jjuniemoon

[jjuniemoon]

Summertime in Paris (Lavender)

This story is also posted on AO3 under the author songlyinspired, that is me. Just thought I would cover my bases.

-Choi Yeonjun x Fem!Reader

-BestFriend!Hueningkai

Genre: summer love, super cheesy, fluff, angst (kinda), strangers to lovers, slow burn, French country side, canon divergence, inspired by Sad Songs in the Summer by Olivia O'Brien and Summertime in Paris by Jaden, unfinished.

Word count: 26.3k

warnings: profanity, drinking, self doubt, cringe at parts ngl, language barrier sort of, choi yeonjun has a french accent lol

Summary: Your parents send you to spend the summer with your grandma on the French countryside. You meet a cute boy who works on a lavender farm. You fall in love.

***PLEASE READ***

Okay theres a few things we gotta get through before you read this-

1. I wrote this over the course of peak covid. I was bored and felt like I needed a creative outlet! That being said, this is the only body of work, like this, that I have ever written. Pls keep that in mind.

2. This body of work is unfinished, unfortunately. I know how I want the story to play out and end, but I have lost the motivation to continue. I currently have no plans of finishing this story, but I thought I might as well post it instead of letting it rot in my files. Maybe at least 1 person will enjoy it.

3. I do not speak French LOL. All words/sentences meant to be said in French will have ** around the word(s). I am sorry to all French people.

4. Internal monologue will be indented.

5. If you actually end up reading this, even if you didn't like it, can you leave a comment and tell me what you thought? This thing is really corny and cheesy. I think it would just be interesting to know!

Thank you for reading the long disclaimer! Even though it isn't finished, I really appreciated being able to write it. Covid was rough yall.

When your parents told you that you were going to live with your Grandma for the summer, you laughed in their faces. There were many things, too many things, wrong with that statement. First of all, this is the summer before you go off to college, the last summer with your best friend you’ve had since middle school. It was supposed to be a summer for the history books, you two had even created a “summer bucket list”. You both were going to different universities, so you wanted to maximize the amount of time you could spend together. You couldn’t imagine saying goodbye just yet. Secondly, you haven’t seen your Grandma in 4 years after going to your Grandpa’s funeral, why on Earth would she want you to live with her? She wasn’t sick, what did she need you for? Thirdly, and perhaps the most critical, she lives in France. Your mother’s side of the family was from France, in a beautiful quaint town just about 45 minutes outside of Paris. You always loved getting the chance to visit your grandparents, picking up some French from them and learning about where you come from. This would be fun in any other circumstance. You’d be living across the world for 3 months. Your parents explained to you that it was precisely the reason you are going. Something about “needing to remember what’s important before moving on with your life”. You somewhat agreed with them, but couldn’t that just be solved with a nice phone call? Maybe just send some letters back and forth? Living with the person for 3 months just seemed a little extreme to you. Nevertheless, there was not much room for discussion. Your mom already had made her decision, and you knew her decisions were always made with complete certainty.

You don’t text your best friend, waiting until that night to head to his house to tell him in person. You dreaded the 10 minute bike ride to his house, not even telling him you were on your way. You had been best friends since 5th grade, doing everything together for the past 7 years. Now that you were both 18, you’ve had countless memories with each other. You were never familiar with soulmates before, but you knew you two were made to be friends. Knowing what the other is thinking with only one look, being so used to each other’s habits. You try not to go down memory lane by yourself, not wanting to make things worse.

It was past 10pm so you knew his family would be asleep, so instead of knocking on the door you decided to round the house to the side with his bedroom window on it. You contemplate being dramatic and pelting his second story window with pebbles, seeing that his room light was still on. You decided to avoid an accidental broken window and press his name in your contacts list. The phone rings a couple times until you hear that familiar bubbly voice on the other end.

“Y/N, to what do I owe the pleasure?”, you could picture him saying with a smile on his face.

You chuckle, realizing how easy it is for him to immediately lighten your mood. You quiet down when you remember why you’re even here.

“Hey Kai, do you have time to talk?”, you weren’t really asking, seeing as though you were literally standing outside his house.

“Hmmm I don’t know, what’s in it for me?”, he continues to be sarcastic, which makes you even more sad considering you know what’s about to happen.

You sigh and say lightly, “Not much”.

“Is everything okay?”, finally hearing the seriousness in your voice.

“Just look outside”, you say, wanting to cut to the chase.

You see movement behind his curtains until you see his face pop through. You give him a weak smile and wave, “Hi.”

“Oh shoot, hey!”, he says in surprise. “I’ll be right down.”

“Okay.”

You see him move away from his window, “K, one sec.” Then he hangs up.

You wait a few moments until you hear his back door slide open, he approaches the side gate and lets you in his backyard. You immediately engulf him in a hug, which he gladly returns.

“Y/N, what’s going on?”, he pulls away just enough to look in your face.

You let go, “C’mon, let’s sit.” You walk to a bench in his garden and sit down with your legs crossed.

Kai sits beside you and laughs nervously, “You’re scaring me.”

“Yeah sorry, it’s just,” you pause and look at him, “ahhh this is gonna suck.”

“What? What happened?” He runs his fingers through his hair, a nervous habit you’ve noticed he has.

“Well,” you look away from him and look at the stars, “today my parents told me I’m going to stay with my Grandma this summer.” You say it simply and quickly, not wanting to drag it out even more.

Kai pauses and shifts in his seat, “Oh that’s awesome! Why are you upset?” You realize he didn’t understand what you meant by “stay”. You look at him again, confusion in his eyes.

“No you don’t get it, I’m not just visiting.” You try to clarify. Kai blinks, still oblivious.

You continue, “As in, like, for the whole summer.” You try to see if it has finally clicked in his brain.

He raises his eyebrows, “Oh!” His posture immediately fell, “Oh…”

You look away from him again, “I know! All our plans…” you sigh, “but also I feel like an asshole because it’s my Grandma, ya know? I don’t get to see her that often. She’s so sweet and is probably so excited to see me, but all I can think of is myself.” You hang your head.

You feel a hand on your back, “Hey, don’t. This literally just happened.” He removes his hand and you turn to look back up at him. “But why? Why are they making you do that?” You could hear him try to hide the hurt in his voice.

“They said it would be good for me to,” you raise your hands to gesture quotation marks, “remember what’s important,” you lower your hands, “before I go to college.” You pause, “it just seems a bit extreme, right?”

“Let me guess, it was your mom’s idea?” He questions, and you nod. “Well it does seem like something she’d come up with.” He looks down at his hands and starts to laugh, “like that one time she caught you trying to steal vodka from the liquor cabinet and nearly made you switch schools.”

You cover your face with your hands, “But that’s the thing! I didn’t do anything wrong!” you remove your hands, “I can’t tell if this is somehow a punishment for something.”

“Or maybe she genuinely believes this would be good for you.” He offers his theory.

“I don’t know Kai,” you throw your head back again, “ugh! Our summer!” You glance to the side to look at his face. You admire how he’s trying his best to remain his happy self.

“Yeah this definitely blows…” he sighs.

You turn your head to look back up. You shared a few moments of silence, thinking about how you’ll be torn from your best friend way sooner than you were expecting. You remember how you were supposed to be going to the same university in the first place, always talking about how you two were going to be roommates and experience everything together, like you did with pretty much everything else. That was until Kai got an offer to play soccer at another university, full ride. You mentally curse him for his talents. Now having to room with a complete stranger and study a major you aren’t even passionate about. You suddenly feel a sting in your eyes and look back down to your lap. ______________________________________________________________________________

That night, you both ended up crying. You knew that Kai wouldn’t be able to hold his emotions forever. That was a week ago, and within that week you two tried to knock out as many things on your “summer bucket list” as possible. Some things include a day trip to the beach, rewarding you both in a sunburn. Another one partaking in a campfire night and pulling an all-nighter, knocking out 2 goals in one. Roasting your own marshmallows and talking about how you now plan on spending your summer. He mentioned how he’ll try to do something more productive now that he won’t have you to distract him between soccer practices. You hit him for that comment. You both make the unfortunate discovery that once you get back from your Grandma’s, he’ll already be moving into his dorm for welcome week. So this was it.

Now you’re standing in your room looking at all the packed bags wondering how you didn’t put up more of a fight. Perhaps the feeling of guilt when complaining about your Grandma prevented you. Yeah that was it. Kai was with you, helping you gather every last thing you might need. You thought you had finished but you catch him trying to shove something in your carry-on.

“Kai, what is that?”, you question his actions.

He pauses but without turning around he responds, “Uhhh nothing…”

You approach him, “Oh yeah?” you grab his arm and turn him around to discover him trying to squeeze a small bear plushie in your bag. You couldn’t help but laugh.

He starts, “I just thought you’d need something to remember me by, before you make a bunch of cool french friends and completely forget who I am.”

You look at him with a raised eyebrow, “You’re so dramatic, I’m still gonna facetime you as much as I possibly can, whether you like it or not.” You laugh and grab your bag from him and he frowns, that is until you also grab the plushie from his grip and begin to find space in your bag for the little thing. You look up to see a satisfied look on his face.

“There we go. Now there’s no way I could possibly forget my best friend… what was his name again? Kyle?” You look up scratching your head as you pretend to think.

He pushes your arm, “Hey!” You both laugh together, and for a moment you forget about the sadness surrounding the situation.

You hear your mom from downstairs, “Y/N! Kai! It’s time to load up the car, you don’t want to miss your flight!”

You mumble to yourself and Kai, “Oh yeah wouldn’t that just be the worst…”

Kai giggles then proceeds to help you take your things downstairs. Your parents and Kai help you put your things in the car, and after a string of long goodbyes and cheek kisses from your mother, she heads back inside to give you space to say your goodbyes to Kai. You groan and turn to your best friend who gathers you in his arms.

“I’m gonna miss you so much,” you tell him.

“I know… I would miss me too,” he tries to sneak in a few more ways to make you smile.

“Heeyyy,” you bury your head in his neck.

“Sorry,” he laughs, “I’ll miss you too.” He tries to let you go but you only tighten your grip.

“Y/N…”, trying to be strong, he hears you sniffle.

He recalls what you said to him earlier, “Now who’s the dramatic one?”

You pull away finally and you both laugh, “You’re so mean.”

He brings his hand to your face to wipe a tear that escaped your eye, “Hey it’ll be okay. No one’s dying. And who knows, maybe this will be the best summer of your life!”, remaining his optimistic self until the end.

You scoff at the idea, “Yeah sure.” At that moment, the horn of the car honks and you remember your dad who has been waiting this entire time.

“Shoot okay, I guess it’s time”, you say as you give Kai one last hug.

He squeezes you tighter than the last hug, making you groan. He lets go and opens your car door for you, “We’ll talk soon, okay?”

“Yes, or else,” you say as you climb in the car.

You both look at each other for a second more until Kai speaks up, “I love you Y/N.”

You smile, “Love you too, Kai.”

You wave to each other as you close your door. You face forward as your dad begins to pull away from your house, not wanting to think about your last glance to your best friend for who knows how long. It doesn’t last long though, you see him still standing there while you look in the rearview mirror and your heart begins to break again. You turn to fiddle with the radio to distract yourself until you make your first turn to make sure Kai is out of sight.

As your father drives you to the airport, not many words are said, your father never really knowing how to express his feelings. You appreciated it though, you didn’t want to have to confront the guilty conscience you have developed. Conversation strictly sticking to surface level topics. He pulls up to the drop off station and helps you with your bags, and makes sure you have everything ready to check in. Afterall, you’ve never flown by yourself before. Just as you were about to turn around and leave, your father finally acknowledges the elephant in the room with a simple, “At least try to have a good time, make some friends.”

You nod and flash him a half smile, “I’ll let you know.” And with that, you turn around and head for the check in desk. ______________________________________________________________________________

The flight was anything but pleasant. 10 and a half hours stuck between a man sleeping on your shoulder and a woman with a baby, there wasn’t much room for comfort. That and the nonstop turbulence from your city to your Grandma’s, did not help with your nerves. When you finally touched down, for the first time you were excited to be at your destination. You couldn’t wait to get to your Grandma’s at this point.

Your Gran was waiting for you at baggage claim, adorned with a smile. If you felt bad before, now you felt like a complete asshole. You know you should be happy to see your Grandma, but circumstance has made you troubled. You greet her with an equally big of a smile and hug. “Y/N honey, it’s been so long”, your Grandma says with her thick french accent and sighs into the hug.

You smile again, “I know Gran, it’s so good to see you.” It is good to see her. You couldn’t let her know about your apprehensions, just be happier, you say to yourself.

Your Grandma pulls away but holds you by your shoulders, “Well you sure are turning into quite a woman”, she looks behind you at the luggage carousel and releases your shoulders, “let’s find your bags so we can get out of here, I’ve prepared dinner and it’s waiting for us.”

“Oh I don’t want to put you through any trouble, really.” You scan her face for any signs of truth in your words.

“Nonsense child,” she furrowed her eyebrows, “and besides, I didn’t bother doing my hair.” She looked around at the people walking by, “ I knew I would have regretted that”, she laughed. You laughed along with her and went to find your bags. You find them relatively quickly, and already bicker with your Grandma after she insisted to help you carry your things. You were going to be living with her for the next 3 months, you didn’t want to burden her even more. Of course you lost that battle, agreeing to let her pull your purple and white suitcase while you carried the rest. The drive home was more talkative than the one to the airport, which you also didn’t mind. Again settling for surface level conversations. Although you knew she was holding back for when you two were enjoying dinner, you still appreciated the lack of interview level questions. You finally arrived at your Grandma’s house, and she showed you to the guest room in which you would be staying in. Not much bigger from your room at your own home, but also decorated with much more muted colors. You put your bags down and flop face first onto the bed. “Oh you must be exhausted. How about you rest and get settled in while I reheat our food?”, your Grandma observes your exhausted behavior.

You turn over, “Okay yeah, I’ll start putting my things away, thank you.” Your Grandma nods and exits your room. You did as you said and started filling drawers with socks and underwear, moving on to hanging up your shirts and pants. You looked around the room, seeing pictures of your family spread throughout. You find one of your family at Christmas when you were about 9, and a young picture of your mom when she was about your age. You leave your suitcase unattended, easily becoming distracted. Before you knew it, you heard your Grandma calling you from downstairs. You swiftly make your way downstairs and begin to dig into a delicious homemade meal. It had been so long, you had forgotten how talented your Gran was in the kitchen. ______________________________________________________________________________

You were right about the interview level questions. Although there were a lot, you understood that she does have to make up for 4 years. It was classic questions such as “what are you majoring in?”, “what career do you want to pursue?”, “are you seeing anyone?”, the last one said with a wink. You simply chuckle and answer no to that one, purposefully not wanting to get into the story of your ex who cheated. You’re over it, but it’s just not very fun to talk about. You ask about her, and she tells you about her group of friends who she has a book club with. They meet every Sunday at her best friend Marin’s house that is a couple blocks away.

