Chapter Text
“Grandma!” Felix shouts, barreling down the driveway and diving into the elderly woman's arms.
“Yongbok-ah!” She shouts back, squeezing him tight while planting kisses all over his face. “I’ve missed you, my little dragon.” She hums, switching to English for her grandson.
“Well, now I can stay the whole summer! Isn’t that cool ?” He beams.
It’s a new arrangement. Usually, Felix would come and visit for a few days, maybe a week at a time, but Ms. Lee, his mother, took on some new responsibilities and couldn’t be around during the summer to look after her son.
“It is, dear. You’ve grown so big!” His grandmother runs a hand through his hair, smiling fondly. “I remember when you-”
“When I was only this tall ?” He interrupts, playfully rolling his eyes. “I’m 14 now, Grandma, I was gonna grow up sooner or later.”
His grandmother nods, cupping his cheek in her hand. “Well, it’s nice to have you back. Why don’t you go get unpacked? I’ll start on lunch.”
Felix gives her a toothy grin, running back to the car to grab his luggage before racing past her and into the house.
☆
Felix scarfs down the meal his grandmother made for him in record time, going on and on about how much he had missed her homemade dishes.
“It’s not going to grow legs and run away from you, kid, slow down.” His grandfather scolds.
“I know, but I wanna go outside,” Felix explains, scooping the last bit of rice into his mouth and barely chewing before swallowing it down. “Can I? Please?”
His grandmother takes the empty plate and brings it over to the sink, waving her hand at the boy.
“Be back before the streetlights come on.” She tells him, and she’s not even sure he hears her because he’s out of his seat and out the door before she can even finish her sentence. Her husband chuckles, peering up at her over his glasses. She shakes her head, resting a hand on her hip.
“Boys will be boys.” He sighs, giving his wife a fond smile.
☆
Felix growls in frustration after failing to keep the soccer ball balanced on his foot. He’s been trying to do the same trick for at least half an hour now, something he saw on TV.
“What’re you doing?” An unfamiliar voice breaks his concentration, and he spins to look at the offender.
“Huh? ”
It’s a boy who looks around the same age as himself, but a bit taller. He’s got black hair, like most people in Korea do, but it’s long and tied back into a little knot. He’s wearing a pair of baggy jorts that fall below his knees and a dark blue t-shirt with Hangul on the front. Felix doesn’t know what it says.
“I asked what you’re doing.” He speaks again, Felix narrows his eyes.
The boy is speaking in Korean, and Felix wishes he had paid more attention during the classes his mother forced him to take. He just stares blankly at him, unsure of what to say.
“Uhm, I don’t speak Korean.” He decides to say, laughing awkwardly. It’s the other boy's turn to look confused. He tilts his head to the side.
“Foreigner?” It’s heavily accented, but Felix catches it and nods.
“Yes! Foreigner!” He confirms.
“Hyunjin.” The boy points to himself as he says it.
“Felix.” He replies. They’re both quiet for a moment.
“Fe-lix.” Hyunjin sounds it out, eyebrows pinched together. Felix grins and gives him a thumbs-up. “That’s a weird name." Hyunjin mumbles, Felix only understands one of those words, name, so he just agrees, which makes Hyunjin laugh.
Hyunjin gestures to the ball, then to himself again. Felix is quick to catch on.
They kick the ball back and forth for a while, having a blast despite the language barrier. By the time the street lights come on, they’re both drenched in sweat and covered in grass stains, but they have massive smiles on their faces when they return home.
“Tomorrow? Again?” Felix asks, unable to form a full sentence in Korean and hoping Hyunjin understands what he’s trying to say. Thankfully, he does.
“Yes.” He replies, waving to Felix as he walks off towards his own home.
As it turns out, Hyunjin lives in the house next door.
☆
Felix tells his grandmother all about his afternoon and all the fun he had with the boy next door.
“Ah, the Hwang boy.” Mrs. Lee recalls, mostly speaking to herself. “The Hwang's-” She pauses to clear her throat and correct herself, “Mrs. Hwang and her son are very lovely, they just moved in last year.” She tells Felix, flipping through her magazine while the boy continues his rambling.
“He doesn’t speak much English, though.” Felix pouts, and his grandmother gives him a sharp look.
“Yongbok, you’re in Korea. You can’t expect him to speak your mother language. Maybe you should work on your Korean.” She scolds, pointing a finger at him. “There are some workbooks in the study, help yourself.”
