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Hyunjin never really liked summer.
It was too loud. Kids on bikes, neighbors grilling meat, the sun always pressing too close like it wanted to peel his skin off. Summer meant boredom. The kind that clung like sweat, heavy and slow.
That changed when the moving truck arrived across the street.
Hyunjin first saw him barefoot on the lawn, standing under the sprinkler with water catching in his lashes like glitter. Blond hair, pink cheeks, freckles scattered like secrets across his nose. He wore a tank top and loose shorts and smiled at the sun like it hadn’t just tried to melt the whole town.
Felix .
“Just moved from Sydney,” he said when they first talked, his accent curling soft and strange at the edges of every word.
Hyunjin didn’t know what to say back. His tongue felt clumsy. So he just stared. Felix didn’t seem to mind.
They became a summer kind of friendship. Rooted in stolen afternoons, shared slushies, skateboards abandoned in the yard. Felix talked with his hands, eyes crinkling when he laughed, and Hyunjin felt something he hadn’t felt before. Something fizzy and dangerous, like when he climbed too high and realized he might fall but didn’t care.
The idea to break into the neighborhood pool was Hyunjin’s.
It was one of those nights where the air clung to your skin like a second layer. Midnight had come and gone, but sleep wouldn’t. Not with Felix’s texts lighting up his screen every few minutes.
[FELIX: i can’t sleep]
[FELIX: come outside]
[FELIX: bet you won’t]
Ten minutes later, they were crouched behind the pool gate, breathless from running. Felix giggled under his breath like this was the best idea he’d ever heard. “You’re insane,” Hyunjin whispered.
Felix jimmied the latch with a hairpin he’d stolen from his sister.
The lock clicked open with a quiet snap, and Hyunjin glanced over his shoulder as the gate creaked, sure someone would shout or a light would flick on. But the street behind them stayed dark, drowsy. The only sound was the buzz of cicadas and the low hum of a vending machine down the block.
Felix grinned, already slipping through the gate. “You’re good at that.”
Hyunjin tried to play it cool. “First time.”
“Liar,” Felix said, half-singing the word, already tugging his shirt over his head and tossing it over the fence.
Hyunjin swallowed.
The pool was glowing, unnatural and dreamy, the underwater lights casting liquid patterns on the concrete. Everything was soaked in blue and shadow. It was the kind of scene that looked like a memory even while it was happening.
Felix ran and cannonballed in, a splash loud enough to startle a sleeping dog down the street. His laughter echoed through the empty lot. Hyunjin hesitated, nerves flickering beneath his skin like static.
“You coming or what?” Felix called, slick hair pushed back, shoulders glistening.
Hyunjin dropped his shirt and stepped to the edge, then jumped. Arms tight to his chest, knees pulled in. The cold slapped him awake, fizzed up his spine. He broke the surface gasping, hair in his eyes.
“Shit,” he laughed, blinking. “That’s cold.”
Felix swam closer. “That’s the point!”
They floated for a while in the center, water rocking them gently, stars broken across the surface. Somewhere, a moth buzzed against the floodlight. Everything smelled like chlorine and summer air and wet asphalt.
“Feels like we’re the only ones left in the world,” Felix murmured.
Hyunjin tilted his head back to look at the sky. “Maybe we are.”
Silence stretched between them, not awkward. Just comfortable, weightless.
“You ever just… feel too big for everything?” Felix asked suddenly, voice softer than before. “Like this town. Your house. Even your own skin.”
Hyunjin blinked at him. The words felt like something he’d never said out loud, but had carried for years.
“All the time.”
Felix exhaled, sinking low until only his face floated above the water, eyes wide and glinting.
“I used to think something was wrong with me,” he whispered. “But then I got here and met you and… I don’t know. It’s less heavy.”
Hyunjin’s throat tightened. The water felt warmer now. Or maybe it was him.
Felix swam closer, their legs brushing beneath the surface. “You ever kissed a boy before?”
The question rang between them like a struck bell.
Hyunjin shook his head, his heart suddenly loud in his ears. “No. Never thought about it.”
Felix didn’t move at first. Just looked at him. Like he could see every wall Hyunjin had carefully built and still wanted to stay.
“I have,” Felix admitted. “But it didn’t feel like this.”
“Like what?”
“Like I want it to mean something.”
Their faces were inches apart now, breath mingling with the scent of chlorine. Hyunjin could see the constellation of freckles on Felix’s cheeks, the pale flutter of his lashes, the curve of his lips—
And then he kissed him.
Soft. Careful. Like a question.
Hyunjin answered it without words, leaning in, catching Felix’s mouth again, firmer this time. It felt like flipping a coin and realizing you already knew what you wanted it to land on.
Their hands found each other underwater. Fingers curled together.