“Oh this Saturday we’ll be going to the farmers market. Marin’s family owns a lavender farm and they have their own tent to sell it there. She'll be thrilled to meet the young lady I’ve been telling her about,” she takes a bite of her food, “good things so don’t worry!”

You smile back, “Oh that would be great.” You continue to poke at your food, feeling extremely full already. Today is Wednesday, so you wonder how you’ll be able to keep yourself busy for the next few days. The next few months actually.

As if she read your mind, your Grandma speaks up, “Also, there’s a bike in the garage that you can take out whenever you want. Most days I’m down at the children’s center helping with whatever they need, so you might get bored around the house.”

“Yeah that’s perfect, thank you. I usually only use my bike back home so it should be no problem,” you set down your fork finally, you don’t want to seem rude.

“There’s a lot to do downtown, and the fair should be opening soon, I’ll have to check when, I’m sure you can meet some new friends there,” she says with a hopeful smile. You hope so too, but you’ve never been the type to just spontaneously make friends, especially when you aren’t fluent in the language they speak. Maybe with some liquid courage, you think to yourself and internally laugh at the pathetic idea. “But I’m also hoping you’d want to come with me to the shelter some days during the week? The work they do there is really worthwhile and I could get someone to sign off on community service hours, if you need any.” You are touched by her offer, you love children.

“Oh that would be awesome! I’m definitely willing,” the more you talk about things to do, the more you feel at ease. At least you won’t be sitting around the house all day playing chess and card games like you thought you’d be.

You offer to help clean up but your Grandma counters, “That’s alright, you’ve had a long day of traveling, you should just finish settling in and get some sleep.” You don’t argue much because you were feeling jet lagged. You thanked her and said goodnight then headed back upstairs to finish where you left off. You put the rest of your clothes away, then get your bathroom set up. Thankfully there was one attached to your room. You go back to your bags and open your carry-on and are greeted with the small plushie Kai had gifted to you. You sigh and put it on the bed. You’re probably too tired to facetime him tonight but you’ll be sure to call him tomorrow. You already miss him too much. You decide a shower might help get your mind off of it. You showered then got ready for bed. The bed was way more comfortable than you thought it would be, immediately sinking into the mattress. You could already feel your eyes become heavier, so you shoot Kai a text before you forget.

Y/N: Hey im pretty tired so i think im just gonna go to sleep. I’ll call you tomorrow tho, promise.

You smile at the almost immediate response.

Kai⚡️: ok no prob. sweet dreams😴

You plug your phone in and it doesn’t take you long to slip into a deep sleep. ______________________________________________________________________________

The next morning you’re surprised to read “11:17am” on your phone.

God, why did I sleep so long? You think to yourself.

You mentally kick yourself for not setting an alarm, knowing you definitely already missed your Grandma for breakfast. You pay a visit to the bathroom before heading downstairs to notice a note on the kitchen table.

"Y/N~ I didn’t want to wake you, but I’ll be at the Children’s Center today until around 4:30. I left you some fruit salad from breakfast in the fridge. See you later xx”

You feel guilty for not saying goodbye in person, but it seems like she didn’t really mind so you feel a little better. You pull out the fruit salad and take your time taking bites while checking your notifications from when you were asleep. You decide to yourself that you’ll go explore the town on the bike in the garage today. You finish eating and head up stairs to get ready. The bike was at least 30 years old, but still got the job done. It even had a basket on the handle bars. You check your map on your phone to see what direction to head, and then you go for it. It takes you about 15 minutes to reach downtown, passing through a neighborhood and by some fields for farming. The town definitely had its charms, coming from a bigger city. You admired how there were so many people out and about just for the leisure of it. You are so used to people rushing to their next destination, and fast paced side walks. Everything here seemed to move in slow motion, and you found it refreshing.

Maybe I could get used to this. Look on the bright side.

You decide to stop at a local coffee shop to pass time. You approach the counter and you hear a loud bubbly laugh coming from the opposite side. You observe the barista talking to his coworkers with a bright smile before he comes to the register. You can’t help but compare the energy to your best friend. The barista flashed you a big smile, *“Welcome in, what could I get you today?”*

Oh man, he's cute.

You smile back and do your best to translate your order into French, *“A medium iced coffee please.”* Your ears slightly turn red from the broken translation you just said to this stranger. It’s been a while since you’ve spoken the language, so you’ve become a bit rusty.

“Ahh, a foreigner” he says in English and smiles while he pushes some buttons on the register before grabbing a cup with a pen, “What is your name?”

“Y/N,” you answer.

He writes down your name on the cup, “Y/N,” he looks up, “tourists don’t travel here, are you living here now?” His French accent being one of the most endearing things you’ve ever heard.

“No, I’m just visiting my grandmother for the summer, I got here just yesterday!”

He sends you another friendly smile, “Well I hope you enjoy yourself,” answering him with a thank you. He then pushes a couple more buttons on the register, “So Y/N, that’ll be 2 euros.”

You blink and look back up at the menu behind his head, “I thought mediums were 4 euros?”

“Yes, but for new foreign customers it’s an automatic 50 percent off, new rule!” he chuckles as you realize he’s just giving you a discount because he’s nice.

“Oh then thank you, uh,” you peer at his name tag, “Soobin!” you hand him your 2 euros.

“Your drink will be out soon,” he tells you then starts preparing your drink. You wait around the pick up station while thinking about how nice that interaction was. You think about how you’ll have to come back to this shop sometime in the near future.

You’re pulled from your thoughts, “Your medium iced coffee, Y/N.” You look over to see Soobin placing your drink on the counter with a napkin, again dressed in a big smile.

“Thank you so much,” you smile back and grab your drink.

“You’re welcome, I hope to see you again!”

“You probably will,” you smile and wave goodbye as you turn around to exit the shop. You head to your bike and check the time, it reads “1:34pm”.

It’s Thursday, you think to yourself and try to convert the time difference in your head. You want to see if it’s an appropriate time to facetime Kai. You head to the park nearby to wait and give him a call, it being early in the morning in your city. The park is nice, with a lot of shady trees and even a stream that runs through it. You find a spot under a tree and sit down. You enjoyed seeing children play in the big field in the middle of the park, until you saw that they were passing around a soccer ball. Of course. Another reminder of being homesick from your best friend. You turn on some music and try to enjoy the fresh air. Before you knew it you looked at your phone and it read “2:11pm”. You’re surprised to find yourself having been sitting there for over 30 minutes without noticing. You find Kai’s contact in your phone and wait a couple rings before he answers.

“Y/N!!” you break out in a big smile, you’re not surprised that he can be so energetic this early in the morning.

“Hey! What’s up?” you ask even though you know what he’s been up to. He tells you about how he’s about to go to practice and how he’s nervous about meeting everyone who will be on his collegiate team next year. He explains how he was put in a practice group with some guys on his team from around the area for the summer. He begins to tell you a story from practice yesterday.

“...even though I wasn’t the one who passed it to him!” he groans and you giggle at his story from practice, “but anyways, enough about me, how’s everything over there?”

You think for a second, “Uh yeah, actually everything so far has been nice!” you then tell him about your Grandma and what she does. You go on to explain what you did today so far, and your visit to the coffee shop.

“Oooo Y/N has an admirer!” he says while giggling.

You shake your head while smiling even though you know he can’t see you, “No, I think he was just genuinely being a nice person, something you wouldn’t know much about.” You tease him, and you know you’re kidding, Kai being one of the nicest people you know.

“Hey! I’m so nice, you take that back!”

You laugh, “I know, I know…” You two talk for another 30 minutes before he tells you that he’s going to finally shower. You say your goodbyes, and you stand up from your spot and ride around the park a bit more before heading back to your Grandma’s. ______________________________________________________________________________

That evening your Grandma takes you to dinner at one of her favorite places in town. She seemed to know just about everyone there, including the servers. She made sure to introduce you to every single one of them too. You admire her efforts but you couldn’t help but feel a little shy. The food was as good as your Grandma told you it would be, and afterwards she took you to get ice cream. You’re thankful that your Grandma is really chill and fun to talk to. Realizing that if your parents made you go stay with your Grandma on your Dad’s side, it would be a different story.

The next day you offer to do chores around the house and prepare dinner for the two of you before your Grandma gets home. You ended up finding toys and photo books from your mother’s childhood, so a portion of the day was spent with your mom on facetime looking at all the memories. You made a nice pasta dish for you and your Grandma to enjoy that evening, impressing her with your culinary know-how. She tells you that you’ll be heading to the farmer’s market around 10am, and to be ready before then. You end up watching some Variety T.V with her before heading off to bed. ______________________________________________________________________________

You wake up to your alarm at 8:30am, with plenty of time to eat some breakfast and get ready for the day. You knew it would be pretty warm today so you opted to wear shorts and a light shirt. Your Grandma was waiting for you in the kitchen with a cute sun hat and sunglasses already on. You smile and compliment her look, which she laughed at. You both got in her car and made your way down to the farmer’s market. Your Grandma shows you around to the different vendors, you being surprised to see just how many of them there were. It was so charming, people selling produce, flowers, homegoods, art and food. You both take a long time to decide which peaches to take home to make into a pie. Again, your Grandmother knows almost all the vendors, and introduces you. You stumble a bit on your French but are able to communicate with the basic introductory phrases.

There’s no way I’m gonna remember all these names…

“Oh! Let’s head over to Marin’s stand, it’s about time you meet her,” she starts to lead you through the light crowd and turns around, “and to be honest I’ve been a bad friend and probably need to restock up on my lavender soap.” You chuckle at the comment as you walk up to a tent that seems to be quite popular, people going in and out. You almost smell it before you see it, the heavenly scent gracing your senses. Lavender is your favorite scent. Your Grandma slips through the people around the tent and approaches one of the tables with their products on it, a woman you guessed to be Marin standing behind it.

*“Oh honey there you are!”* the lady calls out when she spots your Grandma, and rounds the table to give her a hug, *“I’ve been wondering if you’ve forgotten me!”*

*“I’m not that senile yet!”* your Grandma jokes to her friend and pulls away and easily transitions into speaking English for you, “Marin, this is my granddaughter I’ve been telling you about, Y/N.”

Marin looks at you and her eyes widen, “Oh Y/N! It’s a pleasure!” she exclaims and immediately gives you a hug.

“It’s so nice to meet you,” you say with a smile as she releases you.

“She is quite beautiful, huh?” Marin tells your Grandmother.

“Oh yes, she gets it from my side of the family,” you all laugh at her joke, and you thank her for the compliment. Marin tells you about her family business, run by her and her sons. They sell all sorts of lavender products, from just plain lavender bundles to laundry detergent and candles. Your Grandma expresses to her friend about the lack of her lavender soap, and Marin leads you to a different table with the soap displayed. You pick up a bar of soap and inspect it with your nose.

Yep, It’s lavender! You giggle to yourself and put the soap down.

“Bonjour Mme. [Your Grandma’s last name]!” a voice calls to your Grandma, and you look up to see its owner. You identify the voice behind the counter, belonging to a blond boy that’s probably just around your age.

“Oh bonjour darling,” your Grandmother answers in a sweet voice.

Marin speaks up almost immediately, “Y/N, this is my grandson, Yeonjun.”

The boy turns to you, still smiling, and holds out his hand, “Hello, nice to meet you.” He says in English, mirroring his grandmother.

Damnit, he’s cute.

“Hi, I’m Y/N, [your grandma’s name]’s granddaughter,” you smile back at him and shake his hand, “nice to meet you too.”

Like… really cute…

He releases your hand and Marin continues, “She’s staying with [your grandma’s name] all summer, it would be nice if you showed her around, introduce her to some of your friends, yeah?” she looks back and forth between you and Yeonjun and you suddenly feel a little embarrassed. You didn’t want him to feel like he’s being forced to hang out with you, now feeling like a charity case.

With no hesitation he answers, “Oui, that would be great,” he says with a smile and turns back to you.

Before you could get a word out your Grandma butts in, *“How about you show her around the market now while your Granny and I catch up?”* You don’t fully understand what your grandma says, but you know it involves leaving with Yeonjun. You try not to seem embarrassed by the game you can obviously see your Grandma playing.

*“Okay, yeah sure why not,”* you see him say with raised eyebrows, clearly taken slightly aback by the straightforwardness. He begins to round the table. You get the gist that he’s going to show you around.

Marin puts your hand on your back and lightly pushes you toward the exit of the tent, *“Oh yes, your Grandmother always has the best ideas, you surely don’t want to hear us talk about all of our… old lady shenanigans.”* You can hear your Grandmother and Marin laugh at each other as you make your way back out of the tent.

You turn to look at Yeonjun and try your best to speak broken French, *“I’m sorry, I don’t know why she did that, she already showed the market,”* you both share a nervous laugh and start walking down the pathway.

*“Oh you speak French?”* Yeonjun looks at you and raises his eyebrows.

*“Yes, but I’m not very good”*, you answer meekly.

“Ah, we can speak English then,” he replies, and you slightly feel bad, wishing you spoke more of the language, “I lived in the U.S for a bit of time when I was younger, so I can speak it quite well.”

“Oh cool! I wish I spoke French better”, you pause a bit again and then continue, “ but yeah, like I said my grandma already showed me around.” Reiterating so you know that he got the gist.

“Don’t worry about it, as long as I'm still being paid,” he says, still lightly laughing while tugging on his apron with his family’s logo on it. There was a moment of silence before Yeonjun stopped walking and spoke up again, “Oh no, that came out wrong,” hitting his forehead with his hand while closing his eyes. You laugh at his poorly executed joke knowing he meant no malice, “I’m sorry, that’s not what I meant” blowing out air from his cheeks.

“It’s okay, it was funny,” you chuckle and admire his accent.

He smiles in relief, “Oh good,” he continues walking, “so, where are you from then?”

You explain to him where you’re from, and why you’re staying at your Grandma’s for the summer, leaving out the part of you that wishes to be back home. All while Yeonjun listened to all you had to say, with eager ears. He then tells you that he attends a university in Paris, having just finished up his first year, “...yeah and so during the summer my cousins and I help my family with their business, it’s not a bad job, not half bad bosses,” he jokes and you both laugh. His blond hair lightly falling in his eyes, then pushing it back.

What the hell, feeling butterflies in your stomach.

You begin to want to know more and more about this boy, feeling more comfortable by his warm demeanor the more you talk. You both walked up and down the pathway, too involved in the conversation for him to “show you around”. Now mentally thanking your Grandma for being pushy. Yeonjun pauses for a moment then continues, “So, the fair opens on Monday and me and my friends are going, you should come too,” he suggests, “oh, only if you want to, of course.” You could feel him looking at you.

You smile at him being meek, “Sure! I’ve never been to a fair before.”

“Really?” he raises his eyebrows, “Huh, well, I’m prepared to make sure you have the optimum fair experience, I’d be a bad local if I didn’t,” he explains, “you do like rides though, right? And disgusting fried food?”

You let out a light laugh, “I feel like my answer wouldn’t matter if I’m going to get the optimum fair experience,” he chuckles at your observation, “but yes, I do.”

“Awesome,” he stops walking, “here, let me get your number so I can let you know what time we’ll go,” he pulls out his phone, opening a new contact and handing it to you. You feel your heart inflate as you type your name and number in his phone.

