Five: Pool Days

The Second Summer of the Boys

A/N: Hey everyone! How are you liking the story so far? Anything you want to see? Let me know in the comments below! Love, RainbowDonkeys

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day after lunch, the eighteen boys decided to spend the rest of the afternoon at the pool. The sun was shining down particularly hot that day, and they needed a way to cool off. So they went to their cabins, changed into their swimsuits, and headed down to the pool. 

Immediately, Yukhei, Chenle, and Jisung leapt into the pool, splashing all the others relaxing on the pool chairs around them. Jeno and Jaemin followed them in and Jungwoo slid in moments after, beginning a game of water polo with Renjun as referee on a small chair between the two lifeguard's much taller ones. 

"Chenle and Jisung are busy today," Ten commented. The two younger boys were already very involved in their game in the pool, the sound of Renjun loudly whistling with his fingers making Taeyong shake his head. 

"Yeah," Taeyong responded, laying down in his lounge chair and looking over at Ten. Taeyong's face bloomed into a smile as he watched Ten bask in the sun, his big sunglasses covering his eyes but his pretty skin glowing in the light. 

"Mmh," Ten commented sleepily, turning to grin at Taeyong. "Why are you staring at me?"

Taeyong casually shrugged. "You just look pretty; that's all." 

"Don't I always look pretty?" Ten stood up from his lounge chair and Taeyong grinned, watching Ten drop his towel and move to straddle Taeyong in his chair. Taeyong ran his hands up and down the sides of Ten's waist, teasingly snapping the elastic of Ten's swimsuit. 

"You know, we've been so busy making sure Chenle and Jisung are alright that we haven't..."

"I know," Ten said, cutting Taeyong off in a raspy tone. "But now we've got some time. Let's make the most of it." Ten bent down to press his lips to Taeyong in a deep yet relaxed kiss, Taeyong making a soft noise against his mouth and trailing his hand along Ten's spine. 

"And so it begins," Doyoung groaned to Jaehyun with a roll of his eyes, gesturing to Taeyong and Ten. He sighed as Jaehyun laughed at him, the pair squished into one lounge chair. It was kind of uncomfortable, as both of them were quite lanky for their age, but Doyoung didn't mind. Jaehyun was laying on his side and looking over Doyoung's shoulder as Doyoung read his book. 

"What's it about?" Jaehyun asked.

Doyoung showed him the cover. "You've never heard of The Great Gatsby?"

Jaehyun chuckled. "Oh yeah, I've heard of it, but I've never read it." Doyoung made a noise and flipped the noise, and Jaehyun gave him a shy look. 

"What?" Doyoung asked, turning towards his boyfriend. 

"Can you read it to me?" Jaehyun asked, burying his face in the crook of Doyoung's neck. 

"Uh...yeah, alright," Doyoung responded after a few moments, flipping to the front of the book. Jaehyun's bright smile confirmed why Doyoung agreed to do it in the first place, and anyways, he knew for a fact that Jaehyun didn't read enough. 

As soon as he began to read aloud, in a soft voice, Jaehyun cuddled up against his side, their friends seemed to fade. Somehow, the moment seemed perfectly pure yet intimate. Doyoung paused for a moment after the first couple paragraphs, looking down at Jaehyun for some sort of confirmation. 

"This is nice. I like it," Jaehyun said quietly, looking back up at Doyoung. "Keep going." 

