You spent the majority of the next day relaxing at your mom's side from that disaster of a meeting with the boys. It took a ridiculous amount of time to explained to her what really had happened adding the statement of Jungwon to help your state and finally with Dad calming her in their usual exchange of sweet words she accepted it.
Bedrudgingly, but at least you were save from her scrutinizing attention for now.
Some time after the lunch ended, you went straight down to the pool which is an added accomodation from the rent of the cabin, where you knew the boys would be. They were lying around on the deck chairs, their dirty bare feet hanging off the edges as they tried to sunbathe with Jay handing them both a sunblock to prevent themselves from the burn.
As soon as Daniel saw you, he sprang up from his chair. "Ladies and Gentlemen!", he began dramatically, bowing like a carnival ring master for your sake. "I do believe it is time for my sister's somersault in the water for this fake summer!"
The instinct of yours warned you to inch away from him - too slow of a movement, and it would be all over -he'd chase you then. "Don't even try to approach me today", you said to Daniel, which was your own mistake never knowing he already talked to the other boys.
Dismissing you warning before Jungwon and Jake stood up, walking forward to circle around you. "Jay hyung just wanna see if you know how to swim", Jungwon said, and the mentioned boy just grinned evilly at your glance at him. "Because he apparently couldn't"
"I'm too old for this," you said desperately, walking backward, and that's when they grabbed you. Jay and Jungwon each took a wrist, "Come on, guys, don't listen to my brother", you tried to wriggle out of their grasp.
All of your resistance was pointless as you dragged your feet in the pavement, but they still pulled you along. You knew it was futile to resist, but you always tried, even though the bottoms of your feet got burned along the roughing part of the ground in the process.
"Ready, babies?", Jay said, lifting you up under your armpit, and Daniel grabbed you by your feet, then Jungwon took you by your right arm while Jay hung onto your left.
It was very rare for such fun for you to see between your brother, his bestfriend and your boy's bestfriend, but it did still happened to make terrible in your experience. It was honestly, almost enough to make you scream when they begun to swung you back and forth like you were sack of a flour.
All that was left for you is to yell at them the more they continue, seemingly enjoying it. "I hate you guys!", and it was gone unheard over their laughters. "Let me down!"
"One", Jay began.
"Two", Jungwon seconded.
"Three!", Daniel finished, and then they launched you into the pool, clothes and all. You hit the water with a loud smack, immediately sinking down deeper and even if you're already underwater, you could hear them busting up.
When you swam up to the surface, you scowled at them and yelled once again, "Are you all a frickin' ten year old kids?!"
"Damn right we are", Jay said smugly as he shared laughs with the two. His smuggy face made you want to flash him and soak him and his precious Balenciaga sunglasses that you very well know you couldn't pay for.
Then you said to get back at him, "I think Danny twisted one of my feet. That imp!", to make it more believable, you pretended to have trouble swimming over to them.
Jay walked over to the edge of the pool and he smiled, "I'm pretty sure you can survive a small cramp", he said, beginning to smirk while Daniel and Jungwon cheered when your Dad shows up with the barbeque grill.
"At least help me out", you demanded with a pout. He squatted and gave you his hand, which you took then without a warning, you gripped tight and pulled his arm as hard as he could.
There was a small yelp before Jay stumbled and fell forward, landed in the pool with a splash even bigger than yours. You think you laughed harder right then than you'e laughed in my whole life for this revenge. So did Jungwon and Daniel with your Dad gesturing for them to help him set up the grill.
It made think maybe all your mom heard you all laughing as she appeared, smiling and bringing down the food ready to grill - she doesn't even bat an eye at Jay's presence since she heard from you that the boy is alone at home, so she let it go for now.
Not a minute later, Jay's head bobbed up quickly, and he waded down over to your direction as the level of the water was only right to his height, he won't have any problem with drowning. At first, you're worried he might be mad, but he wasn't, not completely or not even a bit.
He was smiling but in a kind of a threatening way. Seeing this, you immediately swam away. "Catch me if me you can!", you said gleefully, kicking waves of water over to his face. "You're too slow!"
Everytime he came close, you swam away and he just laughed. "Jay, get away!", you yelled, not really liking it when Jungwon had this unreadable look in his face from his spot next to your dad. "Jay!"
Dad who were now waving a fan to the grill, said, "Have fun until you can! We'll eat all this barbeque wihout you two!"
Which made you laugh, which made you too slow to swim away, and giving Jay a chance to catch your foot under the water. "Let go, Jay", you gasped, still laughing. "I'm ticklish down there!"
Jay shook his head, still holding that smug smirk on his face. "Ticklish, huh?", you said, treading water closer to you.
The two of you were now in the middle of the pool. His white shirt was soaked through, and you could see the way it clings tightly on his chest down to his stomach, and you gulped as your eyes glimpsed what he have there before looking away nervously.