It’s just a stupid phone number, calm down.

After you put in your information, he pockets his phone. A little disappointed that he didn’t do the thing where they immediately text you so that you have his number too. You try to push down those emotions, afterall you did just meet this guy. You both continue to talk about the atrocious but delicious fair food that you’re going to have to try, hoping that he doesn’t want you to try all these things all in one evening. You try not to get nauseous at the thought.

“...and then after that we could probably-”

Another voice cuts in the middle of Yeonjun’s spiel, *“There you two are!”* your Grandma suddenly appearing out of seemingly nowhere, “come on honey we should go grab some lunch.”

“Yeah sure,” you turn to Yeonjun, *“Thanks for showing me around.”*

He smiles at the joke about him indeed not showing you around, *“Anytime,”* he says sweetly with his hands in his pockets, “have a good lunch, it was nice seeing you both.”

*“Always a pleasure, now you get back to work before your uncle gets me in trouble,”* your Grandma says, and Yeonjun laughs.

I wish I could hear him laugh more-

*“I’m on it,”* he starts to walk away then turns to you one last time and smiles, “see you Monday.”

“Au revoir,” you smile back and wave him off.

You start walking back to the direction of the car, but before you could get very far, “Monday, huh?” Your Grandma questions.

“We’re gonna go to the fair,” you see her raise her eyebrows and open her mouth, “with his friends!” her face relaxes and you laugh, “isn’t this what you wanted?”

“Oh yes, but I just didn’t know how great a matchmaker I was! It was instantaneous.” She starts to follow you to the car.

“It isn’t a date, like I said we’re going with his friends,” you explain to your Grandma, but it feels like you should mostly be explaining that to yourself.

“Well, I know the Choi family and they aren’t a bad bunch, I think you’ll have a good time with that boy,” your Grandma explains.

I sure hope so

“Yeah he seems nice…” you trail off. Your Grandma doesn’t say anything else, just gives you a satisfied look. ______________________________________________________________________________

“Okay, you’re only 3 days in and you already have 2 boyfriends? What do they have in the water in France?” your best friend practically yells at you over the phone.

“Oh shut up, it’s just two nice people, who just happen to be boys,” you counter as you roll over onto your back on your bed.

“Yeah sure, but when one of them falls in love with you don’t come asking me how to break it off.” He warns you.

“I don’t think that’ll be much of a problem, but thank you though.” you roll your eyes as Kai continues to warn you about boys, and you half listen to him. Ever since your ex, Kai has been especially protective over you when it came to boys. You appreciate where he’s coming from, but you’re definitely wise enough to make your own decisions. At least you think so.

“...and besides! You’re gonna be gone in like 3 months so it’s not like it would last anyways-”

You’ve heard enough, “Kai, seriously, I love you, but I don’t want to hear this anymore.”

“You’re right, sorry,” he pauses and lets out a dramatic sigh, “it’s just…well… the truth is that I’m in love you Y/N, and I just don’t want to see you with anyone else-”

You start laughing and slap your forehead with your hand, “Oh my goooodddd, I hate you,” Kai immediately joins you in your laughter.

You yawn and glance at the time on your phone, 11:23pm. “On that note, I think I’m gonna go to bed now,” you tell Kai.

“Okay then, leave right after my confession you coward,” he continues to tease you.

“Yep, that’s me,” you giggle, “goodnight Kai.”

“Good night Y/N, sweet dreams,” you smile at the mantra your best friend tells you almost every night.

You hang up the phone and get ready for bed, your mind still on that blond boy from the lavender stand. ______________________________________________________________________________

The next day was spent with your Grandma as she attempted to teach you how to bake a peach pie from the produce you got the day before. Cooking has always come natural to you, baking however is a different story. You eventually got the hang of it, and you ended up making 2 because you both overestimated how many peaches were needed for the recipe. Throughout your time trying to master the ways of a rolling pin, you couldn’t help but have your mind wander back to Yeonjun.

I wonder when he’ll text me… I wonder if he’s just busy. Yeah he’s probably just busy… I wonder what he’s doing.

“Y/N!” you hear your Grandma calling out to you to pull you out of your thoughts.

“Huh? What? Sorry,” you stammer and halt your actions.

“At that rate our crust will be paper thin, now just layer that on the pan,” your Grandma says to you suspectly but doesn’t inquire further. You try your best to not get distracted by your own thoughts for the rest of the time in the kitchen. By the time both of your pies are done baking, you practically have a headache. You know that Kai would be lecturing you if he could see inside your brain. That evening you shower off and get ready for bed, still theorizing about why Yeonjun hasn’t texted you yet. You lay in bed and you check your phone for what it feels like the millionth time that day.

You know what! You’re just bored and waiting for some interaction.

You throw your phone down next to you.

You need to get a grip! Who cares if he even texts you at all Y/N! You’ve only had 1 conversation with this boy, you’re just being delus-

*Ding!

You fumble to find your phone lost in the blankets on your bed at an alarming rate.

God what’s wrong with me, you chuckle at your pathetic behavior.

You eventually dig out your phone, holding your breath as you check your notification.

***-****: Hey Y/N it’s yeonjun (marin’s grandson lol) so tomorrow we’re gonna head to the fair around 6, does that work for you? :-)

You break out in a big smile, and chuckle at his gab at you, putting your name in his phone as ‘Y/N [your grandma’s name]’s granddaughter’. But after essentially waiting all day for this text you set your phone back down.

I can’t reply immediately, he’ll think I was waiting for this text all day!

You sit up and look for something to distract yourself while you wait a couple minutes. It was already around 10:30 at night, so you wonder why he decided to wait until just now to text you. You pick up the plushie Kai gave you and start playing catch with yourself.

Ok fuck this

You decide to just be an adult and respond.

Y/N: That’s fine! Do you have an address for it tho? I’m still getting used to the area haha

Yeah that’s a fine response, right?

He responded not long after.

Yeonjun: Yeah I can find it for you, but also i was thinking i could pick you up? I remember you mentioned how you're using your grandma’s bike, and it would be far and unsafe

You become soft over those words and are still wearing a big smile.

Y/N: Okay that works too, thanks!

You try to make your response not seem too eager.

Yeonjun: Alright, i’ll see you tomorrow then Yeonjun: Have a good night Y/N :D

Y/N: I’ll try, you have a good night too :-)

Satisfied with the outcome of your conversation, you plug your phone in and try to get comfortable in your sheets. You try to close your eyes to doze off, but you keep playing scenarios in your head about what could happen tomorrow. Before you knew it, you were out. ______________________________________________________________________________

The next day seemed to go by painfully slow. While your Grandma was out you tried to ride around town for a bit, but you became tired and wanted to come back home. You did some laundry and eventually spoke to Kai on Facetime for a while. Kai tells you what he’s been up to, and it’s pretty much the same, but he does tell you that he’s going to go to the beach this weekend with his family. After a while the course of the conversation strayed back to how ‘you have to be careful tonight’ and ‘you have to let me know exactly what happens’. You agree of course, giving him some peace of mind. After talking for a while it was finally time to start getting ready. You tell Kai that you’ll either update him tonight or tomorrow, Kai telling you that it better be sooner than later. You take a shower then do the rest of your getting-ready routine. You decided to wear pants and tennis shoes with an ordinary top, not being too sure what the dress code is for a fair you try to play it safe. Once you got ready you spent some time with your Grandma downstairs before you had to leave. She basically told you the same spiel about being safe, but also having fun. You keep checking your phone to see the time, ‘5:53pm’. You groan at how slow time seems to be moving, but then you hear a knock on the front door.

Your Grandma begins to get out of her seat but you motion for her to stay seated, “That must be Yeonjun, don’t get up it’s okay.”

“Alright, have a good time mon chéri,” you walk up to her and give her a quick hug before making your way to the door. You’re surprised that he didn’t just text you that he was here, but also touched from his actions.

Y/N this isn’t a date, you try to scold the butterflies in your stomach.

You open the door to see the blond boy standing there with his hands in his pockets, “Hey!” you say with a smile.

Yeonjun matches your smile, “Hi,” you close the door behind you, “how are you? Are you ready for your first fair experience?” You both start to approach his car, and you can’t help but be impressed with how well put together he looks. He’s wearing jeans with a belt and a stylish dark tee shirt paired with white boots, totally different than when you saw him in his work clothes.

You curse internally, of course he’d have great style too…

You almost forget that he asked you a question, “Huh? Oh yeah! Totally ready!”

God Y/N you’re such an idiot

Yeonjun chuckles at your behavior and leads you to his car and gets in the driver’s seat. You were about to get in the back seat until you noticed that there was no one else in the car, so you climbed in the passenger’s seat. Once you close your door you smell lavender on him. “I thought we were going with your friends?” you question the lack of bodies. You start slightly panicking at the thought of this evening being solely between the two of you. You were not mentally prepared for a faux date on your 5th day in this town…

Yeonjun plugs his phone in then puts the car in reverse and places his hand on the side of your seat so he can turn around, “Oh yeah, they’re going to meet us there,” he explains as he backs out of the driveway as his music plays lightly.

You almost let out a sigh of relief, “Okay, yeah, cool.” He glances at you and smirks and looks back to the road as he pulls away from your Grandma’s house. The music is at a pretty low volume but once you catch what song it is, you can’t help but get excited.

“You listen to Tame Impala? I love Tame Impala!” you slightly cringe from how excited you got, Yes I’m Changing being one of your favorite songs by them.

Yeonjun reaches for the volume knob and turns it up, “Good! I was gonna say you could put on anything you wanted,” he says while still looking at the road but stealing a glance at you.

“Oh no way, this is perfect,” still smiling, “he’s one of my favorite artists.”

Yeonjun glances at you again, also smiling, “Mine too.”

You turn your head to the road, just listening to the music. Slightly swaying to the music, you suddenly hear his voice singing along to the song. Your heart nearly does a backflip hearing the song being sung with a French accent.

And he can sing?? I need to get out of here before...

You were planning on trying to make conversation with him on the way to the fair, but all you want to do now is just hear him singing. You try to savor it. After the song ends, he reaches to turn down the music, “What other music do you like?”

You start telling him some of your favorite artists, and you discover that you have a lot of them in common.

Yeonjun was very amused by the words coming out of your mouth, “You’re the first person I’ve talked to that I didn’t have to introduce Bad Suns to, this is amazing,” he says while smiling at the road.

You two share your diverse interests in music as the drive goes on, also recommending artists to each other, “Okay I’m gonna have to write these down so I don’t forget,” you tell him while lightly laughing.

“I’ll just send you a spotify link later!” he says to you excitedly.

You two were amazed by how much your music tastes had in common, still discussing as he pulled into a makeshift parking lot in a field. You look over and you can see a ferris wheel through the trees, and the glow of neon lights. You begin to get a little nervous, you like rides, just afraid of heights.

Maybe Yeonjun and his friends will forget about the ferris wheel…

He parks and then you both make your way towards the entrance. You hear the sounds of the metal rides, people laughing and music. The energy is already captivating and you haven’t even made it inside yet. You stand together in line to get your tickets and that’s when you realize how tall he actually is. Standing still made him look way taller than he seemed before, you looked away before he could catch you looking at him. You get to the front of the line and Yeonjun approaches the ticket booth first and pulls out his wallet, *“Two adult tickets please.”*

Taken slightly aback, “Wait no, Yeonjun it’s okay, don’t,” you try to stop him but he already handed his card to the woman behind the counter.

He just smiles as he takes the wristbands from the woman and you follow him as he begins to walk into the venue, “It’s your first time at a fair and you’re not from here,” he stops to stand on the side of the pathway and turns to you, “like I said the other day, optimum fair experience,” holding out the ends of one of the wristbands, waiting for your wrist.

You playfully sigh and hold out your wrist to him, “Okay, but I owe you like a funnel cake, or some other greasy fair food”

He chuckles and gently secures the paper bracelet on your wrist, while you try to ignore the way his fingertips moved across your skin, “I didn’t do that so you’d owe me anything, I just want you to have a good time.”

Fuck why is he like this

“Well, then thank you,” you smile at him. He just smiled back and began to attempt to put on his own wristband one-handed, “Here, at least let me do that,” as you reached for the piece of paper. He obliged and handed you the bracelet. You could feel him looking at you as you focused on securing it around his wrist. You can feel your butterflies start to act up again.

You finish your job, “Well, thank you too,” he says while looking down at you while smiling.

You take a step back, having been in close proximity to each other, “‘Course,” you smile back.

Yeonjun takes a step towards the rest of the fair, “So my friends said they’d meet us behind the ice cream stand, let’s see if they can keep their promises,” he says sarcastically, and you just laugh, too distracted by all the lights and people. It was already nearing dusk, so the lights were coming to life. You look around in amazement, and Yeonjun takes note of the way the neon lights shine in your eyes.

“Just wait until it’s completely dark out, it’s absolutely beautiful,” while still watching you adoringly.

Your smile widens and you turn to him, “Can’t wait.”

You both approach the food vendors and you hear someone call out, *“Hey there you are!”*

You look forward to seeing a group of 3 people standing, in fact, behind the ice cream stand.

*“Hey guys,”* Yeonjun greets his friends, giving each of them a hug.

You stand there and after he greets his first friend, you come to a realization, “Soobin! Hey!” you smile in amusement, recognizing one of Yeonjun’s friends.

“Y/N!”, Soobin approaches you and gives you a hug. Internally laughing at the fact that you guys are acting like you know each other, but only having 1 conversation under your belt.

Soobin continues after the brief hug, “How are you? I didn’t know you knew Yeonjun!”

At this Yeonjun turns around, clearly a little confused, “You know each other?”

You look back and forth from Yeonjun to Soobin, “Yes! Well, no… yes and no?” you laugh not really knowing how to answer that question.

Thankfully Soobin cuts in, “She came into the coffee shop on Friday, small world.”

Yeonjun also lightly laughs, “Yeah, small town,” he motions to his other friends, “well, happen to know anyone else?”

You chuckle again, “No,” you make your way over to the nearest person and hold out your hand, *“Hi, I’m Y/N,”* smiling.

You learn their names, Beomgyu and Taehyun. They all seem to be friendly people, making note that Taehyun has a specifically strong grip…You all stand there for a bit getting to know each other. You learn that Yeonjun has been best friends with Taehyun and Beomgyu since they were in grade school. Soobin was adopted into their friend group after being Yeonjun’s roommate in the dorms this past year at college. You also discovered that Taehyun and Beomgyu started dating in college as well. You envied how they all went to the same university. You tried to push away the feeling of wanting your best friend to be able to experience this with you. You tell them how you’ll be in France all summer, switching in between French and English. They all seem to be pretty fluent in English too, Taehyun stumbling on his words a bit more. You continue, *“... I’ll be here until the end of August!”* you try to make yourself seem excited for your temporary move.

Beomgyu spoke up, “Well I’m sure we’d be happy to make you an honorary member of the team!” The rest of them nod, and you hear a few enthusiastic ‘yeah!’s.

