#swimmer!jinhwan | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

milkybonya · 4 years

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Can you make a best friends to lovers with Jinhwan?

[a/n]: this is one of my favourite concepts and i ended up combining it with Swimmer!Jinhwan and this became a big 3.1k word mess but i hope you enjoy~ i’m sorry for the long wait :(

HOODIE - Swimmer!Jinhwan

Warnings: food mentions

Summary: Meeting Swimmer!Jinhwan in high school after he transfers and becoming his coach leads to a friendship that lasts even after the two of you go to different universities. But when he transfers once again, things continue to change for the better

It was a regular school day and you were rubbing the sleep out of your eyes when you noticed an unfamiliar figure standing at the front of the room. He had a gentle appearance and you couldn’t help but notice the mole under his eye. It was cute...

He was a new kid. A transfer from… some place that you didn’t quite catch because it was 8am and you were tired.

By some cliché, the only free seat was the one next to you. So the boy, whose name you then learned was Jinhwan, took the seat.

Though it was awkward at first, you would soon be almost forced to know him. You, after all, spent every weekday evening working for the coach of the swim team. It was your job to time the athletes and give them warm-ups when the coach was busy.

And Jinhwan, after all, would soon become your school’s best swimmer.

A week after you first met him, he showed up at swimming practice for the first time. Confused, you still said hello before walking over to your usual spot by the pool. The coach called you over though, and you had to walk back.

“[y/n!] This is Jinhwan. He’ll be joining us from now on,” your coach said. You were in awe. Your coach, normally strict, was letting a new athlete join without trying out?

“His records are quite outstanding. Time him to make sure I haven’t been lied to and come show me the result.”

Jinhwan followed you to the lane furthest back in the pool and awkwardly eyed you, awaiting instructions.

“There’s no diving blocks here, so you’ll have to dive without it. The time starts as soon as I say go. Are you ready?”

You didn’t care how good this transfer student was. You were getting paid for your job, so you weren’t about to mess around.

“Yes!” he said, with determination. His diving stance looked good despite there being no diving blocks.

“Go!”

He swiftly dove in. Smooth, no belly-flopping. Dolphin kick for a good amount before he surfaced and began his stroke. You were timing him for a 50m sprint and by the looks of how fast he was already swimming back, it really did seem as though he would be setting a record time.

“27 seconds!” you shouted as soon as his hand met the wall.

He lifted his head out of the water, his hair dripping the liquid onto his goggles. As he pushed his goggles off, his hair was swept back, revealing a smooth forehead.

Why was your heart-

“Pretty good, right?” he asked you, grinning. You sighed. This was not proper athlete attitude.

“Yeah. Now get out so we can go talk to the coach.”

Still smiling from ear to ear, he quickly hopped out and joined you in walking towards the coach who was watching the rest of the athletes warm up.

“Sir, he swam the 50m in 27 seconds!” you announced, passing him the timer.

“Well I wasn’t there to see it, but I know I can trust you,” the coach said, quickly checking the timer in yours hands.

“This is really something… How are you at long distance?” he asked Jinhwan.

“I can do it all,” Jinhwan said, spreading his arms and looking up to the ceiling.

When you scoffed, the coach glared at you. He leaned against the wall, crossing his arms.

“I think you’re gonna be really important for this team, Jinhwan. This is where [y/n] will be especially helpful! They do a great job at coaching the athletes when I’m not around, so how about they coach you one-on-one? There are some athletes who really need me to be there for them.”

Jinhwan was still smiling, though his smile grew smaller when he noticed your shocked expression.

“But coach, I-”

“If you’re going to tell me you’re not sure if you can do this, then I’m not having any of it. You’ve been helping me out long enough. I’ll make sure to pay you extra, okay?”

“It’s not that, I just don’t know if I can coach someone like him,” you said, eyeing Jinhwan. “He’s… too good. He needs a better coach.”

