On their way to the beach, Aden is nervous.

His teeth sink into his lower lip hard enough to probably leave a bruise, and despite the fact that he's wearing his warmest sweater, the way the chilly evening air ruffles his hair and caresses his skin everywhere it's exposed leaves the back of his neck littered with goosebumps and his cheeks a faint shade of pink.

His hand, in Jia's hold, is the only part of him that's not cold.

"It's okay, Aden," she assures him softly. "I know I joked about it a lot, but if you don't like it there, we can come back, I promise."

Like a bit of weight has been lifted off him, some of the stiffness goes away from his shoulders and he smiles faintly at her. "Thanks, Jia."

Honestly, Aden isn't just nervous. He's worried that Neo had invited him out of courtesy and would probably not even notice when Aden arrives. Besides... wouldn't he be too busy celebrating their win with his friends?

I'm glad Jia is here.

If Neo doesn't talk to him, it's not going to be a big deal. Aden can stay for a bit, congratulate them, and then leave. And he would have to learn to be around people he isn't already familiar with someday, right? so this might be it. Good or bad, this is where he's going to start.

Except, when they reach the beach, less than ten seconds in, before Aden can even process what's happening around the place, there's a boy jogging in his direction.

"Aden!"

Aden looks around him as if expecting another person with the same name to pop out, and then back at the boy in front of him who basically barrels into him, making Aden stumble mostly out of surprise, almost throwing both of them back on the sand.

Huffing at the effort, Aden somehow holds himself and Neo upright, too surprised to feel his heart beating in his throat.

"You came," Neo says, purposely making himself smaller with his arms wrapped around Aden's waist, his head tipped back with a faint smile playing on his lips as he looks up at Aden.

The latter blinks, his eyes as wide as saucers as he glances at Jia, his eyes screaming 'help me'. She just stares at them with her mouth parted in pure surprise, hands hanging by her sides helplessly. Aden has no idea what's going on.

They have grown a little closer over the past few days, but Aden doesn't know if they're close enough to... hug like this. They're friends now, sure, but Aden really doesn't remember the last time they were this close.

And he's pretty darn sure that if they have hugged before, he would remember.

He blinks a few more times, the realization that Neo is wrapped around him like a toddler basically ramming into his brain.

Aden feels a little lightheaded.

"Neo..." he croaks, looking around to see if everyone is staring at them. They aren't.

"Aden?" the said boy chirps.

"What..." Aden swallows, avoiding his eyes and at the same time, trying to hold back the ridiculous blush slowly taking over his cheeks. "What are you doing?"

"Expressing how happy I am that you came!"

Oh, my God...

Aden hears Jia laugh, and the back of his neck begins to heat up.

"I think Neo is a little tipsy," she says, a teasing lilt to her voice. "Aren't you, Neo?"

He looks at her, and Aden all but freezes when Neo casually presses his cheek to his chest while he does. His head is tucked under Aden's chin, soft hair tickling his overly sensitive neck. "Hm? I drank just a teeny..." he drawls, and then pauses as if thinking very hard. Then he giggles. Giggles. Aden wants to cry. "Tiny bit," he adds, his voice dropping several octaves as if it's a secret.

As if Aden wasn't devastated enough already, Neo turns to look up at him again, his chin now settled on Aden's chest as he puts a finger to his lips, letting out a soft, shh.

"Oh, my God, I'm so sorry," a new voice says, and Aden looks up, only for his eyes to widen the slightest bit more. Ah, crap. No. Please.

It's the girl from the café. From the same day when Neo had swallowed the paper with Aden's number on it.

"He's drunk," she says, looking embarrassed as she reaches out to put her hand on Neo's shoulder.

Aden almost chokes on nothing when Neo moves away from her, twirling Aden with himself as he says, "Stoooop," in yet another drawl, peeking over Aden's shoulder at her. Her hand drops back by her side as she sighs. "Aden is my friend." Then Neo looks at Aden again, and the frown on his face dissolves into a smile again. "Aren't you? We're friends."

"You didn't even drink that much!" she exclaims. "You're so bad at handling your alcohol. You're making Aden uncomfortable."

Aden wouldn't... call it uncomfortable. Sure, he feels like every hair on his skin is standing at attention and his face probably resembles a salmon, but he isn't uncomfortable. It's a little hard to breathe, though. But it's okay. It's fine. He's okay. It's completely fine that Aden feels like crying all over again when he realizes Neo smells a little like baby powder.

The girl sighs again before looking at Aden. "I'm really sorry about him. To be fair, he has been waiting for you all evening."

Aden's eyes can't possibly get any wider at this point. So he just stands there, trying to process her words, probably only standing upright because he doesn't want to drop Neo.

He has almost all of his weight resting on Aden. It's not much, and Oh My God He Weighs Absolutely Nothing is yet another siren going off inside Aden's head.

"I'm Jennifer," the girl introduces, shooting one last exasperated look in Neo's direction while he continues to cling to Aden. "I'm this dumbass man child's cousin and I was supposed to keep an eye on him and avoid exactly this."

Aden wants to introduce himself back, but all he can think is cousin cousin cousin.

That's his cousin.

"I don't think Aden minds," Jia chips in, and Aden is too dumbfounded to react to her words. In fact, he had pretty much forgotten that she was there. "I'm Jia. I hope it's okay that I'm here even though I wasn't invited."

"Oh! Um..." Jennifer tries, blinking a few times as if trying to collect her thoughts. She lets out a breathy little laugh, and Aden has reached just the level of sanity to be able to tell that she's taken aback by how pretty Jia is. It happens a lot. Again, if a certain boy wasn't standing with his entire body pressed against Aden's right now, silently listening to their conversation, the latter would find the situation a little more amusing. "Of course, it's okay!" Jennifer finishes with a little effort, her hands locked together in front of her. Jia's impact. "The more the merrier. Besides, it's open to everyone from your school —"

"Maybe, they'll flirt better if we're not around," Neo comments loudly, and this time, Aden does choke on thin air.

As does Jennifer.

Before she can open her mouth to snap at him, though, Neo is pulling back and taking hold of Aden's hand, leaving the latter hyper-aware of every nerve ending in his body. God. Please. This is not real. What is happening.

"We're leaving." He glances at Aden's face with a grin and pulls, almost sending Aden stumbling face-first into the sand.

"Wait, hey—"

Jia's voice drowns around them as Neo pulls Aden along with him and straight in the direction of the rest of the crowd by the bonfire, the feeling of Neo's warm hand in Aden's even warmer hold the only reason why Aden forgets that they're about to be among too many strangers.