in my own skin, I also felt familiar with him. After one and a half weeks, we actually arranged to meet every day. Even after this short time, he already knew exactly how to make me laugh. I loved being around him and enjoying the summer I was spending here at the lake. It wouldn't just be any summer - no - it would be THE summer and it would be mine!

This morning began gloriously. The sun flooded our living room with its golden rays and the sky shone in clear blue. Hanna and I decided to have breakfast on the veranda and stretched the sunshade there near the garden table. While Hanna volunteered to organize buns by bike in the nearby town, I took care of coffee, sliced fruit and setting the table.

I had just put out the dishes, silverware, sliced meats, and fruit bowls when a loud bang suddenly made me gasp. Then another one...and another one?! What was that? Who was that? Why?! New Year's Eve was still a long way off!

I turned to the lake and tried to make out where the noise was coming from - in fact, it was coming from the house where Jin was staying with his friends. And it was Rom lights lit on the lakeshore by one of them! But why would one do such a thing? Lost in thought, I remained on the dock of our house, my gaze fixed on the house opposite - or rather on the person who was shooting the Roman lights on the dock. The last shot echoed across the lake, then the person lowered the firework and looked in my direction. As she began to wave, I realized it must be Jin and smiled thoughtfully as I returned the wave.

"What are you doing?" asked Hanna, who had entered the porch unnoticed behind me and was standing there with the filled bread basket in her hand. I wheeled around. "Jin.", I replied - of course I had told her about the encounter long ago.... I had just kept the fishing part from her. "Ah, I see. The one you're always out with..." "I meet him unplanned...most of the time," I interrupted her, waving one last time in Jin's direction. Hanna thought about my words for a moment, then shrugged. "Okay...if you say so, then I guess it will be true. Come on, let's get something to eat first."

Later, at noon, as I was lying on my towel on the dock, completely absorbed in my book, sizzling in the sun, I suddenly heard a splash. I lifted my eyes and spotted Jin heading for our dock in his rowboat. He waved and I waved back with a grin. "Hi!" I then called out when I thought he was within hearing distance. "What's up, Fishy?" he replied, and his boat came to a stop right in front of me. I rose and looked down at him with my arms crossed. "Currently not so much and with you?" He shrugged and looked around. "Not running, but floating." I looked amused. Jin held out his hand invitingly. "I wanted to go to the east shore. There's a nice swimming spot there. Do you want to go?" I hesitantly glanced over my shoulder and spotted my sister eyeing us inconspicuously. She nodded, barely noticeable, before her face, with its giant sunglasses, disappeared behind the pages of her magazine again. I turned back to Jin and tentatively grasped his hand. A warm smile played around his lips as he helped me aboard.

The bathing spot seemed like a little secret place of its own: a swing had been attached to a thick, sturdy branch of an old willow tree by someone at some point. The branches of the willow and its full foliage, with the dense shade they cast, provided a quiet and cool spot by the lake during the midday heat. Small waves lapped softly on the shore and the reeds swayed gently in the summer breeze. The hanging branches of the willow prevented the view of the lake, yet between some gaps in the foliage a few rays of sunlight shone through to us.

Jin had a strawberry-patterned picnic blanket with him and a classic picnic basket, which he placed next to it after spreading the blanket in the sand. I helped him tie the rowboat to the trunk of the willow with a line, then waded through the knee-deep water to pull myself up onto the swing. Jin stretched out on the blanket. "This is the way to live." he sighed, stretching once before sitting back up and looking in my direction. I grinned at him. "Like so! How did you find this place?" Jin hooked a small twig lying in the sand next to the blanket and began aimlessly drawing lines in it with it. "It must have been two or three days ago. I was out with JK and we were relaxing paddling across the lake. Then I've been the willow and had to think directly about Arielle..." He faltered as he noticed my skeptical look. Then, in a flash, he broke free of his stiffness and started shaking his shoulders. "Sha-la-la-la-la-la, my oh my, look like the boy too shy, ain't gonna kiss the girl" Laughing, I threw my head back while clapping my hands. As Jin continued to sing, he punctuated the lyrics with exaggerated raising of his eyebrows and grimaced. "Sha-la-la-la-la-la, ain't that sad? Ain't it a shame? Too bad, he gonna miss the girl"

After I regained my composure, I took a deep breath and put my hands back in my lap. "...That you know Disney's Ariel..." I shook my head with a smirk. "I know a lot of Disney movies." he countered and I looked at him in wonder. "Through your sister?" "No. For one thing I just like Disney for me and secondly also no, I have a brother and not a sister." I was taken aback by this statement. I remembered well my school days where there couldn't be a movie gory enough for the boys in the class and now I met a young man from South Korea who outed himself as a Disney fan...! "Wow." - was all I could say in response. And then I belted out, "Now's your moment..." Jin interjected, "Ya, ya, ya" "Floating in a blue lagoon..." "Ya, ya, ya" We sang the song through to the end. But then, while trying to elegantly hop off the swing, I miscalculated and landed in the shallow water with a belly flop forward. Jin was rolling over laughing.

The hours flew by. Before I knew it, the sun gradually began to set. The surface of the water reflected golden light, casting a play of small waves on the bark of the bark. Lost in thought, I gave Jin a boost on the swing while listening to the birds singing. "Let's do something else tomorrow.", Jin broke the comfortable silence and turned his head around - as best he could - to face me on the swing. I smiled. "I'd love to. Around noon again?" "Deal, little Fishy."

The following day we organized a bicycle tour through the large forest area that surrounded the lake. There were countless paths that we passed and I admired Jin for his good sense of direction. At a comfortable pace - without either of us breaking a sweat in the heat - we explored the area, stopping briefly at one clearing or another. We even discovered another small waterfall that flowed into a river. Here, Jin teasingly splashed me with water and I returned the favor by pushing him into the riverbank. With a wet butt and a feigned pout, Jin had stood up. I did not get my giggles under control after that....

Another evening, Jin invited my sister and I to join him and his boys for a barbecue. My sister was on fire talking to Namjoon about younger siblings - I tried my best to block out this conversation and instead focused more on my conversations with Jimin and Teahyung while Jin stood at the grill preparing food for everyone. The evening ended with marshmallow-grilling around the campfire in front of their cottage, and I felt peace resting in my soul in addition to relaxing and enjoying the atmosphere.

When I drew my gaze away from the fireplace once again, lost in thought, I met Jin's friendly eyes, which regarded me with a grin, and caught sight of the full lips that twisted into a slight smile as he continued to meet my gaze. Then he suddenly reached into the air, brought his hand to his mouth, and then blew a kiss to me across the fire. Playfully, I caught the kiss with my hand, blew a few times, and then brought it to my heart. This elicited a broad grin from Jin and I followed this grin like a mirror image.

After that evening, something also changed. We both began to seek each other's closeness more. We sought skin contact through inconspicuous little touches that could have seemed casual if you didn't know they were deliberately invoked. For example, on another evening, when I reached out for the wine glasses on the top shelf and Jin came to my aid, his hand first gently stroked my arm up to my hand before reaching for the glass. Or more often, I would casually put my hand on his shoulder when I was standing behind him at the dinner table and ask if I could bring him another plate of steak and ribs. Every little touch left a tingle or prickle on my skin. And every eye contact between us seemed to take us more and more to a place in our minds where only the two of us existed.

With sorrow I perceived the progress of my vacation and the associated end. I tried to remind myself again and again that there was still time, but then another day passed and thus another day that I would not experience again like this...