Felix listens and rushes up to the study to scavenge through the pile of books, grabbing a couple of lower-level ones to start with.
Mrs. Lee keeps workbooks in the spare room, the study, specifically for Felix. She knows his mother is doing a piss poor job at teaching Felix Korean, so whenever the young boy visits, she sends him back home with the little packets. It proved fruitless for a while. Felix never showed any interest in learning the language until now. Part of her is angry at her daughter for depriving Felix of his heritage and culture, but all she can do now is hope Felix decides he wants to explore his roots.
☆
Felix studies until he can no longer keep his eyes open.
☆
Hyunjin and Felix hang out nearly every day for the next few weeks, from early morning until the sun sets. They play soccer, they swim, they play hide and seek, and anything else they can think of. They even ride Hyunjin’s bike around the neighborhood, with Felix balanced on the handlebars. He only flies off the front once, and the tooth he lost was a baby tooth anyway. He’s just glad he didn’t end up swallowing it.
When the sun sets, they run around with Mrs. Lee’s mason jars trying to catch fireflies. One night, they’d lost track of time, and Mr. Hwang came out to drag Hyunjin back inside by the ear.
Every night, Felix works on his Korean language workbooks, hidden under his comforter with a flashlight and a pencil. Every morning at breakfast, he practices with his grandfather while his grandmother cooks.
Frankly, he sucks at speaking Korean. His pronunciation is awful, and his grammar is even worse, but he’s slowly getting better. It’s not like he could learn the whole language within two months. Any progress is impressive.
☆
Felix shows Hyunjin all his favorite songs on his iPod Shuffle. It’s mostly Avril Lavigne and Imagine Dragons. Hyunjin doesn’t have a music player, so he writes down his favorite songs on a piece of paper for Felix to take with him and look up later.
Felix uses his grandmother's computer to download them onto his iPod that same night.
☆
Felix and Hyunjin are lying next to each other on the grass in front of the pond, trying to catch their breath after running around and chasing each other with worms.
The taller boy sits up and turns to look at his friend. The younger looks up at him curiously, using one hand to shield his eyes from the sun.
"I like your spots,” Hyunjin mutters quietly, bringing a finger up to poke Felix’s cheek as he says it. Felix swats his hand away with a chuckle.
“Shut up.” He whines, one Korean phrase he knows how to say perfectly.
“Jugeunkkae.” Hyunjin points at Felix’s freckles.
“Jugeunkkae,” Felix repeats, then says it a couple more times until his friend is satisfied with the pronunciation. “Freckles. ” He tells Hyunjin.
“Fre-ckles.” Hyunjin echoes. Felix smiles proudly.
☆
Hyunjin bursts into laughter the first time Felix tries to actually speak to him in Korean, but he makes up for it by teaching him the correct way to say whatever he’s trying to say.
Felix teaches Hyunjin some English, mostly swear words that are bound to get him smacked in the mouth if his parents know the language well enough.
Hyunjin decides it’s funnier if he doesn’t tell Felix he definitely knows the words Felix is teaching him. He’s friends with Bang Chan, an Australian kid in the grade above him who loves to corrupt all the underclassmen by holding ‘Language Lessons’ on the basketball court after class. It’s a little embarrassing that Hyunjin’s better at swearing in English than actually having a normal conversation because of him.
He’d introduce the two if Chan wasn’t back in Australia for the summer.
☆
“It’s so nice to have you, Mrs. Hwang.” Mrs. Lee greets, welcoming the Hwang family in and leading them to the dining room. Mrs. Lee invited them over for dinner since Felix would be returning home soon.
Hyunjin trails behind his parents, holding a glass pan full of pressed cookies. Felix bounds down the stairs to greet him, ready to grab the dish from his friend’s hands.
“You brought cookies!” He cheers, carrying the pan over to the table and setting it down.
“Dasik.” Hyunjin corrects, and Felix raises an eyebrow at him. Mr. Hwang chuckles, resting a hand on his son's shoulder. Hyunjin tenses.
They’re not standing super close to Felix, but he can still smell Hyunjin’s father. It makes his nose scrunch up in disgust. Beer and cigarettes. Hyunjin always smells vaguely of smoke. Now Felix knows why.
