#and despite my 7-3 tomorrow i have a full day off sunday and im so excited

[s-ccaam-era-crepe]

man i had such a good night waugh <33

[waejinyoung]

Can’t Swim - EP . 2

word count: 4.6k+

a/n: thank you all for the great response of the first episode! im having so much fun writing up this series. as of right now there’s no certain direction im going in for the plot so it’s unpredictable even for me where this series will go but i can assure you guys that im putting in all my effort to make it enjoyable to read! see you in the next episode! 💚

warning: minimal swearing, mentioning of violence, typical dirty minded jaehyun lol

EP . 1 , EP . 2 , EP . 3 , EP . 4 , EP . 5 , EP . 6 , EP .7 , EP . 8 , EP . 9

It has been 6 days since your last encounter with Jinyoung. Tomorrow is Monday. To be honest, you thought he’d be on your mind more often than usual. He’d appear in your frequent daydreams and that’s about all. You praised yourself by giving yourself a pat on the back for not becoming attached to this mysterious being you had only met a week ago on one encounter.

Sunday afternoon was your favourite. A glass of wine looking out to Jinhae’s bay. You could hear the waves slightly crashing towards the parked boats. A deep breath in. and out.

Your mind drifted to Jinyoung again. You’ll be seeing him tomorrow. You did feel a little giddy about it but also reminded yourself, professionalism in the workplace. Max wasn’t happy about your ‘behaviour’ last week so you’ll need to be on your best behaviour or that pay rise will take longer to obtain. You didn’t need the extra money too much but being rewarded for good performance would be nice.

Alongside your wine you jotted down the things you wanted to teach for tomorrow’s lesson. You hadn’t introduced your dodgeball game to this group. Last time you played it was during your last lesson in Seoul. You loved water dodgeball. Main reason being that dodgeball is such a versatile game. All age groups enjoy it no matter how good or bad you are at the game. You noted to suggest playing it for the last 30 minutes of the lesson. Leaving the pen on the desk, you headed towards the shower to prepare for the busy week ahead.

Monday morning

“Good morning Jooheon!” you greeted boss/best friend.

“Wow Y/N you’re early for once. Good morning!”

Jooheon was scribbling down on his paperwork. Most likely got to do with the financial department.

“There’s always time for change Jooheon. For you, this is a good change. For me, well… it’s going to take some getting used to.” You waved around your hands showing a maybe sign.

“You’re spot on. I like the new energy, keep it up!”

“Will do, Sir!” You headed towards your locker to grab your suit and changed in the staff changing rooms. You checked yourself out in the mirror. Going good Y/N, you thought to yourself and headed back to the staffroom to catch up with Jooheon.

15 minutes later, Max and Soonbin walked in. Soonbin was absent last week. He took his week leave last week to take advantage of the summery weather.

“Long time no see Soonbin, how was your leave?”

“It was good Y/N, thanks for asking.”

Max and Soonbin are good friends. Opposites attract but, they are such complete polar opposites. You were surprised that they actually got along well. More than expected.

“Good morning Max.”

“G’morning.”

That wasn’t a typical Max response. Was he still acting like this because of last week? You questioned yourself. Jooheon gave you a look. He picked up on the strange response by Max too and you felt relieved to know that you weren’t the only one who thought something was up.

“What’s wrong with you three? Did something happen whilst I was gone?”

“No” “Yes” You and Jooheon declined but Max suggested that something had happened.

All 3 of you turned to Max waiting for him to continue.

“Y/N threw being professionalism out the window last week-”

“Max are you still thinking about what happened last week? Grow up, what is wrong with you? Just because Jinyoung asked me if I was single doesn’t give you any right to throw dirt on my name. What exactly did I do wrong?”

“Looks like I took my leave during a bad time. Max calm down.” Soonbin patted Max’s shoulder encouraging him to stop whatever he was getting at.