Doyoung still froze until Jaehyun kissed his cheek, Doyoung finally smiling back and continuing to flip through the pages. 

~~~~~~~~~~

In the pool, the game of water polo was still going strong. Although Chenle and Jisung weren't the best players, mostly due to their smaller, more childlike stature (puberty hadn't quite hit either of them yet), they were definitely the most enthusiastic. Despite being best friends, their separation onto two different teams lead them into fierce competition. 

Renjun, for his part, was a very enthusiastic referee. He claimed earlier that although he at sports, he was manager and referee for most of the games at his middle school, since he wanted to get out of class and be able to put something on his high school applications. And he did a good job too, fair (for the most part) and actively watching. 

Jeno and Jaemin were both quite good. Although neither of thme were on sports teams at their school, they both liked to play in their own free time (plus Jeno took swimming lessons). Along with Jisung, their team was very clearly in the lead. 

And for that, Jaemin was grateful. He didn't want to humiliate himself by or making his team with his crush lose. Even though he knew Jeno wouldn't care that much, since they were best friends after all, he didn't want to embarrass himself either way. 

"Woo! Good job!" Jeno cheered, loudest of all as Jaemin made a goal. Jeno splashed his way across the pool, capturing Jaemin in a very wet hug before the next round started. Jaemin giggled back, trying not to blush as he hugged his best friend back. 

"Guys stop! The next round has already begun!" Jisung yelled, the two of them breaking their hug (to Jaemin's sadness) and continuing on with the game. 

Meanwhile, Jungwoo was in a pit of despair. It was clear that Yukhei was very good at sports (he'd told Jungwoo earlier that he'd made it into varsity football as a freshman at his school), and so he was winning them all the points. Even Chenle was a decent back up for him. But because of Jungwoo, they were losing. 

Jungwoo had at sports from the day he was born. He didn't like playing them at all, and he would never have joined this game at all but Yukhei decided to play. He didn't know who else he would've hung out with; Jungwoo's closest friends other than Yukhei were Kun, Doyoung, and Jaehyun, but Doyoung and Jaehyun were cuddling and Kun was doing some homewrecking that Jungwoo did not want to get involved with (frankly, he was a little scared of Yuta). So he decided to play anyways, to his own detriment. 

He'd been placed on defense and had just failed to stop Jaemin from making a goal when Yukhei came up behind him. 

"Hey! Why are you frowning?" Yukhei asked very loudly, as he would, with a look of concern etched on his face. 

"I-I'm just sorry. I making our team fail."

"Hey!" Yukhei cried, pouting in a way that made Jungwoo's heart melt. "It's okay Jungwoo! It's just a game. I don't care." He grinned just then, tugging on Jungwoo's ear. Jungwoo flushed a little bit, but seeing Yukhei's bright smile, he couldn't help but smile back. 

"Thank you," Jungwoo responded softly. 

"Guys! Stop being lovebirds or else the other team will win!" Chenle cried, trying to defend their goal post. 

Jungwoo swam over as quickly as he could, not wanting to seem useless, but he was too far away to notice Yukhei's blush. 

~~~~~~~~~~

On a different side of the pool, Mark and Donghyuck were also curled up together on one pool chair.  Next to them were Johnny and Taeil, neither dressed in swimsuits and both fast asleep on their own separate lounge chairs ('Grandpas," Donghyuck had teased). Kun, Sicheng, and Yuta's backs were facing Mark and Donghyuck, all three boys kicking their legs in the water as they all sat in one conversation together. But from what it looked like to Mark, it wasn't really a conversation between the three of them: Kun was in the middle, talking to Sicheng only, while Yuta was sitting off to the side in barely concealed rage. 

Both Mark and Donghyuck were a little bit smaller so it was a lot easier for them to fit into one lounge chair, but even still Donghyuck was still partially sitting on Mark's lap. They were wordlessly watching the game in the pool, Mark's head resting on Donghyuck's shoulder and his arms wrapped around his waist. 

"I at sports," Mark admitted. 

Donghyuck laughed. "Me too. Last year when they kept asking me to play, I always just said I was too cool for them, but really I didn't wanna embarrass myself." 

The comfortable silence returned, until Mark released a loud laugh. 

"What?"

"Jaemin got distracted and missed a point because he was too busy staring at Jeno...I mean, didn't Jaemin say Jeno was the cutest guy at camp?"

"Wanna know a secret?" Donghyuck asked. Mark nodded vigorously and leaned in closer, for Donghyuck to whisper in his ear, "Jaemin likes Jeno."

"Really?" Mark cried. "How do you know?"

"He told me last year, since I told him I liked you."

"But everyone knows you like me."

"Everyone thought it was just in a ual way. But I told Jaemin how I really felt about you, so he told me about his crush on Jeno."

"Honestly, I think they'd be good together," Mark spoke. "They're really close, right?"

"Yup. Best friends since the first day of camp last year," Donghyuck explained. 

"Wait a minute...were you trying to get them together?" Mark asked, knowing Donghyuck's insidious ways. 

Donghyuck laughed back loudly. "Maybe a little. Last year all I really did was tease Jaemin about it, and even then it was always in private. But in truth or dare the other day I did make Jaemin admit Jeno was cute on purpose."

"Does...does Jeno like him back?" Mark asked with concern. 

Donghyuck sighed. "I honestly have no idea. We aren't close like that, and he hasn't made it obvious."

