Lake (memories)
It (does)n’t happen - intermediate -
“Hyung, hyung!” Minho squeaked, running closer to the tiny lake.
Jinki followed faster after his younger friend, smile wide until Minho pulled his top off while he stumbled to a stop at the side of the water. Next his shorts were coming off. “Minho-yah!”
“Hm?” Minho kicked his shorts off, giving Jinki a confused glance.
“I know it’s hot and all, but..”
“I’m going to swim.” Minho smiled widely as he explained, quickly pulling down his underwear and kicking it off. “If my close are all wet I’ll get in trouble.”
“Uh..” Jinki looked around, hoping there weren’t other people around, having a little more sense at thirteen than a little kid. He turned back when there was splashing to find his friend stumbling around into the water.
“Cooold!” Minho squeaked, hopping in only thigh-high water.
Jinki wrinkled his nose and crossed his arms, feeling smart since he knew this would happen. “I could have told you-” Jinki stopped, eyes widening when Minho flopped his whole body into the lake, just a small bottom visible until everything was underwater.
Minho popped back out in seconds, voice cracking with a shiver, “It’s.. fun.” He rubbed his hand over his short, dark hair, flicking water all over.
Jinki stepped closer, crouching near the water.
Minho splashed at Jinki, smiling with laughter. “Come on, come on!”
Jinki fiddled with the hem of his shirt, looking around again, because if some girl where to see him like this.. “Okay..” he mumbled, moving quickly to get and in the water.
Minho laughed way too loudly while Jinki twitched his way into the cold water, a hand shooting up to point. Jinki fumed, not sure how he could be talked into this bad idea.
Once his body was hidden by the water, Jinki spoke with slight shivers. “What if girls see us?”
Minho moved around, swimming freely. “So? Maybe they’ll want to swim too.”
Jinki sunk further under the water, face heating. “You don’t get it yet..”
“You and my brother are too weird around girls now.” Minho wrinkled his nose, showing disgust, “Who cares. As long as they can kick a ball with me..”
Jinki rolled his eyes, causing Minho to trail off. “You can’t say stuff like that about girls.. especially pretty ones.”
“If she wants to play soccer with me, then I like her.” Minho nodded.
Jinki swished around the water, really wondering why his best friend, which he didn’t want to acknowledge that fact alone, was so much younger. He also wondered how long it would take for him to catch up.
“I’ll find you a girlfriend if you want one.”
Jinki raised a brow, even more confused now. But his curiosity perked at the mention of a girl. “How?”
Minho shrugged hard enough to splash water around them. “I don’t know, but if you want one I’ll get you one. Like a present, ‘cause you’re my friend.” Minho laughed and uselessly added, “I like presents.”
“I don’t think it works like that.”
“Hm? Why not?” Minho tilted his head in confusion.
Jinki grew flustered, eyes narrowing and chubby cheeks burning. “It just doesn’t.”
“Yeah..” Minho looked off, face fallen now. “Presents should be surprises.”
Jinki sank fully under the water then and stayed under as long as he could. When he popped back up, Minho had moved away some down the lake.
Minho’s big eyes suddenly sparkled, hand flying out of the water to point. “Hyung, hyung! Look! That tree!”
Jinki turned to look only to groan as Minho swam for land. “Hey!”
“I’m gonna jump from it.” Minho sounded far too excited for something that looked dangerous. He stumbled over the hard ground, body dripping wet as he hurried for the tree.
Jinki moved down closer to the tree, cringing while his eleven-year-old friend climbed the big tree with a small body and big ‘sense of adventure’. It turned into a struggle - wet, body not helping matters. “What if you get hurt!” Jinki shouted from the lake.
Minho grunted, squeaky voice cracking, “I won’t get hurt.”
Minho finally made it to the thick branch dangling over the water, only dirty with a few scrapes. He smiled wide though, his excite almost causing Jinki to be excited too. No, Jinki was worried because if his friend hurt himself like in the past.. Jinki slowly moved for land, in case he had to quickly dress and get help.
“Hyung, watch. Watch.” Minho wobbled while he tried to crouch on the branch. He looked ready to give a good kickoff, but he lost his footing first and fell to the lake gracelessly with a shout.
Jinki winced, frozen in his spot. He waited to see if Minho would come up smiling or crying. Minho shot up in the water, looking quite disorientated as he splashed around. He looked to Jinki, almost a blaming stare. But Minho was quickly smiling and laughing.
“Did you see that?!” He turned back to the tree, staring up at it. “That was so cool.” As he moved for land again he shouted, “I meant to do that too!”
“Sure..” Jinki smiled, glad his friend wasn’t hurt. He waited while Minho climbed the tree again, soon crouching on the same branch.
“You should try it, hyung.”
“Not without swimming shorts.”
Minho scoffed, getting ready to jump again. Jinki grinned, maybe secretly hoping for another funny dive and really wanting to try it too, but not while .
Both froze stiff at Minho’s name being called close by. Jinki heard the faint ‘uh-oh’ from Minho before it was too late for anything else. Minseok stepped near the lake, looking a little upset.
“Hey, why didn’t you tell me you were going..” his eyes were drawn to clothes scattered all over the ground some feet up the lakeside. “Swimming..” Minseok looked back to Jinki, looking confused more than anything. “Are you ?”
Jinki nodded.
“Where’s Minho?”
The loudest ‘Shh!’ possible sounded through the quiet opening of the lake. Jinki pointed up to the tree Minseok was already turning towards.
“Eh..” Minho wobbled, trying to stay balanced on the branch. “Wanna play, hyung?”
“Why are you ?” Minseok’s stern big brother face came out, though not looking too threatening when he was barely a teenager. “Minho-yah, if mom-”
“My clothes aren’t wet, so it’s okay.”
“It’s not okay. What if you get hurt?” Minseok moved closer to the tree, “If I get blamed for this-”
Minho suddenly dropped into the lake again, in some sort of failed ball. He came back up, gasping for air and rubbing his chest, not nearly as excited as his last jump. “Ow..”
Jinki grabbed Minho and yanked the younger with him to get them out of the water. Minseok looked Minho over, tsking at his scrapes before shoving him to go get dressed. Jinki was soon behind they younger until he heard high voices and bushes moving. Jinki darted back behind Minseok. “Don’t let them see me !” He clanged to the older, while Minseok went stiff himself, surely embarrassed being with two boys.
Minho at least had his underwear on again. He looked back to the older boys, eyes wide.
The older boys sidestepped in unison, as if there was a place to hide nearby.
In moments there was screaming and shouts of ‘erts’.
The two older boys ate their dinner quietly that night, faces red. Minho, on the other hand, flailed around with kids nearby as they kicked a ball around the dusty ground, scrapes bandaged and still laughing at what happened though he was old enough to keep his mouth shut around adults, because he was the one in a tree after all.
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I'm not sure how to fully go about posting these drabbles I have (what order and such), so right now I'll just start with a 'flashback'. /flying blind here
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