There was this weird stillness between you and him all of a sudden as he still held on to your foot, and you were trying to stay afloat. For a second, you wished for Jungwon and Daniel to join you to remove that kind of awkwardness. You didn't know why. Maybe because you were sure you still have a mild attraction to him.
For a moment, you didn't understand why, but that was only until he began to speak, "Remember about the letters from my dad's private things? I brought one, so we could read it together here"
"Jay", you said slowly in disbelief, never expecting for him to get close in spite of your mom watching from beside Daniel. "Stop now or else"
Unable to stop himself from smiling knowingly, he pulled on your foot, drawing you closer. Being this close to him was making you feel dizzy and nervous. It is not the first time, and yet it feels different knowing your whole family is watching along Jungwon.
You said it again, one last time, even though you didn't mean it. "Jay, let go of me. Now"
And then, after a short pause he was nodding in understanding, really knowing what you meant. He allowed himself to let go of your feet before he continued to swim away to the edge of the pool.
It was as if the two of you were seemingly of one mind, both heading towards the grilling boys without having to say a single word to each other and pretend like there's nothing that had happened. Jungwon is another issue, though.
He might have been wearing a poker face when you tried to ask him if he was okay, and he nodded repeatedly but his eyes remained the opposite.
💌 _________________________________ 💌
Some part of you, a part that was much larger than you liked to admit, had loved the way Jay get on with the two most important boys in your life, apart from Dad, of course. And so, when he invited the three of you in his hotel room after the enjoying a grilled food meal and as you burst inside, Jay trips over one of the stools, stumbling a few steps before crashing into the unmade bed.
"Sorry, my bad", he whisperes, once he's certain you will not laugh at him again.
"I would love to see the view from here. Care to join me, Wonie?", Daniel suggests, and Jungwon gives him a thumbs up, but he stayed with you and Jay as you yelped out in shock when they steered you inside the bathroom.
Instead of bothering to point out why they were bringing you there, you only called for Daniel who just laughed from his spot in the veranda and the two boys sat you on the closed seat of the toilet and then assess the still present damage of your nose with matching frowns.
You look back and forth between the two of them, doing your best to avoid the giant mirror behind Jay. You weren't quite ready to see the damage just yet.
"I feel like we need bleach or something", Jungwon pointed out with furrowes brows, only for you to interrupt him.
"Bleach? Are the two of you planning to kill me?", you repeated with a worried look to the both of them.
Seeing the expression in your face, Jungwon exchanged a look with Jay that you didn't notice. "What else do you use for this kind of thing?", Jay wondered aloud, tapping his chin repeatedly. "Turpentine? Toilet liquid cleaner? Nail polish remover?"
You did your best to make a feel against your nose and grimaces at the sting. "Maybe it'll just go away on its own", you say hopefully. "By the end of the week, I bet it would be gone before returning to School"
"Sorry, Y/N", Jungwon says, shaking his head. "But we have to do something about that cute note of yours"
"Not to mention the blackening above your mouth", Jay adds cheerfully. "All the other boys like Heeseung will probably run away from screaming at the sight of your face"
"What about the first-aid kit in your bag, hyung?", Jungwon suggests, and you smiled, aware that Jay is always prepared lika boyscout even then.
Even without being able to see their faces because you were still fussing around your nose, you could still feel the weight of their gazes. "Isn't a boyscout use their first aid kit when there's an injured animal in their camp?", you said without meaning to.
"Are you seriously comparing your Sunghoon's aided wound to the plight of a baby animals?", Jay asks with a raise eyebrow and you make a face at him. "Okay, let's find him later and ask you to give you one more"
It's quick, so quick that Jungwon might have missed it if she'd looked away even for a second, but there's something about this exchange, this moment between you and Jay - silly as it is - that feels almost charged. It wasn't in your knowledge that the two of you hold each other's eyes for a beat too long, and then, with a goofy grin, you walked around them and walks out the door to find Jay's bag.
As soon as you're gone, Jungwon widens his eyes at Jay. "That's it. I'm not holding back anymore to say this to you, hyung", he says, trying to keep the surprise out of his voice. "What is with you and Y/N?"
Jay pauses - just for an instant - in the middle of folding a towel. "Y/N", he says dismissively, "is an idiot to not see it"
"This is really hard for me", Jungwon says, his face falling at the realization that everything isn't final. "I want to hate you, but I can't. I like you as my friend"
With Jay hanging the towel carefully on the silver bar near the sink, Jungwon didn't see his reaction, then he turns around again with a wary look. "Okay, just say it", Jay says, and there's a challenge in his tone.
"Say what?"
"It's Y/N we're talking about here. So you must have some sort of opinion about me"
Jungwon hesitates, then shakes his head slightly. "You know", he started quietly, once he had managed to find the right words. "If we're talking about who could care more about her, you would've have an advantage"
"Nope", Jay says with a faint smile, he places both of his hand in the sink, rocking back and forth. "You can do it too, if you'll follow what your heart wants for you to do"
There's a sound in the hallway, and they both freeze, listening for footsteps - it was only you threatening Daniel about something. But when it gets quiet again, Jungwon hoist himself up onto the sink.