“Guys! It’s Monday morning. Can we please drop whatever it is between you two in the past and continue with your work? Y/N you have your swimmers in 15, go warmup.”

“Yes, boss” You eyed Max straight in his eyes and grabbed your register. You left the tension filled room with a loud bang.

Ugh, what is wrong with him? You thought to yourself repeatedly. You tried to shake off the bad start to the day. You didn’t want to reflect the bad energy to your students. You walked down the corridor as you reread over the plan you jotted down last night. Backstroke + dodgeball. Your favourite swimming style. You were always placed into the Backstroke slot during swimming leagues when you were younger. You would also bring back the gold medal every time too. Good old days.

You jumped into the pool and practiced backstroke for the next 10 minutes.

“Good morning to you too Y/N.” You had completed blanked your usual routine of greeting Jaehyun in the mornings.

“Ah, Jaehyun. I’m sorry. Had a rough morning. Good morning.”

“I’m always here if you want to talk about it.”

“Thanks, Jae”

“Here comes your lot!” Jaehyun pointed at all the kids waddling toward the edge of the pool with a tall figure behind them following along.

“Good morning everyone!”

“Good morning Y/N”

You smiled at Jinyoung with a welcoming nod. He reciprocated the same action back.

“How has everyone been since the last time I saw you?”

“Good, Miss” Jinyoung didn’t reply.

“What about you Jinyoung?”

“I’ve been well. And you?”

“Me too, thanks for asking.”

The warmup song and exercise didn’t change from last week. This time Jinyoung wasn’t doing the warmup alone though so you could tell he didn’t feel as uncomfortable as last week. You all finished up with a round of applause. Everyone entered the pool waiting for your instructions.

“So last week we introduced staying float and front stroke. I believe you all practiced the new things you learnt, right?”

“Yes, miss!”

“Great to hear. Now this week we will all be learning backstroke and then I have a surprise for the second half of the lesson.”

The kids started clapping like seals. It was always heart-warming to see the kids so excited over something so small.

“We all know the drill. I’ll first demonstrate what backstroke looks like and then you guys will attempt the new style purely on what it looks like and then I’ll come around helping you guys to correct where you guys are struggling on. Alright?”

“Yes, Miss.” And with that, you kicked of the wall and demonstrated backstroke to your group.

You came back to your group looking at you in awe. You knew you were good at backstroke but didn’t expect it to create this sort of reaction. Jinyoung started clapping and the minions joined him in seconds.

You waved your hands around trying to get them to stop with the exaggerated response.

“Guys, lets calm down. I’ve done my part. Now let’s see how good you guys will do backstroke. I’m sure you will nail it!

Ready, set… GO!”

The kids kicked and kicked with all their might and to your surprise Jinyoung was putting in the same amount of effort as the little munchkins. His muscular legs left the kids behind and in no time was back to your side leaving a large gap between him and the other swimmers.

“Good job. As expected you’re much quicker than the kids but your technique is a little off.”

“Lucky for me, I have a great teacher that can fix that.” Jinyoung smiled innocently despite the flirtatious comment.

“That’s what I’m here for.” You smiled back.

The kids came back all out of breath.

“You guys seem tired already. If that’s the case I have to reschedule my surprise for another day- “

The kids all shook their heads no and insisted that they were all fine. You laughed at the load of cuteness written across their faces.

Now began the individual tutorials. You seemed to have left Jinyoung last again. You still hadn’t gotten used to there being 9 students now. You just follow the order of the register and the newbie was obviously last on the list.

“Everything going well?”

“That’s up to you Miss.” Smartass.

“True, can you demonstrate your attempt at backstroke for me again? If you don’t mind.”

“My pleasure.” Jinyoung proceeded to start kicking his legs and must you say you thought you were facing Niagara Falls for a second. You were caught off guard with a load of chlorine water coming towards your face leaving you with no choice but to shut your eyes.

