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Jisung doesn’t remember the last time that he felt this comfortable at the beach.
It’s been almost two full years since he actually had not only the time, but the confidence to step on the sandy shores again. It feels good under his feet, the warm sun already making him sweat. He can practically hear the water calling him in, but he knows that if he rushes in, he’ll have to deal with the others complaining that he left them to do the hard work while he was galavanting in the water. He would rather not get an ear full before the day can even start.
“Sungie, can you pass me the sunscreen?” Felix asks as she sheds her shirt, revealing her sky blue bikini top that Jisung remembers her asking in the group chat if she should wear. There had been a heated debate between Minho and Hyunjin about if she should wear the bubblegum pink one piece or blue sparkly one that she is currently wearing. Jisung had voted for the blue one, knowing it was the girl’s favorite color and despite the poll in the chat, she would most likely go for that one instead of the one piece.
Clearly, Chan had given her the easiest task, as she always does when they have a beach day. Felix just had to make sure they had a good spot, which wasn’t too hard. It was just on the edge of being too hot today, making the day out almost borderline miserable. That was the best time to be out, in Jisung’s opinion. Less people around and more space for them to claim as their own for the next few hours.
Of course, not everyone is hiding away from the sun, opting to spend the day at the beach just like the six of them. It’s not really crowded, but there are enough people here that it feels reasonably filled with other beach-goers. There’s a few families, a couple of other groups, and some solo people that look more than happy to lay in the shade of the umbrellas that they set up.
The same stupid umbrella that Jisung has been fighting with for at least five minutes.
After he handed Felix the sunscreen, that he pointedly doesn’t watch her have applied by Chan because he knows it’s all thin-veiled foreplay that he doesn’t need to witness, Minho had tasked him with setting up the damn umbrella of all things.
Maybe it was because they know that Jisung struggles with the self-proclaimed “easiest umbrella to set up” and that it claims to only take “10 seconds” and states on the packaging that “even a child can do it”, that he’s been assigned the task. The thing has never worked for him, even when they all take it out on lunches on a weekend and want to spend it in the shade, or when they all go camping on a rare occasion, he can never get it to work correctly.
It’s like a humiliation ritual trying to get the damn thing to work, wrestling it this way and that, grunting when the thing won’t open, getting stuck in the same spot for the fifth time.
“Just give it to me,” Minho finally releases him of his assigned duty, taking it from his already sweating hands and getting to work without any struggle and sets it up with ease.
“I don’t know why you always make me do it, you know it doesn’t like me,” Jisung whines, flopping down in the shade of the umbrella. He was dying in the sun. Maybe he’s being dramatic, but it was really too hot to anything in the direct sun except get in the water, cool off, and then get in the shade and drink and eat whatever Minho and Chan packed in the coolers. He hopes they grabbed a few beers that he can sip on and take a nap after burning some energy in the ocean.
“You getting in?” Minho asks as soon as he gets comfortable in his position on the beach towel. He wonders who’s job that was. Probably Hyunjin, he always does a good job making the most of the space in the shade and strategically placing the towels they brought. Though, they normally never bring enough, having to share one or two among themselves to dry off.
“In a bit,” Jisung mumbles into the towel, stretching just slightly. The warm sun is making him sleepy already and he needs to get up and into the water. He wants to cool off but it seems like a lot of work than it's really worth right now despite his previous desires to jump straight in.
“Are you going shirtless?” Minho tries to say it non-chalently but fails miserably. For good reason too, since Jisung has been debating it, internally and externally, in the group chat for the last week about if he should or not.
Jisung always tells his friends that he knew he was a boy before he knew his multiplication chart. He can admit, maybe it wasn’t that young, but he knew pretty early that he didn't like the name his parents gave him, he didn’t like being called a girl, he didn’t like anyone thinking he was a girl in the slightest way. All the things that he thought were ‘girly’ made him feel gross in ways that he didn’t know how to fix.
He liked other girls, he knew that at least. He liked when other girls did what they liked, when they were ‘girly’ and they were themselves but anytime it was him, it just freaked him out.
