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8, summer
Summer, in Wonwoo’s mind, simply means a break from school where he can play games and read books without much worry about being scolded that he isn’t doing his homework instead. There’s summer homework, sure, but all that requires is him talking about one activity he’ll be doing every day during the vacation.
Easy peasy―that’s 50 days of logging what he’s read or played.
Well, that was the plan at least. Now, he and his brother, Bohyuk, are being shipped off to his grandparents for a ‘change of pace’. His parents want him to have more sun and have been low-key implying they regret buying him a Gameboy, but welp, too late for that. Wonwoo had filled his bag with all the cartridges he owns, as well as with as many books that his new backpack could carry, and he had proudly shown it off to his parents with a seemingly innocent smile.
In an attempt to save on batteries, Wonwoo stares mindlessly outside their car window instead of playing Pokemon Silver for the nth time. He tries his best to take in the lush scenery, rather than get lulled to sleep by his dad’s old sleepy music.
Living away from the city for a while honestly doesn’t sound half-bad. Despite what it may seem, Wonwoo doesn’t plan to completely just stay indoors the whole stay.
Maybe he can go and finally learn how to swim (read: not drown), or even how to fish (can’t say he stomachs seafood well, but fishing sounds fun regardless). Maybe he can reenact some scenes from his Harvest Moon games when they’re at the beach or something. He’ll have to think a way of how to get his 6-year old brother to comply with his antics, but he’ll cross that bridge when he gets there.
The only downside to living with his grandparents is that they don’t own a computer―or at least not yet. They’ll have it installed, along with internet, by the end of the month, but Wonwoo didn’t learn about it until he was already in the car en route, and so, all his PC games have, sadly, remained by his bedside.
He guesses he’ll have to wait before he gets to learn how The Sims work.
Wonwoo’s grandparents live in a traditional house near the shopping district that leads directly to the beach. Unlike his home back in the city which stands with two floors of concrete walls and marble floors, the house here is a single-storey building, mostly made out of hardwood. It’s not the first time he’s been here, but it’s been long enough that he doesn’t remember a thing (to be fair, he was four then).
His grandmother squeezes the life out of the siblings as soon as they get out of the car and his grandfather joins her soon after. Wonwoo hasn’t seen them since the New Year’s but they’re wearing bright smiles on their faces and it makes the tips of his mouth curl up as well.
He enters the house gingerly. The floorboards creak as he steps on them. He is low-key scared that he’ll make a hole if he tried hard enough, and so, starts to take more caution as he treads on them. On his way to the living room, he notices that the middle of the hallway he’s on is connected to the outside. The doors are wide open and the sunlight gives the area a warm glow..
“If you get to the end of that way, that’s the kitchen, but outside is a garden,” his grandmother supplies. “You can check it out after you get settled in.”
Wonwoo nods. He’ll explore later, he supposes.
The garden is filled with vegetables rather than flowers. Wonwoo can’t recognize most of them, but he figures at least one of them is lettuce or cabbage (in his eyes, they’re all just leaves with different shades of green). He scans at the scenery beyond the fence and sees that there are two sides: to his left is the rest of the large hill that most of the housings are on, surprisingly with several residences near the top, and to his right is the view of the beach.
Even though he knows they’re quite a walk away, he thinks he can smell the sea. Or taste it? He recalls his mother once telling him that the sense of smell is linked to the tastebuds or something like that. That may explain the briny feeling he has in his mouth and why his nose itches, he thinks.
Wonwoo is soon distracted as he notices his surroundings have began to dim. He instinctively looks towards where there is still light. The sun dips lower into the horizon, making it look like the the ocean is swallowing it up. The flashes of red and orange disappear in an instant, and all is left is the dark blue sky.
It looks like a scene from his home. His family lives in a coastal area, and beaches and sunsets are nothing new to him, but it’s a comforting sight to see. He somehow feels more welcomed, and less far away from the everyday life he thought he’d be leaving for a while.
“Wonwoo-ah! It’s time for dinner!” His grandfather comes out and catches him staring at the scene.
“Do you wanna go to the beach? I can take you and your brother tomorrow,” he chuckles.
Wonwoo nods along and follows his grandfather to the dining room.
Later, before he goes to bed, he writes in his diary: Day 5: Arrived at my grandparents home. Watched a sunset and it was pretty. I felt like I was back at home, watching the same scene. I think I’ll like it here.
