Chapter Text
The first time Minho stays with his grandmother for the summer, he meets him.
His grandmother's home is a small, cozy hanok by the seaside. During the day, she leaves the front door or some windows open, allowing for the sounds of seagulls, the crashing waves, and the fresh salt air to waft through. When Minho has come to visit her in the past, she's brought him to the beach to collect seashells and to find hermit crabs.
On the nights where Minho and his parents sleep over, they pile into one of his grandmother's guest rooms and sleep under thick blankets with flowers embroidered into them. Sometimes, his grandma sneaks him out of the room and to the big wooden table she has in her gravelly yard and she plays old music that Minho has never heard while they look up at the stars.
Minho loves visiting his grandma, and though he's never stayed with her for an entire summer, it sounds fun and he agrees easily when his parents first bring it up. He's not as cooperative when the time actually comes, torn between excitement to see his grandmother, and too much worry for a nine-year-old to handle because his parents are late to tell him that they won't be staying the whole time.
Minho's parents drop him off on the first day of July and only stay for a couple nights. After three days, in spite of Minho's cries of protest and his begging to let him go with them, they bid their goodbyes and are on the road back to Gimpo. Minho likes spending time with his grandmother, he really does, but he doesn't know what he's meant to do without his parents there. He's only ever been away from them for a week at a time and that was hard enough, but now he has to do it for five?
The first few days pass by and Minho's tears fill the majority of them. He cries when his grandma tries to feed him because his mom accidentally packed his Pororo chopsticks in the bag she took with her, and he can't bear the thought of eating anything without them. He cries when she puts him to bed and leaves before he's fallen asleep because his dad stays most nights. And he cries when she tries bringing him to the market for the first time because, without his parents, everything's too loud and too unfamiliar and reminds him of how far away he is from home.
He doesn't cry, however, when she brings him to the beach. That evening, they eat dinner early and she praises him for eating well when he's more willing with the new chopsticks she got for him at the market. They have a little brown cat with a pink nose at the top of them, and Minho is much too pleased with the idea of sharing a meal with it to be upset that his parents aren't there.
"What will you name it, Minho?" His grandma asks, feeding him a spoonful of soup and rice.
Minho hums while he chews, thinking it through but coming up with nothing. "I don't know. What do you think I should call it?"
She lifts a napkin to wipe his chin and hums out loud, looking contemplative. "How about Hazelnut?"
Minho blinks. "Hazelnut?" He repeats, looking down at the cat as if to ask if that's what it wants to be called.
His grandma lets him sit with the name to see how he feels about it until the end of dinner, and then he's distracted again because he's been tasked with cleaning up the side dishes they took out. With small hands, he busily puts them away into the lower shelves of her fridge and brings her his dishes when she begins washing them.
"Little cat—" she calls out after she's done, wiping her hands on the sides of her dress, "—Do you want to come to the beach with grandma and her friends?"
Minho's eyes widen in wonder and his face spreads into a grin. He's immediately nodding enthusiastically and she's throwing her head back in a laugh.
Minho's so excited that he doesn't even fight her or complain when she puts one of her big straw hats on him. He just waits patiently with the bag he's going to use when he collects all of his shells and rocks until she's ready, holding a bag of her own but hers filled with snacks and drinks that Minho takes and carries for her.
(He has to walk a little lopsided to accommodate for the extra weight, but that's okay.)
The two of them walk through a bit of the town and past the market to meet with her friends, and they're all cooing over Minho within seconds, squeezing his cheeks and tickling his chin even though he squeaks and pulls away. They talk to him as they walk, but as soon as the beach comes into view, he's gasping in awe and looking up at his grandma giddily. No words are exchanged. She just looks down at him with a smile and nods knowingly. He bows politely to his grandma and her friends like his mother and father taught him to before he's bolting away.
After that evening, Minho doesn't really find any reasons to cry.
Just on the other side of his grandma's stone walls, Minho is crouched down with a little packet of cat treats, feeding the stray cats that wander about the neighborhood. Minho's met them many times before, but he's only ever been able to feed them like this maybe once or twice, so he's savoring every second of it that he can get.
Minho is taking his time giving them the treats, mumbling little things to them about his day and asking them about theirs like they'll answer, and petting them and admiring their coats under the warm sun. It lasts for some time before they're suddenly running away, the treats not enough to keep them close. Minho frowns, saddened by their distance and wondering what he could have done to make them flee, until he sees a shadow being cast over him.