His family tried, really, they did, to make his home as safe for him possible. They tried to make him as comfortable as they could, even if he didn’t know it then. His mom threw a fit to his principle in middle school that tried to make him wear the skirt that made his skin crawl and cry until he couldn’t see anymore. She always used to tell him that hurt her heart to see her baby wake up with puffy eyes and a swollen face from crying so much because they had to wear something that upset them so much. She would cry with him, only for a few minutes, before walking him to school herself and demanding that he be allowed to wear what he wanted. He had always wondered how she knew and how it clicked for her long before it did for him.
His dad was different in his approach, always inviting him to do anything with him that he hadn’t before. He doesn’t know how many times they went fishing, something that Jisung had no interest in, just because. Many times they caught nothing and Jisung would end up falling asleep, but it would leave his chest feeling light. His dad would just talk to him, most of the time never expecting an answer and just liked to fill the silence that the lake provided. He can’t count how many times he woke up leaning against his dad’s shoulder, woken up only because his dad wanted him to see the sunset. It would be when the sun was just on the horizon that his dad would tell him, every time, that he loved him and he was proud of him and he and his brother were the best kids he could ask for. He knows, now 25 and years removed from his last fishing excursion with his dad, that was the only way his dad knew how to tell him it was okay for him to be different.
While his brother had never said he knew like his parents, he must have caught the signs at some point. Maybe they talked to him when Jisung wasn’t around or maybe he just knew, instinctively, that he had a little brother and never had a little sister. It’s hard for him to know but he still remembers the first time he tried to cut his own hair, kitchen scissors in hand and a dream in his mind about feeling more comfortable and chopping off the long hair his grandmother had spent the better part of an hour complimenting. He was saved from having choppy hair by him, since he caught him when he had only cut off a few inches and was too scared to continue. He dragged Jisung to his own hair stylist, asking her to cut his siblings hair as short as Jisung wanted. The glee he felt when he saw himself with short hair for the first time at 15 was indescribable.
It never escaped Jisung that none of them never used gendered terms when they were talking to him. Somehow, the name they gave him, his birth name, became ‘baby’, ‘honey’, ‘sweetheart,’ and then eventually his favorite, ‘our baby boy’.
When he was 16 he told them about the feelings that had been building up for so long. That he didn’t think he was a girl and he hadn’t for so long. He told them that he wanted them to call him boy, he wanted to go by Jisung instead, he wanted to try hormones, anything and everything to make himself feel better in his body.
His mother had cried, happy to help him in way that she could. Told him that she would help as much as she could, even offered to help him start looking for doctors right away to help with his transition. His dad had just smiled, telling him that he was happy to have two sons and that he loved him. His brother hadn’t said much, just told him that he was there for him and that if anyone said anything to help, to tell him.
Their acceptance hadn’t been shocking to him, but it still scared him to tell them. Change, he found, was terrifying to him. And in a way, he had been scared they would change how they treated him now that they knew and the secret was out.
Instead, they still loved him all the same. Still cared for him the way that he always knew.
Hormones had been scary at first, even if he knew what to expect. The doctors had explained it thoroughly, as well as the therapist he had to see. He knew that his body would change again and he had been excited, even if it scared him. To see himself in a body that he didn’t know was terrifying and yet still, his whole family had been there for the first injection of testosterone. They had celebrated with a small family meal that even his brother had attended despite his busy schedule.
They loved him through the changes, through the hardships of accepting a body that he didn’t understand yet but one that he was beginning to love. One that he could take care of because he started to understand that this was the body he was meant to have.
Their love was found in the way that his mother proudly said her two boys were on scholarships in college, in the way that his father had taken him to get his name legally changed before he graduated college so his degree could say his name, and in the way that his brother would talk about his annoying little brother wanting to hang out with him. They loved him, through the ups and downs, and he doesn’t know how he’ll ever repay that love. Or if he can. He doesn’t think they expect it to be repaid, but he does his best to try. He will forever.
He was 21 when he started to consider top surgery.