-
Wonwoo convinces his grandfather to bring his newly-bought camera out to the beach. He plans to take pictures of him holding random washed up objects with both of his hands up high printed out, then caption them with ‘WONWOO obtained an ‘ITEM’’ while adding yellow lines around his hands for emphasis. The thought of it makes him chuckle. He might as well have fun with the diary while he can.
It’s mid-morning but the sun is still scorching. Wonwoo adjusts his cap as he wipes off beads of sweat from his forehead. He pats his hands on his clothes before crouching down to start his search for the biggest shell there is.
The beach looks rather somber with its few people and its gray sand. The waves roll on the shore quietly (well, it’s still noisy, but compared to Busan, it’s not), and Wonwoo isn’t used to the relative silence when he’s at the beach.
That’s why when he hears a high-pitched shout from nearby, it immediately catches his attention.
“Kage bunshin!”
Wonwoo watches as a kid runs around with their arms straightened out at their side instead of the normal jogging position. The kid has some sort of bandana around their head with some metal plating at the front. The stomp on the sand while yelling nonsensical words and Wonwoo can’t help but stare.
The kid starts sprinting around again in his strange running form and without thinking, Wonwoo holds the camera to his eye and clicks the shutter.
It sounds off rather loudly and the stranger then turns towards Wonwoo and he gets a better look of their face. They look quite ordinary, Wonwoo thinks. It’s a young boy who looks to be around his age with large eyes and a pointed nose. Nothing else stands out that much except that when they meet eyes, the boy’s face starts to flush..
For a whole 10 seconds, neither of them speak, nor do either of them move. It’s almost as if time stops because of how awkward the whole situation is.
“Uh...hey?” the other boy starts while rubbing the back of his neck and shifting his gaze towards Wonwoo. “I haven’t seen you around before.”
Wonwoo blinks. He doesn’t know why it takes him a couple of seconds to comprehend that the stranger is talking to him when they are looking right at him. He’s the only one there in the first place.
“Ah. Yeah. I arrived yesterday. I’m staying with my grandparents up there,” Wonwoo replies, a bit bashful as he points towards the backyard that he was just in half an hour ago.
The other boy looks towards where he directs at.“The Jeons?” he asks.
Wonwoo nods. “Yeah. I’m Jeon Wonwoo.”
“Oh, ah, I’m Wen Junhui. You can call me Jun.” Jun smiles shyly at him, his face still all red.
“Jun,” Wonwoo tests out.
Jun softly calls back, “Wonwoo.”
Wonwoo. Wonwoo doesn’t know why his own name suddenly sounds so foreign yet familiar at the same time.
“How old are you?” Wonwoo questions.
“Just turned 8!” Oh, we’re the same age.
“Oh, cool. I’m turning 8 in July.”
Jun cracks a smile.
Wonwoo wonders if Jun is a local. “Do you live here?”
Jun shakes his head. “No. I stay here in the summer with my relatives. Air’s nice and everything so my parents like it here better than Seoul and make me go here during the summer. This year, my baby brother’s come with.”
“Oh, cool.” Wonwoo blushes. If he manages to say it one more time, Jun might think that’s that only way he knows how to react.
“My brother and I are in a similar situation. We’re from Busan and mom wanted us to have a ‘change in scenery.’” He brings both of his hands up just to air quote.
“Oh, cool,” Jun responds, smiling. It doesn’t seem like he’s mocking Wonwoo, rather, it’s like he’s using it as a let’s-be-friends sort of signal.
In the middle of all of it, Jun’s bandana slips off his forehead and start to cover his eyes. He quickly unties it from the back and fixes it up. That reminds Wonwoo―
“What were you doing earlier with the shouting and kicking thing?”
Jun’s cheeks start to redden.“Uh…that. I, I was pretending to be Naruto.”
Wonwoo cocks his head. “Naruto? Who’s that?”
“He’s a ninja!”
“Nin…ja?”
“Oh, uh, they’re really cool!” Jun shouts, a little more excited than he probably intends.
Wonwoo double-takes. He’s heard Jun shout earlier, but after hearing him talk in such a soft voice earlier, he is a bit taken aback.
“Uhh, they do martial arts and, um, have shurikens! And they can clone themselves!” Jun continues, along with massive hand gestures going everywhere.