“Oh… Y/N!” You heard Jinyoung call out your name. Damn, did your name always sound this attractive when it fell out of people’s mouths or was this something only Jinyoung was capable of? You snapped back to reality to face a worried Jinyoung right in front of you.

“I’m fine,” you chuckled,” Maybe next time scoot a little away from the people surrounding you to avoid this from happening.”

“I’ll bear that in mind next time. Sorry.” He scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment. Cute.

“Shall we try this again? With a little more distance this time.”

“Yes, sure”

You watched Jinyoung eagerly trying to solve what he had to improve. Was it his legs? Nope, he was kicking fine. Ah, you spotted it. He wasn’t moving his arms correctly. He was rotating but his arms had to brush past his ears as he rotated them backwards.

“Jinyoung!” He stopped swimming and saw you coming towards him.

“There’s just one thing that needs solving,” He nodded,” When you rotate your arms back they need to brush past your ear to reach the optimum rotation. The wider the circles you create with your arms, the quicker you will swim.”

Jinyoung listened with full concentration and seemed to have understood what you were getting at. He tried again and was showing improvement immediately. You thought to yourself, wow he’ll be in the next level group in no time. As you thought to yourself aimlessly, Jinyoung had reached back and realised you were in your own world.

“Y/N?”

“huh? Oh, right. You’ve understood my feedback. With a little more practice, you will have perfected your backstroke.”

“Thanks to you.”

You just smiled. You were losing your control. Why did he have to compliment you every chance he got? Was he like this with everyone? Was he simply trying to be nice? There were so many questions flying through your mind that you couldn’t keep up with your own brain.

You both re-joined the rest of the group. You noticed something was up with Woojin, but you didn’t mention it in front of everyone. Maybe it was something personal that was bothering him.

“Now that everyone has achieved a basic knowledge of backstroke, we can move onto the surprise I had mentioned earlier. For the second half of the lesson we will be playing water dodgeball!”

The kids were more excited than you expected. Many of them were clapping and smiling at each other. This is why you loved your part time job.

“Before we start we need to declare two teams. There is 10 of us so there will be two teams of 5. I’ll be one captain. We need another captain for the other team.”

Woojin splashed to get your attention. “Yes Woojin.”

“I think Jinyoung should be the other captain.” Woojin had a small smirk on his face. What was this kid up to?

You turned to Jinyoung to see if he was up for it.

“If I’m on the opposite team to Y/N then there’s no chance she’ll win. Do you want Y/N to lose?” Just a week ago this parrot was shy and now he’s acting cocky. Someone needed to be put in to place.

“I don’t think you know who you’re messing with,” you eyed Jinyoung. He was declaring a competition,” Right, me and Jinyoung are the captains. I’ll pick my first team member. I pick Woojin.”

You guys continued picking your members whilst Jaehyun brought the balls to the midpoint of the pool. Jaehyun found someone to cover for him whilst he conducted the game.

“If both teams are ready, when I say go members from both teams can head to the middle to grab balls for their teams.” Jaehyun bursted out laughing after reciting in his head what he had just said.

“Ya, Jaehyun! Stop being so dirty minded!”

“Sorry, noona! Ready… set… GO!”

Your team had planned to have you go fetch the balls and throw them back to your side. You were a very competitive person. Definitely wasn’t a fan of losing. So, you were willing to do anything to make sure your team won.

As soon as you heard the word “go” escape Jaehyun’s mouth you swam underwater to where the balls were.

You came face to face with Jinyoung as you surfaced from the water. It felt like the world around you both had slowed down and it was just the two of you alone in the pool. You both stared in each other’s eyes until you realised one thing. You weren’t going to lose your cool now. You grabbed a close by ball and lightly tapped Jinyoung on his temple and sent him a wave.

“Jinyoung, you’re out!” Jaehyun shouted in our direction.

