Work Text:
Summer Vacation. Sleeping in until noon and only getting up to warm up leftovers in the kitchen before lounging around on the couch all day playing video games; there was no better way to spend it. But it’s the first day of summer and despite the fact all Mark wants to do is bury himself under the covers of his bed for the rest of the day, it’s 8am and he can’t block out the obnoxious noise his phone is making as his supposed best friend calls him for the fourth consecutive time.
On the sixth ring, Mark gives up and feels around in the sheets for his phone and answers it with a disgruntled noise that Jinyoung mistakes for a cheerful hello.
“Oh, good! You’re up!” Jinyoung sounds far too energetic for it to be this early and Mark finds it only makes him feel grumpier. “I was worried for a second you’d forgotten how much this promise, you know that you made to me, your best friend, meant to me and you and hadn’t got up yet.” Mark says nothing in response as he peels himself from his bed with reluctance, letting out a groan as he begins dragging his feet across the room. Jinyoung, not fazed by Mark’s obvious lack of enthusiasm, continues. “I’m almost at your place.” Mark stops in his tracks and lets out a choked expression.
“Jinyoung, it doesn’t start til’ 9.30!” He bleats, completely unsure of why they need to be there an hour early.
“Mark, I made Yugyeom a promise that we would be there, so obviously I have to keep that promise and besides, I don’t want to be late we might get bad seats.” He reasons, like Mark should have known this already.
“Bad seats?” Mark switches on the shower, “Bad seats? Jinyoung, it’s a pool.”
“Mark did you not even shower yet?” Jinyoung questions accusatively, completely ignoring his previous reply.
“My Mom will let you in.” Mark begins trying to take off his sweatpants with one hand, “See you soon.” Mark hangs up the phone, ignoring any shrill protests that began ringing from the speaker and mumbles to himself as he gets in the shower about having the worst best friend ever.
-
Mark watches with amusement as Jinyoung power walks across the parking lot, heading for the entrance of the neighbourhood pool. Jinyoung turns around as he opens the door, spotting how far behind Mark is and glares daggers in his direction.
“Relax, would you? We’re early.” Mark sighs as he follows Jinyoung up to the desk to address the young dark haired boy sitting by the counter behind a computer screen. “Anyone would think you’re really passionate about saving bratty kids from drowning.” There were a million things Mark would rather be doing with his summer than taking a voluntary course on saving bratty kids from drowning, he knows that for sure.
“Look, we promised Yugyeom,” Jinyoung begins again,
“No,” Mark interrupts “You promised Yugyeom we’d turn up. This has nothing to do with me.” Mark insists.
“Jinyoung Park and Mark Tuan.” Jinyoung gives their names to the boy at the desk. “Well you’re here now so quit complaining.” He snaps back at Mark as they wander over to the second door on the left as they had been instructed to do.
“Not of my own will, might I add.” Mark quips in return. Jinyoung looks like he wants to say something and thinks better of it, mumbling too low for Mark to hear as he pushes open the door and to Jinyoung’s triumph, they are not the first ones to arrive.
“See.” He hisses. “Told you we had to get here early, or all the good seats will be taken.” He gestures to the chairs arranged row by row in the centre of the small room. Mark inwardly groans and wonders if now would be too late to pretend he can’t swim.
-
Mark is just beginning to drift into a pleasant lull of sleep when Jinyoung slaps him on the thigh. He sits up, rubbing his eyes a little and glances around. The room filled up significantly, with a good nine or ten people besides them occupying the seats as three boys, dressed identically in what Mark assumes to be the life guard uniform, simple white tees and red shorts, standing at the front of the room. The tallest, hiding behind messy, red hair catches his eye and grins shyly as Mark gives him a big thumbs up.
“He looks so adorable in his uniform.” Mark laughs, nudging Jinyoung for agreement about their friend. Jinyoung, Mark realises, is not looking at Yugyeom, but straight ahead at the boy in the centre, dark hair, nice physique, a strong jaw and small, charismatic eyes. It doesn’t take long for Mark to put two and two together. He gasps. “Traitor!” Jinyoung turns to look at him.
“What?” He hisses, the room has hushed into an almost silence now as the junior lifeguards running the course are gearing up to begin.
“You lying, judas scum!” Mark hisses back, “You didn’t promise Yugyeom we’d turn up to support him, you’re just here for the hot lifeguard!” He pinches Jinyoung hard in the arm and he squirms, desperately trying to pry Mark’s bony hand away from him before he yelps and draws more attention to himself.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He batts Mark’s hand away and turns back to face the front of the room as his cheeks turn a dark pink. Mark glares at Jinyoung’s side profile, feeling what can only be described as epic betrayal as he realises he’s signed his summer away for another of Jinyoung’s crushes.
-
Mark can feel Jinyoung’s disappointment radiate from him when Jaebum, aka Jinyoung’s current love of his life, the guard in charge, announces that this session is just a brief one for filling out forms, listening to the criteria and requirements and won’t involve the water at all. Realising Jinyoung’s true motives for wanting to become a junior life guard make it a lot clearer to Mark as to why he had to go shopping for an extraneous amount of new swim shorts last week.
Reading through the requirements, though, made Mark realise that this course wasn’t going to be as easy as Yugyeom had made out. For starters, you had to be able to swim 50m in less than one minute. Mark wasn’t even sure he could swim that at all, whenever he went swimming he mostly just floated around and tried not to get his hair wet. He is beginning to think he really wasn’t cut out for this after all.
He doesn’t even realise he was becoming pensive until he registers a hand waving between his face and his paper.
“Need any help?” Mark blinks a couple of times and looks up at the third junior life guard who’d been recruiting that morning. His hair is a shocking bright blonde, the colour Mark’s had been before he’d gotten bored and tinted it a pastel pink, like cotton candy left out in the sun, Jinyoung had kindly called it. It was slicked back- not something he thought practical for people whose occupation involved a lot of time in the water but he wasn’t one to judge, especially considering how much hair spray he’d used this morning. (This nonchalant, ruffled look is not as easy as he makes it seem.) He also notes that unlike Jaebum and Yugyeom, the sleeves of his white tee are non-existent, show casing his muscular, tan arms.
