Holiday Romance

France - Just By Chance

//Jongdae//

"Jongdae, get off your phone."
I sigh irritably at the familiar sentence. My mum is always nagging me. Jongdae, get off your phone. Jongdae, socialise. Jongdae, do the dishes.
Muttering obscenities under my breath, I heave my lazy body out of the fold up chair and drag my feet over to where my parents are standing.
"What have I been summoned for this time?" I ask, rolling my eyes. Mum sucks in an exasperated breath, but puts on a smile nonetheless.
"Help your father unpack the car, please." She instructs me, before grabbing a bag of utensils herself and disappearing into the tent.
"Right, Jongdae." My father's deep voice calls me from where he has his head in the boot of the car. He stands up, hair a mess. He sends me a wonky smile and drags a large suitcase from the car. He throws it gently at me, and I manage to catch it without falling over.
I stumble into the pre-assembled tent, turning my head from left to right to inspect the layout of the tent. Mum looks up for a second to see who came into the tent, and she frowns when she sees me.
"Yah, careful with that." She huffs. "Put it over there, in that compartment." She says, before going back to the kitchen and ignoring me.
I assure you, my mum is not always like this. She just gets a little stressed out at the beginning of a holiday - she's usually a really nice and loving person, expect when she's yelling at me. She sounds like that waiter, Kyungsoo, when Jongin flirts with him.
I chuckle lightly at the thought and Mum shoots me a weird look over her shoulder. Ignoring her, I throw the case down in my parent's sleeping compartment before heading back out into the warm Mediterranean sun.
My father is setting up the outdoor things, like the barbecue and the fold up chairs. I spy the surfboards leaning against the car and grin as I grab them, already looking forward to hitting the waves. I'm no professional, but can surf really well if I catch a good wave.
After a lot of suitcases and annoyed instructions from my mum later, we've finally unpacked fully and flop down in the chairs outside whilst my father lights the barbecue.
My parents crack open a beer each, and I try to sneak one as well, but before I can grab one, my hand gets slapped away from the cool box.
"Yah, Jongdae! No alcohol until you're sixteen, remember? You've still got a while yet." Mum scolds. I pout.
"Aw, come on mum. We're on holiday." I whine, but to no avail. Mum sits firmly by her word, and eventually I give up and settle for apple juice in a pint glass instead. Mum laughs at my pouting face, and lovingly ruffles my hair as she passes to help Dad with the food. "Only a couple of weeks, right?" She grins. I only snort in response.
I can't wait till I can legally drink. Then me, Baek and Kris hyungs can go out drinking. Just have to wait for Chanyeol and Jongin then and then we call all go out on the town together.
"Jongdae!" Mum's sharp voice knocks me from my thoughts, before I get too lost in them.
I hum in response, turning to look at her. She waves a large plastic bottle container thing at me. "Go and fill this with water, please. Hurry up." It gets thrown in my direction and I wander towards the nearest tap area whilst trying to unscrew the lid.
"Aish." I curse under my breath as I struggle to twist the cap. "Why the fuck is it so stuck?" I hit it in my frustration, resulting in pain shooting through my hand.
I start to swear in my second language, Korean, so as not to offend anyone. Not that they would understand very well anyway - they are French, after all.
A chuckle sounds behind me. I turn in annoyance to see who would dare laugh at me, and overbalance as the sun blinds me.
"FUCK!" I exclaim as my butt hits the hard ground. My hand gets grazed against the rough, dusty floor and it's stings. A gasp comes from the stranger, and a pale hand with slim fingers extends in an offer to pull me up. I accept, gripping it firmly, and yanking myself up.
"Kamsahamnida" I mutter, still in automatic Korean mode. I may speak English as my first language, but sometimes I just blurt out random phrases in my parents' native language.
"Shit, sorry." I say, realising my mistake. Thinking again, I assume this person must be actually French - therefore probably not understanding anything at all. "I mean, uh, merci?" I offer, blushing slightly at my broken pronunciation.