You laugh, “Awesome, thank you,” feeling a little shy. You can’t tell if he was just being nice, but you still appreciate how welcoming they are being.

“Also Y/N has never been to a fair before,” Yeonjun tells them with raised eyebrows.

The rest of them were in a little bit of shock, “What? How is that possible?” Soobin asks you.

You shrug, “They just aren’t a big thing where I’m from, but I’ve always wanted to go,” you explain to them.

Soobin continues, “Well good thing we’re at one! *What are we doing standing around? Let’s get Y/N on some rides!*”

The rest agree and you guys decide to go on a few rides before you eat so there wouldn’t be a chance of you getting sick.

Beomgyu leads the group, claiming to know the “perfect place to start”, and you chuckle at his enthusiasm. Yeonjun walks beside you as you guys make your way through the crowd.

You turn to Yeonjun, “So, what’s your favorite ride?”

He huffs and looks around for a second then turns back to you, “We’ll save the best for last,” he said with a slight smirk.

You laugh nervously, “So cryptic, but alright.”

You look forward and you see the rest of the group get into a line for a ride called the ‘Shake Up’, and your eyes widen. The ride resembled a large claw machine that spins and swings back and forth, with the patrons sitting in the ‘claw’ part. You begin to get a little nervous at how far it swings up.

As his friends all laugh and talk with each other, Yeonjun notices. “This one okay?” he says pointing up towards the ride, as if on cue you hear the people currently riding it all scream.

You swallow, “Yeah it’s okay,” you look back at him, “I’m just a little afraid of heights is all.”

He smiles at your honesty, *“Well, you could close your eyes,”* he leans closer to your ear, “I won’t tell them, I promise,” as he nods to his friends.

“Hmmm,” you ponder his compromise, and you turn to him and stick out your pinky, “we’ll see.”

He immediately takes your pinky in his, squeezing lightly.

For the rest of the time waiting in line, you weren’t as nervous. Yeonjun’s friends definitely know how to make you laugh. Then it was your turn to take your seats. You get strapped in and you peer at Beomgyu who’s jittering in his seat, not being able to wait any longer. You chuckle and Yeonjun turns to you, giving you a thumbs up. You return it and give him an exaggerated nervous smile, and he laughs in return. You could honestly say you had a good time on the ride. Between hearing both Beomgyu’s and Yeonjun’s yells and everyone’s laughter it was hard to have a bad time. But you did close your eyes everytime the claw neared its peak, trying to preserve your positive feelings towards the ride. After you exited the ride they all wanted to know if you had a good time, and you ease their curiosity with a definite ‘yes’. But as you all walk towards your next destination Yeonjun teases you, “Oh, but only if they sawww,” as he points to your eyes and sings out the last syllable, a little bit louder than you would have liked him to.

You lightly hit him on the arm and whisper, “Hey, you pinky promised!”

Yeonjun laughs, “I know, I know, don’t worry,” putting his hands up in defeat. You enjoy each other’s company as you walk to the next ride. Honestly, you didn’t care if the others knew you were a little scared, why would you? But playing along with Yeonjun came naturally, and you knew you didn’t want it to stop. You found the next few rides so much fun, regretting that you’ve never had the chance to go to a fair before. You even enjoyed the ones that went upside down, slowly becoming more comfortable with the rides, even though none of them went higher than the first one you went on. On the rides that only seated 2 people, you and Yeonjun are always stuck together, almost immersed in your own little world.

“Woah, hey come here,” Yeonjun chuckled as you made your way off of a ride that made your hair become a bit messy. You approached him and he lightly ran his fingers through the tangled hair, getting the fly-aways to stick back to your head, “there we go,” he steps back and squints his eyes at you, *“no wait hold on,”* he laughs and returns his fingertips to your head.

You laugh at the thought of how messy your hair looks, “That bad, huh?” you say as you raise your hands to your head to smooth your hair back down. You become suspicious of the lack of fly-aways you felt as you lower your hands.

Yeonjun clears his throat, “There, you got it.”

You all then made your way to the food vendors, Soobin and Beomgyu bickering about which food you had to try. You try to hide your smile that came from thinking about how much they actually want you to have a good time, you’ve never felt this immediately welcomed in a friend group before. You noted that Taehyun had pretty much kept to himself this entire time, not that you minded. Occasionally adding a joke here or there, but mostly just holding hands and talking with Beomgyu.

*“...okay then, next time we come she’s gonna try the corn dogs!”* Beomgyu practically yells at Soobin and you and Yeonjun just laugh at their exchange.

Next time, your heart begins to swell at the thought that they actually want you to hang out with them more.

This ‘making new friends’ wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be…

You all settled on an American food stand that serves burgers and chili cheese fries that Soobin claimed were ‘to die for’. As you entered the line for the burgers you leaned over to Yeonjun, “So, are you going to let me pay for your burger?” still wanting to make it even between you two.

*“Not a chance,”* Yeonjun states while examining the menu, “you’re lucky I’m letting you pay for your own meal.”

“Come on, it’s not like we’re on a date,” the words escaped your mouth before you could stop them.

A date?? Why would you even bring that up??? Oh god Y/N you’ve only known this guy for 3 days!! Your insides going through turmoil.

However, Yeonjun seems completely cool, “Then why do you want to pay for my meal so bad?” he smirks and glances at you. You swear you think he could see the alarms going off in your head through your eyes. You internally praise him for not making this awkward.

“To make it even!” you retort.

“How about this,” Yeonjun turns to face you, “next time I let you pay for my ticket,” he slightly trails off.

“Okay…” you answer suspiciously.

“And I’ll even let you call it a date.”

You swear your heart falls through your butt.

*“Next customer!”* before you could even process his words you were forced out of your thoughts to place your order, Yeonjun moving to the next window to place his too. You repeat your order to the woman behind the counter, not even fully hearing your own voice.

Did that just happen? Did he just ask me on a date? But…

You were confused by the reverse psychology of it all.

You received your food and made your way over to the group who were sitting at a table under a canopy. You sit down in the empty spot on the end of the table next to Soobin, with Yeonjun across from you. As you were eating you could feel Yeonjun steal glances at you.

Do I say something about what just happened?

Your mind still felt jumbled as you take your bites.

“Oh, Y/N! Try the fries!” Soobin calls out and slides the basket of chili cheese fries in your direction, once again being pulled out of your thoughts. You try to fish a fry out of the basket without getting your fingers messy, not succeeding. You chuckle at your struggle until you finally could fish one out and put it in your mouth, immediately grabbing a napkin to clean your fingers.

“So, what do you think?” Soobin asks intently, the others waiting for your reaction as well.

You nod, still chewing, then swallowing, “Yeah, it’s good!” you give them a thumbs up as you wipe the corners of your mouth, “just a lot is all,” you laugh lightly.

Soobin reaches for the fries, *“Yeah that’s for sure!”* he says while shoving a glob of fries and chili into his mouth.

You laugh and Yeonjun cuts in, “God Soobin, talk about good first impressions,” he says with his nose scrunched.

“Hey we already had ours, which I think went pretty well, right Y/N?” Soobin responded with his mouth full.

“Yes you were very polite,” you chuckle, “and not shoving food in your mouth.”

*“See Yeonjun,”* he swallows, *“I can be well mannered, I even gave her a discount.”*

Taehyun perks up at that comment, *“Hey, whenever I come in you always make me pay double!”*

At that remark, Beomgyu joins Taehyun to yell at Soobin. As they were fighting, Yeonjun leaned over the table, “Sorry, they kind of do that a lot.”

You laugh nervously, “It’s okay, I always get into it with my best friend too.”

“Yeah? What’s she like?” Yeonjun asks.

“Well his name is Kai,” Yeonjun lets out a ‘oh’ as you continue, “and honestly I think he would get along with you guys very well.”

You all finish eating and then decide to go through one of the fun houses. You all had trouble going through the maze of mirrors, continuously bumping into each other, a string of ‘sorry’s coming out of your mouth. Yeonjun made sure that you���d stop apologizing, and had you hold on to the back of his shirt to lead you through. When you got to the distorting mirrors you couldn’t stop laughing at how they made you look, having never experienced them before. You snapped a picture in one of them, and at the last second Yeonjun joined you, having both of your legs look super long and your torsos look extremely shrunken.

You both are almost in tears looking at the photo together, trying to explain how the other looks funnier, “You’ll have to send me that!” Yeonjun exclaims, and you promise you will.

After the fun house Taehyun says that he should probably get home, meaning that Beomgyu would also be leaving because he drove him here. Soobin also explains that he should probably get going too because he has to open tomorrow at the coffee shop. You start to get slightly sad that your time with them has come to an end. You all say your goodbyes and you all agree to see each other soon.

Beomgyu and Taehyun were about to walk away when Beomgyu turned around, *“Oh I almost forgot,”* he says turning to you, “my roommate is throwing a party this Friday, you should come!”

“Yeah sure, that would be fun,” you respond with a smile.

Beomgyu makes his final goodbyes and then you are left with only Yeonjun.

He turns to you, “I hope they weren’t too annoying,” he tells you.

“No, your friends are so nice and welcoming,” you explain, “and thank you for this optimum fair experience, I had fun.”

He raises his eyebrows, “Oh no, we aren’t done,” he starts walking in a distinct direction, “we still haven’t gone on my favorite ride yet, remember?”

You join him, “Oh yeah, okay, what is it?”

He looks at you, “You trust me?” he held out his pinky.

You glance at him and back to his pinky, “Ahh, I guess so,” you say hesitantly and meet his pinky with yours for the second time that night.

What the hell is going on

He smiles at your agreement, “Great.”

Unlike the other time that evening, he doesn't let go of your pinky. You two round the corner and you can see him leading you both to the one ride you were hoping that he’d forget about. The ferris wheel. You squeeze his pinky and slow down your pace, “Damn, I was hoping you’d forget about this one…”

Yeonjun turns back to you, “You’ll be okay, I promise,” he says then fully grabs your hand to lead you closer to the ride, “and besides, the view is amazing,” he turns back to you, “optimum fair experience.”

“Ugh, okay fine,” your butterflies talking for you because you didn’t want to let go of his hand. He lets go of your hand when you get in line, and you almost frown. You look up to see how much taller the ferris wheel looks now that you’re standing directly below it. You swallow and start feeling the nerves kick in.

“Hey, if you really don’t want to do it I won’t make you,” Yeonjun looks at you with soft eyes.

“No, it’s okay, I want to,” you try to also convince yourself that you want to do it, knowing that the ferris wheel is the pinnacle of any fair. Also you didn’t want to end the night on a disappointing note for Yeonjun.

He smiles, “Okay, great.”

The line goes by pretty shortly, shorter than you would’ve hoped, and before you knew it you were being seated in one of the cabins. You take a seat next to Yeonjun and prepare yourself for your embarrassment that will come soon.

You look at Yeonjun who was completely calm, “Okay, you can’t make fun of me if I get scared.”

He flashed you a sweet smile, “I won’t.”

The ferris wheel started turning and you took a look outside the cabin. You haven’t risen that much but you can already see how beautiful the lights are from this angle already. As you get higher you make the mistake of looking back down to the ground to see how far you’ve gotten. You let out a small ‘eek’ and grab onto the seat and shut your eyes.

From your side you can hear Yeonjun let out a light laugh, “Hey you said you wouldn’t make fun of me!”

Even though you can’t see him, you could feel his eyes on you and could tell he was smiling, “I’m not I promise!” he pauses for a second before saying, “It’s just cute.”

You’re hoping that Yeonjun couldn’t see your cheeks turn a light shade of pink in the darkness. You feel the ferris wheel start to come back down and you let go of the seat and open your eyes. But it wasn’t long before it started to climb back up on the other side, and before you knew it you closed your eyes and held onto your seat again. Only this time was different, you felt the wheel stop turning at what you could assume was the top.

You hang your head slightly, “Oh no, keep moving!” you let out a nervous laugh.

“Hey it’s okay,” you felt Yeonjun grab one of your hands and took it to hold in his lap as he scooted closer to you, smelling the light scent of lavender because of the closer proximity, “open your eyes.”

You raise your head, “I can’t,” you can’t help but keep laughing at yourself, “ahh this is so embarrassing I’m sorry.” Although, you’d be lying if you said you didn’t feel a sense of comfort come over you to have your hand back in his.

“It’s not embarrassing,” he said in a little more serious tone, “just open your eyes and look at me.”

You take a breath then turn your head towards Yeonjun and slowly open your eyes. You open your eyes to see a smiling Yeonjun, closer than you’d thought. You can’t tell if it’s the ride or him making you more nervous. You take note of his long eyelashes and the slight curve of his nose.

Were his lips always that plump-

“See, there you go!” he waits a second, “not bad right?”

“I guess not,” you answer meekly.

“Okay now turn around so you can see the amazing view,” Yeonjun squeezes your hand.

“Okay,” you don’t move. You may be too scared to turn around, but you’re sure you’re already looking at the view. You didn’t know it but Yeonjun was contemplating the same thing.

Yeonjun stares back at you and waits a few moments, “Okay, what about now?” he chuckled.

“Right…”, you blink and start slowly turning around. You subconsciously squeeze Yeonjun’s hand and pull it into your own lap when you finally turn all the way around, finally seeing how far up you are.

Your eyes widen and you gasp lightly, gripping Yeonjun’s hand tighter, “Wow… this is… wow,” the view being way better than you could have expected. The lights, the people, everything was just picture perfect. You were at a loss of words.

“So, what do you think?” Yeonjun asks from beside you, slightly wiggling your hand.

“It’s beautiful, now I understand why it’s your favorite.” you answer, unable to take your gaze away.

All of a sudden the ride starts to move again, and you make your way back down the other side.

“No! Right when I was getting used to it!” you laugh and turn to Yeonjun, smiling.

“That’s the good thing about ferris wheels, it will go back up,” he teases. Like Yeonjun predicted, the ride made its way back up the other side, only this time you didn’t close your eyes. Your hand still in his, you peer out the side of the cabin as you make your way to the peak of the ride, and experience another subconscious squeeze when you get to the top. Yeonjun noticed though, returning a light squeeze. The ride continues for a few more minutes, periodically stopping at different heights. Not much more was said, both of you just enjoying the moment and occasionally catching each other’s gaze. It was only when it was time to get off that you unclasped your hands. You made your way off the ride and back onto solid ground, which you were thankful for, but also dreading because you wished to live in that moment a bit longer.

“I’m proud of you, Y/N,” he turns to you with a warm smile.

You let out a light embarrassed laugh, “Well thanks to you I have officially had the optimum fair experience,” you return the smile, “even if I was a big baby about it, holding your hand like a 6 year old,” you hit the palm of your hand on your forehead, covering one of your eyes.

You elicit a laugh out of Yeonjun as he turns to start walking back to the parking lot, “It’s okay, it was actually me who was scared and needed a hand to hold,” using irony to make you feel better.

You join his pace, “Yeah but it must be strange having to comfort a person you’ve only hung out with 1 and half times.”

He chuckles and looks at you, “A half?”

“Yeah I don’t really count the market,” you joke.