You sent Jinyoung a sneaky smile and headed back to your team with 3 out of 5 of the balls. Jinyoung had discovered another side of you and he liked it. He liked how versatile your personality was. When you needed to be mature and serious you were and when you needed to be little more childish and patient you were. He made this conclusion today and realised how your flexibility makes you a really likeable person. Very likeable indeed.

The round ended quickly with your team winning the first round.

“If Y/N’s team wins the next round they are the winners so Jinyoung,” Jaehyun gave Jinyoung a stern look,” Show the world what a man’s team is capable of”

Jinyoung gave Jaehyun a solid thumbs up.

“Let your actions speak instead of your words lads, come on count us in Jaehyun.”

You and your team couldn’t apply the same tactic this round. It would be too predictable. Your tactic this round was to let all the kids go and get balls whilst you stayed back. They’ll throw the balls back to you for you to then get all the kids + Jinyoung out. Sounds simple but it’s going to be difficult considering the built up tension between your team and Jinyoung’s team.

Woojin managed to send back two balls but was hit with a ball from the opposition. The sad expression on his face was adorable but he was out.

“I’ll get the rest of them out for you Woojin, don’t worry!” you cheered at Woojin to keep him happy. He responded back with a bright smile which made you less worried.

With that, using the two balls Woojin had sent back, you hit two of the kids on the opposite team and Hyeji had gotten another opposition member too. Jinyoung took this opportunity to get Hyeji out and unfortunately it was a successful throw. Now it was Jinyoung VS you and Hyungwon. Hyungwon tried to swim towards a ball but failed miserably with Jinyoung getting to it faster and catching Hyungwon out immediately. It now meant 1 v 1.

“Looks like it’s just me and you, Jinyoung”

“That’s right miss. I would be worried if I was you.” Oh, he’s really confident.

Jaehyun and the kids that were out were watching with beady eyes eager to watch the final battle between the two adults.

“I wouldn’t speak so sure if I was you Jinyoung.” See, you had a ball behind you since the start of the game that no one was aware off. You were sure Jinyoung wasn’t aware of it too. To him it seemed like you had no balls.

“Y/N, you can give up now to make it easy for yourself.”

This could be the perfect timing. A bit of dirty play wouldn’t hurt anyone, would it?

“Jinyoung, fine let’s shake hands and call it truths”

“That was easier than expected.” He thought.

You both approached each other at midpoint to shake hands. Jinyoung was all for it. He was willing to compromise and call it a draw for this round. You on the other hand was a fan of dirty play. You approached Jinyoung and slowly reached out your hand. Just before you shook his hand, you raised the ball that you had hid behind you but Jinyoung was quicker than you thought.

Jinyoung had known you had the ball with you since it had dropped to a 1v1 battle. It was simple to figure out considering there were 5 balls at the start of the game and now only 4 to be seen and since he knew he didn’t have the missing ball then you must have it. He gripped your wrist before the ball could make contact with him.

For the second time in the 30 minute period, the world slowed down again. You were left starstruck looking into Jinyoung’s golden brown eyes. The eye contact was intense. Far too intense for your poor little heart to handle. You could feel it trying to leap out of your chest in the hopes to elope with Jinyoung’s. The grip on your wrist was gentle but strong enough to limit your actions. You were inches away from each other. A slight push and your nose would graze his. If you were honest, you would be more than happy if a kid would push you forward at this very moment but that was out of question.

“You surprise me every time Miss. Who knew you could be this sneaky? I need to keep an eye on you during future games.” You just looked him straight in the eyes and gulped. This effect that he had on you was dangerous but the little common sense that you had in you gave you an idea.

His hand was still on your wrist with the ball still in your hand. The ball being straight above his head. Bingo

You let go of the ball only for it to hit Jinyoung’s head lightly. You smiled liked a kid and Jinyoung let go of your hand realising the defeat. Your team cheered and their cheers echoed around you. You swam to your team only to be crowded with kids chanting your name.

You looked back at Jinyoung. “Better luck next time, Mr Park” He was left gobsmacked as you waved the kids goodbye and guided them to the changing rooms. The end of another Monday morning.