He turns around and tilts his head up to see a boy, who can't be much younger than himself, with a hesitant but bright smile on his face. Minho stands up and finds that he's taller than him.
With two popsicles held in one chubby hand and a worn-out baseball glove that's too big for him on the other, the boy introduces himself before Minho's even entirely processed that he's there.
"I'm Kim Seungmin," he says, holding out the popsicles. "Do you want one?"
Minho looks down, blinking at the cold treat in the other boy's hands. He looks back up at Seungmin, who's still got a goofy little smile on his face. "Which one do you like better?" Minho asks instead, eyeing the two before looking back up again.
Seungmin tilts his head and scrunches his nose up in thought. Minho glances at the glove still on his hand, then up at the baseball logo on his hat. He doesn't recognize it, but that's okay. He'll just ask.
"I like the orange one," Seungmin says a second later. Minho takes the other popsicle with a shy 'thank you', tucks the cat treats into his pocket, and sits down on his grandma's wooden bench with Seungmin.
"What's your name?" Seungmin asks. Minho opens his popsicle and peeks over to see the other boy having trouble with it.
"Do you want some help?" Minho asks, gesturing down to the popsicle. Seungmin scrunches his nose a little and nods, handing it over. "My name is Lee Minho," he answers, returning the popsicle to Seungmin once he's gotten it open.
"Thanks!” Seungmin chirps, taking it gratefully.
Minho is pleasantly surprised to find that his popsicle is cherry flavored and looks over at the other boy, glad to find that he looks content as ever with his orange one. "What does the logo on your hat mean?" Minho asks.
Seungmin makes a noise of surprise. "You don't know them?" Seungmin is looking at him in shock, but doesn't make Minho feel bad for not knowing. "They're the Lotte Giants. They're my favorite baseball team. Do you watch baseball?"
Minho shakes his head. Seungmin hums as if he can accept that, pondering for another question as he bites off a chunk of his popsicle. "Are they good?" Minho asks before he comes up with one.
Seungmin shrugs his shoulders and giggles. Minho doesn't know why, but he smiles too. "My cousin says they're not, but he's stupid."
Minho nods in agreement, accepting this as fact. He doesn't see his own cousins very much so he doesn't have much to go off of in regard to the stupid ones, but he believes Seungmin even though they just met. He just seems trustworthy, and like he knows stuff even though he's little.
Minho is nine and learns that Seungmin is seven, but he makes it abundantly clear that he won't be for much longer because his birthday is in exactly eighty-two days. Minho thinks it's funny that he is keeping count so closely, but he holds back a giggle because Seungmin looks very serious about it.
"Are you my hyung, then?" Seungmin asks, sounding hopeful. "I've never called anyone that before. I only have my noona. Can I call you hyung?"
Minho's eyes widen and his belly fills with butterflies. He's never been called that before, but he's always wanted to be a hyung so he says 'yes' immediately. Feeling his face and ears heat up, Minho asks Seungmin about his noona, and he has no trouble talking about her.
She's thirteen—making her six years older than Seungmin and four more than Minho—and she's apparently not that fun to be around because she's always trying to put makeup on him or trying to paint his nails. Minho can barely catch his breath through his own laughing while Seungmin explains his situation, flailing his arms around dramatically.
After he feels he's said enough about his sister, he asks Minho about his siblings. Minho just shrugs and says he doesn't have any, and Seungmin wonders if it's lonely. "I think I would get sad if I didn't have my noona," Seungmin says, lips slightly downturned.
Minho shrugs. "I've never had one, so I don't know."
Seungmin nods, even though he looks like he doesn't quite understand, and the two move on to talk about movies instead.
Minho's grandma finds them after some time has passed, and Minho watches as Seungmin jumps up and bows a full ninety-degrees to her. "And who might you be?" His grandma asks, smiling fondly.
"I'm Kim Seungmin," he introduces himself just as cheerily as before. "I live down the street in the house with the blue roof."
His grandma's eyes widen in recognition and she claps her hands. Minho's eyes wander over to the house Seungmin mentioned. "Ah, so you're their little Seungminnie, hm?" She squeezes his cheek like her friends had done to Minho, but Seungmin giggles instead of pulling away. "Do your parents know you're here?"
Seungmin nods. "My mommy gave me two popsicles," he says earnestly. "So I found hyung."