“Wow…I, for one, had an amazing time showing you around that market!” he exclaims, talking with his hands as well.

“Okay, okay, a person you’ve only hung out with twice,” you giggle.

You hear him hum in confusion, “It’s weird ‘cos I feel like we could’ve been friends for a long time, like I’ve already known you.”

You feel your heart start to beat a little faster, “Yeah, I feel that way too,” you both make your way into the parking lot without looking at each other.

On the way back to your grandma’s house you talk about the party on Friday. Yeonjun tells you that Beomgyu’s roommate lives close to a river, and that they would have parties there every summer. You laugh at the few stories that he told you of his nights by the river, them mostly consisting of the boys doing something stupid and or dangerous. The usual presence of alcohol not helping them with their judgment, “... and then he jumped in the river! Just like that! With his shoes on and everything,” Yeonjun explained while trying to contain his laughter, while you let yours out, “the water isn’t that deep, but still!”

You were still letting out a few giggles when he pulled in front of your grandma’s house. As you start to undo your seatbelt, he starts to undo his as well, taking it as he would like to walk you to the door. You try to dismiss the funny feeling in your stomach. As he rounds his car, you both start to approach the porch as you begin looking over to Yeonjun, “Thanks for tonight, I had a fun time, truly.” You feel more confident in your time together, not feeling like he was forced to hang out with you anymore, but because maybe he wanted to.

He glances at you and smiles as you walk up the steps and stop a few feet in front of the door, “That makes me happy, I had a good time too. Thanks for trusting me enough to get on the ferris wheel,” he said with sincerity in his voice.

You start to get a little more tense with how close you realize he’s standing in front of you, the dim light from the porch casting light and shadows across his face, you let out a small laugh, “Well, I’m glad you did, because it was one of my favorite things we ended up doing,” trying not to show him your nerves.

"See! I knew you’d love it!” he smiles proudly, you notice the way his adam’s apple moves when he talks, “so… what do you have going on this week? Maybe I could show you around more?”, he asks and you laugh at what it seems like him trying to find an excuse to hang out with you. Your eyes choose to look at his eye crinkles next, coming out especially because he’s smiling. “I know this town isn’t all that big but you should get a proper tour.”

When did he get this close to me

You do your best to form a coherent sentence. “Well, I think I’ll be at the children’s center a couple days this week to help with my grandma, but yeah I bet it could fit a tour in there somewhere,” you smile up at him and begin to feel more nervous, you blink and choose to look at something over his shoulder.

He smiles back, “Okay great, how does Wednesday afternoon sound?”

“Works for me,” you answer, and you look back only to see his eyes have fallen to your lips.

“Awesome.”

“Yeah…” You feel yourself get a bit more nervous as he looks back into your eyes, you get pink for another time tonight.

There’s a silence before he breaks it in a lower tone than he was just speaking to you in, “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna kiss you.”

Your eyes widen and for the second time tonight he takes you by surprise with his confidence, “Uh y-yeah I uh, didn’t think you were going to!” you mentally kick yourself for how obvious your nerves must have looked to him, all the while he looks completely cool. How embarrassing.

He just laughs, “Yeah sure,” he answers in a teasing voice as he pulls in you for a hug.

You hug him back, feeling comforted in the situation by his playfulness, “I did not!”

He lets you go and starts to walk down the steps, “Believe what you want!”, still teasing you and you both laugh.

He stops laughing and says in a more serious tone, “But really, I had a fun time. Have a good night, Y/N.”

“Me too, good night Yeonjun”, you say as you reach for the doorknob.

You both give each other a final wave goodbye as you open the door and he continues his walk to the street. Once you’re inside you let out a sigh and smile. And you head up to your room, knowing your grandma is already asleep. You flop down onto your bed thinking about the night, and noticing how the butterflies in your stomach have yet to retreat. You started to think about him joking about a real date and kissing, his confidence and the ability to be straightforward starkly contrasting your own personality. You shove your face in your pillow as if that would force those thoughts out of your brain, knowing that you’re in trouble. You finally turn your head so you can breathe, and then you see the small stuffed bear staring back at you. Hitting yourself on the forehead at the thought of explaining your night to your best friend.

I’m so screwed.

Speaking of your best friend, you’ve been ignoring his texts all evening. You didn’t need him knowing your every move, so you decided to ignore him. Probably not the best idea as you open your phone to see 12 new messages from Kai. You decide to bite the bullet and open the messages now.

Kai⚡️: how is it going Kai⚡️: is he being nice Kai⚡️: wait not too nice tho Kai⚡️: y/n pls update me what if you’re dead Kai⚡️: oh god he killed you Kai⚡️: don’t make me call you Kai⚡️: ok i see you arent dead because your location keeps moving Kai⚡️: BUT STILL Kai⚡️: sorry for the spam Kai⚡️: jk Kai⚡️: I SEE UR ACTIVE ON SNAPCHAT Y/N Kai⚡️: fine, find a new best friend i dont mind🙄

You find his dramatics amusing, knowing he’s not actually upset. At least you hope so… you check the time. 10:33pm, again trying to do mental math.

You figure he wouldn’t be too busy at that time of day, so you decide to call him. You also don’t have the energy to type out all that happened. Kai answers on the second ring, as expected.

“Y/N!! You’re alive! Thank god!,” you laugh again, “Wait no! I’m mad at you!”

“I’m sorry I’m sorry! I just know if I answered you, you’d want full details and I wasn’t about to send you a paragraph in the middle of the Til-Ta-Whirl!” you try to level with him. You appreciate his concern, but you know he’s overreacting.

“A simple “I’m not dead but thanks for checking” text would have been just fine!”, he retorts.

“But as you can tell, I’m not dead. Now are you gonna stop with the dramatics or are you going to let me tell you how my night went?”, you answer.

“Okay, okay, sorry for caring. Keep going.”

You roll your eyes even though he can’t see you. You recount the night in as much detail as you care to share with Kai. You leave out most of, if not all, the flirting. Flirting. Was that flirting? If it wasn’t flirting, why do you feel like you can’t tell Kai about it?

“And he just dropped you off and that was it?”, he questioned your story.

“That was it.”, there was a moment of silence, almost as if Kai was giving you time to change your answer, “Okay! We do have plans on Wednesday.”

“I knew-”

You interrupt him, “And Friday.”

“AND FRIDAY?”

“But on Friday we’ll be with other people, so it’s not like that!”

“So Wednesday IS like that?”, you can practically see him pacing around his room.

“No! I don’t know! Leave me alone!”, you try to laugh off the situation.

“I’m sorry”, he quiets his tone of voice, “but don’t you think you’re moving pretty fast?”

“Kai, I don’t have any friends here, and now I finally made one and you’re gonna tell me to stop?”, you try to reason with him.

“No… I just, I wasn’t expecting this,” he chuckles, “but also men are stupid, so don’t trust them.”

You laugh at his backwards logic, “Okay, I’ll start with you.”

“Hey I don’t count!”, he yells over the line.

______________________________________________________________________________

The next day you wake up to a text embedded with a Spotify link.

Yeonjun: You’re probably asleep, but here’s a playlist I think you would enjoy, let me know :) *link*

You can’t contain your smile, and you notice that he sent that text very close to midnight and the date that the playlist was curated was yesterday. Did he really stay up last night and make me a playlist?

Your heart nearly explodes at the sight of the title of the playlist being your name. You scroll through the lengthy playlist and see some artists and songs you know, but also some you don’t recognize. You find yourself immediately hitting shuffle and sitting up. You press your hands into your smiling face and try to shake the feeling of butterflies in your stomach at such an early time of your day. The soft and sweet sound of a LANY song fills your room as you pick up your phone to respond.

How do I even respond to this? “This is the nicest thing someone has ever done for me. We should get married!!!”

You laugh at your silly thoughts.

Y/N: Wow, thank you! I’m so excited to give it a listen, and I’ll be sure to note my favorites. Sorry i didnt respond, i passed out last night haha

You decide to take a shower, hoping to shake these feelings. But it was hard to move your thoughts along when all you listened to in the shower was his playlist. You were impressed with the selection of songs he had picked, while trying your hardest to not read into the meaning of some of the songs. You promised your Grandma you’d come to the children’s center around lunch and help out. You’re grateful to have something to get your mind out of the clouds. You spend a while in the shower, letting the hot water wash away the stiffness in your muscles that rough rides from the previous night left you. You get ready for the day and check your phone again, and to your delight you see a certain name and message displayed on the screen.

Yeonjun: it’s no problem, im glad you got some rest. The fair can be tiring Yeonjun: do you think you can send me that picture you took of us? I want to laugh at you again😁

You huff thinking about how you two “argued” last night about who looked more funny.

Y/N: haha here you go, but you obviously look way more funny than i do Y/N: you already look like you live inside a distorted mirror, with your long legs and all Y/N: this just makes you look 10x funnier

You hope he can sense your sarcasm through text, or else that could become awkward. You giggle to yourself and move about your day. Becoming easily side tracked from the buzzing coming from your pocket.

Yeonjun: MEAN! :p it’s only okay when i make fun of you, not the other way around!!

You smile at his playfulness and respond. Your text messages getting more spread out due to the business brought on by the day, Yeonjun told you that he’ll text you more later about his plans for the next day. Something about how “this lavender isn't gonna harvest itself!”, and you find his old man phrasing amusing. You made your way down to the children center and aided your Grandma and the other volunteers in any way they needed. You found yourself getting lost in the work, while your Grandma was lightly grilling you about your “date” last night. Having to explain to your Gran for the hundredth time that it wasn’t a date. She barely believed you due to your goofy smile every time she brought it up. You spend more time there than you had intended, but end up going home and helping your Gran in the kitchen for dinner. As the days have passed you have become more comfortable playing along with your Grandma’s antics, and you two enjoy a nice dinner filled with jokes and laughter. After dinner you head up to your room to watch some Netflix and relax, and maybe Facetime Kai. You ended up watching something off of Netflix you weren’t really paying attention to as you scrolled through your phone. You find your mind floating back to the blond haired boy every now and again, wondering again when he would text you. You didn’t have to wonder for long because a familiar noise emitted from your phone to signal a message from him.

Yeonjun: Finally done wrangling all that lavender :D so about tomorrow, i was thinking i could pick you up around noon? Yeonjun: if that works with you of course

Y/N: Yeah thats fine :-) what do you have planned?

Yeonjun: Just gonna take you around to my favorite spots, i dont wanna give away too much ;)

Your butterflies start to make a reappearance with that comment.

Y/N: always so cryptic haha Y/N: but i cant wait for the optimum tour experience!

Yeonjun: thats my specialty :D you better get some good rest tonight, we have a lot to do tomorrow!

Y/N: i dont doubt it lol Y/N: and on that note i think im gonna go to sleep now, you have a good night yeonjun :-)

Yeonjun: thank you, and you do too! See you tomorrow :)

With that you try your best to fall asleep, but you find it difficult with all of the possibilities you keep coming up with that could happen tomorrow.

______________________________________________________________________________

The next day you wake up already a bit nervous, cursing how quickly you’ve developed some sort of feelings for Yeonjun. The morning goes by painfully slow with anticipation for his arrival, and you’re in the middle of doing some dishes to pass the time when you hear the doorbell ring. It startles you and you almost drop the bowl you were hand drying. You quickly put it down and run to go get your things to leave, looking through the window to confirm it was who you were waiting for. Yeonjun sees you peek through the curtain and flashes you a bright smile, “I’ll be out in a sec!”, you yell as you run upstairs to get your bag. You stop yourself right before you reach to open the front door, realizing you’re now out of breath from running.

Don’t embarrass yourself off the bat oh my god

You steady your breaths and open the door and see the blond standing there patiently, “Hey! Sorry for making you wait like that,” you say while stepping out onto the porch.

“Oh it’s no problem, it was funny hearing you running around all frantic,” he says with a laugh.

Oh god he heard all of that

You immediately feel your cheeks go pink and hit your forehead with your palm, “Oh my god you heard all of that,” you voice your realization.

He takes your hand off your head to look into your eyes, “Ahh none of that, it was cute,” he lets go of your wrist, “now let's go! I’m excited to show you around!”, he starts his way to his car and you smile and follow behind him. You try to hide your smile after he calls you cute for the second time. Not like you were counting or anything… You mentally curse how your nerves make you act, but you appreciate how less awkward Yeonjun makes you feel.

You both hop into his car, and you smell the scent of lavender yet again. It immediately calms you and you buckle your seat belt, “So, where are we going first?”

“Well,” Yeonjun backs out of the driveway, “have you eaten?”

“No, I figured we would get food somewhere,” he pulls onto the road, “am I correct?”

Yeonjun chuckles, “You are! You’re very smart.” On the way to get food, you listen to his playlist and you hear his sweet voice again. You swear you could listen to sing all day if you could.

“You know, you have a really nice voice.” You say to him as he stares at the road.

“You think so?” You see a smile crack on his face, “thank you. I’d love to hear you sing some time too.”

You scoff, “Oh no, you don’t want to hear that,” you almost laugh, “it’s terrible.”

“You probably have a lovely singing voice,” he reaches for the volume knob and he turns down the music slightly, “please, go ahead.”

You look at him with raised eyebrows, and he looks back with a sweet smile. He wants you to start singing along to the song, you realize. You groan and quickly debate whether or not you want to embarrass yourself in front of him for the second time today, and decide to go for it. You’ve only known Yeonjun for under a week, but he already makes you feel at ease. You feel no judgment, just pure curiosity. You begin to lightly sing along to the song, thankfully not having crazy high notes. You’re too nervous to look over at the blond, but you can tell he’s stealing glances. Once the chorus ends, so do you.

You immediately hear whooping and clapping, and look over to see Yeonjun driving with his knee so he could give you a round of applause, “See! I knew it, it was lovely.”

“Oh stop,” you reach over and smack his arm playfully, “and maybe drive with both hands!”

“I would be standing if I could,” he finally puts his hands back on the wheel, “your voice is sweet.”

Your heart does a flip, “Thank you.”

You arrive downtown, and he tells you that you’ll be walking to a deli. On the way he shows you different shops, and tells you which ones to avoid and which ones to take advantage of. Walking down the street passing different people, you occasionally run into people that Yeonjun knows.

Does everyone in this town just know each other??

Finally you reach the deli, and he asks you what you want. Looking at the menu you see some words that you don’t know, and you ask Yeonjun for clarification. He politely tells you what they are with a nice smile, and you figure out what you want.

“I can order for you to make it easier,” he offers sweetly.

“Okay, thank you”, that is until he’s halfway done ordering that you realize that he’s doing this so that he can pay for your food.

He hands the money to the cashier, “Merci.”

He turns around to you standing there holding out enough money to cover the cost of the food, “It was my turn to pay!”

He chuckles and walks to the back of the shop to wait for the order, “Oh I must have forgotten,” he says smiling, “next time, okay?” he said with a wink.

Next time, your butterflies took flight again.

“Please, it would make me feel so much better,” you try to coax him into taking your money, you know it’s futile but you try anyway. You can’t imagine that working for your family on a lavender farm pays that handsomely.