"What if the two of you became a thing instead of us?", he says, the idea of it still settling over his head.
"Would you like that?", Jay asks, absently ripping off a square of toilet paper. He begins to shred it into tiny pieces, which flutter like leaves onto the tiled floor.
For Jungwon, this is almost more of a shock than finding about you more closer to Jay than he'd thought: Jay - who always seems too confident and content with himself - seems to be nervously waiting for his answer.
"Do you love her?", he says, beginning to understand than this is more than what it seems, that perhaps it goes deeper than it might appear.
Jay drops the last bit of toilet paper, then wipes his hand on his short. "I don't know", he says, unable to meet Jungwon's eyes for the first time.
"You do", Jungwon says gently, his heart not ready at all to accept it from the person he treated as one of his friends now. "I can see it. And I don't think it's crazy at all"
Only he had been responded by a hoarse laugh from Jay. "It's a little crazy", he admits shyly. "But there's just something about her. Yes, maybe I kind of hate her dumbness, her taking too long to decide, not really resisting any boy at all. I mean, she drives me nuts about it, but..."
"But you already love her"
He shrugs helplessly from Jungwon's sentence. "Who knows what it was like to really feel the true meaning of that word"
Jungwon scoots over, patting the counter and Jay hops up beside him, so that their swaying feet drum in rhythm against the cabinet below. "I know I've been quiet of it lately", he says, relieved to see the older boy smile at this. "But I wish you would've told me"
"Oh, Thank god", Jay let out a breath, releasing the tension that filled him at the idea of having to face an angry Jungwon. "But really, do you want to listen to a guy who liked the same girl as you are?"
"It's just that.. if we can't tell each other the big stuff now, while we're being friends, how are we to survive together if we're not the chosen boy?"
Jay nodded slowly, trying not to feed the green monster that was gnawing at his stomach. "Why are you even talking about this?", he says. "It was really not helping my mind to be at ease. But who do you think is your biggest competition?"
"Heeseung hyung", Jungwon confessed, leaning into him a little as he murmured. "And you along that Jake"
"As for me, it's only you that I was scared of the most", Jay says just as the door is nudged open again, and you appears holding up a first-aid kit in your hand.
"What?", you asks, when they both go abruptly quiet. "Time to get a move on, boys"
Another quiet falls over Jungwon and Jay, and they stares back at you at the same time, knowing that in time, your words will be right.
There will be a time for them where they need to move on, and the more time they spend wishing it otherwise, the harder it will be to let go.
💌 _________________________________ 💌
Song Hye Jin - a childhoold friend of your mom, one that you met occassionally, insisted that your family visited her in their vacation house near the beach. She still looked sleepy by the time you all turned up at her porch, and her hair was specked by paint as that it's her job - a painter.
She and your mother hugged first, fierce and long. Your mom looked so happy to see her that she was teary, and she was never teary. Perhaps it had something to do with how Hye Jin is clearly the friend who stayed true had throughout her life. Mostly, in Highschool.
Then it was your turn. Hye Jin swept you in for a hug, the close kind that's long enough to make you wonder how long it's going to last, who'll pull away first.
"Long time no see, Aunt Hye", you greeted her cheerfully, partly because it was true and partly because you knew she loved to hear it. Because of her not marrying anyone for some experience back then, she had not acquire any children, which she really desired.
As if to make up for it, she had always adored you and Daniel like her own sometimes. "Thanks," she said, finally letting you go, looking at you from arm's length. She shook her head and said, "When did you go and grow up? When did you turn into this pretty girl like your mom?"
You smiled self-consciously, glad that Daniel and Jungwon was busy pouring their attention on the puppies she owned. "I look pretty much the same, Aunt Hye", you said.
"You've always been lovely in my eyes, but look at you", she said as she shook her head like she was in awe of you. "You're so prettier than before and I know what will happen next, just like to your mother. You're going to have an amazing, amazing year. It'll be year you'll never forget"
That's what you like about her. She always spoke in absolutes like that -and when she did, it sounded like a proclamation, like it would come true because she said so.
The thing is, Hye Jin was right. It would a year you'd never, ever try to forget. It would be the year everything began. It would be the year you'll turn eighteen. Because for the first time, you felt it. There's a change coming in, you mean.
Every year up to this one, you believed and wished it'd be different. Life would be different. And that year, it finally is. It had been granted for the better or for worse just because of all those letters.
💌 _________________________________ 💌
Keep an eye out on Song Hye Jin from now on. As for tommorow, I think I will only have one update for I will have important matters to attend to.
And all I can ask is, What did you get from the last part with the new adult character entering the story?
Don't forget to Comment & Vote!