Minho nods as well, confirming his account of the story. His grandmother laughs the way she laughs when Minho does something she says is "strange, but not in a bad way."
Now that he knows so much about him, Minho thinks Seungmin is kind of like that. He's strange in every sense of the word, but that's okay.
Minho's grandma gives them some fruit and has them sit on her wooden table outside in the yard, where they continue talking until the sun is beginning to fall and the sky is turning shades of blue and purple. Minho carefully peels the oranges and splits them into halves for them to share while Seungmin explains the rules of baseball as best he can. He shows Minho how to properly hold a baseball, then lets him try on his glove. It's big on Minho, so he can only imagine how frustrating it is for Seungmin to wear.
When he brings it up, though, Seungmin only smiles and shakes his head. "I don't care about that," Seungmin says. "As long as I get to play."
"You don't want a glove that fits right?" Minho asks, not understanding his perspective.
"I'll have my own when I make it to the big leagues."
He says it so easily and with such confidence that Minho takes his word for it.
”What will you do when you get older, hyung?” Seungmin asks, nearly dropping a slice of his orange while he talks.
Minho has thought about what he wants to do when he gets older. He’s gone from doctor to lawyer to veterinarian and back to doctor, but nothing ever really sticks. He knows one thing, though.
“I want to make a lot of money,” he says, and Seungmin hums and nods as if it’s a normal conversation for kids their age. “I want to make a lot of money and live with my grandma and my parents and a lot of cats. Like, a lot.”
Seungmin laughs. “You’re weird,” he says.
It doesn’t sting when Seungmin says it, unlike how it feels when kids at school call him weird. When Seungmin says it, it doesn’t feel bad. It makes him happy, actually, almost proud. Like Seungmin sees him being weird as a good thing.
“Will you get me a house when you’re rich, then?” Seungmin asks. “With a batting cage and all of the really good baseball stuff?”
“Obviously!”
When Minho's parents come to pick him up at the end of his stay, he cries when he has to part from Seungmin.
The second time they see each other is two years later when Minho is eleven and Seungmin is nine—the age Minho was when they met.
The summer before, Minho's parents had a business trip in the same place in the states, so they made it into a vacation and didn't come back until mid-August.
This summer, though, his dad is going to Bangkok and his mom is going to some place in Europe that Minho can't pronounce, so he goes to his grandmother's.
His parents pull up to her house and Minho notices first that her little yard has changed. Her yard has been filled with more plants and pots, and when he runs inside to greet her, he finds that there's a big bag of golf clubs by her TV stand like the one that Minho's dad has in their mudroom. Regardless, Minho pushes his questions away for the sake of greeting his grandma and asking her how she's been.
His grandma takes him through all the updates of her life, starting with how she's picked up golf as a hobby and how she keeps buying plants from the market because there's a new family that's always kind to her and they're the ones selling them, which answers his questions. She ends with giving him the inside scoop on all the village drama because apparently he's old enough for that now, even though when she tells him that the guy down the street is a "crazy bastard" because he cheated on his girlfriend of seven years, Minho's mom has to cut her off.
"Mom, Minho doesn't even know what cheating is yet."
"What? I know what cheating is—"
"Muyeong-ah, I'm telling him this now so that he knows a bad guy when he sees one."
"A bastard?"
"Yes, little cat, a bastard—"
"Mom! Don't teach him those words!"
Begrudgingly, his grandma accepts a change of topic, and then Minho is giving her his life update, starting with how soccer is going now that he's playing up a division, and ending by giving her the gossip of the kids at his school. His grandma listens intently to how Haeri filled Joohee's bag with rocks and what Joohee called her after she found out, and how Cheol scammed Giyeob out of an entire pack of Yu-Gi-Oh cards. At the same time, his mother slowly withers away with every passing second and his father becomes just as invested as his grandma is.
Once the sun eventually sets, Minho and his grandmother have updated each other on all that they feel they need to know. By then, dinner is ready and Minho decides he's spoken enough, so he stops in pursuit of stuffing his face with his grandma's delicious food and lets the adults do their talking instead.
Minho's parents leave early this time. They stay for a night and leave the next day, and it's easier to part with his parents than two years ago. There are still some tears, but he bears the distance better since he understands why they have to go and it'll only be four weeks instead of five.
It also helps that, after their car is out of view, Minho's grandma is quick to wipe his tears and tells him to gather some things to go to the beach for the afternoon. Minho gets his bag, his sunglasses, and a little bucket. Once again, his grandma forces her hat onto him, and then the two are hobbling over to the beach.
