[EDITING]
When Jeon Jeongguk's sister gets engaged to his friend's brother, almost everything changes.
Desperate to hold onto a fragile friendship, Jeongguk is willing to get himself into sticky situations--even to the point of ruining his sister's...
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Chapter Twenty-One: Don't Fall
Jeongguk hadn't been looking for him when he'd met Taehyung. He hadn't been looking for anything, fourteen years of age, he had believed he had known everything there was to know about the universe, that he wouldn't need to grow, or learn or meet any more people. He had Jimin. He had found a new love for photography, he thought he'd done it all, figured it all out.
He'd been swimming, the day they found each other, in the school pool, about two weeks into the school year. He couldn't quite remember why, he'd had a free period and decided why not go for a swim, as there was no one there, so that's what he did. It had been early morning, the morning sun had shone through the tall windows down onto the pool as if it were cleansing the water with its warmth. The water had been cold, but he'd quickly built up the warmth in his body, swimming laps. He was a good swimmer, during lessons he'd always gotten full marks, the teacher had even asked if he wouldn't join the swim team, but he wasn't exactly interested. He didn't like team sports, and he wouldn't actually want to compete in swimming, especially when he would need to do so in front of the entire school.
He'd been going through it in his head as he swam, he'd of course given it genuine thought, whether or not to join the team, although he knew innately it wouldn't go right with him, when, upon surfacing at one end of the pool, he came face to face with a boy he had never seen before. He was so startled by this he sprung backwards, pushing a wave of water behind him.
It almost didn't even render to him what the boy said. "Hey," he said. "I'm lost."
"What?"
The boy smiled sweetly as if he were looking at a cute animal at the zoo. It felt like that, after all, Jeongguk was swimming in a pool, and the boy was sitting on dry land, staring at him. "I don't know how I got here and I don't know where to go. Can you help?" was what he said.
Jeongguk said, "Who are you?"
He had never seen him before. He could tell he was his age, although he seemed a little bit taller than him. He had fluffy hair which fell over his eyes, concealing a big eye-smile, which was accompanied with a toothy grin.
"Taehyung," he said, lightly. "I just moved here."
"From where?"
"Daegu."
"Oh." Jeongguk had never been to Daegu, he sometimes went to Busan as he had relatives there, but he knew that wasn't the same. Then he remembered his name. "I'm Jeongguk."
Which was when Taehyung did something that Jeongguk still recalled to this day, cracking up for the peculiarity of it. He held out his hand. Jeongguk still remembered not knowing what to do, as he swam around in the cold water, but when Taehyung had urged, pushing his hand forward, Jeongguk had hesitantly taken it.