His mother had told him, numerous times in fact, that they would help him with it if he ever wanted to do it. It had been in the back of his mind for some time. While it would make him more comfortable, it had never been the most pressing thing in his life. He had been blessed, or maybe cursed to some people, with a small chest. He had never had anything to really bind back, a simple binder normally did the trick.
It was when he was out of college that he started to think about it. He had time now and more than that, the money to afford it. He hadn’t wanted to ask for the money he would need while being gone from work for so long. Beyond that, if he’s honest, it scared him.
He had never undergone surgery, never even thought of it as a possibility and instead of thinking too much about it, he was happy to keep binding. He knew that he passed without the surgery, his binding kept his chest very flat and secure and no one who didn’t know he was trans even questioned it.
When he hit 22 and got more secure in his job as a semi-successful producer for a mildly successful record label that he worked at with his two friends, it seemed more achievable to actually get the surgery done though. He weighed his options then, wondering if it would be worth it. He knows he would spend less time in the morning making sure his binder was secure and not too tight and he wouldn’t have to take it off mid-recording session because he’s had it on too long.
More than anything, he knows he could actually stand to see himself shirtless and not want to cringe at the sight.
Even if his chest was small, it was still there. Despite his best efforts to ignore the way that his chest looked when he was naked and bare, it was still glaringly obvious, at least to him, that his chest was fuller than he really liked. He had always envisioned it flat and less obvious. When he had gotten a tattoo on his chest, he thought maybe it would make him feel better, maybe he would like the area more. All it did was make him long for a chest flatter than what he had.
So, he took the plunge, even if it was scary. Even if change scared him and surgery terrified him, he knew it would make him happier in the body that he loves now more than anything else.
It had been last summer he did it, only having a small lull in work and being able to take the full two weeks off to have the surgery and rest enough to make both Chan and Changbin happy and allow him to return to work despite him having a mostly computer job. It wasn’t hard on his body to sit and finish up songs but they both insisted he just needed to rest.
Minho had been gracious enough to watch over him after the surgery since they still lived together. He had only complained every now and then about Jisung’s whining, but made sure he had his meds on time and ate on a normal schedule. He never made him feel like a burden for anything and was the first one to see Jisung’s new chest, despite how much the sight of stitches and scars made him queasy.
Last year, all of his beach trips had been spent in the shade watching over everyone’s stuff while they ran around the beach and in the ocean. He had been forced to stay out of the water, at least until his chest completely healed. The doctor had said to give it at least six months and by then, summer would be over and fall would be in full swing and he had missed his chance to enjoy the summer the way he always loved to. He knew that this summer would be better than any other year he’s experienced since he’s had to wait so long.
He’s right, he’s already enjoying it and he hasn’t even got into the water. And that’s only because he’s still debating on taking off his stupid shirt.
“I don’t know,” Jisung sighs, looking sadly at the ocean water where Felix and Chan are already splashing around.
“No one is going to say anything, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Minho tells him for who knows how many times, “And if they do, send them to Chan. I’m too busy to fight today,” He groans as he lays down on his towel.
It gets a laugh out of Jisung, despite everything. He knows, logically, no one is going to be looking at his chest, of course they aren’t. Why would they? It’s a beach, everyone is in some form of half-naked and no one is looking at them. Okay, well, some people are looking at Felix, but that’s because she has bikini on and might be the prettiest girl at this beach-
“Um, pardon?” A smooth voice interrupts his musings, making him look up. The sun is blinding and he can’t see who is talking to them but they continue despite neither of them saying anything, “Me and my friend are having troubles setting up our umbrella, can you guys help?”
Jisung would normally just let Minho handle social interactions on the beach since he would like to just relax but for some reason, he feels his interest peak. Maybe it’s because he wants to see who else is having trouble with pesky umbrellas and maybe they can commiserate over their shared troubles.
When he looks up, he’s meet with two women staring down at the pair of them. One of them, the one that spoke, sports a ballcap is covered almost head to toe in baggy clothes. Her hair just brushes her shoulders and looks like it’s been dyed a soft brown that suits her.