You came back to the pool to see Jinyoung and Jaehyun chatting.

“Lessons over, you can leave.”

“Jaehyun do you hear a sly fox around? I’m sure I just heard it say something like “Lessons over”.” Jaehyun bursts out laughing and Jinyoung joins him seconds later.

“An alliance being set up against me already, wow. Since when were you too such close friends?”

“Jinyoung hyung and I were just introducing ourselves to each other. It’s nice having a hyung around.” Jinyoung smiled at the appreciation of his presence.

“Am I not enough, Jaehyun? Do I not fulfil your needs at this side of the centre?”

“Hmm, Y/N noona. What needs are we talking about specifically?” Jaehyun had a smirk planted on his face.

“YA JAEHYUN!” You smacked his shoulder knowing what the year younger was referring to, “When did you become such a dirty minded child?” Jinyoung was trying to sustain a straight face whilst you two bickered.

“Well Y/N noona. As a male grows his needs add up. And some of those needs relate to the male’s bod- “

“Jaehyun, nobody asked for a biology lesson. Get back to work.” Jinyoung let out the giggles he was trying to keep in this whole time. You look at him with seriousness remembering the comment he made minutes ago.

“A sly fox? Is that how you should be referring to your teacher?” Jinyoung caught up with the stern look on your face and stopped giggling immediately.

“You are older than me Jinyoung but, that doesn’t mean you can talk in a friendly tone.” You were proving the analysis he made earlier on correct. You were a very flexible person hence being unpredictable.

“I apologise Miss. I took it a little too far. You’re right, I shouldn’t be referring to my teacher in such a disrespectful way and manner.”

…

You bursted out laughing. Did he really think you were actually pissed? This gave you more material to use against him in the future. Perfect.

It hit him that you were joking around.

“Wow, Y/N. I’m in awe. How can you be so sly consecutively in such a short period of time? You’ve blown my mind away again.” Did he just say ‘again’?

“Again? When else have I ever blown your mind?” Jinyoung’s eyes went wide. He may have just disclosed his growing interest towards his swimming teacher just like that. His mind was rushing, trying to find a lie to cover up his fuck up.

“The game?” The time Jinyoung was actually referring to was the moment he saw you for a couple of seconds before his first ever lesson. The corridor to be exact.

“Ah, right. You’ve been to only two of my lessons. There’s still a lot to learn about me.”

“I’m sure there is Miss.” He didn’t know why he switched between calling you Miss and calling you by your name. You hadn’t really informed how to refer to you, but you didn’t mind. Both worked.

Then it was just silence whilst you both stared into your eyes. Was this the type of eye contact films tried to portray? If so they were spot on. Although it didn’t last as long as you had hoped.

“Y/N…” Jaehyun’s sudden mention of your name drifted your eyes from Jinyoung to his face. He had an uncertain facial expression. You hadn’t seen it before and neither did it seem good. You looked back at Jinyoung and he had a really stern look on his face but not towards you. He was looking at something behind you just like Jaehyun.

You slowly turned around. It was Max. You couldn’t read what emotion he was expressing but it looked fierce. His hands had clamped into a fist. Both of them. He looked like a cheetah ready to pounce onto his pray but his target wasn’t clear. Was he going to start throwing hands at you, Jinyoung or Jaehyun?

You eliminated Jaehyun off the bat. No one would hurt Jaehyun. If he was going to fight you, you were pretty sure fists were not necessary. That left you with one option, Jinyoung.

Nope, this was not happening. Violence was not the answer, especially when nothing had happened directly between both sides. You were pretty sure that these two hadn’t even had a proper direct conversation before to even know if their personalities clashed.

Max’s sudden charge towards you and Jinyoung took you out of your thoughts. He was actually going to resort to violence. He was willingly to throw his well-paying job out the window over what? Jealousy? Jealousy my ass.

