I didn't know what came over me. All I knew was, I swam like a mad man in the sea. Adrenaline pumped through my veins, making my skin feel like wildfire against the cold sea water. Damn it. I stopped and looked around frantically. In a split second, I dove under water and opened my eyes. The initial sting in my eyes came, but in that moment, it didn't matter.

I must save him.

Was I too late?

The thought came to my mind but immediately shoved it at the back of my head. Then my eye caught a silhouette not far below me. There! Without hesitation, I dove deeper and deeper extending my hand, reaching for the man who was sinking further away from me. I could feel my lungs start to burn from the lack of oxygen. No. Just a little more. With all my strength and willpower I could muster through every cell in my body, I reached out and grabbed his wrist immediately. Once I felt I had a good grip of his wrist, I started to swim up, dragging him to the surface.

Accidentally, I inhaled a little saltwater, sending a painful burning sensation through my throat and nose. I could feel my muscles lose power, my kicks getting weaker. Adrenaline was starting to wear off. Fuck, not now. Darkness started to creep at the edge of my vision but I'm doing the best that I can to fend it off. The next thing I knew, I broke the surface of water and started coughing, savoring every molecule of oxygen I could. I'm holding the drowning man, making sure his head was above the water. I felt his weight and by the looks of it, he's considerably heavier than I was but it didn't matter. We had to get to the shore. Thank God for the water, assisting me to carry his weight to safety.

Heaven knows I could only do so much.

For what felt like an eternity, I was able to get the man out of the water. I knelt to his side, my forehead pressed against his chest, trying to catch my breath. As soon as I was able to recover from exhaustion, I pressed my ears against his chest, trying to look for any signs of life. A second passed, two, three...I don't hear anything. He's definitely unconscious. Shit! I placed both of my hands, on top of each other with my fingers interlocked, the heel of my palm pressed against his sternum and started pumping my hands to his chest. I'm counting in my head, trying to remember the breath to compression ratio. Soon as I hit thirty chest compressions, I went to introduce air in the man's mouth and then back to chest compressions.

Breathe, for Christ's sake! The frustration was building up in my mind. I can feel the strength leaving my arms. My lungs still burned from the salt water, the rest of my body started to feel fatigued, but I just did everything I could to save the man's life. As soon as I delivered what felt like my hundredth breath to the man, he started coughing and copious amounts of water were expelled out of his mouth. A huge sigh of relief came out of my breath with my head now pressed again to his chest. At this point I was panting hard from all physical work I've done. I looked at him, my hands on his face, looking for any assurance that he is, indeed, alive. His eyes flew open. Hazel eyes greeted my blue ones. Thank God. I thought. Then as if on cue, resort staff, paramedics, and lifeguards were coming to aid us.

"Sir, we'll take it from here." One of the paramedics told me, but I found myself staring at those deep golden brown eyes. My hands were holding his face as if the love of my life just died in my arms. Then his eyes closed, but he's still breathing. "Sir, we also need you checked. Let us takeover." The paramedics told me. This time, I responded, and I didn't realize tears were falling across my cheeks. I thanked the drops of sea water that fell from my hair down my face, concealing the warm tears as they took him inside the ambulance.

❅ ❅ ❅

It has been twenty-four hours and I was sitting on the hospital bed, arranging my things. The doctor cleared me to go back to the resort. I still have three days till I go back home. Part of me wished I hadn't agreed to take this trip. My parents set this whole trip to Bali. It was their gift for me, and they couldn't help but send me across the globe just so I could take a break from work and music rehearsals. They said I always overwork myself, but I didn't feel overworked at all. I just decided to go with the trip so they would stop bugging me about it. Then a part of me was glad that I did. If I hadn't, maybe that man was now dead at the bottom of the sea. A knock came to my door as I was packing my things. A nurse and my attending physician came inside. "Mr. Fairchild?" the doctor said. I looked up and gave them a smile.

"You're free to go back to the resort now. All the papers have been arranged." He handed me the papers. "Everything has been paid for."

I frowned. "Excuse me?" It was a rhetorical question. "The whole hospitalization expenses have been paid for. Just present the paper at the accounting department on the ground floor, left wing."

"But who paid for it? I mean I can pay for the expenses and all." I asked. He and the nurse looked at each other. They didn't answer. I'm not sure why.

"H-how is he?" I suddenly stood up from my bed, remembering the man I just saved from the brink of extinction. The doctor gave me a smile. "He's doing well. He's unconscious and may still need a day to recover." I nodded. "If there's anything else, please just let us know. Also, if I may Mr. Fairchild, if it hadn't for you, the man would have been dead. Indeed, you saved his life." I gave the doctor a smile "It was nothing..." I really don't know how to respond to his words. "Maybe for you, but for the man that you saved, it meant everything." I just gave a small nod, but I felt blood rushed to my cheeks. "You've saved someone's life. That itself is already something you can be proud of." He assured me.