The stranger chuckles. "Ah, de rien." He says. I nod awkwardly, assuming he said it's okay. I start to turn around again, embarrassed by my lack of knowledge of the French language - the language of love, as it were. But I'm stopped immediately by a nervous hand gripping my arm.
"I'm joking." He stranger chuckles. I blink, surprised by the sudden English.
"How many damned languages do you know?" I blurt.
"Uh, let me see... Three? No, maybe four. I don't know." He ponders. My mouth gapes open.
"W-what?" I stutter. "How?" My surprise elicits another tinkling laugh from the man.
"My mother says knowing many languages is a very attractive trait." He says.
"I must be ugly as hell then." I deadpan, and the boy snorts.
"I can assure you, stranger, you most certainly are not." He compliments.
"Um, thanks?" I raise an eyebrow. "Anyway, can you move out of the sun? I wanna know what you look like."
The boy obligingly moves into the shade of a tree so I can finally get a glimpse of his face. He blinks big eyes at me, a nervous grin playing on his lips.
"Wow." I breathe, luckily not loud enough for him to hear. Stranger boy is oddly beautiful - no, scratch that, he is downright gorgeous. He's also... Asian? Like me! He has adorable almond shaped eyes, and his cheeks are cutely round and chubby. He also has dark hair with a fringe that I expect would go down to his eyebrows normally, but today it's pushed up messily off his forehead. I watch as he purses his lips before blowing gently upwards to blow spare strands of hair out of his eyes.
It draws my attention to his lips, and I am happily met with a bright grin. It's slightly mesmerising - I have to blink a few times before Stranger boy gets creeped out by my staring.
"Ah, well you're not so bad yourself, Stranger." I smile back cheekily. His cheeks go red and I bite my lip at the adorable gesture.
"Aish, man, I'm not good looking." He scoffs.
"Yes you are." I see he's going to deny it again. "Don't even contradict me. Now, as much as I like calling you Stranger, I think I should know your name. Care to tell me?"
The boy chuckles. "Well, my friends call me Xiumin because they can't pronounce my real name, but I'm Minseok."
"Nice to meet you, Xiu-Minseok." I offer my hand for him to shake it, and he does. "I'm Jongdae, but my friends call me Chen."
"The pleasure's all yours, Chen-Dae." Minseok giggles, gripping my hand firmly.
"So." I say, turning my attention back to the damned water container. "Do I detect a hint of American accent?" I ask, tugging at the lid again.
Minseok laughs. He laughs a lot. It's refreshing. "Yeah. I'm Korean-American. And you? You seem to be a bit of both yourself."
I nod. "Well, both my parents are Korean, but we live and I was born in England. I've picked up the accent, right?"
"Yes, I love it." Minseok tries to imitate me, and fails. "My mom is Korean, and my Dad is American, so I'm completely half and half." He explains, shrugging. "Here, do you want some help with that?" He adds, gesturing to where I'm struggling with the bottle.
I sigh but hand it over nonetheless. Minseok twists it effortlessly and the lid comes off in his hands. My mouth gapes open in shock.
"Dude, you must have some muscles." I say in awe, reaching out a tentative finger to poke his biceps. Sure enough, they're solid.
"Nah, I really don't." Minseok scoffs. "I think you were twisting it the wrong way."
I pout in irritation and turn my back on the beautiful boy to fill up the container with water. A bit splashes on my hand and it's a cooling refresher against the relentless Mediterranean heat.
"Well, I best be heading back. Where's your tent, Minseok?" I ask, screwing the lid back on the container firmly.
He gestures over his shoulder in the direction of my tent. "In that direction." He says, taking his turn at the water tap. "We only just arrived. My parents are unpacking now." He wipes his hands on his jeans, and turns to leave. "Bye, I guess?"
He trudges off, swinging the water bottle in time with his step. I stand by the tap, slightly stunned, before hurtling after him. "Nooo, wait for me, Minseok!" I call, almost falling over in my haste. He turns back, raising an eyebrow.
"What?"
"My tent is over here too." I pant. Minseok nods.
"Ah, okay."
We walk in comfortable silence as we near our tents.
