❝he came in jinyoung's life like the summer solstice and he kept coming back to him each year with the familiar warmth❞
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a small town boy like jinyoung doesn't have the ability to wrap his head around the enigma called jaebeom. all the suggesti...
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Jinyoung wasn't a great swimmer but it never stopped him from going to the creek every hot morning and submerging himself neck deep into the water.
He was 15, life was great being an only child and he didn't care much about finding company because he was pretty happy enjoying his free time alone. His dreams were full of colors and fantasies of distant lands he wished to explore one day, probably after he graduates high school.
However it all changed when grandma Jiyeon next door started having visitors every summer. It was her son and his family who lived in the city and along with them Jaebum arrived, the grandson.
Jinyoung spotted him from his window one day as he was feeding their chickens in the coop and suddenly he had this urge to talk to him. But Jinyoung was clueless. He wasn't sure how to approach Jaebum. His hands were sweating and he was breathing hard and he thought he just might get sick.
It scared him.
Boys his age never scared him. He had friends in his school but he wasn't a popular kid. But that didn't mean he was in the bottom of the food chain either. Jaebum not only scared him with his presence, without even doing anything but he also caused Jinyoung to obsessively peek out of his window day and night to catch a glimpse of him.
His mother would tell him repeatedly about the boy next door who was about his age. His lanky arms were gaining bits of muscles with growing days and his mother would tell him to socialize. Jinyoung wanted to but he couldn't.
Should I say hello?
Should I ask his name?
Where he is from?
How old is he?
He'd often wonder. But he already knew all the answers.
And just like that one morning, Jinyoung was in the water with his eyes closed, listening to the birds chirp in some tree around him. He heard a loud splash.
Snapping open his eyes, he spotted Jaebum resurfacing and floating at a distance on his back. He was naked, his boxers discarded on the wooden ramp over the creek. Jinyoung blinked hard, palpitating. Jaebum was swimming towards him and he felt like a cornered prey.
"You are Jinyoung aren't you?"
Jinyoung nods.
"I keep hearing about you from my grandmother. She keeps wondering why you don't visit her in the evening anymore."
Jinyoung comes up with something lame to answer him.
"I have homework."
Jaebum laughs. Jinyoung follows the movement of his accentuated Adam's apple bobbing up and down. The water is dark enough and Jinyoung's eyes can't find the skin and flesh disappearing underneath the surface of water.
"Bullshit. Nobody does homework in summer vacations. I am Jaebum by the way."
"I know."
Jaebum is amused and Jinyoung can tell it by the way Jaebum's eyebrows creases.
"Do you come here to swim often?"
"Yes," Jinyoung hesitates to reply.
He anticipates Jaebum's response to that. Will Jaebum come to the creek everyday now? To swim with him? And will he finally find enough courage to hold a proper conversation with him?
"I am leaving tomorrow Jinyoung. Going back to the city."
That information drowns Jinyoung in some form of sorrow. It was almost the end of summer vacations for him as well. He shouldn't be surprised but he wanted Jaebum to stay, just a little longer.
"We will meet next summer, Jinyoung. I hope you will be more chatty by then."
Jaebum laughs and swims away from him. Jinyoung catches his wet frame climbing out of the water and his butt as he pulls up the discarded boxers and looks back at him.
Jaebum waves and leaves.
Jinyoung can't tell how long he stayed in the water like that but by the time he gets out, the sky is over cast with clouds.