“Si vous savez ce que je dis maintenant, je prendrai votre argent immédiatement sans le combattre,” he speaks so fast you can’t understand a word he just said.

“What was that?” you ask, money still in your hand.

“Ahhh, that's too bad, I cannot take your money now,” he fake frowns at you and crosses his arms.

“That’s not fair, I’m gonna start speaking fast in English, see how you like it,” you fake pout and put the money back in your pocket.

He laughs, “Okay, go ahead.”

You think for a moment for something to say, “Ifyoudontstopdoingnicethingsformelikeyoukeepdoingweregoingtohavesomeproblems,” you really hope you don’t understand what you just said.

You think you’ve succeeded because he stares at you blankly, “I don’t know what we’re having problems about, but I’m ready,” he lifts his fists out in front of him, looking like he’s about to take a punch.

You suck in a breath between your teeth, “Close but not close enough, Junnie.”

Junnie?? Where did that even come from?

You hope he doesn’t find your out of the blue nickname weird. He lowers his hands and gives you a quizzical look, “Ah, sorry, I don’t know where that came from,” you try to laugh it off.

“No, it’s okay,” he smiles and looks out into the distance, “Junnie. Hm. I like it.”

“Really?” You want to make sure he’s not just humoring you.

“Yeah, you can call me Junnie,” you swear you could almost see his cheeks appear a shade darker.

At that moment the worker calls out Yeonjun’s name for the order and he goes to retrieve it. He takes the bag of food and starts to approach the door, “We’re leaving?” you ask.

“We’re leaving. This is not our destination all along, what a twist!” he says dramatically while holding the door for you.

You huff and follow him down the sidewalk, you can tell you’re heading back to his car.

“So then, where is the destination?” you ask while walking beside him.

“Somewhere.” He answers with a smirk but not much thought. Always so cryptic. You think maybe he’ll take you to the park you were at the other day and show you around that part of town. Maybe to a friend's house. Maybe to his own house. You get nervous just at the thought. Your curiosity grows as he begins to drive out of the part of town you were familiar with. You’ve learned to not ask too many questions anymore though, and just see what happens. On your way to your destination you see many beautiful rolling fields, mostly for farming, but some filled with flowers. Your interest in this town seems to grow by the minute. Houses and buildings become less and less frequent.

“You’re not gonna murder me in the middle of nowhere, are you? Because this was going really well and that might ruin it,” you ask lightheartedly.

“Might?” he laughs at your joke, “no, of course I’m not going to murder you,” he looks at you with sincere eyes and places his hand on your shoulder, “your grandma knows where I live.” You both laugh as he turns back to watch the road.

“Well you said you were going to show me around town, and I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” you gesture your hand to the car’s surroundings, “no town.”

“Good observation,” he pulls off onto a smaller bumpy road, surrounded by large green trees and bushes. You’re distracted by the scenery so you don’t notice at first that the road turns into a dirt road.

“Okay now you have to tell me where we’re going,” you look at him and laugh.

Wow he’s really gonna kill me in the middle of nowhere huh

“Well good thing we’ve arrived,” he says as he pulls off the side of the “road”, he grabs the bag of food, and grabs a blanket from the back seat. He gets out of the car and you follow suit, seeing him beckon you to a trail that you can tell leads down to a river, “come on, it’s just down here!”

You follow him slowly, still trusting him but being weary of your surroundings, “You're the worst tour guide ever,” you laugh.

He laughs with you as you continue down the path to the river. In the distance you see a big tree next to the water with a ladder that leads up to a platform made of wood supported by a tree. You can only assume that's your destination. Your assumptions were correct when you see Yeonjun stop right in front of the ladder, “Ladies first,” he says and gestures to the ladder.

You step closer and take the side of the ladder in your hands and shake it a bit, “You sure this is safe?” you ask. This structure seems to be at least 15 years old, and not knowing about the upkeep of it.

“No!” Yeonjun says with a big smile.

Hey at least he’s honest

You look at him with raised eyebrows, “And you want me to go first?”

“Ahh okay fine, but I did try to be a gentleman,” he hands you the bag of food as he turns to climb the ladder with the blanket still in his hands.

The platform isn’t that much taller than Yeonjun, maybe 1 foot above his head. The ladder is steadier than you thought it would be as you watch him climb up. He reaches the top in no time, “See, I lived! Your turn,” he says looking down at you eagerly.

You laugh as you start to climb up the ladder with the bag of food in one hand, “Oh here give that to me,” Yeonjun reaches down and you hand him the bag, finding it easier to climb with two hands.

You reach the top to see Yeonjun spreading out the blanket across the wood floor, “So,” you get closer and sit atop of the blanket next to Yeonjun, “What is this place?” You notice a bottle of wine and two plastic cups next to the bag of food.

Must have been wrapped in the blanket

“This,” Yeonjun pats the wood, “is a tree home? *Fortress?*” unsure of how to word it in English you nod to show him you understand what he means, “that my friends and I would play on when we were kids,” he smiles and looks around, “it’s been so long since I’ve been here.”

You find this whole experience so endearing it makes your heart nearly break, “I think this is super cool, Junnie.” he smiles at the nickname.

“I think so too,” he continues and points off into the distance across the river, “my old friend’s house is just over there, you can’t see it because of the trees but we would run away and play in the woods all the time. His dad built this for us.” You find his story adorable, and quickly realize you don’t really know much about Yeonjun’s personal life. This being the most you’ve heard about his past.

“I wish I had something like this where I grew up,” you say as Yeonjun starts to take the sandwiches out of the bag, “growing up in the city, there is not much room for tree houses.”

“That’s sad,” he says as he hands you your food.

“Eh it’s alright, I have good memories too,” he smiles at your statement, “so how old were you when he built this? I know you said you lived in the U.S too.”

“I think I was 7 years old?” you see him try to do mental math, “yeah, 7. I moved to the U.S when I was 10, and came back to France when I was 15, and now I’m 20 going to university in Paris. I can’t complain much,” he explains then takes a bite of his sandwich. You mentally hit yourself over the head.

I practically have a crush on this guy but I never had the feeling to ask about his personal life??

“That seems like fun, I’ll have to see the city sometime this summer,” he smiles and quickly nods to you, “so what do you study?”

He swallows his food and chuckles, “Well, I’m a dancer. I go to university for dance.” You’ve been hit by a truck. Or at least it feels like it.

Dance??

Yeonjun becomes cooler and cooler the more he talks. You would have never pegged him as a dancer, but now that he’s said it of course it makes sense. His movements are never hesitant, being very sure about each move, it completely mirrors his personality. It’s perfect for him.

“And you’ve never shown me your dance moves?” you almost yell, “I’m almost offended!”

“I’ll be sure to show you sometime! Probably on Friday,” he smirks.

“I’m looking forward to it,” you answer and take a bite of your sandwich. You both sit there for a bit just eating your food and taking in the surroundings. It was a very beautiful spot, close enough to the river to hear the water running.

Yeonjun reaches over to the bottle of white wine, “Oh, I brought this, I didn’t know what kind you like though. Or if you even like wine,” he explains and lets out a chuckle.

“No, that’s perfect, thank you,” you reassure him with a smile. You understand that it’s more of a European thing to have some wine with a meal, but you can’t help yourself to feel romantic implications.

“Also sorry about the cups, I didn’t want to break glass here,” he opens it and starts pouring it into the cups.

“That’s fine, I’m not picky I swear,” you smile as he hands you a cup.

He smiles back and lifts up his cup, “Á votre santé,” he says and takes a sip of his drink while looking into your eyes. You follow suit assuming that means “cheers”. The wine is lightly sweet, perfect for the environment you are in. You both talk for the remainder of the time in the tree house mostly about Yeonjun. He tries to ask questions about you too, but you always redirect the question back to him. You’re determined to learn as much as you can about this guy. He tells you trivial things like his favorite color, food and movies but he also tells you that he’s an only child, and that’s why he cherishes his friendships so much. He tells you about his time in the U.S and how he wishes he stayed in more contact with his friends from California. You find out that’s how he got into dance in the first place. He joined a dance club right when he got there to try to make friends, and he discovered that he loved the art itself. He tells you that he loves all forms of dance, but he excels especially in contemporary. You could listen to him talk about dance all day, just from the way he talks about it. The passion in his eyes when he speaks of it, it’s inspiring. He tells you about his showcases during the school year, and how he wishes you could be around to see one. Your heart pangs at the comment knowing you never would be able to, but you push that feeling down. He promises to show you videos of them sometime. Eventually you find the both of you sitting by the trash of your meal and a nearly empty wine bottle for a lot longer than intended. You both sit there in silence for a bit just enjoying the scenery and each other’s presence. This is the most peaceful I’ve felt in a long time, you think to yourself as you close your eyes and tilt your head back to fully feel the gentle breeze dancing across your skin. The weather was absolutely perfect. You feel lightly liberated from the wine, so you want to enjoy this moment for as long as you can. You take a deep breath and sigh and open your eyes and see the leaves of the tree above you sway in the wind. You can see Yeonjun looking at you in your peripheral vision, and you almost want to call him out for it, but you didn’t want this moment to end. So you stay like that for a while.

You almost don’t hear him say it, not being much louder than the sound of the water hitting the rocks below, “Jolie.”

You turn your head to look at him, “Hmm?” you ask as if you didn’t hear or understand what he said, but you know he just called you pretty. He’s not convinced though, he can see your cheeks turn a shade darker. He looks away and bites his lip while letting out a nervous chuckle. You laugh too.

This guy is going to ruin me

You wish you could stay like this forever.

Eventually you both make your way back down the ladder, and Yeonjun turns to make his way back to the car but, “I want to see the water closer,” you say as you turn towards the river.

“Okay,” he says contently.

You reach the water and start to take off your shoes and sit on a rock that borders the water. You pull your pant legs high enough for you to stick your feet in the water. It’s cold but not as bad as you thought it would be. You look back at the blond, “Come on,” you say as you pat the area next to you on the rock.

He silently agrees, setting the trash and blanket down and removing his shoes as well. He sits next to you, the rock being a little smaller than you had realized your arms are pushed together.

“It’s nice, yeah?” he asks as he looks down at you.

“Yeah, it is,” you answer, still looking at the water. You wiggle your toes and feel the water rushing between them, it almost tickles. You rest your head on his shoulder and he doesn’t hesitate to rest his head on yours. You both stay like that for a while.

You finally speak up, “You know, I’m starting to think you meant “date” when you said “tour”.”

“You just now realized?” he answers and lightly laughs. The butterflies in your stomach pick up speed. Comfortable silence falls upon the both of you again. You don’t know how long you stay like that.

“I don’t want to leave, but I think it’s time I should get you home,” Yeonjun says, sounding a little deflated, “I’ll bring you back sometime though.”

“Hmm, that’s probably a good idea, what time is it?” you ask.

Yeonjun lifts his head from yours and fishes his phone out of his pocket, “5:53.”

You immediately shoot up and look at him, “What?” you look at his phone to confirm he was lying. He wasn’t. You emit a sound that sounds almost like a groan, “I told my grandma that I would help make dinner tonight, I’m a terrible granddaughter.”

Yeonjun chuckles as he takes his feet out of the water, “No you aren’t, but we should get going."

You put your shoes back on and hurry to the car. On the way back you talk about what you two will do until you see each other again. He works tomorrow and you will be at the children’s center. Then on Friday is the party, and he seems excited so you are too.

“Thank you for showing me around today,” you say to him jokingly as he pulls into your grandma’s driveway.

He chuckles, “I had a great time showing you around. I would like to do it again sometime, if you agree to it.”

“Of course,” you say with a smile. Feeling confident, you lean over the console and press a kiss to his cheek, “Au revoir Junnie.”

“Au revoir Y/N,” he says and smiles widely.

You exit the car and start walking to the house, you turn around and wave to him and he waves back. He doesn’t drive away until he sees you enter your grandma’s house, and you feel a wave of being flustered fall over you.

I kissed his cheek

You think about your actions and your cheeks flush.

That evening you help your grandma make the rest of the dinner, and she asks you all about your “tour”. You try to expand the portion of you both being downtown, and downplay the river. You don’t think your grandmother would care that much about your date, but you get nervous when you talk about it. That night you talk to Kai too, telling him more than you told your grandma. You knew how he would react, but you don’t like keeping things from your best friend.

“I’m glad you’re having a good time, I just hope you know what you’re doing,” Kai tells you.

“I do, you shouldn’t worry,” but you don’t, and you are worried. ______________________________________________________________________________

Friday comes sooner than you thought it would, being consumed with projects down at the children’s center. You made it home by 6 on Friday, and you knew you had to go start getting ready for the party. The past 2 days you have texted with Yeonjun, and asked him what you should wear. He said something casual and maybe a bathing suit if you feel comfortable. This did not help your indecisive mind as you stared at your closet. You want to Facetime Kai, but you knew it would be way too early where he is for him to answer. You groan and pull out all the clothing possibilities and lay them on your bed. Yeonjun said Soobin would be at your Grandma’s house at 8 to drive you because he doesn’t drink, so you had about an hour and a half to get ready. It should definitely be enough time, but at this rate you’ll never get there. You start holding up tops in front of yourself in the mirror and catch yourself thinking about which one you think Yeonjun would like to see you in the most. You throw them back on your bed and move onto makeup so you can get your mind off of that. Eventually you pull on your bathing suit and an outfit you don’t think is half bad. As time goes on, you get more and more nervous. There will be people there that you already know, but they’re still practically strangers. Not to mention you’re in a foreign country that you don’t speak the language of fluently.

I have to stop thinking like that or else i'm gonna throw up

After a while you hear a car honk its horn outside the house and you look out the window to see Soobin waiting for you in his car. You gather your things and say goodbye to your Grandma. You walk up to his car and see him wave to you excitedly, and you smile and wave back.

“Hello!”, he says straight away as you open the door with a big smile.

You take a seat in his car, “Hi Soobin! Thanks for picking me up,” you notice the smell of pine once you close his car door.

“No problem, it was on the way anyways.” He explains while he drives off.

The music that was playing was definitely different to Yeonjun’s music taste, an emotional ballad playing in the background. You wonder if he likes to sing too. You two make small talk on the way to the party, occasionally giggling at his silly predictions of how the night will go. Most of them involving Beomgyu making a fool of himself. Your nerves start to melt away as he preps you for their behavior.

Why am I even nervous? Drunk people are the easiest to make friends with.

You both arrive at a house located in a deeply wooden part of the town. Suddenly you understand why they would have their parties here, no neighbors. Even outside the house, you can hear music coming through the walls. Soobin doesn’t bother knocking and walks right in, leaving the door open for you too. The sight that greets you is not nearly as intimidating as you previously thought. The house is a quaint size, with the living room and kitchen feeding into each other, and a small staircase lining the right wall. There were some people you don’t recognize sitting on the couch and standing in the living room, drinks in their hands. Soobin leads you through the living room, not bothering to greet everyone.

Thank god

There are some more people standing in the kitchen, and you immediately recognize Beomgyu and Taehyun. “Y/N!!!”, Beomgyu practically yells and comes over to give you a big hug and swing you around.

