The heat was oppressive.  Not even 9am and already pushing 90° F, according to the DJ on the radio station playing over the intercom in the locker room.  Jiyong grimaced as he slathered himself in SPF 50; he hated that greasy feeling, but it was better than frying like an egg in the sun.  Today was shaping up to be a scorcher, and Youngbae couldn’t be more thrilled.

“Gonna be a hot one!” he sang out, sauntering into the locker room and pulling off his sleeveless gym shirt.  Youngbae always got to the recreation center an hour before they had to be there, to use the weight room.  Jiyong could barely pull himself out of bed in time for work.

The other lifeguard slung a whistle around his neck after covering himself in sunscreen as well.  “We’re starting a new group of kids today, right?”

“Yeah, the list is on the wall there.”  Jiyong pointed towards the clipboard while adjusting his swim trunks.

Youngbae tapped his chin, eyeing the attendance sheet.  “Looks like four boys and two girls.”  He frowned.  “I think I know these two Lee boys, they live in our building.”

“Brats?”

He shot Jiyong a look that confirmed it was worse than he thought.

“In that case, they’re all yours bro!”

Youngbae began to protest, but his friend quickly reminded him that he owed him one after Jiyong had stayed to clean puke out of the pool last week.

“Fine, I’ll take Daehyun and Jaehyun, and… this Shin kid.  You take the two girls and the Choi boy.”  Youngbae led the way out of the locker room and outside to the empty pool.  The concrete was already too hot for Jiyong’s bare feet, and he darted back inside for his flip-flops.  Youngbae continued to walk about like it was nothing.  Jiyong was admiring how still the surface of the pool was when his friend dived in, disrupting the peaceful water.

“Every damned day…” Jiyong lamented.

~~~

The kids began arriving at 9:30 for their first class in a two week crash course on the finer points of doggie paddles and backstrokes, leaving their parents’ minivans decked out in floaties and snorkels only to have them confiscated at the gate.  The distracting, awkward pool accessories were often more dangerous than helpful.

The Lee brothers were unfortunately first to arrive; seven and eight years old and every bit as annoying as had been warned.  Daehyun made a mad dash for the pool as soon as Jiyong opened the gate, and Youngbae had to nearly tackle him just before he leapt in head first. 

One of the girls, Subin, was next, and if Jiyong hadn’t been assigned her instructor she surely would have picked him from the start.  She batted her eyelashes up at him like a lovesick school girl, trying to impress him with declarations of her maturity and worldliness.  “Mom wanted me to take swimming lessons last summer, while on vacation – In California…” she informed him, and he grinned back in amusement at the little girl’s efforts.

The Shin kid turned out to be closer to a toddler than a kid at all.  He couldn’t have been six, despite what his mother said, and Youngbae scooped him up immediately.  He was a er for babies as it was, and Wooyoung’s goggles and missing front teeth were too much for his soft heart.  “You’re gonna be my special helper this week, how’s that sound?” Youngbae asked him, and the little boy took to him immediately.

Hyojin was the name of the other little girl; a shy, chubby little kid who couldn’t seem to make eye contact with anyone.  Jiyong tried squatting down to her level, to compliment her pink swimsuit and beaded flip-flops, but she only nodded at his words and made her way to the bench where Youngbae was assembling the campers.

“It’s almost 10,” he told Jiyong a few minutes later.  “The Choi kid still isn’t here?”

“Must be a no-show.  Let’s just go ahead and start without him.”

Youngbae agreed, and clapped his hands together.  “Alright, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to your first day of swim camp!”

The two of them recited the basic rules of the pool for the hundredth time that summer.  No running, no horseplay, no anything but walking carefully on the side of the pool.  No food, no toys, no electronics.  No one in the water without asking permission, and no one in the water without a buddy.

“So, everybody pick a partner for the next two weeks.” Jiyong instructed.  “This is very important: your swim buddy is responsible for your safety, and you’re responsible for theirs too.”

Daehyun and Jaehyun picked each other with a high five, and Jiyong wondered if he and Youngbae were as obnoxious at their age.  Subin suggested that Jiyong be her partner, of course, but he redirected her to Hyojin.  Youngbae picked little Wooyoung, whom he’d yet to put down anyway.  That left Jiyong the odd one out if the Choi kid never showed.  But that was fine, there would be plenty for him to do trying to keep the kids in line as it were.

Youngbae was lining the children on the side of the pool when a car pulled up in the parking lot on the other side of the chain-link fence.  Figuring it was his late and last charge, Jiyong headed off to unlock the gate while Youngbae descended the ladder into the shallow end of the pool, demonstrating the safest way to use it.

A tall, dark-haired guy around Jiyong’s age exited the driver’s side, wearing a t-shirt and flowery shorts.  Jiyong waited for the boy he was surely dropping off to get out of the backseat, but he seemed to be alone.  Maybe the kid was sick, and he was stopping by to tell them.  But couldn’t he have just called?  Then again, he could just be mistaken about when the pool opened to the public.

“Hey, I’m sorry man but we don’t open for the day until noon.  We’re doing swimming classes right now.”

“I know,” he responded in a surprisingly deep voice, slinging a towel over one shoulder.  “That’s why I’m here.”

Jiyong blinked, unsure what he meant by that.  “Do you… need to pick someone up?”

The handsome stranger removed his sunglasses, and large brown eyes assessed the shirtless lifeguard blocking the gate.  “No?  My name’s Seunghyun, Choi Seunghyun?  Am I not on the list?  This is the right place isn’t it?”

Jiyong couldn’t stop himself as a loud laugh ripped out of him, collapsing on the rail of the gate.  “You’re Choi Seunghyun?!  Dude, these classes are—well, look!”  He motioned towards the side of the pool, where the group of swimmers, all under the age of 10, sat kicking water at an exasperated Youngbae wading in front of them.

Seunghyun gaped as embarrassment set in.  “You’re kidding me.”

But Jiyong found this all too hilarious to let it go.  He swung open the gate and took him by the wrist, pulling him inside.  “Come on, it's fine!  You’re all beginners, it’s no big deal.”

“No, really, I’m sorry for the mistake, I’ll just go home…” 

But Seunghyun was dragged across the concrete deck nonetheless, towards the locker room where Jiyong told him he could change. 

“My mom signed me up for this," the new recruit struggled to explain.  "She must have thought—“

“Well they won’t give her the deposit back, I can promise you that.”  Jiyong pushed him inside.  “Come back out and join us when you’re ready.”  He started to jog back to Youngbae and the other pupils before catching himself and slowing down.  “Oh, and we have a rule: no shirts in the pool!” he yelled over his shoulder, smirking.