I was on my way back to the resort I was staying in, but my mind wandered a lot. Most especially, I wanted to see the man with the hazel eyes, trying to check if he was okay. What stopped me was his current condition. He does need time to recover and with me, sneaking into his room as he recovers, wouldn't be a good idea. I was able to return safely from the hospital to my beach front villa. Weather is a complete opposite from yesterday's mishap. The Sky was clear, clouds were immaculately white and feathery, and the sun was shining proudly in the morning sky. I placed my things on the table and lay on my bed. I'm feeling a lot better and it was not like my condition was critical or anything. Extreme fatigue was the reason I had to be in the hospital according to the doctor. It was also the paramedic's recommendation to stay at the hospital, at least, twenty-four hours for observation. I closed my eyes and was expecting to see nothing but darkness but I was wrong. I saw those sets of beautiful brown eyes as I drifted to sleep.

I woke up and it was already late in the afternoon. I took a bath and then grabbed my phone and laptop and sat on the chair next to the desk not far from my bed. As expected, lots of emails and messages from both devices. I saw that I had multiple texts from my best friend since I was a child – Luke. I pinched the bridge of my nose. Of course, he will be worried. I hadn't responded to any of his massages for the past twenty-four hours. As soon as I replied to one of his messages, I received an incoming call from my laptop, and it was from the man himself. "Reidyr!" as soon as his face flashed on my screen.

"Hey, Luke," I tried to sound like nothing happened.

"Where the fuck, have you been and why have you not responded to any of my messages?!" His tone was demanding yet concerned, and his brows were knitted together. The lines on his forehead deepened. I bit my lower lip and contemplated.

Should I tell him?

Then I realized he will ask a lot of questions if I told him everything. Right now, I don't have the time nor strength for any of that. "Sorry Luke, bad signal." It was the only excuse I could come up at the moment. He raised his eyebrows. "Your messages were delayed, I just received them today." I continued, hoping the excuse would work on the stubborn man. He was silent for a while. "Is something the matter?" Fuck. I hate it when he does that. Luke has the uncanny ability to sense if something was up and you're not telling him. "You look a little pale Snowflake." I rolled my eyes.

Ever since we were kids, he gave me the nickname Snowflake because of my eyes. He said my eyes reminded him of very beautiful snowflakes during winter; he described it as crisp, unnaturally blue but hauntingly beautiful as I recall. "I'm fine, Luke," I gave the most convincing smile I could muster. "I'm just bored...you know vacations are not my thing." Luke laughed. Thank God Luke didn't hover.

"Have you been eating? You look like you could eat something, a cheeseburger, anything." Now that he mentioned it, I wasn't exactly sure when was the last time I ate. "I'm healthy as a horse sir, thank you very much. Now that you've mentioned it, a cheeseburger sounds good right now." I admitted. He smiled but I can see that his green eyes were still uncertain. I just hope he doesn't push prying with what has happened for the past twenty-four hours. "So, are you ready to move to Portland?" I groaned and pressed my head on the desk. "Please don't remind me about it."

"Why not?" he laughed. He knows that this is torture on my part, but I'm not surprised that he finds this amusing. "Just the thought of moving from one state to the other feels like a lot of work already." I said exasperatingly.

"Oh, don't be such a baby. I'll help you move from your apartment in Los Angeles to Portland." I raised my brow. This piqued my interest even for a slightest bit. "And how on earth are you going to do that?" I demanded for an answer.

"Well let's say I just asked for your parents' help." I palmed my face. "You did not just ask my parents for help." I repeated. Horror-struck. "Oh, you know that your parents love me, so as soon as you're back, you're going straight to your new apartment in Portland!" He said with his arms in the air as if he said surprise!

My mouth was on the floor for a solid minute. He held a finger up before I could speak. "Don't worry about your lease from your old place, everything has been taken care of."

"I don't know what to say or where to begin,"

"You can start with thank you." I rolled my eyes but with a smile on my lips. The reason why I decided to move to Portland, well, basically I wanted a fresh start, away from my parents' shadow. Don't get me wrong. I love my parents dearly, I do, but I needed to stand on my own without them being in the same city or state as I am. I just need a sense of independence. Just an assurance that I can take care of myself. Ever since I started touring, my mom and dad practically begged me to live near our home after moving out of our house. It was difficult. During tours, I go to other countries and different cities for the duration of the tour. Agreeing to live near my parents, gave them an assurance that I will always be within their reach. Even if I'm gone for so long.