“Beomgyu! Hi!,” you laugh at his eagerness and return the hug.

He lets go and Taehyun is the next to greet you, “Hi Y/N, glad you came,” he gives you a hug too only to whisper next to your head, “Beomgyu found the wine early.”

You both chuckle and let go, “That’s okay.”

Soobin gives you a “I told you so” look by Beomgyu’s behavior. You can’t help but continue giggling.

Beomgyu continues talking, “We’ve been waiting for you to show up! Do you want a drink? *Here, come here,*” He grabs your wrist and brings you to a makeshift bar on the counter. He motions to the liquor, “Anything you want, take it!”

There were lots of different types of alcohol, too many to make a decision. You stare for a bit too long and you begin to wonder where Yeonjun was, “Ummm,” you don’t know how to choose.

“OH! There is also beer and wine! *Here, come here*,” he takes your wrist again and you begin to have whiplash from Beomgyu’s eager behavior. You appreciate his attentiveness though. You glance back at Taehyun and Soobin to see their amused faces at the situation before Beomgyu pulls you out the back door. Now you’re really starting to wonder where Yeonjun was. In the backyard there was a group of people playing a game of beer pong and some others just standing around. You try to scan the faces, hoping to recognize someone blond soon. Beomgyu deposits you in front of an ice chest with glass bottles of beer and some wine bottles with cups on the side. You appreciate the lack of options.

“*Here you go!*,” Beomgyu says with a big smile on his face.

“Thank you,” you opt for beer, only to find no bottle opener.

“Oh let me try!” Beomgyu grabs the bottle from you trying to twist it off to no avail and a painful look on his face. He then tries to pry it open using the side of the ice chest, making you laugh.

“Looking for this?” A voice you immediately recognize says behind you.

You quickly turn around to see the blond boy you’ve been waiting for, holding a bottle opener in his hand. He was wearing another plain tee shirt, but this time he was wearing dark cargo pants. You wonder how he can make such a simple outfit look so good.

Your smile immediately goes wide, “Yeonjun, hi!” you say as you go to give him a hug that he gladly accepts.

“Hey,” he squeezes you and lets go, “I saw Soobin inside without you, I was worried but it looks like someones got you covered,” he chuckles and glances at a determined Beomgyu still trying to pry your beer open. He looks back at you, “You look great tonight Y/N.”

You try to stifle how big your smile is getting, “Thank you, so do you.”

He just smiles back at you then peers to Beomgyu after hearing some more grunting. You admire Beomgyu’s tenacity. Yeonjun taking pity on him attempts to take the bottle out of his hands, “*Let me do it, before you hurt yourself.*”

Beomgyu pouts from his failure but gives up the bottle. Yeonjun easily pries it open and hands it to you with a smile, “Here you are.”

“Thank you,” you raise the bottle to your lips and take a sip. Bitter, but what did you expect? You try not to let it show on your face.

“*I almost had it*”, Beomgyu says as he continues to pout.

“Yeah sure Beomie,” Yeonjun humors him, “*maybe you should go tell Taehyun about how close you really were.*”

Beomgyu’s eyes widen with excitement at the mention of his boyfriend, as if he had forgotten he was here, “*You’re right!*”, Beomgyu turns and walks away back inside, “Taehyunieee” he calls out as he shuts the door. You laugh and turn back to Yeonjun.

“I’m glad you’re here Y/N,” Yeonjun says, looking down at you.

“Me too, glad I finally found you,” you say with a smile.

“Hmm, seems like I found you though,” he says as you both share a laugh, “here, why don’t I introduce you to some of our other friends?”

You nod in agreement as Yeonjun walks you up to the groups of people next to the beer pong table. They were in the middle of the conversation but Yeonjun interrupted anyway.

“*Hey guys*”, he says and they all turn to look at him, noticing you too, someone they don’t recognize, “This is Y/N, she’s visiting for the summer.”

You take a moment to say hello to everyone and introduce yourself. They all seem to find you interesting, just by being a foreigner. They introduce themselves too, trying to memorize the names to the faces.

San, Wooyoung, Ryujin, Karina, Lia. San, Wooyoung, Ryujin, Karina, Lia…

You try to repeat to yourself in your head. You learn that the house is Wooyoung’s family home, and his parents are in Spain for a couple of weeks.

“We were about to start a new game of pong if you wanted to join us,” Ryujin looks between you and Yeonjun. You notice how her french accent practically does not exist when she speaks in english.

Yeonjun looks at you with raised eyebrows, “Y/N? Do you want to?”

They look at you with expecting eyes, “Yeah sure, I’ve never played before though so I’ll probably be terrible.” You laugh at yourself. You’ve been to parties before but somehow you’ve never graced a beer pong table.

“That’s perfect,” Ryujin states, “might make it even between us and Yeonjun finally.” Ryujin and Wooyoung share a laugh.

“Of course you’d be good at beer pong,” you laugh too and look at Yeonjun who held his hands up as if he’s been accused of something.

“I guess I’m not bad,” he says and puts his hands down.

“*Yeah, yeah, let's play!*” Wooyoung says while he makes his way over to the table. On one side you stand with Yeonjun, and Ryujin and Wooyoung stand on the other.

You turn to Yeonjun as he is setting up his cups, “But really, I’m going to be bad and you’re going to have to teach me.”

“That’s okay, it’s a pretty simple game. Plus,” he finishes setting up the cups and turns to look at you, “I got us,” he says with a wink.

You could have sworn you saw both of his eyes close but you choose to ignore it because of the circus of butterflies rummaging around in your stomach.

Ryujin and Wooyoung go first, Ryujin being the only one to make a cup. Then it was your turn. Yeonjun went first to show you his form and where to aim. You study him closely and you almost laugh from how seriously you were taking it. He makes it in the first cup, of course.

Can it really be that hard?

You take the small ball and give yourself a deep breath, not wanting to fully embarrass yourself. You pick a cup, aim and toss it. Surprisingly to you, it goes in the same cup as Yeonjun’s.

“Woah! See!” Yeonjun claps his hands, “good job!”

He gives you a high five, “But it went in the same cup.” Thinking that you didn’t get your own point.

Yeonjun points to Wooyoung taking out that cup, plus another, “That means we get 2 cups, don’t worry. And, we get to go again!”

Ryujin rolls the balls back to you both across the table. You don’t really understand these types of rules but you just go with it. For the rest of the game you turn out to be some sort of secret beer pong champion, only missing once. And everytime you make a cup, Yeonjun is just as excited as the last. When it comes to the winning cup, you both obviously sink it. You both celebrate as Ryujin and Wooyoung mutter about how it was never going to be fair for them.

“I didn’t even need to do anything, how are you so good?” Yeonjun asks and laughs, “was I really that great of a teacher?”

You roll your eyes, “Probably beginner's luck,” you poke his side with your finger, “but yes, I had a great teacher,” you say with a shy smile.

You two continue to mingle and make your way back inside to find Soobin, Beomgyu and Taehyun. They were sitting in a circle on the living room floor with some other people you haven’t met yet. You make your way over and introduce yourself again that night and take a seat next to everyone. They continue their conversation, not fully understanding what they were talking about because of the volume of the music while they try to talk over each other and laugh. You actually couldn’t understand a thing, just smiling along. Yeonjun quickly gets sucked into the debate and you suddenly feel alone in a room full of people. It’s obviously not their fault but you can’t help but feel a tad left out. You try to ignore your irrational feelings and listen along. You do your best but you’re suddenly distracted by the warning label on your beer. You look at your phone and you’ve only been sitting there for 20 minutes but you could have sworn it felt like an hour. You sigh and suddenly have an idea.

“I’m gonna go get another beer,” you tell Yeonjun as he is in the middle of another debate and he smiles and tells you okay.

Well, the original plan really was to go get another beer and take your time walking back. But when you step outside, the air is light and warm. The people outside have either migrated inside or disappeared but you can hear a small group of people down by the bank of the river. You grab a beer and peer back inside through the window, and you see an excited Yeonjun immersed in the conversation he was having, talking with his hands while you see Beomgyu dying of laughter on the floor. You smile at the nice scene but turn back around and walk down to the river bank as well. The small group of people had made their way into the water and were laughing while splashing each other. You didn’t want to interrupt them, so you walked down the river a little bit and took a seat on the soft grass. The music of the house was muffled but you could still hear it, while a light breeze was ruffling the leaves in the trees. Looking up, you could even see some stars. You think about how the vibe of this night was absolutely perfect. You begin to sway and hum along to the music. You don’t keep track of how long you had been sitting there, but it must have been a while because you suddenly hear a pair of footsteps approaching you from behind.

“Y/N?,” you hear Yeonjun’s voice and peer back as he sits down next to you, “are you okay?”

“Yeah I’m fine, sorry I didn’t come back,” he gives you an empathetic look, “it’s just so nice out.”

“It is… but I should have known that it would be awkward for you, I’m sorry.”

“No no, it wasn’t awkward,” you hesitate for a moment before continuing, “I just wish I spoke more French.” Not a complete lie.

You can tell by the look on his face that he feels bad, “Hmm I should give you French lessons, you’ll be fluent in no time,” he tries to make light of the situation now with a smile on his face.

You nod in agreement, “That would be nice,” you hesitate again but continue with a chuckle, “you’re always looking for excuses to hang out with me.”

“Well yeah, it’s because I like you Y/N.”

You blush at his sudden boldness. Although, his answer doesn’t shock you.

“You haven’t known me for a week, Yeonjun,” you have trouble meeting his gaze that hasn’t left you.

“Didn’t need to,” he scoots a little closer to you, “plus, didn’t we say it feels like we’ve known each other for longer?”

“We did say that…” you smile and finally meet his gaze again, “I like you too.”

You know you shouldn’t entertain something like this. There was not a single outcome that would benefit you, or him. You know it’s crazy to feel this way about someone that you’ve known for less than a week. Every alarm is going off inside of your head, telling you to back off. To stop this before you can’t. But something about the sweet summer air, the sound of music and laughter trailing in the background, and the way he looks at you that drags you under before you have a chance to protest.

“Forgive me,” he starts leaning a little closer into you, “but can I kiss you?”

You notice that he glanced at your lips while asking and you do your best not to shy away by nodding and letting out a soft, “Yeah.”

Your heart pounds while you see his face slowly come closer and closer to your own. Your eyes close against your will and suddenly you feel the sweetest, lightest kiss press to your lips. It lasts maybe a couple seconds before he pulls away. Your eyes open to see a smiley Yeonjun right in front of your face, and you can’t help but smile as well. A brief wave of confidence takes you and you follow his lips with your own, trying to reciprocate the feeling he gave you. You pull away and see the look on his face, one of surprise and contentment. Suddenly your confidence is out the window and you blush while looking away. You let out a light laugh.

“You’re cute,” he says while he places his arm around you, his hand resting on the floor and you rest your head on his shoulder.

“Thank you,” you shyly say, thank him for the compliment but also for the kiss. You’re convinced he can hear or feel how your heart is still pounding.

The small group of people that were in the river were now getting out and walking back to the house, laughing on the way. It caught your attention and you glance over to them.

“Did you want to get in?” Yeonjun asks with his eyebrows raised.

You lift your head from him, “Oh I don’t know Yeonjun…”

“Come on!” he starts to get up, “it’s not too cold, did you bring your bathing suit?”

“I did but-”

“See! It’ll be fun, I promise.”

You look up and see his pinky finger in front of you. You sigh and take his pinky with your own, using his hand to help you up. He doesn’t let go of your hand and leads you down to the water. The river isn’t that wide, but the darkness gives the river an ominous look, not being able to see the bottom. Yeonjun doesn’t hesitate to pull his shirt over his head and you can’t help but stare for a second longer than you should have. If he notices, he doesn’t say. You pull your eyes away and start thumbing at the hem of your own shirt.

Fuck it You pull your shirt over your head, and move your hands to undo the button on your bottoms. You can’t bring yourself to look in Yeonjun’s direction until you hear the noise of rustling water, Yeonjun starting to step into the river. You fold your clothes and make your way over to the lip of the river.

“How is it?” you ask innocently enough, still being weary of the water.

He turns to look back at you, and takes a moment to really look at you before answering, “It’s perfect.”

He takes a couple steps toward you and holds out his hand. You don’t find yourself hesitating to take it. Once you step in, the coldness shocks you and you let out a tiny shriek and immediately grip his hand tightly, but you continue to step in, “Yeonjun!”

He lets out a heavy laugh, “Yeah, we’re usually a bit drunk when we get in the river, don’t usually think about the temperature.”

He continues to walk backwards deeper in the water while still leading you, “Well I’m thinking about it!”

You let out another tiny shriek when the water starts to lap at your butt and Yeonjun laughs again. You show the slightest hesitation and Yeonjun offers his other hand, “Come on, not much deeper.”

Now he has both of your hands leading you in and you suddenly wonder how you got yourself into this situation. You start to feel his thumbs caressing the back of your hands. The water continues to rise until right under your chest, “Is that it?”

“That’s it,” he stops leading you in but doesn’t let go of your hands, which were now underwater.

“I can’t believe you told me it was perfect, my toes are gonna get frostbite!”, you take one of your hands from his and lightly splash in his direction. You both know it’s definitely not cold enough for that, but you enjoy playing with him.

He lets out a gasp when the water lands on his chest, “Hey!” he lets go of your other hand and returns a light splash, “I know you wanted to get in!”

“No way, you practically forced me to get in!,” you splash him again, with a little more force this time, getting in his hair.

“Oh, you’ve done it!” he says as he surges forward with his hands cupped full of water. You try to duck his attack but end up sending yourself deeper into the water, while he drops the small amount of water on your head. You gasp and let out a contagious laughter that gets Yeonjun to join you. You internally curse him for getting your hair wet so you set out on the mission to do the same to him. You both play around like that for a while, splashing each other until you both are sufficiently soaked. You feel him come closer and grab your hips before he begins lifting you, you realize he’s going to throw you in completely. You take a hold of his arms to anchor yourself to him.

“No, no, no please,” you manage to get out while dying of laughter, “you win, you win!”

“You give up?” he asks teasingly while still having a hold on you that threatens to throw you in.

“Yes, yes I give up,” satisfied with your answer, he begins to slowly bring you back down but you don’t let your feet hit the river bed. Instead you bring your legs up to wrap around his waist, and you wrap your arms around his shoulders. He instantly brings his arms around your waist as well, slowly swaying and spinning you around in the water. “It feels nice now,” you say with a light smile tracing your lips.

“Just now? I wonder why,” he says teasingly again, and tightens his hold on you.

You gaze at each other for a couple moments before you decide to make the first move this time, raising your head up and kissing him for the 3rd time tonight. He halts his movements in the water to give you his full attention. The kiss is just as sweet as last time, but with a little more pressure. You both have a mutual understanding that this kiss is different as you deepen it. He takes your bottom lip in between his and gives it a light suck, which beckons your mouth to open wider. The kiss is slow and thoughtful, the both of you feeling no rush. Just being fully present to enjoy the feeling. He takes one of his hands and brings it up to hold the side of your neck, while his thumb caresses your jaw. You lean into his touch as he pulls his lips away to start kissing down the other side of your jaw, then your neck. You let out a light hum of enjoyment as his lips work against your skin, spending some time there. He starts to work his way back up your neck, back to your lips giving you a passionate kiss.