“Max” You yelped in the hopes for him to get back to his senses, but it didn’t work. But you won’t go done without a fight. Not a literal flight, but you get it.

Jaehyun dropped down from his lifeguard dock to help you stop Max from committing acts he would regret later. You hadn’t seen Max like this before and you weren’t a fan either. With Jaehyun’s help you were able to stabilise Max in his place before he could lay a finger on Jinyoung. He was still pushing but it wasn’t enough to get through the barrier you and Jaehyun had created. You weren’t the emotional type but if things triggered a bad memory from your past you became a bomb ready to blow.

Your family weren’t exactly the most harmonious. They didn’t really listen to law when it came to teach their children discipline. When we showed any form of disobedience, a beating in their minds did the job. My older brother was extremely disobedient. Especially after reaching his maturing stage (puberty) he wasn’t listening to our parents. More or less every night was the same scenario. You would be pushing your dad in the hopes of him calming down before he would beat the crap out of your brother for being a ‘brat’. It never worked but you always tried to stop him instead of just witnessing the wreck in front of you.

This scene you were in now hit deep. It hit your core. It’s cool showing the confident and cheery Y/N most days but everyone has their breaking point and yours was nearing as the heated collision continued.

Jaehyun was verbally trying to knock some sense back into Max but it wasn’t working. Similar to how your mum would try to get your dad to stop with your brother. What worked then worked now. Your commands for Max to stop and calm down was no more demanding, but fragile. Everyone noticed the vulnerable voice within the vicinity, and they were very unfamiliar with it.

You never liked showing this side of yourself. You always thought people would take advantage of it or put a weak label on you. So, you would always try your upmost best to present a confident steel woman in front of everyone. It was about time you hit your breaking point and let your feelings out. It wasn’t going to be healthy keeping it in any longer.

The 3 males’ faces dropped. The sorrow, the pity and the emptiness they felt. All at different intensities. Max felt pure guilt. Jaehyun felt a deep feeling of sorry and Jinyoung… Jinyoung felt useless. Yes, useless. The woman he’s being trying to discover more about had become a broken mirror in a matter of seconds because of a situation regarding him.

“Max, I be-beg. Can you please, please stop acting so malicious towards him? He hasn’t done anything wrong. He’s just my student. That’s it.” Ouch, that hurt Jinyoung a little bit. He wasn’t expecting you to be so straight forward with defining your relationship. Let alone describing him as ‘just your student’. He knew it had only been a week of knowing you, but his hopes were for changing the student-teacher relationship into something more meaningful.

You were still clinging onto Max from the barrier you and Jaehyun had formed earlier on although it was just you now. Max gripped onto your shoulders moving you slightly off him but still keeping you supported.

“Do you want to sit down?” Max signalled Jaehyun to bring a glass of water immediately as he sat you down on the bench. You were more or less out of it. Kind of oblivious to what was going on now.

“Go.” That wasn’t towards you for sure so you knew he could only be talking to Jinyoung. Jinyoung didn’t question it. He was definitely worried but going against Max right now wasn’t going to make the situation any better. He left without any noise through the common corridor. Max turned his attention back onto you once he saw Jinyoung leave for good. At least for this week.

It didn’t sit well with Jinyoung knowing you were in such a state a couple metres away. The least he could do was talk to you later. Whether it be face to face or on the phone an update from you and how you’re doing will keep him at ease up until next lesson.

Jinyoung slid into the staffroom having realised it sounded very quiet. His observation was correct. The staffroom was empty. He knew which desk yours was considering the form situation from last week. He grabbed a post-it note and jotted down his number, name and a quick message.

‘Jinyoung XXX XXX XXXXX

I hope you’re feeling better, coffee?’

———

I feel like you guys might not like this ending but I have a great idea for the next episode so I apologise if you weren’t a fan of it. We’ve got to understand a little more about Y/N’s past. Max’s patience is being tested but for what reason?

see you next time!

writer-nim