Minho runs off and collects some shells and rinses them in the cool water, terrorizes a group seagulls by chasing them off the beach as if he owns it, and makes a little house for a hermit crab he finds. He makes sure that the hermit crab is properly settled into its little home before he trudges back over to where his grandma is sitting with a book in her lap.
Wordlessly, Minho sits down next to her and begins to sift through all of his shells, doing inventory while quietly mumbling to himself which ones he's going to keep and which ones he isn't. The afternoon sun turns gentler as evening comes and Minho is halfway through the intricate sandcastle he's started when his grandma speaks up, her voice breaking through the distant crashing of waves as they roll up the sand and reach for the shore.
"Little cat," she begins, "Do you remember that boy Seungmin? The one you hung out with that summer?"
Minho hums and nods. He'd be lying if he said that he hadn't thought about Seungmin when his parents brought up staying with his grandma again. He and Seungmin spent nearly every day of that first summer with each other, whether it was being chaperoned around town by Minho's grandma, or hanging out in Seungmin's yard and throwing around his baseball, or even just sitting on the beach together. Minho even thought about him when he'd gone to the states last year, wondering, if even for only a few moments, what it would've been like had he gone to his grandmother's instead.
But Minho hasn't seen Seungmin since that summer, not even on the few weekends during the year that he comes to her house instead of her to theirs in Gimpo. He hasn't seen him in the past two days he's been here, but he's glanced over at the blue roof a few houses down more than once.
"His family went on a trip to Jeju last week," his grandma continues. "They'll be home on Wednesday. Do you think you'll talk to him again?"
Minho shrugs and looks up at her. "If he wants to."
He watches as his grandmother's expression splits into a knowing smile as she pinches his cheek, though he isn't entirely sure what she could possibly know that Minho doesn't.
Like his grandmother said, Minho sees a car pull into the driveway of the blue-roofed house on Wednesday while he's feeding the cats.
(It reminds him a little of when they first met.)
Minho finishes feeding them their treats and stands up, tilting his neck to the side to crack it, takes one more glance at the house, then heads back inside and closes the gate.
Minho tells his grandmother about it over dinner. He tries poorly to conceal how excited he is, but his grandma lets him have his peace and doesn't mention how red his ears turn and how he doesn't stop smiling for the rest of the meal.
Instead, when morning comes the next day, she fills a small basket with fruit, probiotics, and vitamins and sends him off to the Kim's before he has time to protest. Minho pushes down the slight embarrassment he's feeling about the situation and walks over to the house. He steps carefully across their stone pathway up to their porch like he did a summer ago, and knocks hesitantly on the front door, having to readjust his hold on the basket so he doesn't drop it in the process.
Minho chews the inside of his cheek as he waits, eyes trailing over the outside of their house. When he and Seungmin would hang out, they were usually outside. Even if they were at Seungmin's house, Minho rarely ever went inside because more times than not, they were playing in his backyard or sitting on their wooden table. Minho's never even seen Seungmin's room before, and Minho is startled with the weight of just how long it's been since they've seen each other.
He doesn't have a great handle on the concept of time, but he knows that he started to forget Seungmin's voice at some point between now and two years ago. He wonders if Seungmin forgot his voice. If he forgot him.
Minho is startled out of his thoughts when the door is thrown open and someone gasps loudly. He flinches and whips his head up to see who it is, but is quickly bombarded with small arms wrapping around him. Minho lets out a yelp of surprise but hugs the boy back, clutching the basket and barely being able to set it down as Seungmin squeezes the living daylights out of him.
"I missed you, hyung!"
Minho smiles widely, belly filling with butterflies at the name. "I missed you too."
Seungmin is still shorter than Minho, but the younger one badgers him until he admits that the height difference is waning.
("I grow a few centimeters every day, hyung," Seungmin says one day, smug as ever as he throws the baseball to him. “One day I’ll be taller than you.”
Minho catches it and rolls his eyes, scoffing. "Uh huh, sure, whatever helps you sleep at night.")
Similarly to the first summer, they spend nearly every day together. They’re a little antsy and shy around each other at first, but they quickly realize that neither of them have changed much and it’s easier to get comfortable after that.
They go to the beach with Minho's grandma less frequently because she goes golfing a lot, but sometimes she brings them along with her to the range in the next town over and lets them take a few swings with her clubs. They enjoy it, even if the clubs are too big for them, and she treats them to good meals after.