"He did seem flustered when Jaemin admit he liked him during truth or dare. But that could've just been him embarrassed about romance stuff. He is only thirteen, after all."

"I'm thirteen too, you know," Donghyuck commented. 

"But you're Donghyuck, you're different," Mark replied. "A lot of thirteen year old boys don't think about that stuff. But, I mean, I dunno. I'm not saying it's impossible or even unlikely." 

"We'd just have to find out," Donghyuck responded, and slowly, the two boys looked at each other. 

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Mark asked slowly, the grin spreading on his face. 

"I damn hope so," Donghyuck responded. 

"We have to set them up, don't we?" Mark said. 

"We do. We really do," Donghyuck repsonded, and they shared a smile. 

"But how are we gonna pull this off?" Mark asked. The couple turned back to watch Jeno and Jaemin in the pool. It was Jeno, Jaemin, and Jisung versus Jungwoo, Yukhei, and Chenle. Chenle's team was losing horrifically, mostly because Jungwoo was still in his heavy t-shirt (he'd refused to go fully shirtless) but he himself kept getting distracted by Yukhei's muscular chest. And anyways, Chenle himself was a complete disaster. Jeno's team, despite Jaemin's staring, was far ahead. But still, it didn't give any evidence that Jeno felt things like that for Jaemin. 

"Look, I'm not that close with Jeno," Donghyuck admitted. "He doesn't trust me that much. Even if I asked he would never tell me who he liked, and I think at this point it would be really hard for us to get close like that. But...but he doesn't know your flaws yet. You could get close to him and figure it out." 

"That feels like we're using him!"

"Come on, he seems like a nice dude anyways.You'd be getting a friend out of it." 

"I guess you're right," Mark mumbled, playing with Donghyuck's belly button. Donghyuck giggled sweetly, and s much as Mark liked the sound, he didn't wanna bug Donghyuck any more so he stopped. 

"And I'm already close with Jaemin. All it would take is you figuring out how Jeno feels, and me pushing Jaemin into more flirtatious territory. 

"Wow, this is easy!" Mark responded loudly, and Donghyuck had to shush him. 

"If Jeno and Jaemin find out about this plan, they'll hate us."

"That's true," Mark mumbled. 

"But I think they'll be happier for it. Anyways, we'll call it all off if Jeno doesn't like Jaemin back. Alright?"

"Alright."

"So, is it settled?"

Mark nodded, holding out his pinky in a pinky promise. . 

"What is this, second grade?" Donghyuck teased, but shook Mark's pinky anyways. 

Like this story? Give it an Upvote!
Thank you!

Comments

You must be logged in to comment
itzmeguyz
161 streak #1
Chapter 28: that was so beautiful.... I really like this concept, I hope you make a sequel :)
clumsyninja04
#2
Chapter 5: I'm reading this while I'm on my period and when I got to the part about Jungwoo blaming himself for their team losing...I cried
HELP
rainbowjae
#3
Chapter 28: Please make another one! I really love the Taeten and JiChen family and I miss the others! Please!
nhEXO1996
#4
Chapter 28: I KNOW YOU'RE SUPER BUSY BUT OMG, I LOVED THIS SO MUCH AND I REALLY DO HOPE U MAKE ANOTHER! T___T I would like to see all the way up untill they were adults
Spiritwarrior27 #5
Chapter 1: This chapter seems good, it was nice to read
taehyungs_nose
#6
Chapter 23: Chenle you done ed up
taehyungs_nose
#7
Chapter 1: You absolutely NAILED Ten and Haechan
halfkoreanpride
#8
Chapter 28: Omg dude I really loved this fic so much thank you for writing it, I really do hope you write a sequel eventually because I’m not ready to totally say goodbye
Eikko2727x
#9
Chapter 28: this story was so beautiful! such a perfect way to end it. not gonna lie, i cried. can't wait to read your other stories.
Xo_De_Ki #10
Chapter 28: What a perfect ending. I’m gonna miss them so much and I hope they’ll be reunited soon. The camp au is one I haven’t really seen anywhere and I think it’s amazing! What a wonderful summer concept. This is really one of my favorite fics along with the first part. Sequels are supposedly not that great, but this is definitely an exeption. It just add on so much more to the first part, but it’s also amazing on it’s own. Thank you so much for writing it! I enjoyed the journey.