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There are things that Jaehwan has learned about the world. 1) A peep show does not include those delicious little duck marshmallow treats he had shipped to him from America after he’d seen an ad for them online. 2) People did not care so much for music so long as it had a beat they could dance to. The third thing he’d learned was that there were some very good people in the world and some very not good people in the world. Of course, there were those people who fell in between being bad and good as most beings do, but he wasn’t worried about them right now. There were just too many, and Jaehwan had little time for them. Unless they were a very specific person. With pitch dark hair that was growing a bit too long. Strands left over his pillow. Then he had all the time in the world.
So, to recap. Jaehwan knew that there were good and bad people that he was going to come into contact with. As Taekwoon collects a mat for them to sit on from the middle-aged woman contracting them out from beside the noodle stand, he hopes that the bad ones are not out today. Sweltering heat and high humidity already have beads of sweat rolling down the back of his loose black tee. What they don’t need is for all the good spots to be taken up too.
In all honesty, he wanted to be near the water. Craved it, really. Fresh spray or salty
seawater, he had no preference.
Swimming was easy. Gliding through the water, chatting with whatever was willing to give him the time of day. He was happy a nymph at those times. Or, he would be if he were on speaking terms with any nymphs. The forest and sea creatures rarely got along. Jaehwan saw a lot of that here, too.
Swimming was out of the question today, so he’d have to make do. It’s not that he couldn’t, per-se, it was that Taekwoon told him people around here just didn’t do that. Not in the Han River, at least. Not with the cruise ship dock so close by. What a waste of open water.
The smell wasn’t even close to what he expected, either. Sure, he’d seen the Han River before. Subways in this country had to go across it a lot of the time. He’d marveled at the expanse of blue-green the first couple of times it had whipped by the window, Taekwoon discreetly tugging him away. (People here just didn’t do that. Again. So boring.)
Oh well. Minyul didn’t mind. Jaehwan can tell, because the kid’s hand is grabbing onto three of his fingers with a mighty force. Childish wonder was always a funny thing.
“Uncle Whan, look!” They’d graduated to Uncle Whan a while back. Minyul was getting older.
Said adolescent is pointing insistently at a large, flower umbrella a woman is carrying. And it really was huge. How did those arms brunt the sheer weight of such an object? Jaehwan was a little impressed.
“Minyul. What did I say about pointing,” comes Taekwoon’s absent-minded reprimand. He’s attempting to juggle the mat, his phone, and a piece of paper with all manner of advertisements on it. Jaehwan hastily reaching for the phone as it reaches the critical point of tipping. Saved from becoming a mess on the pavement walkway. Taekwoon smiles his gratefulness.
Even now, Jaehwan call tell how tired he is. He’d been pushing himself too hard, trying to get back in shape for the next season. Apparently, so much time away from Taekwoon’s fixed schedule had done a toll on his athleticism. No one was happy about that.
“‘S not polite.” Minyul deflates for about a millisecond (Jaehwan counts) before something else distracts him. Before he can get too worked up, though, Taekwoon ushers his boys down the walkway.
“We’re not even at the water, yet. Think you can find a good spot?”
“Yeah! That way!” Minyul might be pointing again, but Taekwoon lets him be, dragging the two adults behind him. Well, dragging Jaehwan. Taekwoon falls into a step behind them.
It may have been a sunny day were it not for the smog settling low over the city. There’s not much blue to be seen up there. Not in the summer. Not even in the middle of the day. It pains the fae.
Jeju Island was supposed to be nice. Maybe they could do a trip there next time.
Minyul leads them to a pretty good place, actually. Jaehwan would be impressed, but his fingers are going numb.
“Hey, good job!” The fae praises the kid, slyly releasing the grip to pat the top of Minyul’s head. “Whoa! You see that? Let’s go check it out!”
Jaehwan is referring to some members of a band school setting up for an impromptu jam session on the path separating the greenery and the river. Which was cool but would also let Taekwoon set up. And Taekwoon knows that, which is why he only rolls his eyes when Jaehwan winks over at him.
Ah, love.
There are people milling about, so Jaehwan kneels down, indicating for Minyul to hop onto his back for a piggyback ride.
“Oh, oof, you’re getting big!” It’s the truth. As Minyul gets settled and Jaehwan rises to his feet, he wonders how much longer they’ll have like this.
Humans are funny that way.
The band kids are good. Singers switch in an out for different song covers and Jaehwan is pleasantly surprised. Minyul gets bored quickly, though, as kids are apt to do.
Oh well. They’d be able to watch from their sitting spot anyway.
Taekwoon is on the phone when Jaehwan plops down beside him on the mat, Minyul rolling off him and onto his side.
“Shoes,” Jaehwan mouths at the boy, taking his own off the place on the grass. Minyul nods with enough seriousness to make Jaehwan stifle a laugh.
“-yes, and the fried too, please,” Taekwoon is saying. In his lap is the paper from before. So that was it.
“Chicken and noodles. Should be here in about fifteen,” Taekwoon tells them both as soon as he ends the call. “That’s good with you?”
“Yeah!” A pair of rapidly growing hands thrusts into the air. Jaehwan mimics Minyul’s pose. He’s hungry.
Food here is good. That could be because of who he shared it with, though.
Minyul has a school event coming up for the new year. A sort of parent-teacher thing.
“Ooh, can we both go? Please?” Jaehwan uses Doe Eyes! It is somewhat effective. Taekwoon shrugs.
“We’ll think of something. I need to get the September schedule first.”
Ah, right.
Jaehwan has no time to get down in the dumps. Minyul launches into a storytime about a stuffed toy he and Dohyun found while at a playground and a tirade of how they’d named it and where it was probably from- aliens was an option at this point.
Excited glances between each of his caretakers cause them to oooh and aaah in the right places. Jaehwan enthusiastically nods his head at the best of times. When it feels right.
It usually feels right.
It feels especially right when Taekwoon comes back from an intermission in Minyul’s tale with their food. If it’s less hot than they would have liked, that was fine, too.
“Ah…” Taekwoon hums after a moment, perturbed.
“Mm?”
“Forgot drinks…” The human mumbles.
“Tea after?”
“Ice cream!”
“You want ice cream? Are you full?” Taekwoon asks the kid munching happily on a drumstick.
“Not for ice cream.”
Taekwoon sends a look over to Jaehwan, whose grin spreads wide to the point of pained cheeks.
“I could go for ice cream.”
This is one time that Jaehwan will always side with the kid. He’s now chanting for ice cream. Between bites, of course.
“We’ll go to a dessert cafe, then. Should be a bunch around here,” Taekwoon relents. Jaehwan and Minyul high-five (discreetly, though not discreetly at all).
The fae is still mildly upset that he can’t swim when they decide to pack up and walk off their lunch. City water wasn’t inviting in the least, but the chance to splash around was hard to pass up.
Taekwoon walks beside him, their arms barely brushing. They had to watch themselves here. Awful, but a necessity. People could know who Taekwoon was, and the rumours always ran rampant at the worst of times.
Minyul is marching in front of them. His legs are coming up long and gangly.
“They run in the family,” Taekwoon told Jaehwan when they’d gone to a park one time. Jaehwan had brought it up. “He’ll be falling all over himself until he grows into them.”
That’s proving correct now. Minyul constantly catches himself just barely hitting the ground. His shoes snag on the backs of each other, tripping him up. That won’t stop him. There was too much stuff to see. Too many questions to ask. Truly, that was the only way to grow.
Jaehwan was much the same.
Growing up. Now that was the funniest thing of all.