Behind her though is quite possibly the prettiest woman he’s ever seen in his life.
He’s not over-exaggerating either, at least not in his mind. Her hair is just to her shoulders, silky looking and has been dyed a soft orange that almost shines in the sunlight. She’s beautiful, extremely so. Her lips are tinted, just a little, a gorgeous red and her cheeks are flushed from the heat. The almost fox-like appearance she has about her makes Jisung dizzy with how pretty she is.
Not to mention, her smile is to die for. Her eyes scrunch up sweetly and Jisung wants to be the reason for that smile. He wants to be the one that smile is directed to. Instead, she seems to be looking only at Minho.
He can’t have that. In fact, he won’t stand for it.
“Of course we can help you ladies,” Jisung declares, standing up. He seems to startle the both of them by the way they both jump back at the sudden movement. Perhaps he could have done that a little smoother but he is only a man.
“Oh,” The girl in front looks surprised, eyeing Jisung wearily, “Um, we kinda meant your friend.”
She points at Minho who looks mostly indifferent to the whole thing. He is used to people asking for help and despite how much he complains about helping, he still always does. People never ask Jisung for help, which is changing right now because he is helping with their damn umbrella if it’s the last thing he does.
“Are you two here alone?” Minho asks instead of getting up.
The girl in front seems apprehensive to answer and yeah, Jisung does get that. Two guys asking if you are at the beach alone does seem a little sketchy and he wants to reprimand Minho for that but instead, the most beautiful woman in the world speaks.
“Yeah, we just got here,” She answers, pointing towards the kind of set up area that the pair have set up. They haven’t even set out their towels yet. “We’re here on vacation,” She continues, smile never leaving her lips and English just slightly accented and just a slight lisp. She has such a pretty voice, just high enough and soft enough to sound like a siren's call. He wonders what she sounds like signing.
“From where?” Minho asks, still not moving.
“None of your business,” The girl in front answers, glaring at the pair before turning to her friend. “Let’s go ask someone else, they aren’t going to help. Just a bunch of creeps. Told you they were going to be weird about it,” She scoffs under her breath in Korean and turns to tug the other girl away. Instantly, Minho and Jisung share a panicked look.
“Wait!” Jisung calls out in Korean himself, standing quickly. So quickly in fact that he ends up not getting his feets under him in time and falls flat on his face, straight into the sand.
Now, Jisung knows that he is a bit of a mess around pretty girls. He’s never really been the most smooth when it comes to flirting and trying to be the suave man that he knows he could be but even this is a new low for him. He’s never fallen over himself trying to impress a girl but he guess it could have been worse. He could have died in front of her or something and he thinks that’s arguably worse than just tripping, so really, this is the best case scenario for everyone involved. Even the girl who called them creeps is probably getting some joy out of this. Just wins all around.
“Oh my god!” That beautiful voice calls out as soon as his face hits the sand, much to his actual surprise, “Are you okay?” Her voice is suddenly a lot closer and he feels a soft hand on his back. Did he actually die and this is heaven?
“He’s fine,” Minho and the other woman say at the same time. It almost creeps him out how similar they sound but he’s too busy thinking about how this pretty girl is all worried about him.
“I’m better now,” Jisung smiles, a little obnoxiously probably, as he sits up, “An angel just helped me up, it can’t get much better than that,” It’s a big swing, he’s aiming for the fences. He knows that it’s not his best work, or if he even has a ‘best work’ to begin with, but it makes her smile, just slightly. He thinks he hears a gagging noise behind him that he ignores.
“You fell pretty hard, you sure you’re okay?” She asks, frowning just slightly.
“That was nothing. I think I’m falling harder for you instead.” He winks exaggeratedly, making a show of it and he knows he’s laying it on thick but he really cannot fumble his chance with the prettiest woman in the world.
“Do you have a concussion or something?” Minho asks, and Jisung glances at him for a beat.
“Don’t you have an umbrella to go set up or something?” Jisung asks.
He’s not even remotely surprised by the headlock that he finds himself in only two seconds after the words leave his mouth.
.