“Um.” Mark just shrugs.
“Okay so if you don’t know any of your qualifying times, just leave it blank because we’re doing all of that tomorrow to make sure you all qualify.” He leans into Mark’s personal space and peers at his paper to see what he’d filled out. “I guess we’ll just see how you do tomorrow. Good luck, Mark.” He pats Mark on the shoulder and wanders over to another table to check how people are doing.
Mark knows that he obviously read his name at the top of his application form, but finds himself wishing he’d paid more attention when they had been introducing themselves because he can’t for the life of him remember the blonde’s name.
-
It’s not until after their first day has finished and they’re walking into the town center to find some place to eat lunch, whilst Jinyoung continues to babble incessantly about how dreamy Jaebum is, now the cats out of the bag and all, that Mark mentions it.
“What was the other guy’s name again?” He interrupts Jinyoung’s spiel about how the lifeguard uniform hugs Jaebum in all the right places and earns a disgruntled look.
“Who? Jackson? The blonde?” Jinyoung wrinkles his nose.
“Jackson. That’s it.” Mark muses, a soft smile playing on his lips. Jinyoung glances at him oddly for a second before continuing right where he left off about Jaebum’s butt in the red shorts.
It’s going to be a long summer.
-
The following day, Mark regrets agreeing to this arrangement once again after suffering yet another early wake-up call from Jinyoung, and he still regrets it as he arrives sleepy eyed at the pool just before nine that morning. Once everyone had arrived, they’d all gathered around the pool side after changing into swim shorts, waiting for their first session to begin. Mark hugged his arms around his body, despite it being summer the mornings still had a chill in the air and he suddenly felt very exposed in just his shorts.
Jinyoung, on the other hand, was practically enjoying strutting around in nothing but shorts, which Mark notices have small cats on them.
“What on earth possessed you to buy those?” Mark grimaces, gesturing towards the black material with little blue kitten faces around the trim. Jinyoung folds his arms over his chest protectively.
“I’ll have you know that a certain someone is a cat lover, thank you very much.”
“Jinyoung,” Mark begins slowly, not even bothering to enquire as to how Jinyoung knows this, “You’re allergic to cats.” Jinyoung’s face turns a little pink.
“You can take medicine for that kind of thing!” He insists, “You know, so you can bear to be around them longer.” Mark deadpans.
“And you’d be willing to go through all that just to impress some guy you don’t even know? Because he likes cats?” Mark ask, wondering how Jinyoung fails to see how stupid he sounds.
“Let’s not forget the reason you dyed your hair that stupid blonde colour in the first place.” Jinyoung retaliates, glancing up at Mark’s ruffled, faded pink hair. Mark opens his mouth to defend himself, because that was such old news it was rude to bring it up, but isn’t given the chance when Jaebum appears at the head of the pool and clears his throat which of course captures Jinyoung’s attention entirely in seconds.
Mark isn’t really paying attention to what Jaebum is saying. It’s all formalities and greetings and encouragement and Mark’s mind is wandering elsewhere until Jinyoung elbows him in the side, urging him to pay attention. Mark scowls at the shorter boy as he rubs his bony side where he’d been jabbed. He tunes back in to what Jaebum is saying, just in time to hear Jackson interrupt him and ask if there were any volunteers to be saved from drowning by Jaebum. Mark puts a hand on Jinyoung’s shoulder, a grin appearing on his face.
“No.” Jinyoung hisses under his breath, shooting Mark a warning glance, his eyes begging him not to. “Don’t you dare.” He warns, but there is no way Mark is letting this opportunity to get his own back fly by.
“Nobody?” Jackson asks again and a small hum of chatter spreads over the group of them as its being mulled over. Giving Jinyoung no forewarning, Mark musters all his strength to push him over the side and into the deep end of the pool with a noteworthy splash. Although no one was expecting it, it doesn’t take more than two seconds for Jaebum to throw himself into the water with an impressive dive, ploughing through the water towards Jinyoung who is splashing around like a damsel in distress. Jaebum wastes no time in hooking his arm underneath Jinyoung’s and towing him quickly to the side of the pool, pushing him up to help him clamber back onto the pool side, following him afterwards and shaking his wet hair out of his eyes.
“That was thoughtless.” Jaebum tells Mark with a heavy frown set over his face. “We have no time for impudence. You should be more careful, this isn’t a joke. If you’re not cut out for this then you can see yourself out.” He graciously accepts the towel Yugyeom has fetched for him, handing one to Jinyoung as well who is glaring angrily in Mark’s direction. Mark says nothing, but can’t help but catch Jackson’s eye at the other end of the pool with a clear smirk on his face. Mark grins.
-
After the excitement has died down, Jaebum tells everyone to get into pairs and to collect a stop watch so they can record their times in partners. Instinctively, Mark looks to his side to confirm Jinyoung will be his partner but is horrified to see him striding over to Yugyeom instead. As everyone begins to buddy up, Mark realises pretty quickly that no one wants to be paired with the guy who pushed another guy in the pool.
“Looks like you’re with me, Mark.” Mark turns round to see Jackson, hands on hips and a stop watch around his neck as he grins. Mark feels relatively relieved. “Can you get in the pool yourself or do you need a hand?” He asks with a cheeky smile, pushing his arms out. Mark squirms away and drops down to the pool side to slide into the water unaided. Jackson strips off his shirt before joining him and Mark finds himself staring a little too long at his perfectly chiselled chest.
With only minimal lanes to utilise, it takes most of the morning for everyone to get their times assessed in the required fields. Mark quickly realises it’s a lot more physically demanding than he’d naively assumed but finds he cares a lot more about passing everything than he’d have liked. He feels outrageously proud of himself when they break for lunch having passed everything he needs to so far.
That afternoon, after everyone had taken an hour to let their lunch settle, they had little left to do other than a few team building exercises Jaebum insists would strengthen their sense of togetherness… Or something.
Everyone is taking it pretty seriously, despite it just being a race to who could swim their lifeguard floaty to their team mate at the other end of the pool quicker. Mark had lost interest relatively fast and was finding it too amusing to watch the determination in Jinyoung’s face as he desperately tries to show how great he is for Jaebum’s benefit, clearly. He's waiting in the deep end, nonchalantly treading water when a wave of water washes over his face.