Seungmin's older sister is also around less than last time. The first year, Minseo would sometimes tag along on their trips to the beach and make sandcastles with them or bury them in the sand and give them mermaid tails or gigantic cartoon shoes, but Minho doesn't see much of her this summer. Seungmin says that she'll be at a sleep-away camp for two weeks, but the week before she goes she doesn't spend much time with them either. Minho figures that it's just because she's getting older now and she's busier.
Regardless of the lessened presence of others around them, Minho and Seungmin find themselves preoccupied at all times.
Sometimes they go to the market with Seungmin's dad or mom and they let them go off on their own with some coins while they do all of the real groceries. They blow their wealth in the small arcade in record time, but they have fun doing it, and Seungmin's parents always find them with bungeo-ppang or kimbap rolls for them to eat on their way back home.
Other times, they truly have no one else around them but each other. Minho took an interest in his grandma’s plants, and she told him she would pay him if he took care of them for her while he stayed. Minho was going to do it regardless, but he is nothing if not a man of business, so he gladly accepts. He and Seungmin start going to the small library together after that. It’s a rundown little building painted blue and the floors creak beneath their sneakers, but they like how quiet it is.
They find themselves spending a lot of time there—Minho reading his books about taking care of plants and botany in general, then eventually branching out to grab some books about cats too, while Seungmin keeps his nose dug into small chaptered fantasy books, gasping and shaking his head with all of the characters as if he’s one of them.
When they’re not at the library or being distantly chaperoned, they go to the field outside of the middle school and play for hours under the unforgiving sun. Minho will bring a soccer ball or Seungmin will bring a plastic set with a ball and a bat. Minho will show Seungmin how to shoot or teach him the rules and some fancy tricks, and Seungmin will teach him how to bat. They might not be good at the other sport, but they feel no obligation to be.
On days like those, Minho really sees Seungmin “in his element,” as his mom would say.
Today is one of those.
Seungmin asked Minho to help him practice his pitching, so it wasn’t a lot of running around like usual, but the sun is especially hot today, so they’re taking more breaks. They sit on the steps of the school under some trees and drink their Gatorades, even though they’ve gone warm in the heat.
Seungmin, for once, isn’t talking. He’s too busy trying to chug all of his Gatorade to say anything, and Minho snorts when he looks over and sees him nearing the end of his drink. Seungmin lowers the bottle with a loud gasp, then groans. “Aw, hyung, I’m out,” he whines, swiping some sweat off of his face.
“Maybe you shouldn’t have chugged it, then,” Minho responds, but he pushes over his Gatorade. “It’s too hot out here. Let’s go home and go to the beach instead.”
Seungmin sips at his Gatorade slowed, but makes a noise at that and slumps. “That’s a good idea,” he admits. “Can we stay here a little longer, though? I think I’m getting better.”
Minho scrunches his nose up in distaste. “Your throwing is already good.”
“Pitching,” Seungmin corrects. Minho rolls his eyes.
“Don’t you get tired of playing when it’s hot?” He asks, taking the Gatorade as Seungmin passes it back to him.
“You play soccer when it’s hot, don’t you?”
“Well, yeah, but I get sick of it. That’s why I’m asking you.”
Seungmin pauses and shrugs his shoulders. “I have to get ready for when I go pro,” he says, like it’s the most obvious explanation. “My dad said I should build up, like, stamina or endurance or something, because when I play pro, I’ll be playing when it’s hot.”
Minho blinks several times, tilting his head slightly as he gets a grasp on his reasoning. Sure, it makes sense and Minho isn’t about to question what Seungmin’s father is saying because he’s an adult and he’s probably right, but Minho still has to tap out at some point. Sometimes it’s just too hot and sticky.
In spite of this, they keep playing for three more hours and never even go to the beach. They just collect their things and trudge back home, drenched in sweat and covered in dirt.
When they get back, they turn on his grandma’s biggest fan, face it to the middle of the living room, and throw themselves directly in its path with the grace of newborn lambs.
They laugh at themselves until their stomachs hurt, even though they don’t really know what they’re laughing about. The laughter dissolves into giggles, then into peaceful breaths as they even out with sleep.
And when Minho wakes up and they spend the rest of the night watching YouTube and playing games on his grandma’s iPad, he thinks himself silly for even considering the possibility of Seungmin forgetting him.