“Are you sure it’s okay for us to set up so close to you guys? We don’t want to intrude,”Jeongin worries for the fifth time since they started dragging their things to where their own little camp.
She had introduced herself and her friend after Minho had kindly let him live another day. He was so kind like that. Her and her friend, Kim Seungmin, are currently on a vacation and kind of work trip. Seungmin was apparently a photographer, a semi-well known one, that had been booked to photograph a beach wedding in a week. Jeongin was her acting manager until she could find someone to replace her old one and had tagged along to the two week, all expense paid trip by the bride. The wedding was in three days and the pair of them wanted to get all of their tourist visits done before the hustle and bustle of the wedding day. Which included coming to the beach severely underprepared.
Neither of them even had thought to bring water, which Minho had scolded them for when he snuck a peek in their cooler, much to Seungmin’s annoyance and Jisung’s embarrassment. Jeongin had only laughed at the scolding, which Jisung found endearing.
“You’re not intruding, not at all,” Jisung insists, “We have plenty of room and enough snacks and food for you both.”
“If you say so…” Jeongin still looks unsure as they set up their things. Jisung smiles happily as he eyes the umbrella. Thankfully, it’s not the same model that they have and is reasonably smaller and he thinks he can manage it just fine. He is saved from Minho’s watchful eye as he struggles, the older man bickering with Seungmin about something despite having just met her. They sound like an old married couple already. It’s a little annoying but he’s glad that Minho seems to have finally met someone willing to argue with him about whatever nonsense is on his mind.
The four of them have stopped talking in english after Seungmin had admitted, reluctantly, that they were both from Seoul. Well, technically Jeongin was from Busan but she lived with Seungmin for now while between jobs and making sure that Seungmin had jobs.
He wants to talk to her forever but he decides that the best way to impress her is to get the stupid fucking umbrella up that he’s already fighting with.
“So you’re both here for another week?” Jisung asks as he forces the stupid umberlla to bend to his will, opening with more ease than their own. Jeongin looks pleasantly surprised by it and even if it hurts his ego, just a little, he’s happy to see her smile.
“Yep,” Jeongin nods, sitting and watching Jisung like it’s the most interesting thing in the world. He might have rolled up his sleeves, just a little, to show off all the hard work he’s been putting in the gym but that’s neither here nor there. He knows his has good looking arms, strong and muscled up, and he is happy to show them off. After he started T, he was able to put on muscles so much better than before and he’s been happy to capitalize on that.
“Well,” Jisung smiles brightly at her as he plants the umbrella into the sand, making sure it won’t blow away by an errant gust. It’s happened to him before. He’ll never forget ‘The Great Umbrella Escape of 2023’. He doesn’t think his friends will either. “If you two need a guide around the city, I’m more than happy to help-”
“We’re fine,” Seungmin interrupts him, laying down on her towel and closing her eyes.
“Speak for yourself unnie,” Jeongin grumbles, sitting beside her on her own towel. “I would love a guide around the city. Unnie is going to be so busy the next two days with wedding prep, I won’t have anything to do.”
“I’m the perfect guide,” Jisung promises, “The only issue is I might get lost…”
“Oh?” Jeongin prompts.
“I might get lost in your beautiful eyes and never want to get out,” It’s cringe, even by his standards but it startles a laugh out of Jeongin who seems to be eating it up.
“Boo,” she says but her laughter tells a different story. The shy way that she tucks her hair behind her ear tells him everything he needs to know. “That’s been the worst one yet!”
“Seungmin, I’m getting in the water, I can’t listen to any more of this,” Minho says from behind them. It seems like they have formed some kind of trauma bond from their joint cringing of Jisung’s flirting and honestly, Jisung can’t blame them. He’s not really showing his good side today.
“I’m joining you,” She says, quickly taking off both her bottoms and shirt. The top she wears is tight on top and covers her shoulder and most of her arms while the bottoms are form fitting spandex that look just a little longer than really needed to cover everything. Minho has his own shirt still on and Jisung knows he won’t go in farther than his knees but he wonders if Seungmin will be able to coax him a little deeper. Unlikely, he’s stubborn, but Seungmin seems worse.