“Hey!” He spins around, instantly registering the look of triumph on Jackson’s face and wastes no time in splashing him back. Jackson retaliates instantly and swims closer to try and push Mark further into the water. Mark is nowhere near as strong and toned as Jackson but he puts up a good fight before his head is finally plunged under. When he manages to push above the water he lunges for Jackson.
“That’s enough horsing around!” Jaebum barks. Jackson and Mark instantly shrink away from each other sheepishly, avoiding eye contact. “You should know better Jackson.” He tuts, and walked back to the shallow end, leaving both Jackson and Mark feeling like they’d just been put in time out.
“Party pooper.” Jackson mumbles under his breath, and Mark sniggers
-
On the third day of their junior life guard training, Mark is up before Jinyoung calls him. He's already showered, dressed and waiting outside when Jinyoung rounds the corner to Mark’s street. He spins Jinyoung some story about the fresh air every day giving him a better nights sleep but really, Mark is enjoying himself and almost looked forward to going.
“Hey, Mark.” Jackson jogs over to them as they emerged from the locker rooms that morning. “Jinyoung.” He nods at Jinyoung who is looking a little confused before wandering away to speak to Yugyeom. “You ready for today?” He grins. Mark looks at him little awkwardly.
“Aren’t we supposed to dive all morning? I suck.” Jackson rolls his eyes.
“That’s why you get to be partnered with me, I’m the greatest. You’re lucky really.” He jabs Mark in the side, eliciting a yelp.
“Get off me.” He grins, trying to poke Jackson back, noticing he’s already taken the liberty of undressing down to his red swimming shorts.
“Pay attention.” Jaebum, who had just filed out of the locker room gives them a warning look as he walks to the front of the pool and blows his whistle to gather everyone’s attention. Mark and Jackson both roll their eyes and gather with everyone else.
-
“Thanks.” Mark breathes heavily, taking the towel Jackson had thrown his way after he’d clambered out of the pool for lunch.
“Want to sit with me for lunch?” Jackson offers with a lopsided grin, rubbing a towel over his shaggy, wet hair. Mark readily agreed and caught his breath, still pretty winded from how often he’d managed to belly flop impressively instead of a dive. He’d gotten the hang of it though, thanks to Jackson insisting on holding his stomach and keeping his hands on him to get his body right. He wishes he hadn’t felt quite so giddy when Jackson told him he’d done a good job.
-
“Who are you texting?” Jinyoung tries to peer over Mark’s shoulder that evening as they lounge on Mark’s bed.
“Hm?” Mark looks up from his phone, having been glued to it all evening and barely noticing how touchy Jinyoung seems to not be the centre of attention.
“You’ve been on your phone ever since we got home, who is it?” Jinyoung asks again.
“Oh, just Jackson.” He smiles, his attention stolen away when his phone buzzes against his thigh. Mark lets out a sudden laugh as he looks down at the screen as he opens the photo of Jackson with his eyes squeezed shut and face wrinkled up. Jinyoung furrows his brow, clearly unimpressed with being kept out of something funny. Mark stares down at the photo Jackson had sent him a little more before snapping one of himself pulling an ugly face. They’d been trapped in a selfie war for the past couple of hours after Jackson had sent Mark a photo of him collapsed on his couch, complaining that he was tired.
“You’ve known him like, a day.” Jinyoung mumbles, turning his attention back to the magazine he’s flipping through. Mark scoffs and throws a pillow.
“Green is not your colour, Jinyoung.” He grins, watching Jinyoung’s face crumple in annoyance, he really was easy to wind up. “You’ve not said two words to Jaebum, you can’t get cranky with me because your plan to seduce him hasn’t even come into action yet.” He sees his phone light up in the corner of his eye, and he can see Jinyoung look at him expectantly to see if he’ll pick it up right away to check his latest message. “Besides, it’s like, three days, not one.” Mark sticks his tongue out and Jinyoung throws the pillow back. “I’m allowed to have other friends than you, you know.” Mark adds defensively and this time Jinyoung groans out loud and kicks Mark in the leg.
“Shut up.”
Mark ignores him, still grinning at Jackson’s reply.
Text from: Jackson
8.34pm
not fair that you still look handsome even when youre trying to be ugly >.<
-
Mark throws his bag down as he walks through his front door and heads straight to the kitchen for a snack. His hair is sticking up in all directions having not dried it properly after the pool that day and all the chlorine still hasn’t washed out- he desperately needs to shower and collapse onto his bed and do nothing else but with his final exam being tomorrow he needs to go over his guide book a couple more times before he can feel prepared.
Coming into this stupid experience, forcibly, he hastens to add, he hadn’t expected to care this much about passing this course. But, having completed his fifth day of training today, Mark realises that he wants to pass, and he wants to feel proud of himself, despite having denied this to Jinyoung earlier that day.
He’s just collapsed onto the couch with a can of cola when he hears his Mom call his name from the other room. He groans, peeling himself up, taking his drink and his now very worn junior lifeguard guide into the next room to see what she wants.
“Take your brother to the park would you? He’s been waiting all day for you to get home.” She doesn’t look up from her book and Mark sighs. The last thing he wants to do is take his kid brother to the park and watch over him and his little friends. He definitely has better things to do.
“Mom, I have my exam tomorrow, I need to-“
“Honey, you hardly need to study for pulling a kid out of the water. Just take him for an hour whilst I get dinner ready.” Mark says nothing as he goes back to the front door to get his shoes, and as much as he wants to be mad at his Mom for saying so, he can’t deny that he had said a similar thing to Jinyoung when he’d tried to rope Mark into the lifeguard course in the first place. He bit back his complaints, and headed for the door but caught his reflection just before he left. He cursed a little under his breath, seeing just how crazy his hair looked and rushed upstairs to grab a snapback before yelling is brother to get a move on.
-
Text from: Jackson
6.07pm
watcha doing?
Text to: Jackson
6.09pm
watching my kid brother and his friends at the park -_- you?