“Clone?” Wonwoo’s never heard that word before.
Jun’s eyes light up. He pumps his fists. “Yeah! Naruto makes a copy of himself to beat up the enemy!”
Wonwoo crosses his arms, letting the camera simply hang on his neck. “Can your clones do things like your homework while you play or something?” He wonders out loud.
Jun looks at him in awe. “Wow! I never thought of it like that! Naruto usually only uses it for fighting or pranking people.” Jun nods to himself in satisfaction, probably thinking of all the other possibilities cloning can offer.
“So…you were trying to clone yourself earlier?”
Jun flashes him a grin. “Yeah. You have to go like this,” Jun positions his hands a certain way and brings them together in front of his face, “and then yell out ‘kage bunshin!’”
A smile tugs at Wonwoo. “So, if you did it seriously, would it work?”
“Nah, I’m not a ninja.” Laughter bubbles out from Jun. It’s a nice, warm sound, Wonwoo thinks.
“Do you wanna know more about Naruto? I’ve got the first few volumes of the manga at home! There’ll be a rerun of some episodes on TV later too.”
“’Manga’? What’s that? And it has a TV series too?”
“They’re like books but with pictures and no paragraph things! Well I guess there are paragraphs but they’re in those bubbles the characters use to talk. And you read them right to left instead of left to right, just like Chinese!” Jun passionately explains, including hand gestures as he describes. “And yep! The tv series is called an ‘anime’.”
Wonwoo looks around. His grandpa is helping Bohyuk make a sandcastle. It doesn’t look like they’ll be done anytime soon so he figures it’s okay if he just leaves for a bit. Jun seems to know his grandfather as well, so convincing him shouldn’t be too hard.
“Sure, let me just ask my grandpa”
Wonwoo naturally inhale-read the first three volumes that Jun possesses. In his own humble opinion, he’s a fast reader, and taking in a book that’s mostly drawings was an easy 30-minute feat. By the time he finishes binging through all of it, it’s lunch time and his grandfather calls him home.
Wonwoo’s reluctant to leave bu his grandfather easily invites Jun to their house to eat together and Jun’s own relatives let him go without much complaint. They talk all about team 7 and how their dynamic seems so unlikely but somehow they’re getting through. The cliffhanger about Naruto’s power awakening left Wonwoo such a deep impression that he just needs to get the next volume ASAP.
Jun teases him that he already knows what happens because the anime showed him so but keeps a tight lid just to annoy Wonwoo. It’s funny with how they’ve just met, but Jun can now easily tease Wonwoo like this.
After they finish their meals, they head back to Jun’s house and discuss the chapters as they wait for the anime reruns to start.
They laugh at the comical kiss the two leads share at the start of the series; they feel sorry for Naruto’s lonely childhood and how he doesn’t really have any friends; they marvel over the fight scenes and how exciting they are to read, even when you already know the outcome.
And seeing it on television―with the dubbed voice acting, and all the music and sound effects―make the battles even cooler. Wonwoo watches in wonder and amazement. He didn’t think much about cartoons beyond the Disney movies he has on VHS before, but now, it’s like a whole new door has opened.
For the next few weeks, Jun and Wonwoo develop a sort of routine: they meet in the morning, at someone’s house, or at the beach, and then they just play with each other until lunch time. Sometimes, Wonwoo brings out his Gameboy and plays Pokemon while Jun watches (Jun states that Pokemon was his actual first anime and he claims that the movie about the Unown is the best thing ever); sometimes, they roleplay some scenes from Naruto or one of Wonwoo’s books or games (their roles never stay the same because Jun insists it’d be boring otherwise); sometimes they play with each other’s younger brother (they manage to convert Bohyuk into liking Naruto as well, but he’s still mostly preoccupied with playing with his grandparents). Then, in the afternoon, they watch the Naruto episodes together.
A month passes by and they don’t seem to tire of it.
Now, Wonwoo’s birthday is coming up soon and Jun insists he has the best idea on how to celebrate it.
Wonwoo’s going to have the typical family celebration on the actual day, so the night before, Jun invites him to dinner. Right after, Jun brings Wonwoo to his room and turns off the lights.
All at once, the room starts to glow in neon green. It’s not particularly bright but there are several stars of all sizes stuck onto the walls of Jun’s rooms. Wonwoo’s seen them before, but had always thought they were just some room design, like wallpaper. It’s simple, but beautiful.