Mr. Hwang isn’t much of a looker, either. He’s got a hefty beer gut and a poorly kept comb-over. Felix thinks he looks like Rick Riordan’s description of Smelly Gabe from the Percy Jackson books.
“Is this Felix?” Mr. Hwang asks, as if it’s not obvious. Who else would this kid be? Hyunjin nods, shrugging his dad’s hand off and taking a seat next to Felix at the table. Mr. Hwang looks less than pleased, looking him up and down before joining them.
Felix butchers out a ‘nice to meet you’, earning a scoff and a head shake from Mr. Hwang. The Aussie frowns, looking between Hyunjin and his father.
“He doesn’t speak Korean?” Mr. Hwang sneers. Hyunjin presses his lips together, his hands curling into fists under the table.
“What did he say?” Felix directs the question to his grandfather, who looks as equally annoyed as Hyunjin.
“Nothing, Lix, pay him no mind.” Mr. Lee grunts, leaning back and folding his arms across his chest.
“What’s on your face?” Mr. Hwang gestures to Felix’s cheeks with a scowl. His accent is thick, and Felix struggles to understand him.
“Oh, uhm. Freckles. Jugeunkkae.” He looks to Hyunjin, hoping his friend would be proud he remembered how to say the word, but Hyunjin doesn’t look at him. He deflates a little, but is distracted by Hyunjin’s father once again.
Mr. Hwang rolls his eyes, a smirk on his lips that makes Felix feel weird. Sure, he doesn’t understand Korean perfectly, but he’s not an idiot. He’s painfully aware of the man's contempt for him and his apparent inability to act cordially despite his own prejudice. He sends a couple of glances to his friend, whose eyes are glued to his lap.
Mr. Lee’s jaw is clenched tight. Felix rarely ever sees him so irritated. There’s a thick tension surrounding them, and he feels lost.
Mrs. Hwang enters the room with Mrs. Lee by her side, both of them laying food on the table before taking their seats.
The dinner is uncomfortable and quiet. The two families stumble through something similar to an interrogation with Felix, who can’t keep up at all. Mr. Lee eventually gets tired of playing translator and retires to the den, leaving Mrs. Lee to fend for herself.
Hyunjin doesn’t speak once, and he recoils every time Mr. Hwang reaches out to him. It doesn’t go unnoticed by Felix, who not-so subtly asks to be excused early so he can show Hyunjin his Pokémon cards upstairs. He doesn’t even wait for an answer before shooting up from his seat.
He drags Hyunjin from the table by his wrist and doesn’t let go until they're in his bedroom with the door shut.
Hyunjin visibly relaxes when he hears the click of the door, shutting his eyes for a moment while he sits on the floor with his legs folded. Felix joins him, pulling a binder from under his nightstand.
The Pokémon cards were meant to be an excuse but he figured he might as well show off his collection while they’re here. A lot of it is inherited from his older cousins, who’re too busy with extracurriculars to come around anymore.
Hyunjin seems off, an entirely different person than the one Felix has been hanging out with all summer. He’s quiet and uncharacteristically still. Felix purses his lips, hand freezing mid-page turn to address him.
“Are you okay?” Felix asks, speaking slowly, unsurely. Hyunjin gives him a weak smile and nods.
“I’m okay.” He responds, Felix isn’t convinced in the slightest. He assumes Hyunjin is upset because he’s leaving soon.
“I will… return next summer.” Felix had been practicing that one for a couple of days. Hyunjin lights up when he hears it.
“I will miss you,” Hyunjin confesses in a small voice. Felix can't help but feel sad.
“Me too.”
They cry together like a couple of losers, and Felix ends up begging Mrs. Hwang to let Hyunjin stay the night. She couldn’t say no to the two teary-eyed boys who literally got on their hands and knees to beg.
☆
They had a lot of fun that night. You don’t need to speak the same language to play Pokémon together on a beat-up Game Boy Color. Felix found it wedged between the bedframe and the wall. It most likely also belonged to one of his cousins.
Felix lets Hyunjin take the binder of Pokémon cards home the next morning. He makes his grandfather act as a translator once again, telling Hyunjin to take good care of it until he comes back. Hyunjin does a cheesy salute, swearing he’ll protect the Pokémon with his life.
☆
Hyunjin cries for hours when Felix leaves. He barely leaves his room at all, hiding away and avoiding his father the best he can until the school year starts back up.
☆
It’d been the best summer Hyunjin ever had.