Text from: Jackson
6.12pm
on my way home
Text from: Jackson
6.13pm
how you feeling about tomorrow?
Text to: Jackson
6.14pm
nervous as hell >.<
Text from: Jackson
6.15pm
dont be, youll do great :D :D :D
Mark smiles down at his phone as he gets a little more comfortable on the bench he’s situated himself on. He’s far enough away from his brother and his friends so that their yelling and boisterous chatter isn’t right in his ear, but close enough to be able to see them at all times. He’s just considering calling Jinyoung to talk about their exam tomorrow when he feels someone drop down beside him on the bench, causing a startled yelp to escape his lips.
“Hey, sorry, didn’t meant to scare you.” Jackson grins, nudging Mark with his shoulder as he sits so close to him they’re nearly touching, regardless of the fact the bench is big enough for a fair few people.
“What are you doing here?” Mark asks, failing to withhold the smile that replaces his surprised expression. Jackson shrugs.
“You said you were at the park, I was curious if it was the one by my house and turns out it is.” He grins back.
“You live around here?” Mark questions, and Jackson nods.
“Sure do. A block or two over. Hey, nice hat!” He clocks Mark’s Snapback- it’s his favourite, albeit simple. Just a black snapback with some metallic triangle on the front. He flinches out of Jackson’s reach when the blonde tries to take it from him. “What, no sharing?” He pouts and Mark feels instantly guilty.
“I have a serious case of pool hair.” He responds shyly to defend himself. Jackson simply shrugs, taking off his own black snapback with bold, white letter adorning the front spelling; WANG. Doing so reveals his own unruly case of pool hair, blonde tufts sticking up in all directions whilst the rest has been flattened by his hat. Mark stifles a laugh.
“Swap you.” Jackson offers, holding his hat out with a crooked smile. Mark rolls his eyes, pretends to think about it for 0.3 seconds before taking his own hat off and handing it to Jackson in return for his. He studies the lettering with a smirk for a moment before putting it on his head, backwards. “It suits you.” Jackson laughs.
Jackson asks him again about how Mark feels about the exam the following day and tells Mark how great he’s doing and to ignore Jaebum because he’s grouchy all the time. He has no idea how long they’re sitting there until his brother traipse over to him, his friends having gone home, and tells Mark they have to get back for dinner.
“See you tomorrow, you’ll do great.” Jackson holds his arm out and Mark wonders for a second if he’s going to try to hug him but just settles for a squeeze of his shoulder instead, flashing him another smile before he walks off in the other direction.
When Mark and his brother get home, Mark kicks off his shoes and drops down onto one of the chairs at the dining table. His mother flashes him a strange look before cocking her hip and raising an eyebrow.
“Mark, honey?” She wanders over, “Why does your hat say WANG?”
-
Mark didn’t sleep too well that night. Even despite the text he got from Jackson; sleep well, you’ll do great tomorrow! wasn’t enough to put his mind at ease. When he meets Jinyoung at the pool that morning he’s greeted with a concerned look.
“You look terrible.” Jinyoung says flatly. “Are you sick?” Mark doesn’t have time to answer him, fortunately, as Jackson bounds over like an excited puppy and latches onto his arm.
“Glad I caught you before you signed in!” He breathes, and stops for a second, “Sup Jinyoung.” He waves and then turns his attention back to Mark, pulling the sleeve of his grey uniform junior life guard hoodie up to reveal his wrist. “I wanted to give you this for good luck,” He explains, his tongue sticking out over his lip a little as he struggles to undo the clasp on his silver chain bracelet. “I was wearing it when I passed mine so I figured it might help.” He gushes, finally managing to unclasp it and hands it out for Mark nervously.
“Thanks, Jackson.” A wave of instant relief and calm washes over Mark as he takes the bracelet and allows Jackson to fasten the clasp on his wrist. It’s a little big, but it brings a smile to his face. “Now I can’t fail.”
“Exactly!” Jackson beams. “Besides, I think you’ll look really great in our uniform.” He adds with a grin, not missing the way Mark looks down at his feet to try and hide the way his lips are twitching into an almost smile. “Anyway I just wanted to wish you good luck. Good luck to you too, Jinyoung.” He adds after, his touch lingering on Mark’s hand before he gives an awkward wave and jogs back over to where Yugyeom and Jaebum are sorting out the paper work.
“There something you’re not telling me, Mark?” Jinyoung probes.
“Nope.” Mark shrugs, brushing him off and heading into the locker rooms to change, glancing down at the bracelet on his wrist again with a sated smile.
-
Mark can barely hear Jinyoung’s unremitting rambling in his ear. He’s still trying to make sense of the words on his certificate- Mark Tuan, Junior Lifeguard.
“Can you believe it?” Jinyoung asks him again, staring at his own certificate with glee as they begin walking across the parking lot. “We’re actual lifeguards, we can do actual guarding of lives!” Mark sniggers at this, usually he’d be making fun of Jinyoung for something like that but instead he has a silly grin on his face and an air of self-pride. He did this himself. He earned it.
“Hey, Mark, wait up!” Mark spins around quickly at the entrance to the parking lot to see Jackson running over. “I didn’t get chance much to congratulate you.” He pulls Mark into a tight, excited hug that lasts more than a few seconds, but still not long enough, Mark thinks. He has to use all his self-restraint not to bury his face in Jackson’s shoulder. “Congratulations.” He smiles as he pulls away from him. “You too, Jinyoung!” He pats Jinyoung on the shoulder but Jinyoung’s looking behind him with a look of terror. Both Jackson and Mark turn around to see just what it is and Mark rolls his eyes.
“Hey, sorry I hope I’m not interrupting.” Jaebum clears his throat, awkwardly gesturing to the three of them as he avoids eye contact with all of them. “I er, just wanted to say, you know,” He scratches the back of his head and looks like he’d rather be anywhere else, even though pink faced Jinyoung is hanging onto his every word. “You did good.” He reached out to pat Jinyoung on the shoulder and cracked what Mark thinks might actually have been a smile. The three of them watch in disbelief as Jaebum stalks back to the pool.
“Well that was weird.” Jackson comments flatly.
“I’ll say.” Mark agrees, looking at Jinyoung who is doing the best he can to bite back a smile as his cheeks flush even darker.