“So, what do you think, pretty cool, huh?” Jun’s voice gathers his attention.
“Yeah,” Wonwoo smiles, “Is this your big plan?”
“It’s part of it!” exclaims the other boy.
Jun grabs Wonwoo’s hand and leads him carefully to his bed.
“Sit here first. I’m going to turn on my night light, alright?” Jun lets go of him and soon, a bright white light illuminates their spot. “Phew. Without the light, it’s still kinda scary, even though it’s pretty, isn’t it?”
Wonwoo scans the room. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“Soooooo,” Jun drags on the word, his eyes twinkling, “you know how first kisses are important?”
Wonwoo narrows his eyes at his friends. “Yeah, why?”
“Well, the worst thing that can happen is for you to accidentally have your first kiss with someone you hate, right?” Jun brings his arms together and nods in satisfaction.
“Like Sasuke and Naruto?”
“Exactly!” Jun exclaims. “So, this is my gift! I’m kissing you first so that you don’t ever have to go through that!”
“Eh?” Wonwoo looks at the other boy quizzically.
“If it’s with a friend, then it won’t suck, right?” Jun points at himself excitedly, cheeks all puffed up.
“I don’t think it works that way. Is it okay for kids to kiss?”
“Well, Naruto and Sasuke did!”
“But it was an accident, and they hate each other.”
“Well, I don’t know. Can’t two kids not kiss? Nothing bad happened to them, well, except that Naruto got beaten up. But it’s not like anyone will beat me up for kissing you…are there?!”
Wonwoo fights to stop laughter from coming out. Who on earth would be mad at him for kissing someone else? “Nah, I don’t think so.”
“Then, isn’t this plan brilliant?” Jun looks at him expectantly.
“Aren’t you supposed to kiss someone you’re gonna marry though?” Wonwoo ponders out loud. He’s only seen couples kiss after all.
“I kiss my brother all the time though.” Oh, it’s a family kiss, or a friend kiss, in this case, Wonwoo guesses. Only now does he recall how he kisses his grandparents whenever he sees them after a long time. Kissing Jun won’t be much different, probably.
Wonwoo hums while thinking. “What’s with the lights though?”
“To make it special, silly. If I just kiss you just anywhere, it won’t even feel like a gift.”
Wonwoo considers it. It’s not a bad deal and Jun makes a good argument. Neither of them have anything to lose. He doesn’t even know exactly why a first kiss is important anyway. He supposes it’ll be fine. He’s about to agree when he spots something on Jun’s bedside table.
It’s Jun’s bag of snacks!
“Can’t I have your bag of jellies instead? I think I can take kissing my arch-nemesis even though they don’t exist yet.” Jun is normally generous with his food. He loves all sort of extremes of food like super spicy or super sour and likes having people try them. His biggest obsession though is with these certain red candies that he’s only let Wonwoo taste once. He insists it’s because he’s trying to make sure they last him the whole summer. Wonwoo has to hand it to him though, they really are super tasty.
“Aw, come on, really? I was saving them up though…”
“Come on, I’ll share them with you. Unlike you, I don’t hog them all to myself.” Wonwoo smiles at Jun, amused.
Jun rolls his eyes but grins widely. He stands and grabs the plastic bag. “Well, alright, if that’s what you really wa-”
Jun trips and falls face first onto Wonwoo. Upon realizing, he gets himself up and looks at his friend, all flustered.
“WOW. DIDN’T WE ALMOST KISS?” Jun’s lips barely touched Wonwoo’s cheek in reality but to the boy, it was close enough.
Wonwoo sits himself up. He can’t believe that almost happened. He thought that accidentally kissing someone would happen like only in books or something.
“See!” Jun’s voice cuts his thoughts. “What if the grossest person tripped and fell on you! Wouldn’t that be the worst first kiss ever?”
Getting up from the bed, Jun proceeds to put on a show.“You’ll be like, “Oh no! I should have taken Jun’s offer when we were 8 years old! At least I’d have kissed a really handsome boy!”” He keeps his fist at his chest and looks to the ceiling with a distraught face.
“I’m more handsome than you are,” Wonwoo remarks.
“Since it’s your birthday, I’ll agree just this once.”
Wonwoo laughs. “Okay. So how are we gonna do this?”