“You getting in?” Jisung wonders as they watch the others greet Seungmin who hasn’t left Minho’s side yet.
“Probably not,” Jeongin sighs, “I’m still a little leary to get into water yet after um… I had surgery. So I don’t really want to risk it.”
“I don’t blame you,” Jisung nods sagely. He knows a thing or two about sitting out because of surgery incisions. “I had to babysit everyone’s stuff last year because I stupidly thought surgery in the middle of summer was the best idea ever.”
“Oh?” Jeongin raises an eyebrow, “What did you have surgery on? Are you doing okay now?”
Jisung knows that he can just muddle his way through this, if he really wanted to. He's done it plently of times before. He doesn’t have to be honest to a random woman he just met today, even if she is beautiful and very sweet. He knows that very well, he doesn’t have to tell her anything that he doesn’t want to. It’s his life, it’s no one else’s business what he did with his body and what he’s been through.
The issue is, he doesn’t want to lie.
Jeongin is really sweet, extremely so, and she laughs at all of his jokes and poor attempts at flirting even when Jisung himself knows they are cringe at best and difficult to sit through at worst. She’s an angel and she really doesn’t seem like she would suddenly act different if she knew he was trans. She doesn’t seem like the type. He doesn’t care if this goes no where, he kind of just wants to keep her as a friend if anything else.
“I um…” Jisung starts, hesitating, before barreling forward, “I had top surgery. Everything went well, but just um… I couldn't go swimming all summer.” He says it all in a rush, not even sure if he made sense or the words were in the right order. Something about admitting it out loud always gets him nervous.
“Oh,” Jeongin hums, nodding slightly. “That’s awesome. I had a friend who did that a while back. Sucks that you couldn’t swim. I um…” She hesitates before continuing, looking at her hands awkwardly, “I would like to get something like that done. Estrogen only does so much, you know?”
Jisung’s brain takes a minute to reboot before the words register in his head. While no, he doesn’t understand, he understands the principle of it.
“Yeah, no, I completely get that!” He rushes to say, hoping to wipe that unsure look off her face. She had taken a chance and been just as vulnerable as Jisung had been and he will not let that go to waste. “It took like four months for my voice to actually start changing on T, but Minho hyung said it was super obvious after two months. I don’t think I noticed a huge change until 6 though,” He rambles, “And like, I think I noticed a change in my muscles after a couple of months but honestly, I work out a ton so, that probably helps too. So.” He stops lamely, realizing now it just sounds like bragging.
It fully is, he’s still trying to impress her, so like, he’s allowed a little bragging.
“I can tell,” Jeongin laughs, smile playing on her pretty lips.
Feeling bold, he quickly rolls up on of sleeves and flexes. He would never dream of doing this normally and he feels like he might die of embarrassment right now but it’s worth it to see the full eye-smile blooming on Jeongin’s face. “Wanna feel? First touch is free.”
“What about the second touch? How much is that going to run me?” She giggles.
“A kiss on the cheek,” Jisung responds shamelessly, grinning when Jeongin bursts into laughter at the sheer ridiculousness of it, “But there is a special running today. Prettiest girl on the beach can touch them for free all day.”
“Is that so?” She scoffs as her laughter subsides, “What if she wants to pay?”
Jisung feels his face start to get hot and he knows that he can’t blame the sun for it this time. “Oh, yeah-um, I’m sure we can work out a deal-“
“You’re cute when you blush,” Jeongin comments, voice sweet. Jisung doesn’t even get a chance to respond before a gentle hand wraps around his bicep, squeezing just enough to make him feel a surge of pride at the way they barely give. He silently thanks Changbin and Chan for always dragging him to the gym and making him hit PRs that he never even dreamed of. All of that work, sweat, tears, and numerous curses hurled at the pair of them finally paying off.
“I’m not blushing,” Jisung knows that is a bold face lie, but he has some self-respect. He’s not getting flustered over some silly comment.