-
For someone who is not a morning person, Mark is weirdly enjoying the start to his summer. Sure he has to get up at 8am if he has the 9am shift, but on the days he doesn’t start until 2pm he can get away with sleeping in until 1. It works. Not everyone passed of course, there’s about eight of them all together, including himself, Jackson, Jinyoung, Jaebum and Yugyeom. A lot of people, he’d learned, just needed to pass the course but would end up working at the pool the other side of town.
Mark’s favourite days were the days it was just him and Jackson on a shift. If Jaebum was in charge of handing out the shifts, he noticed these were in short supply. Something about the two of them not being trustworthy and responsible together. When they did get to work together though, it was barely like work at all. Some days, Jackson would stop by Dunkin Donuts on the way to work to pick up donuts and coffee, and Mark would bring extra lunch for them to share. Being with Jackson was so easy. It made Mark feel lighter just being around him, every time he heard his laugh it was like he hadn’t a care in the world, and when they talked it was like no one else existed.
For all Mark had bitched and moaned about wasting his summer on a stupid lifeguard training course, he knew he had Jinyoung to thank for what Mark predicted would be his best summer yet.
(He wouldn’t actually tell Jinyoung this though, Mark is sure he’d never hear the end of it.)
-
It’s one of the rare occasions where Jackson and Mark have a morning at the pool together. The afternoon shift will be there to relieve them at two, not that Mark really wants them too, his shifts with Jackson always fly by way too quickly for his liking.
As much as Mark loves how much time they spend texting back and forth when they’re not at work, it doesn’t come close to actually spending time with Jackson. Something they haven’t actually done outside of the pool since that day at the park, which Mark notes had been nearly two weeks ago.
It was like Jackson could read his mind.
“Hey, Mark.” He calls over to Mark as he rubs a towel over his hair after they’d changed back into their clothes once their shift had ended. “You free now? Do you wanna hang out?” Mark looks up from the mirror in his locker and nods.
“Sure. Do you wanna come over to my house? I got that new video game that came out last week.” Jackson’s face lights up.
“Definitely.” He beams.
-
Mark is secretly relieved that no one is home when they arrive back at his house. He doesn’t want to share Jackson with anyone, not right away, and he knows his Mom will want to know all about him straight away when he’d be happier just stealing him away to his room so they can just enjoy each other’s company. After raiding the fridge for snacks and soda, the two of them go up to Mark’s room and collapse onto the bed.
Mark feels like he’s known Jackson his entire life. Even when they’re saying nothing (which, honestly doesn’t happen very often because Jackson can’t keep his mouth shut for two seconds) it’s comfortable. Jackson throws the controller down onto the bed in mock anger and groans.
“Nope. You win. I am not worthy.” He sighs and Mark gives a light cheer, throwing his own controller down in triumph.
“I told you. I am the greatest.” He grins, jabbing Jackson in the side. Jackson squirms, letting out a sudden burst of high pitched laughter, only causing Mark to tickle him harder until he squirms so much, begging Mark to please stop, that he wriggles right over the side of the bed, landing on the floor with an oomph. “Shit, are you okay?” Mark giggles, leaning over the side of the bed, his now very faded pastel pink hair falling right over his eyes, framing the rest of his face as he grins down at Jackson who is looking at him with the a content smile. “What?” Mark cocks his head to the side.
“Nothing. I’m fine.” Jackson assures him, his smile widening to prove it. He sits up and relocates his hat that had fallen off in the scrap. As he sets it back on his head and glances around his eyes fall on the cap that has pride of place on Mark’s night stand. “Hey, my hat!” He beams. “I forgot you still had this.”
“Oh, right, yeah, I’m sorry, I keep forgetting to give that back.” Mark tells him sheepishly, leaving out the fact he knows very well he has Jackson’s hat and is too selfish to want to give it back. “You still have mine, too.”
“It’s fine. Keep it.” Jackson grins, tossing it over to Mark who puts it on straight away. “It looks better on you anyways.”
“Yeah? You just like me with your wang on my head.” Mark instantly regrets the words the moment they leave his mouth and he winces, shutting his eyes tight in embarrassment but Jackson just grants his response with his hyena laugh instead.
“Sure do.”
Fortunately the potential awkwardness is defused by the sound of the front door opening and shutting. Mark leaps up and heads out the door and hangs over the railings of the stairs.
“Mom?” He calls down. “Can my friend stay for dinner?”
-
“Are you sure you don’t mind?” Jackson asks for the fourth time as Mark shuts his bedroom door and rummages around in his closet for something he can wear.
“My Mom suggested you stay over, she doesn’t want you walking home alone this late at night, and I don’t mind so stop asking.” Mark assures him, tossing him an oversized t-shirt that drowns him but might just fit Jackson.
“Well, okay then.” Jackson grins, taking the towel Mark had given him earlier and disappearing into Mark’s bathroom to take a shower first.
After Mark emerges from the bathroom he lets out a small laugh at the sight of Jackson in the center of his bed, taking up positively all the covers.
“That is just not going to work.” With a swift jump, Mark leaps onto Jackson and begins wrestling the covers away from him and trying to find Jackson’s side to begin a second tickle attack. Jackson puts up a good fight but eventually allows Mark to push him to the side and grab the blankets. As they lay there catching their breath from the impromptu blanket wrestle, Jackson speaks.
“What made you want to be a lifeguard?” He asks Mark into the darkness.
“Honestly?” Mark hums, “Jinyoung made me do it.” Jackson laughs. “I really didn’t want to. But he made me promise because he said we had to support Yugyeom.”
“That’s cute.” Jackson muses.
“It would be,” Mark responds, “If it were true. Jinyoung has the hots for Jaebum.”
“Wait, really?” Jackson sounds surprised.
“Yeah, you can’t tell? He spends the entire time they’ve ever around each other pining.” Mark laughs.
“Honestly I kind of just assumed you guys were…” Jackson trails off, “You know.” Mark chokes back another bout of laughter.