Jun perks up and sits back on the bed beside Wonwoo. He places his hands on both of Wonwoo’s cheeks. “It’s okay. I’ve read on this.” He smiles reassuringly.
“They said it’s best if you close your eyes.” Wonwoo follows suit.
It lasts for a second, or maybe even half.
To Wonwoo, he feels like he just missed it. It was there, then it was gone. He touches his lips and looks to satisfied-looking Jun. “I don’t see how this is supposed to be special.”
“Well people say it matters, so maybe it does in the future.”
“I guess so.” Wonwoo shrugs.
Jun’s smile seems to disappear and his fingers start fidgeting. “Did you dislike it?” he asks in a small voice.
Wonwoo blinks. He sighs in his mind. He didn’t mean for it to sound like a bad thing. He hates it when he makes Jun honestly upset. He pinches Jun’s nose and his friend shrieks. Jun quickly meets Wonwoo’s eyes, and the latter grins. “What do you mean? I kissed the second-most handsome guy ever, Wen Junhui. Why wouldn’t I be happy?”
Jun’s giggle fills the room. He latches himself onto Wonwoo.
“Happy birthday, Wonwoo!”
The rest of the season goes by, and before they know it, they’re packing Wonwoo’s suitcase, getting ready for him to leave later that day.
“Will you be here next summer?” Wonwoo asks as he folds the last of his singlets before dropping them onto the rest of the pile.
Jun zips Wonwoo’s backpack closed, having been entrusted with making the books fit the small canvas bag.“Yeah. I’m here every summer. Will you?”
“I’ll ask my parents, but if I don’t, I’ll send you a message.”
Wonwoo takes something from his pocket and places it in Jun’s hand. “In the mean time, you can have this.” Jun brings it closer to his face and is surprised to see Wonwoo’s treasured Pokemon Silver cartridge in his palm. He doesn’t even own a console and yet Wonwoo is entrusting it with him?
“Maybe you’ll get to buy or borrow a GameBoy within the next year so that you can play.”
Jun’s line of sight shifts between his hand and Wonwoo. “Can I really have this?”
Wonwoo laughs. “I’m letting you borrow it, silly. It’s to make sure we’ll be meeting next summer for sure in one way or another.”
A wide grin spreads through Jun’s face. He flings himself onto Wonwoo and the other boy almost falls down from the hug.
“Jeon Wonwoo, you’re the best! I might even like you more than jellies!”
“I know I’m the best, but I know you’re outright flattering me.” After all, how could Jun choose anything over his beloved snacks, which in Wonwoo’s mind, is Jun’s ultimate number one.
Wonwoo squeezes Jun as well. “Make sure you don’t forget it or overwrite my save file.”
Wonwoo can’t see it, but Jun nods vigorously in excitement.
“It’s a promise then!”
The car arrives and Jun helps Wonwoo place everything in the trunk. Wonwoo opens the door before turning around, facing Jun.
“See you next year, Junnie.” Wonwoo salutes at him.
“See ya, Wonwoo-ah!” Jun salutes back.
Day XX: I had to go back to Busan today. Summer is almost over but I’m looking forward to the next one already.
8, fall
“Wonwoo, wanna come over to play with our PS2? We got this new game called ‘Kingdom Hearts’ and we’re gonna go and try it out.”
Wonwoo pushes his chair back into the desk and holds firmly to his backpack straps.“Sorry, but there’s a new episode of Naruto later and I don’t wanna miss it.”
“Naruto? What’s that?”
Wonwoo smirks. These boys don’t know it, but they’re about to fall into a great hole.“It’s an anime about ninjas.”
8, winter
After much prodding, Wonwoo’s dad finally gives in and buys him a CD of the Pokemon movie Jun had been talking about.
By the end of it, he’s sobbing over Molly’s reunion with her father and Ash with his mother.
8, spring
Summer is a few months away but the day of promise seems like it’s taking forever.
Upon reflection, Wonwoo thought that he should have at least gotten Jun’s address so that they could have mailed each other or something. Instead, they relied on the wish that fate would be good to both of them so that the summer meet-up could be fulfilled.
“All that time lost...well we do have all summer to make up for it.”
After spinning the pencil in his hand for the nth time, Wonwoo gazes into the window and stares at the horizon.
He hopes to see the summer sky soon.