“Wow, you weren’t lying, your muscles are great.” Okay, now he’s blushing, he’s very sure of that now. She squeezes it one more time before letting her hand trail down, never losing contact. Thankfully, she doesn’t reach his wrist and have even the slightest chance of her feeling his pulse. He’s sure it’s probably close to 200 bpm by now. Maybe more. “I can see why you charge now. Would it be okay if I prepaid?”
Definitely more.
Jisung can see the blush dusting her cheeks and finds it incredibly endearing. It’s so unbelievably cute, he can hardly stand it.
“Oh my god, that was awful, I’m so sorry,“ Jeongin mumbles out, her hand leaving his arm. He can still feel the touch, even now. “That was so cringe, I don’t know why I said that.”
“It wasn’t cringe!” Jisung reassures her quickly. “Even if it was, I was saying cringe stuff this whole time! I liked it!”
Jeongin still groans, putting her head in her hands. “Shut up,” She squeaks out between her hands.
God, he’s already whipped if he finds even that cute.
“Anyways,” she quickly says, lifting her head up and looking at him, still embarrassed. “Um… It's really cool that it changed so much. Estrogen didn’t really change mine. I’ve been doing vocal training and stuff. Unnie used to do vocal in college and teaches me some stuff. Not sure if it’s helping but she said it is.”
Jisung has no idea nor desire to know what Jeongin’s voice used to sound like. He could not care less, mainly because her voice sounds like an angel from heaven. Or maybe a siren? Whatever mythical creature she wants to be, that’s what she sounds like and is blessing Jisung’s ears with her wonderful voice. He wonders if she would be willing to come to the studio before they leave.
“You have a pretty voice,” Jisung tells her honestly.
“Thank you,” She shyly reaches up to play with her ear that has steadily turned red. “Did you want to get into the water?”
“Naw, I’m happy right here,” he assures he as he waves it off. Jisung had, he really did, but he’s finding himself much happier right now next to Jeongin. In fact, he would be happy to just stay here until they need to leave. Anything so that he can keep talking to her.
And maybe get her number, but that’s a problem for future Jisung.
.
It’s later, much later, when the sun is going down and Jisung thinks he might be sun drunk, that he thinks Jeongin might be his soulmate. Well, okay, he’s jumping the gun. It’s not that serious yet.
Maybe something closer to his first ever ‘love at first sight’. That he wants to spend the rest of his life with and would marry on the beach if he could. That’s more like it.
Jeongin is not only the prettiest woman he’s ever met, but extremely funny and silly and just unbelievably cute. He could tell that the others had agreed, just based on their first meeting. From the way that she shyly introduced herself to how she greeted everyone, he knew instantly that all of them were just as smitten, if not more, as he was when he met her. Maybe it’s natural cuteness, maybe it’s just how she smiles, but he just felt the overwhelming urge to want to be near her the whole time.
He felt a little like a pathetic puppy, sitting next to her the whole time. He just didn’t want to her to feel left out and so he stuck by her side. He had even endured the teasing that Minho and Chan had subjugated him to when Seungmin and Jeongin had went to the bathroom together. The pair had only stopped when the girls returned with an armful of ice cream as a thank you for helping them out.
It hadn’t been necessary, since for all the teasing that Minho seems to have put Seungmin through, they were hitting it off. Kinda. Minho has never been able to flirt like a normal human being and Seungmin seemed indifferent to the constant teasing he was putting her through. Though the smile on her lips had told a different story, so he does think it's safe to say she doesn't hate it.
“Hey, um…” Jeongin starts, interrupting his rambling thoughts, pausing as she digs out her phone, “I really did want to know more about the area. Unnie is going to be gone all day tomorrow and I’m going to be in the rental bored so…”
“I’m free tomorrow!” He was not, in fact, free at all tomorrow. They had three people coming in tomorrow to use their studio. Usually pretty easy money, they just have to set up the equipment and do some mixing but it’s normally harder on the ears than it is on the mind. More than anything, it’s just a time burn. A single session can run them hours, they normally only allow 3 hour sessions for that reason alone. That and there is only such much hooting and hollering that Jisung can handle listening to from some random soundcloud artist.