“What?” He questions in disbelief, “Me and Jinyoung? Seriously, Jackson? I’ve known him since I was like, five. No way.” Mark doesn’t know if he’s just seeing or hearing what he wants to, but it’s almost like he can feel Jackson relax beside him. He doesn’t know if he’s expecting him to say anything in response to that, but he doesn’t. But they do talk about everything. And anything. For hours. It gets to the point where the birds start singing outside Mark’s window and the sun begins to creep back up and Mark is still sleepily trying to keep his eyes open whilst Jackson tells him about this one movie he saw once and can’t remember the name of.
Eventually, he guesses, he must have fallen asleep, because he wakes up with his face in the pillow on Jackson’s side of the bed and an arm strewn across his back. He grunts a little as he moves, sitting up and groggily casting his eyes over to the desk to catch the time. Mark freezes.
“Shit!” He curses loudly, kicking Jackson awake and scrambling out of the covers and searching frantically for his red shorts.
“What… What are you doing?” Jackson mumbles, peeling his face off the side of the bed.
“Jackson, we overslept!” Mark throws his clothes at him. “It’s almost twelve. I had the 9am shift!” He cries, searching anxiously for his phone. When he finds it, his face falls as he sees his screen.
Jaebum – Missed Calls (6) Messages (2)
Jinyoung- Missed Calls (3) Messages (13)
“I am so dead.” Mark whimpers.
“Maybe it’ll be okay?” Jackson offers from the bed but Mark silences him with a glare.
-
Mark and Jackson both arrive at the pool in the next half an hour, both looking dishevelled and very sorry for themselves. Mark keeps telling Jackson he doesn’t need to be there until two and he’s not late for his shift so it’s not his fault. Jackson counters with the fact he has missed calls from Jaebum too and if it weren’t for him, Mark wouldn’t have overslept and been late, so he wants to take the blame too.
Of course, Jaebum won’t hear anything Jackson has to say and tells him he can come back when his shift starts at two. Mark receives and official warning and says nothing when Jaebum lectures him about misconduct and tardiness and general lack of responsibility. Mark has to sign an official form to say he accepts his warning and then he’s sent home. As he’s heading for the door Jinyoung hurtles into him.
“You idiot.” He slaps him on the arm. “What the hell are you playing at turning up three hours late for work?” He asks but Mark just shrugs. He doesn’t have time for this right now. “You know I had a call at 9.15 this morning from Jaebum to cover your shift?” He tells him, and Mark can actually see a little bit of pride on Jinyoung’s face that Jaebum called him first. “What were you doing?”
“We didn’t set an alarm.” Mark shrugs. “Just overslept.”
“We?” Jinyoung questions.
“You should get back to my shift.” Mark nudges him as he sees Jackson shoot him a sorrowful glance from the other side of the room. Mark forces a pained smile and waves before leaving.
-
The next day, Mark feels kind of guilty and ashamed of himself when he turns up for work, before 9, just to be on the safe side. Fortunately, his shift is with Yugyeom so it spares him any awkwardness he might have to face with Jaebum, or just plain attitude and nosiness he might have with Jinyoung.
It’s a pretty steady day, and despite your usual rowdy kids getting too carried away with their cannon balls and over enthusiasm with floaties, he doesn’t have much to worry about. When Mark spots Jaebum arrive to relieve them from their shift, he forces a smile and walks straight past, instantly feeling a little shittier.
Days pass, and the awkwardness goes away. These things happen, after all. And after a particularly trying day, consisting of himself and Jinyoung prying two small kids apart after a fight over inflatable animals, Mark is glad that it’s time for him to lock up the pool and go home. When’s done locking the door to the entrance, he’s surprised to look up and see Jackson with his hands in his pockets and a sloppy grin on his face.
“Jackson.” He smiles. Forever happy to see him. “What are you doing here? Wasn’t today one of your days off?”
“Yep, and you have tomorrow off right?” Mark nods. “Great. I’m taking you on a date.” He tells him and Mark blinks, slightly taken aback. Jackson’s expression falters slightly, “I mean, if that’s okay, of course.” He adds with a shy laugh.
“Okay.” Mark finds himself blushing and struggling to keep eye contact, “What did you have in mind?” He asks. Jackson’s face lights up the moment Mark agrees.
“That’s for me to worry about.” He assures Mark as they begin walking out of the parking lot. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow at seven, okay?” He gives Mark a quick hug before he heads home in the opposite direction. Mark is pleased he’s not around to see just how silly he looks with a wide grin plastered all over his face.
-
Despite how much Mark constantly marvels over how easy things are with Jackson, he finds himself to be outrageously nervous when the clock ticks to 6.55pm. He glances in the mirror for the umpteenth time, fixing his hair and smoothing down his t-shirt. He admires the way his tight, and very ripped jeans look with Jackson’s snapback hanging on one of the belt loops and smiles. Before he has time to panic anymore, he hears the doorbell.
“Mom! I’m going out!” Mark screams, hurtling down the stairs and towards the front door before anyone else can answer it. He doesn’t hear what his Mom calls back but doesn’t hang around to find out, grabbing his key off the hook and shutting the door behind him, almost bowling Jackson over as he escapes.
“You’re keen.” Jackson smirks and Mark blushes in response instantly. “You look,” He pauses, looking at Mark with a wistful expression, “Really, really great.” He muses and Mark just shrugs, trying not to show just how flustered he feels.
“You don’t look so bad yourself.” He glances down at Jackson’s sinfully tight jeans and he can’t explain the warm and excited feeling in his chest when he realises Jackson is wearing his snapback. “Nice hat.” He bites his lip and tries (and fails) to hold back a grin when Jackson takes his hand as they begin walking. It’s new, this kind of thing between them, and it’s nice. It’s Jackson, so it’s comfortable.
“Thanks. You could have worn one too, you know.” Jackson points out, like he’d been expecting Mark to wear his. Mark clears his throat and gestures to his belt loop and watches as Jackson’s face lights up.
“Didn’t want to mess up my hair.” Mark shrugs.
“That would be a shame,” Jackson agrees, “It is very pretty after all.” It’s a simple, nothingness comment, but it makes Mark’s chest flutter all the same.