When they finally pulled apart, neither spoke. The silence between them was full but not empty. Charged. Like the crackle before a summer storm.
Felix gave him the smallest smile. “Told you this was a good idea.”
Hyunjin laughed, dazed. “You’re gonna get us arrested.”
“Worth it,” Felix whispered.
And then he pulled Hyunjin into a splash fight, shouting and laughing like they were ten years old again, like the world hadn’t just cracked open and reshaped itself in the space of a kiss. The pool lights shimmered around them, casting both boys in blue and silver, as if they belonged to a different world, just for tonight.
That night, Hyunjin hesitated at the edge of the driveway, staring at the long shadow of his father’s prized 1970 Cadillac Coupe DeVille. The street was asleep, windows dark, porch lights dimmed. The air smelled like warm asphalt and honeysuckle. His heart pounded behind his ribs like it was trying to talk him out of this.
Felix stood beside him, barefoot, wearing a hoodie with the sleeves cut off and a dangerous kind of grin. He dangled the car keys from one finger.
“You’re insane,” Hyunjin whispered.
Felix winked. “You already said that at the pool. Still true.”
Hyunjin looked back at the house. “If my dad finds out—”
“He won’t.” Felix opened the passenger door with a flourish and slid in. “Unless you stall here all night like a coward. Come on, live a little.”
“Fuck!” Hyunjin cursed under his breath but got in.
The car smelled like leather and old memories. Aftershave, motor oil, something sharp and nostalgic. Hyunjin ran his fingers across the steering wheel. He’d never driven it before. He wasn’t even sure he was allowed to breathe too close to it.
“You sure about this?” he asked one last time.
Felix leaned back in the seat, propped his feet on the dash, and looked at him sideways. “Hyunjin. You just kissed me in a pool we broke into. You’re not the same boy you were last week.”
Hyunjin smiled despite himself and turned the key.
The engine growled to life like a beast waking from hibernation.
They backed out slow, tires whispering against the concrete. The headlights stayed off until they were around the corner, past the familiar stop sign and out of the streetlight’s reach. The town unfolded ahead of them, empty roads and flickering traffic lights, the low hum of something quiet and waiting.
Felix rolled the window down and let his arm hang out, hand slicing through the air. Wind tousled his hair and Hyunjin watched him from the corner of his eye, heart tight in his chest.
He looked alive. Wild. Free.
They drove with no destination, past gas stations and shuttered diners, past the lake where middle school field trips used to end. Felix reached over and turned on the radio, flipping until he landed on a song they both barely knew but liked anyway. Something dreamy, with a lazy guitar and vocals that sounded like they were sung under moonlight.
At a red light, Felix turned to him. “Ever think about just… not going back?”
“To the house?”
“To any of it.”
Hyunjin didn’t answer right away.
They reached the hill just past the edge of town, the one with the abandoned billboard and the tall dry grass. Hyunjin parked at the top, turning off the engine. For a second, everything was still.
The sky stretched endlessly above them, thick with stars. No buildings. No rules. No parents watching from windows.
They climbed onto the hood. The metal was warm under their thighs, the air filled with the chirp of crickets and the steady hum of power lines in the distance.
“I used to drive out here when I was a kid,” Hyunjin said. “Pretend the town was some other place. That I was someone else.”
Felix shifted closer, their shoulders brushing. “You don’t need to be someone else.”
Hyunjin turned to him. “Don’t I?”
Felix looked at him for a long time. “No. You just need to be the version of you who doesn’t wait around for permission.”
Hyunjin leaned back on his hands, eyes fixed on the stars. “I don’t even know what I want yet.”
Felix’s voice was softer this time. “You kissed me like you do.”
Hyunjin inhaled sharply, then looked at him. Felix’s face glowed silver in the starlight, his blond hair a halo, eyes impossibly wide.
“I want you,” Hyunjin said.
The words felt reckless, raw, and somehow right.
Felix didn’t answer with words. He reached for Hyunjin’s hand and brought it to his chest, over his heartbeat.
“Then take it.”
The kiss this time was slower. No chlorine. No adrenaline. Just the quiet hum of something beginning. They kissed like they had time. Like the world could wait.
When they pulled back, Felix rested his head on Hyunjin’s shoulder.
“Let’s do this every summer,” he whispered.
“Steal cars?”
Felix snorted. “Fall in love.”
Hyunjin smiled, pressing his cheek to Felix’s hair.
“Deal.”
And under the hush of stars, on the hood of a stolen Cadillac, Hyunjin grinned like a fool.
Hyunjin never really liked summer.
But that was before Felix. Before breaking into pools and stealing kisses and driving under the stars. Before he knew what it felt like to want something so much it scared him.
Now, summer meant something else.
Now, summer meant Felix.
>FIN<