All of that aside, he is most decidedly not free. He is on mixing duty tomorrow, his least favorite, and is supposed to be working on his own stuff after and in between. He’s hooked up from dawn to dusk.
But he’ll be damned if he misses the opportunity to spend the day with Jeongin.
Chan and Changbin owe him anyway. He’s done so much for the both of them, they can cover for him one day. And besides, he’s positive they will understand and not want to kill him for ditching work to hang out with Jeongin. The amount of times he’s covered for Chan because she was with Felix or for Changbin because he has to ‘take Hyunjin out or they’ll dump me for real this time’ is in the double digits.
So they can cover for him this once. And if not, then he’s still going, he doesn’t care.
It’s rare that he’s ever met someone that he clicks with so quickly. It helps, just a little bit, that Jeongin gets him. That she’s like him in more ways than he thinks either of them realizes. He’s not presumptuous enough to call tomorrow a date, but he would like to. He’s never really felt like this towards anyone before, this instant connection that just makes him feel so seen.
It should be embarrassing, and maybe it is just a little, but more than anything, it feels freeing.
After they exchange numbers, and Jisung has put an appropriate amount of emojis by his name so she has no chance of missing it, Jeongin looks at him, almost as if she’s reluctant to go as she shuffles in place.
“You wouldn’t mind if we stopped at a few places I already have in mind?” Jeongin asks as she pockets her phone.
“We can stop anywhere. I’m yours for the day,” Jisung grins cheekily. Though he’s sure it looks more greasy than he really wants it to. “And the rest of our lives if you want.”
“Gross,” Jeongin groans but still smiles at the line. “Anyways, it’s just a few places that Unnie wanted me to look at. She’s thinking about moving the business here and wanted me to scope out the area.”
“She’s thinking about moving to Australia?” Jisung can get that, honestly.
“Eventually. She’s still working on it,” She sighs, “Kind of sucks, I like being her manager.”
“You could move with her,” Jisung reminds her quickly. The idea of Jeongin staying permanently already has him more excited for tomorrow. He’s going to show her every empty studio that Seungmin could use if it means that Jeongin would stay here forever.
I’m really getting ahead of myself, he thinks silently. They haven’t gone on their first date yet, he has got to chill the fuck out.
“Maybe,” Jeongin shrugs, “I guess it wouldn’t be so bad if I moved here with Unnie. And had a handsome man showing me around the city. I get lost really easy, so you would have to be with me a lot.”
“Promise?” He wiggles his eyebrows.
“Oh god,” Jeongin groans, “Do you ever turn it off?”
“The better question is-“
“Jeongin, let’s go!” Seungmin screams across the beach, cutting off Jisung abruptly. Probably for the best, he is extremely out of his mind right now between the extreme heat an the 4 beers he ended up drinking with Jeongin at some point.
“I better head out,” Jeongin smiles sweetly, readjusting her bag once more, “Tomorrow at 10?” Jisung can only nod, a little dumbly, lost momentarily by that pretty smile. “See you tomorrow-“
“Jeongin! Come on!”
“Coming! Give me a fucking second!” Jeongin screams back, her voice cracking just a little. It’s unbelievably cute the way that it squeaks and he is undeniably smitten by it. “See you tomorrow.” She says, leaning in just enough to give Jisung a kiss on the cheek. It’s nothing more than a peck, but it’s enough to have his brain melt out of his ears and his face go hot. “Sorry, I just wanted to make sure I prepaid.”
It’s said so casually and before he can respond, she’s rushing off to go to Seungmin’s waiting car, yelling at her about something that his mind can’t comprehend. He doesn’t think he has the mental capacity to understand anything right now.
Tomorrow, he says to himself in his brain as if that will get it back online. Tomorrow, and then hopefully, the rest of their lives.
“So uh,” Chan says behind him. He turns around to see her and Changbin, arms crossed and leaning against Hyunjin’s beat up jeep, “What’s all this talk about you meeting her when we have work?”