Jackson won’t let Mark pay for dinner at the little Italian place down town. He tells him this the moment they sit down and he tells Mark to order anything and everything he likes off the menu. Whilst they wait for their starters to arrive, he brashly takes Mark’s hand across the table and grins.
Like promised, Jackson foots the bill, despite Mark’s protests and ushers him outside and protectively takes his hand again and steers him down the street to the movie theatre.
“Dinner and a movie, you really are pulling out all the stops.” Mark muses and Jackson shrugs with a pleased expression.
“I guess I must be trying really hard.” He replies coolly and Mark has to bite back another grin.
Jackson, as it turns out, and not to Mark’s surprise, knew just what he was doing. He again wouldn’t let Mark pay for the movie tickets, and despite Mark trying to hurry off to order the popcorn and drinks before Jackson realised, he failed and whilst he felt guilty Jackson was spending all his money on him, he couldn’t fight back just how special it made him feel.
Yawning and throwing an arm around your date at the movies- the oldest trick in the book. Which is why Jackson opted to skip that and go straight for pushing up the arm rest in between them and pulling Mark into his side, his hand softly running through his hair.
-
Truthfully speaking, Mark didn’t really catch much of the movie. It’s not that he didn’t enjoy it, it was just that he was enjoying just being with Jackson too much to concentrate on anything else. Neither of them said much as they began walking home, their hands finding each other’s as soon as they left the movie theatre like it was just a practiced action that they’d been doing for as long as they could remember.
Once they reached the neighbourhood before his, Mark actually found himself feeling sorry the night had to end.
Jackson pulls on Mark’s arm, halting them both in the street and nodded his head to the side, and Mark realises where they are. He glances up at the sign for the public pool and looks back to Jackson who is grinning devilishly. Mark catches on pretty quickly and shakes his head, his heart beating fast.
“No, Jackson,” Jackson was nodding and Mark was suddenly very afraid of just how tempting this was becoming. Everything inside of him was telling him just how bad of an idea this was but the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to do it, his heart rate quickening as Jackson was grinning wider and wider. “We can’t,” Mark was giggling now, trying to keep his voice down and desperately trying to resist but Jackson was already finding the key on his keychain for the front door and pulling Mark by the arm across the parking lot.
Mark wasn’t a bad kid in school. He did his homework, he didn’t skip classes, he didn’t fight, and he didn’t cause trouble. As he holds his breath as Jackson unlocks the door in the dark with only the light of his phone to see Mark thinks if he’d have had a taste of what rebellion felt like, the adrenaline, the rush, he might have broken the rules a little more often as a kid.
“Race you.” Jackson whispers in Mark’s ear in the darkness and with his heart now beating out of his chest, Mark pushes his legs into a run as he follows Jackson down the hall, through the door and out towards the pool.
Jackson is already shimmying out of his jeans and pulling his shirt over his head by the time Mark catches up and his head is still screaming no whilst the rest of him is screaming yes. Their clothes are dropped together in a heap by the edge and Mark suddenly feels very nervous standing in front of Jackson in just his boxer shorts- regardless of the countless days they’ve spent together in swim shorts.
Almost like he can sense Mark’s doubt, Jackson reaches out and takes his hand and counts them down from three.
The moment they’re in the water, Jackson wastes no time in pushing Mark back under playfully. Mark fights against him, endless laughter falling from his mouth as he squints, trying to splash water back into Jackson’s face. They frolic, and Mark loses all track of time as they have the entire pool to themselves, illuminated only by the moon filtering onto the water and Mark can’t help but notice just how beautiful Jackson looks with his platinum blonde hair strewn across his face and nothing but joy in his eyes as he looks back at him.
Jackson moves first.
He moves closer to Mark and his smile begins to fade, replaced by an intense look that Mark hasn’t seen before and he swallows. Breath catches in his mouth as his heart throws itself against his chest with little rhythm. Jackson’s hands creep up over his shoulders and cup his face delicately before he leans in and presses a slow, soft kiss to Mark’s lips.
It takes a second for Mark to respond, and Jackson is pulling away. Mark wraps his around Jackson’s neck and pulls him back, pulls him closer to him and eagerly presses their lips back together earning a heavy exhale as Jackson tries to hold him even tighter. Mark’s suddenly infinitely glad they’re in relatively shallow water because he thinks trying to make out would be a lot more difficult whilst treading water.
Blood rushes to Mark’s head, and to other parts of him, finding no time to feel embarrassed about the odd whimper that escapes his reddening lips as he continues to throw his everything into the kiss. Mark is pretty sure that nothing, nothing is able to ruin this moment. That is until they hear what definitely sound like a door closing and footsteps. Instantly, the two of the pull away from each other, lips swollen and eyes wide with panic.
Jackson pulls the two of them down until they’re both kneeling in the shallows, their heads low enough beneath the pool side that they aren’t visible to whoever it is that’s arrived. He pushes his finger to Mark’s lips and mouths for him to stay still. Over his shoulder, Mark can see a flash light shine across the water and he tenses.
“Whoever you are, you’re fooling nobody.” Mark’s heart physically drops a thousand feet when he hears Jaebum’s voice. “I know you’re there and I will come in there and get you myself if you won’t turn yourself in.” Mark looks at Jackson who shoots him a look, shaking his head fervently. Mark pushes his hand away from his mouth and gives him one last, sorry look before reaching out to hold Jackson’s shoulder and keep him below the pool side as he stands up.
“Jaebum, I can explain.” Mark says shakily, flinching as the light shines directly in his face, preventing him from seeing Jaebum save for the outline of his figure. He can feel the disappointment. He can also feel Jackson struggle a little but he digs his nails in a little to beg him to just stay quiet.
“There’s nothing to explain, Mark.” Jaebum sighs, lowering the flash light. “You can hand your uniform and whistle in this week.” He tells him sternly and turns the light off. “I’ll leave you to get changed and clean up your mess. I’ll be waiting for you outside to see you off the premises. You’re lucky I won’t call the police.” Mark nods, a large lump forming in his throat. He waits until Jaebum has gone out of sight, and he releases his hold on Jackson’s shoulder.
“Mark, are you crazy?” Jackson hisses, trying to wrap his hand around Mark’s wrist.
