Chapter Text
2002
Midsummer finds most of the neighborhood families at the park. It’s a popular location, what with its floating docks, sandy beaches, playset, and occasionally the ice cream truck. The late afternoon sun shines hot against kids’ backs, slathered with sunscreen, parents guarded from the UV rays by their beach umbrellas. The sound of parents calling to their kids, teenagers shouting dares at their friends from the docks, children screaming in delight fills the air all around. The air is filled with the mossy smell of lake water-- earlier in the summer, the lake is clear but cold; this late in the summer, though, finds the water warm but filled with weeds that ducks like to graze on and fish like to hide in.
The day they meet is filled with unnecessary tears brought on by fear. Taehyung meets him out on the floating dock closest to the shore, standing in the middle of the large surface in hand-me-down swim trunks and a floaty on one arm. He looks small-- too small to be out here alone on the floating dock, but Taehyung also looks small for his age, so you never know.
“What’s wrong?” Taehyung asks, kneeling down in front of the smaller kid to try and see eye to eye. But it’s kind of hard to make eye contact when the other has his head buried in his hands, eyes screwed shut as tears leak out. “Hey. hey hey hey. What’s wrong,” Taehyung pokes the other’s belly button a few times, just because.
It seems to startle the other kid enough to make him look up. His eyes are large, like a fawn, and they twinkle in the afternoon sun.
“Everything! I can’t swim,” he says, and normally he’d be afraid of being made fun of, but considering his circumstances, honesty seems like the best policy. “I can’t swim an' I don’t like how the plants feel on my legs an' there's fish out there!”
“How’d you get out here if you can’t swim?” Taehyung asks. He ignores the other things because his mommy told him that if he wanted to swim in the lake then he’d just have to get over the weeds and fish. Still, the dock is a solid twenty-five feet off the shore so he’s really wondering how this kid got out here if he can’t swim. “How old are you?”
“I’m five,” the kid answers. “My mommy signed me up for swim lessons but they haven’t started yet. I can doggy paddle though. But the lake is scary and I can’t doggy paddle fast enough to float.”
“That’s okay, my daddy says I sink like a rock,” Taehyung replies, plopping down on the dock and soaking up the heat from the sun-warmed wood. “I’m Taehyung. I’m seven.”
“‘M Jeongguk,” Jeongguk tells him, following Taehyung’s lead and sitting down. Sitting is a lot less scary than standing on this dock. “Can you swim?”
“Yeah! I’m a really good swimmer because my parents signed me up for swim lessons when I was really little because I can’t float,” Taehyung tells him. “I’m on a swim team.”
“Will you get my floaty back?” Jeongguk asks, tears (and hope) glistening in the corners of his shining eyes. “My hyung threw it in the water because he’s a big meany, an' I can’t be in the water with just one floaty. I’ll sink.”
“Where’s your floaty?”
Jeongguk points somewhere beyond the floating dock, farther out in the water. Taehyung spots the bright yellow arm floaty, probably thirty feet out. Taehyung grits his teeth. They don’t make him swim that far on the team because he’s still the youngest. And he’ll have to go get the pool floaty, then make it back to the dock to give it back to Jeongguk. That’s a lot of swimming without a break. Still, little Jeongguk is pretty much abandoned on this dock until he gets his floaty back.
He takes a running leap off the edge of the dock and splashes into the water. He remembers to blow air out through his nose so he doesn’t get water up his nostrils because he hadn’t remembered to plug his nose. He feels a couple weeds brush up against his shins, slimey and unpleasant. And then his head is breaking through the surface and he can breathe through his lungs.
“Taetae hyung!” he turns around in the water to see Jeongguk tentatively approaching the edge of the dock, waving at him even though he’s less than five feet away. It’s cute, he thinks briefly, because all his other friends live in different neighborhoods so they never come to the lake with him. Maybe Jeongguk will be his friend after he recovers the lost floaty.
Taehyung takes off in the general direction of the floaty, trying to propel himself out of the water a few times to get specs on it. It doesn’t take him long to reach the floaty, but he does feel a little bit winded. He also got some water in his eyes, which doesn’t do anything but irritate him. He grabs the floaty and shoves it on his arm so he doesn’t lose his grip on it, and turns around to make his way back to the dock. He can see Jeongguk in the distance, jumping up and down and waving both his arms excitedly.
To say he’s winded when Taehyung finally makes it back to the dock is an understatement. He hauls himself up the ladder and immediately falls onto his back, chest heaving as he tries to catch is breath. Jeongguk appears upside down in his vision, eyes still shining brightly. Taehyung weakly yanks the floaty off his arm and hands it to Jeongguk, who immediately situates it on his own floaty-less arm.
“Taetae hyung is the best!” Jeongguk cheers happily, poking Taehyung’s belly button like Taehyung had done to him in the first place.
“You owe me something now!” Taehyung demands, despite how weak and breathy his voice still sounds. Jeongguk’s eyebrows immediately knit themselves in concern, small mouth drawn in a frown. “You gotta be my friend now!”
The frown is immediately replaced by a beaming smile, baby teeth on full display and little crows’ feet crinkling in the corner of Jeongguk’s eyes. “Best friends! Taetae hyung is my best friend!”
“Best friends it is, Jeonggukie,” Taehyung agrees with a poke to the younger’s belly button.