"Well, this is me." We say simultaneously. Minseok meets my eyes in amazement.
"We're next to each other? OMG!" He exclaims, a grin stretching over his features. His eyes sparkle, and for a minute I can't respond.
I nod weakly, chuckling, before I hear a familiar voice emanate from the tent.
"Jongdae, is that you? What took you so - oh, who's this?" Mum breaks off from the oncoming nag when she notices Minseok.
"Oh - hello, Mrs...?" Minseok bows hurriedly, suddenly becoming shy.
Mum smiles. "Mrs Kim, sweetie."
Minseok blinks. "Ah, okay. I'm Minseok. We seem to be your neighbours." He says formally. I chuckle and hand the water to my Mum.
"Yah, what's with the formality? Come on, Minseok, let's leave my Mum alone." I drag him away from my Mum, who watches us as we leave. I hear her tut under her breath as we go.
"I'm sorry about her." I say with a grin.
Minseok looks shocked as we round the edge of the pitches to his tent. "Yah, there's nothing to be sorry for! She seems lovely." He protests. I roll my eyes.
"If you say so." I snort.
Finally, we arrive at Minseok's tent. It's huge, almost double the size of ours. An awning hangs from one of the tent outwards, and strings of fairy lights are hung around it. Chairs are set out around the tent, one for each member of his family.
"Wow." I mumble. Minseok laughs.
"It's not much, really." He says. I scoff, disbelieving.
"Come on." Minseok says, grabbing my wrist and dragging me towards the tent. I shiver as his cold, smooth skin makes contact with mine. Calm yourself, Jongdae. Stop being so utterly gay.
"Mom? Come meet my new friend." He calls. I blush at the thought. Friend?
Good.
A petite woman ducks underneath the tent flap to greet us. "Seokkie? Ah, you're back. Who's your friend?" She smiles, and I realise she looks exactly like her son. Same eyes, same stature, same chubby cheeks. Now I know who he gets his adorableness from.
"Ah - ah, hello, Minseok's mum." I say, bowing low.
"Don't be so formal. Call me Minhee." She says, patting my shoulder gently.
"I'm Jongdae." I intoduce myself, becoming more comfortable. Minhee grins.
"Nice to meet you, Jongdae. I'm glad Minseok's made a friend - he's usually so antisocial and shy when it comes to making holiday friends." She laughs and I notice blush creep up Minseok's cheeks.
"Yah, Mom, shut up!" He protests, pushing her gently.
"Aw, is my little Seokkie embarrassed?" She teases, pinching his cheeks.
Minseok's eyes flick to meet mine and I grin at the mother and interacting. It's so different to me and my own Mum.
"Don't call me Seokkie in front of Jongdae." He hisses. I saunter over to him and throw an arm around his shoulder. I mentally noted how perfectly his shoulder fit under my arm. "I think it's cute." I grin. Minseok shoves me away, blushing furiously.
"Minnie~" I call cutely. Minseok pouts, infuriated, and dashes inside the tent.
His mum and I share a laugh at his antics, and she turns to me. "Don't mind him. He's shy. Call him whatever you want, he won't mind." She pats my head reassuringly. "I can tell you two are going to be great friends." She gently pushes me towards the tent, yelling to Minseok that she was just going to the toilet.
"Min?" I call, lifting up the tent flap slightly and ducking inside. A lamp is switched on the corner, giving off a gentle glow and creating a warm ambiance inside the tent, giving it a cosy feel.
At first, I don't spot Minseok, but after a while I notice two feet poking out from under a divider. I tiptoe towards him and creep into his compartment, startling him. He shrieks and basically gives me a heart attack, causing me to trip over the bed and go flying, landing straight onto Minseok and knocking him over.
I'm too busy wallowing in my pain and embarrassment to notice the compromising position we are in, until Minseok nudges me gently.
"Uhm, Jongdae...?" He coughs. I open my eyes, and suck in a shocked breath when I'm met with Minseok's dark orbs staring into my own, only a few inches away from me. I can feel his warm breath on my lips, and wonder what would happen if I kissed Minseok right now.
Ugh, I'm so gay.
But I'm proud to be.
I chuckle to myself and push myself off my new friend, apologising profusely for my clumsiness. Minseok waves it off, laughing.