“Why should both of us get fired?” He replies emptily, shrugging out of Jackson’s grip and clambering out of the pool and picking up his clothes.
“Mark…” Jackson calls after him softly.
“You should really sneak out the back before Jaebum realises you’re here too.” Mark answers with his back to him, pulling his jeans on over wet skin and ignoring just how disgusting it felt. Nothing could beat the dead weight on his chest he felt right now.
-
For the next two days, Mark ignores his phone. If his mother asks, which she does, he’s sick and he doesn’t want to talk to anyone. He isn’t lying. He feels sick. He hears her say so to Jinyoung when he calls at their house on the way home from his shift at the pool. He has a couple messages from Yugyeom, more than a couple of messages from Jinyoung, and one from Jaebum to remind him that he needs to drop off his keys, uniform and whistle. What bothers Mark is that he hasn’t heard from Jackson at all.
The moping around for two days is beginning to eat away at him- that’s what he tells himself on the third day when he wakes up and checks his phone to see a big fat zero in the new messages from Jackson department. He forces himself to get out of bed and shower, he leaves his hair fluffy and unstyled, which usually for Mark would be a little out of character, only he searches around the floor for his ripped jeans and pulls a hat off the belt loop and pulls it backwards on his head.
Mark has to go a little out of his way to get to the nearest Dunkin Donuts, but when he does he picks up a box of donuts and two coffees to go. He hates how much his heart is beating in his chest the closer he gets to the pool and he can feel the judging eyes on him as he walks out and Jaebum is quick to jump down from his post and march towards him with intent.
“Mark.” He addresses him with little emotion but if Mark knew him better he might think Jaebum looked a little sorry. “You don’t work here anymore.” He states as if Mark had miraculously forgotten how royally fired he had been the other night.
“I’m aware of that…” He looks at Jaebum with a raised eyebrow. “Doesn’t mean I can’t still visit the pool, you know.” He reasons with as much humour as he can muster, “Or bring my friend lunch.” He gestures to the donuts and coffee. Jaebum looks taken back.
“I can’t accept bribery-“ He begins and Mark can’t help bursting into laughter.
“For Jackson, Jaebum.” He interrupts him. “These are for Jackson.” Jaebum instantly turns a little red and tight lipped. “Well, he’s at work.” He states, stony faced. Mark glances over his shoulder where he can see Jackson has spotted him and looks either scared or confused, but curious either way. Jaebum holds up a hand that suggests Jackson stay exactly where he is. Mark realises he’s not getting anywhere near him until after 2pm, but he’s happy to wait.
Jaebum’s warning glance, however, doesn’t seem like it was enough to keep Jackson away, and soon enough he’s striding over away from his post towards the two of them. Realising his protest is fruitless, Jaebum grants them a reluctant five minutes before he expects Jackson to be back to his post.
“I, er, brought you donuts.” Mark holds up the box of donuts with a lame attempt at a smile. Jackson seems wilted and not his usual cheerful self and it causes an uncomfortable stabbing pain in Mark’s chest. “You never called.” He adds sadly. Jackson’s face falls and a look of what looks to be panic washes over him.
“I didn’t think you wanted me to.” He utters quickly. Mark is taken aback and puts the coffee and donuts down on the table. “I mean, I got you fired, Mark. You just told me to leave and I got you fired.” His voice cracks a bit and Mark doesn’t really know what to do.
“I got me fired.” He corrects. “It seemed stupid both of us taking the fall when it could have been avoided and this job means more to you than it does to me so…” Mark trails off and shrugs a little and he still hates the sad and pitied look on Jackson’s face. “It’s okay, Jackson. I don’t care that I’m fired,” Slight lie on Mark’s part, he cares considerably that he’s fired, “I care that you took me out on a great date, kissed me and then never called. Was I a bad kisser?” He asks, cocking his head to the side and looking him straight in the eye and trying not to look like he enjoys the look of horror spread across Jackson’s face.
“Oh God, no!” Jackson insists, “That was not it!” He begins to panic, “You were a great kisser, the best even, I just thought that you were mad at me you know? I mean I got you fi-“ Mark takes a step forward and presses a short, sweet kiss on Jackson’s lips and steps back again with a smile on his face.
“I’ll wait for you outside until your shift is done.” Mark assures him and Jackson gives his hand a squeeze,
“I’m sorry.” Jackson mumbles, he sounds sorry, but his cheeks are pink. “Nice hat.” He adds with a smirk, reaching up to touch it softly. Mark just shakes his head with a gentle grin and repeats that he’ll see him at two.
-
“So tell me again how you managed this.” Mark grins, lounging lazily with his head on Jackson’s stomach as they lay comfortably on the ground at the park, the grass tickling his skin, their hands loosely entwined. When he'd tried to hand in his uniform and whistle like Jaebum had requested, he mentioned something about his paper work for dismissal being lost, which basically meant Mark was unfired.
He couldn’t quite accept it but word had soon travelled fast that the rest of the Junior Lifeguard team, or various members of, hadn’t been too pleased with Mark’s ‘unfair dismissal’ and it had been promptly undone. Truthfully, Mark is pretty sure Jaebum felt kind of bad about it. (Jackson’s theory being; Jaebum was actually just jealous of Mark being Jinyoung’s best friend.)
“Basically, after Jinyoung and Yugyeom found out why you got fired, and after I told them what really happened, they both told Jaebum they’d quit if he didn’t give you your job back.” Jackson repeats, his other hand slowly carding through Mark’s hair. “He had no choice really.” He smiles, rearranging himself, propped up on his elbows looking down at Mark who just grins in response.
Jackson slowly leans down to peck a small, delicate kiss to Mark’s lips, Mark’s hand sliding around the back of his neck before he has a chance to pull away. Before Jackson can ease into the kiss he pulls away briefly,
“Wait,” He muses, with a quizzical expression.
“Yes?” Mark asks with light irritation.
“Does this mean we’re boyfriends now?” He asks seriously. Mark cracks a lazy smile and pulls Jackson closer towards him again.
“Yes, I’m pretty sure it does.” Mark answers bemusedly.
“Oh good, I was just checking.” He grins with relief and presses a satisfied kiss to his boyfriend’s lips.