“Est-ce le ciel?” he whispers against your lips. You somehow manage to blush deeper while pressing your legs tighter around him. He just asked you if this is heaven.

You knew it was a rhetorical question but you answered him in the same low tone, “Oui c'est le cas,” confirming to him that it is.

He smiles against your lips and gives you another deep kiss. He pulls away and rests his forehead against yours, periodically pressing more kisses to your mouth as if he’s trying to stop but can’t help himself. You let out a light giggle.

Finally feeling satisfied he stops, “Maybe we should dry off now.”

“Hmmmm,” you answer with a frown on your face. He smiles at your pout and begins to kiss away the frown on your face. The peppering of kisses has you smiling and laughing now, “okay fine,” you finally agree.

You don’t unwrap yourself from him as he starts to walk back to your clothes until your butt is out of the water. Then you unravel yourself from him and look at your clothes, making an unfortunate discovery.

“Junnie, we don’t have a towel,” you say with another slight pout.

Yeonjun smiles at the nickname and scratches the back of his head, “Ah yeah I’m sorry, there are some inside though.” He bends down and grabs his clothes, then yours. He takes his free hand and laces your fingers together as he starts to walk back up to the house.

Oh god we’re gonna have to walk by everyone like this…

You try not to become embarrassed and self conscious. He walks into the house and you see that about half of the people are now gone, leaving a smaller group of people still sitting in a circle in the living room still drinking.

How long were we out there?

You see Beomgyu lean over and whisper something in Soobin’s ear as you both walk past, trying not to become red in the face.

“*Was the water warm, Yeonjun?*” You hear Ryujin ask and it makes the group laugh as you two begin to climb the stairs.

“Yes, it was,” Yeonjun answers while rolling his eyes, still pulling you up the stairs. You both make it into a random bathroom.

“Sorry about that,” Yeonjun apologizes while taking two towels out of a cabinet.

“It’s okay, it was kinda funny,” you say with a slight laugh. You take a moment to really look at him now you were both in proper lighting. Your butterflies begin to buzz again at the sight of his back, the way the muscles hug tightly to his body. He turns around and you try not to let him see you looking at his toned chest and slim waist.

“Not just that though,” he holds up your shirt, showing you that it was soaked.

“Oh,” you take the shirt from him and continue to laugh at the situation, “how did this even happen?”

“I don’t know,” he laughs too, “here you can take mine.”

He holds up his own shirt, which was completely dry. You take his shirt from him with hesitant hands, “It’s okay, you don’t need to.”

“No, it’s no problem,” he says as he leads you out of the bathroom into another random bedroom, “Wooyoung is one of my best friends, I can borrow a shirt,” he says with a reassuring smile. “Okay, thank you then.”

“You’re welcome,” he answers sweetly while rummaging through a drawer to find a shirt. He quickly retrieves one, “You can dry off and change in here, I’ll be in the bathroom.”

“Alright,” you nod to him as he lets himself out of the room and closes the door. You curse yourself for not bringing an extra pair of undies.

Whatever

You think to yourself as you pull off your bathing suit and dry yourself off. Once dry enough, you pull Yeonjun’s shirt over your head. The hem of the shirt falls below your butt, and you find yourself taking some of the fabric and putting it under your nose.

Lavender.

Your eyes almost start to water at how addicting the smell is to you. You force yourself to release the fabric and pull your shorts up, cringing at the feeling of no underwear. You find yourself interested in the pictures on the wall, most of them including Wooyoung and his friends. You find one with Wooyoung, Beomgyu, and Yeonjun all laughing with their arms around each other. This couldn’t have been taken that long ago. The picture is sweet, and you find yourself missing your own best friend. A knock on the door pulls you out of your thoughts.

“Y/N? You done?”

“Yeah, you can come in.”

The door slowly opens and Yeonjun welcomes himself in and approaches you, “You look adorable in my shirt,” he says with a sly smile on his face.

You just laugh and shake your head, looking back to the picture, “This is a cute picture of you guys.”

Yeonjun stands directly next to you so he can peer at the picture and he smiles, “That was after my dance showcase last year, it’s a good memory.”

“That’s sweet,” you pause but look up at him, “I wish I could go to one of your showcases.”

He looks back at you and gives you a smug smile, “Do you?” He asks and he places an arm around your waist, his thumb drawing invisible circles.

“Mmm hmm,” you answer while nodding your head.

“Well maybe it’s a good thing you can’t,” he continues and it brings a frown to your face, “because if you were there I would be so nervous. I would definitely mess up.”

Your frown dissipates, “Shut up,” you lightly chuckle and shove his arm lightly.

“It’s true,” he says while lightly pinching your side to tickle you.

You let out a laugh immediately jerk away, but his grip on you tightens so you bring your own hands to his sides and pinch. Nothing.

“You’re not ticklish??” you exclaim out of shock.

“I am, but not there,” he says with a chuckle at your disappointment.

“Then where? Your stinky feet?” you start moving your hands to different parts of his body, testing his reaction. Nothing from his neck, even his armpits.

“Hey! My feet are not stinky!” He says while delivering another pinch to your sides. This one was harder so you let out a shriek and push him off.

“So it is your feet!” you let out a heavy laugh.

“I’m not telling! You’re just gonna have to find out on your own,” he says with a wink.

You try to act like that didn’t send your tummy in knots by rolling your eyes, “Okayyy.”

He pauses for a moment, “Do you want to join them back downstairs?” he asks genuinely.

You think for a moment. As much as you would love to have this moment last forever, you think about how isolating yourself in a room that wasn’t yours, at a party you were barely invited to, in someone’s house you barely know, might be a little awkward. You also don’t know when Soobin will want to go home.

You sigh, “Yeah we probably should.”

“It’s okay, you can find my tickle spot another time,” he says, making you both laugh as he motions you towards the door. He follows you to the door but before you could leave, he grabs your hips and turns you around lightly pressing you against the wall. Before you know it he presses his mouth against yours, lightly moving his lips across your own. You kiss him back then he pulls away, but not too far.

“Just one more time,” he says against your lips and presses one final kiss into you. You do your best to savor it, bringing your hand to his cheek. Focusing your attention on his lips, you don’t notice when he brings his hand up your side again, giving you another firm pinch.

You immediately pull away, “Heyyy,” you whine a tiny bit trying to move away from him, pretending to be upset.

“Ah I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he says with a smirk and grabs your hand, “c’mere.” He pulls you close, and gives you a quick apologetic kiss.

“Okay let's go before they start getting suspicious,” he says while leading you out of the room.

“I think it’s too late for that,” you say in an amused tone. You both walk into the living room to see even more people missing. Now it was just Soobin, Taehyun, Beomgyu (asleep with his head in Taehyun’s lap), Wooyoung, Ryujin and San. You can see Ryujin eyeing the shirt you were wearing with a suspicious look. You were right.

“*Is that my shirt?*” Wooyoung directs the question to Yeonjun.

“Yeah, Y/Ns got wet so I gave her mine, is that okay?”, he answers politely.

“*Yeah that’s fine*,” Wooyoung chuckles, and he also has a suspicious look on his face.

You both sit down in the circle, Yeonjun on one side and Soobin on the other. The conversation moves on to something else, with less people and the music lower this time so you are able to catch certain words and phrases. But you begin to realize that Yeonjun is responding to all of their comments and questions in English. Your heart constricts realizing that he’s doing that so you feel more involved, unlike earlier. You even remember him answering Ryujin’s teasing earlier in English too. You wish you could kiss him right then and there. The conversation goes on for a while after that, Yeonjun directing some of the questions to you too. Before you know it you let out a big yawn. Yeonjun takes notice of it and asks if you’re sleepy. You don’t lie and say yes. It worked out because Soobin wanted to go home soon anyway. You tell everyone goodnight, and thank Wooyoung for the party. Beomgyu was still asleep but you tell Taehyun to tell him goodbye for you. The three of you make your way out onto the porch before Soobin stops and pats his pockets.

“Forgot my phone, I’ll be back,” he says quickly and heads back inside. You know he’s lying because you saw him check his phone right before you left. You know he’s leaving you and Yeonjun alone on purpose. You lightly laugh at the behavior.

“I had a good time tonight Junnie,” you tell him with a smile on your face.

“I did too,” he said sweetly while grabbing one of your hands, “I want to see you again, soon.”

“You will, I promise,” you say while slipping your pinky into his. You see movement out of the corner of your eye, “They’re looking through the window, aren’t they?” You say with a dry laugh.

Yeonjun lets out a big sigh and glances over seeing Soobin, Wooyoung and Ryujin staring through the curtains, “Yes. Yes they are.”

Soobin immediately covers his face to “hide”, Ryujin has an amused look on her face and Wooyoung shouts through the window loud enough for both of you to hear, “Kiss!” You assume he says it in English only to further your embarrassment, making sure you know what he was saying.

Yeonjun gives you a questioning look and you just smile back. He puts his hands on your shoulders lightly and guides you backwards until you are hidden behind a pillar on the porch. He then closes the distance and places his hands on either side of your head and gives you a kiss. It was a long one followed by multiple quicker ones. You can hear Soobin shriek, Ryujin scream and Wooyoung whoop and holler. It makes you both laugh against each other’s mouths.

Yeonjun pulls away, “I’ll text you, okay?”

“Okay,” you say with a big smile.

He walks back to the front of the porch, “Okay Soobin, come on," The curtain closes and the front door opens to show Soobin, red in the face. Yeonjun moves to walk back into the house but not before stopping at Soobin, “Goodnight Soobinie,” he says while taking his face in his hands and landing him a big kiss on his cheek. You let out a string of giggles.

Soobin yells and prys himself from Yeonjun who is laughing. Soobin dramatically starts wiping his face, “BYE YEONJUN.”

Soobin takes off down the porch to his car, you turn around and wave goodbye to Yeonjun who returns a sweet smile and waves goodbye. You follow Soobin to his car and get in. You apologize to Soobin about Yeonjun and he just laughs and says, “Yeah, that's Yeonjun.”

It’s not until you’re back in your room and getting ready for bed that reality hits you. You look down and you’re still wearing his shirt. You have flashbacks to your first kiss, the river, Wooyoung’s bedroom. You flop down on your bed and groan into your pillow.

Im fucked im fucked im fucked im fucked

You groan one more time before getting up to go shower off and sleep. And if you pulled Yeonjun’s shirt back on after your shower, no one needs to know. You fall asleep feeling him on your lips and lavender in your nose. ______________________________________________________________________________

You wake up early the next morning, despite going to bed pretty late the previous night. You sit up and stretch thinking about how your throat could benefit from some water. You blink your eyes open and look down, big mistake.

“Oh god,” you say aloud when you recognize the shirt on your body and as the memories of the day before start flooding your thoughts. You flop backwards on the bed and press your hands to your reddening face while you lightly start kicking your bent legs. You calm yourself down while you ponder your current situation. You had known Yeonjun had liked you in more of a romantic way since the day in his tree house, but after last night there was no room for speculation as the memories of his lips on yours and your neck grace your mind. You decide that you don’t feel like hyper-analyzing your life at the moment and choose to get up and get changed instead. You change out of Yeonjun’s shirt into one of your own. You finish getting ready and you realize you still have the scent of lavender in your nose, having slept in his shirt for the entire night.

Great. You make a mental note of making sure you get it back to him.

______________________________________________________________________________

The day was filled with helping with chores around the house with your grandma, and you both are about to start preparing dinner when you feel your phone start to vibrate in your pocket. Your heart skips when you see the caller I.D.

Choi Yeonjun (Marin’s Grandson)

You excuse yourself from the kitchen and take a deep breath before you answer the call on the front porch.

“Hello!” you answer with a nervous smile on your face, not knowing what this call could be about.

“Hi Y/N, how are you?” you can’t see him but you could feel him smiling too.

“I’m good,” you start pacing, “just been helping out my grandma with some chores. What’s up with you?”

“Well, my uncle just told me there's a meteor shower tonight. They don’t happen often here and I thought maybe you would want to come over and watch it,” you hear him nervously chuckle, “to watch it with me.”

Your heart starts doing summersaults, “Uhh yeah I think that would be really cool!” you start picking at your cuticles, a nervous habit you’ve been trying to quit, “But I told my grandma I’d eat dinner with her, so…”

“No no that’s okay!” he reassures you and laughs again, “you can still be a good granddaughter, he said it’s visible between midnight and 2 anyways, I hope that’s okay with you I know it’s late.”

It’s your turn for reassurance, “No that’s okay! That’s fine, I think that would be really fun.”

“Okay awesome, I can pick you up around 11? Is that okay?”

“Yeah that’s perfect,” you stop pacing, “I’ll see you then, Junnie.”

“Yeah, see you then Y/N.”

You hang up the phone and start a mini freakout at the thought of being alone with Yeonjun in such an intimate setting.

This isn’t that much different than the tree house and the river right?? We literally already made out but why does this feel so much more personal???

You don’t have much time to freak out before your grandma is tapping on the window, beckoning you to come help her chop some vegetables. Your grandma gives you knowing glances throughout dinner but never prying for information, as if she is waiting for the right time to start asking questions. Which, in your opinion, is ten times as nerve wracking. The evening goes by relatively quickly and before you know it you’re sitting on your bed checking the time every two minutes, the time slowing suddenly.

10:36…

You think of ways to pass the time but find yourself in front of your mirror, trying to get your hair to cooperate. Pulling you from your thoughts, your phone begins to vibrate.

“Hi!”, you greet him with nervous enthusiasm.

“Good evening Y/N,” he answers you sweetly, “I’m here if you’re ready to go.”

You hop over to your window and peer out the curtain to see Yeonjun’s car in the driveway, lights on with the engine still running.

“Okay, I’ll be down in a second!”

“Okay”, he responds before you hang up and gather your things. You debate taking a jacket, but it’s been so nice out even at night so you decide against it. You make your way down the stairs and through the entry way as quietly as you can, not wanting to wake your grandmother. You know she wouldn’t care about you going out, but you didn’t mention your excursion and you didn’t want her to think her home was being broken into. You also think about how pretending to sneak out makes this a bit more exciting, a bit more-

Romantic?

You groan lightly as you lock the door and make your way to Yeonjun’s car when you see him leaning against his car on the passenger’s side.

“Y/N, hi”, he smiles sweetly at you and takes your hand while opening the door for you, “shall we get going?”

“Yeah, let’s do it!” you smile back as you take a seat in his car. He closes the door and makes his way to the driver's side. The smell of lavender greets you sweetly once more.

______________________________________

If you actually made it this far I am sorry to do this to you.

#kpop #txt #tomorrow x together #ao3 fanfic #fanfiction #fanfic #choi yeonjun #yeonjun fanfic #choi soobin #choi beomgyu #kang taehyun #huening kai #fluff #angst #attempt at humor