"It's okay. I'm kinda used to it. I have this friend back home, called Lay, and he is so forgetful he sometimes forgets how to walk and just falls straight over. It's hilarious unless he actually falls on you." Minseok laughs gently, recalling the memory. "He's a great guy though. An amazing dancer." He comments before turning back to his phone screen and typing quickly. I raise an eyebrow. "Ah, sorry. It's just my... my friend, back home." He says, avoiding my gaze.
I furrow my eyebrows.
"Anyway, shouldn't you be going home? Surely your dinner's ready now?" Minseok says, changing the subject.
"Are you that eager to get rid of me?" I pout, and fake a teary sniff. Minseok gulps.
"God, no! I - um - aish, I didn't mean that, Dae." A nickname slips out of his mouth unexpectedly, and Minseok claps a hand over his mouth in surprise.
I smirk. "It's okay, Baozi." I retort. Minseok looks at me, confused.
"Baozi?"
I nod enthusiastically. "Yeah, you know, those round buns? They have them in Korea." I tell him.
Minseok nods unsurely. "Okay...? And how does that make me a baozi?"
"Your cheeks, duh." I reply. Minseok scoffs.
"Yah, what's wrong with my cheeks?" he pouts, folding his arms in mock anger.
"Nothing. They're adorable." I say, before leaning over and squeezing said cheeks as his mum did earlier. Minseok swats my hands away.
"No!" He shouts. I grin, and we start play fighting together, battling it out over his cheeks. We roll around on the tent floor, laughing at one another and squeezing each others cheeks. Suddenly I end up in control, Minseok trapped between my thighs as I straddle his waist, and I take the opportunity to squidge his cheeks before tickling up and down his sides, watching as it reduces Minseok to a red faced squirming mess beneath me.
I can feel my breath hitch automatically. No, no, no, brain, he's a friend, I think desperately to myself.
"Dae? You alright?" I hear Minseok ask. I open my eyes slightly to see him looking at me cutely, his hair messed up and pink still dusting his cheeks. I send him a nervous smile. "Ye - yeah, I'm good." I say, rolling off of Minseok. I can't look at him, I feel kinda dirty.
Just in the nick of time though, I hear my Mum's voice.
"Jongdae? Jongdae!" She sounds worried.
"Shit." I mutter, standing up hurriedly. I flash an apologetic smile to Minseok, who also stands up. "She must be worried, I - I better go." Minseok follows me out of the tent.
Mum seems to be conversing with Minseok's mum.
"Hey mum." I say. She glares at me, before turning back to Minhee.
"So, you'll join us for dinner?" Mum asks. Minhee nods happily, and I grin at my new friend.
"Yah, we're having dinner together!" I say excitedly, and he grins awkwardly. "Um, sorry about earlier... it was a bit much, right?" I rub the back of my neck, embarrassed.
Minseok smiles. "Ah, um, no?" He avoids my eyes.
"Come on, you two." Mum calls over to us, raising an eyebrow.
We follow our respective parents back to my tent, where a delicious barbecue feast is laid out on the folding table.
My father grins proudly. "Tuck in, guys." And we do so.
We settle down in chairs and load our plates with food, occasionally making conversation in between mouthfuls. It's as if we've known each for ages, we all just click and the atmosphere is nice and comfortable. The food is spectacular as well, which adds to the general awesomeness of the situation.
Eventually, the sun starts going down and the never ending heat actually seems to calm down a bit.
Minseok and his family stand up, thanking us over and over for the food, before going to leave.
"See you tomorrow, Minnie!" I call over my shoulder. I see him grin and shake his head before waving back cutely.

In bed that night, Minseok fills my mind as the gentle clicking of bugs outside quietens down.
I wonder why I'm so infatuated with him, because I've only just met it today, and hell, he's probably not even gay.
I shake my head at myself in despair. I can't let this turn into something, I think. I have to only see him as a friend. I'll probably never see him again after this holiday is over, anyway.

~

That ending was so rushed, omg.
So that's the first chapter! I don't think there'll be so much dialogue in the following chapters, but I can't promise anything.
If you liked, please upvote and comment, coz I love it when that happens XD
See you next Wednesday,

~ Lulu

Ps check out the other fic I'm writing atm! It's called Haunt My Heart. Tysm