“I’m fine with [y/n],” Jinhwan said.

“There we go. See? All sorted! Now get going.”

Defeated, you walked back to the last lane of the pool, Jinhwan following behind. You sat down on the pool floor and got your pants wet, but you were so lost in your thoughts that you didn’t notice.

“Do you have any pants to change into?” Jinhwan asked, still standing in front of you.

“Huh?”

“Cause you’ve completely ruined the ones you’re wearing now.”

You gasped as you realized that you just wettened your precious school uniform pants! Well, not precious, but definitely expensive.

Okay, [y/n], let’s focus. You can do this.

“Let’s worry about my pants later,” you said, standing up. “Jinhwan, get in the pool and give me 10 laps of front crawl. Take it easy.”

As he set off, you paid attention to when his strokes would get sloppy, but they just didn’t. Even after a long ten laps, his strokes were clean and smooth. He wasn’t taking too many breaths and finished with power.

“Feeling tired?” you asked him.

His cheeks were red and he was panting slightly, but he shook his head. You still grabbed his water bottle for him and passed it to him.

“Tired or not, you should still drink your water. After that, give me ten back stroke, then ten breast stroke. Do you have a stronger stroke?”

Putting his water bottle on the pool ledge, Jinhwan wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“I’m good at them all, but I’d say my breast is pretty killer,” he says. You chuckle, understanding what he means but still finding the way he said it quite funny.

You do have quite a nice chest....

“Okay, I’ll pay attention to it, then. Off you go.”

You were surprised by his control over his energy. He didn’t seem to be getting tired, even on his last lap. And he was right about the breast stroke: though it’s a slower stroke, he seemed to have a uniquely fast speed.

You made note of this in a notebook where you stored important info on the athletes like their times, strengths and weaknesses.

“You know, the coach was right about you,” Jinhwan says, having finished his last lap. You didn’t notice he was already done, so you jumped up slightly in shock.

“You really are capable of coaching me. You’re even keeping track of the stuff I’m doing.”

Feeling a bit embarrassed because of his compliments, you fought back.

“How do you know I’m not writing in my diary?”

“Diary? While you’re working as a coach? No way,” Jinhwan said, dunking his goggles into the pool to clean them.

After watching his dives and turns, you ended practice for the day and packed your things to leave. Just as you were about to go, someone tapped you on the shoulder.

It was Jinhwan holding a pair of sweatpants.

“Your pants are still wet and it’s cold outside. Bring extras tomorrow, okay?” he said, handing the pants to you before walking off.

They look so warm… you’re thankful that he gave them to you.

Okay, Jinhwan. Maybe we can be friends.

Despite finding him attractive and quite frankly developing more of a crush on him over time, that’s how your friendship with Jinhwan began. Everyday, you’d sit next to him in class and every evening, you’d coach him in swimming practice. You practically saw him 24/7, minus the weekends, but even then, Jinhwan would ask you to help with extra practice as swim meets approached.

Of course, he just wanted to use it as an excuse to hang out with you more, but you didn’t know that.

The two of you were inseparable from that point on, always seen hanging out together. But when the time came to apply to university, the two of you had to head on different paths, moving to different cities.

But you didn’t let that stop you from being friends.

“Do you have your food with you?” you asked Jinhwan one Friday evening. He nodded through your phone screen and held up a bowl of food on his end.

Every other Friday, you would video call and share a meal. Jinhwan often joked about how you were acting like a long-distance couple, but every time it made your heart pound.

“So how are things for you? Got a lot of friends?” Jinhwan asked, starting to eat.

“I’ve been trying to make friends, but it’s a little hard. This is cheesy but I don’t think I can find any friends like you,” you said, looking down to hide from your own embarrassment. You could hear Jinhwan chuckling on the other end and when you looked up, his eyes were shut tightly from how wide his smile was, pushing his cheeks up.

“I feel kind of nice hearing that, though,” he said, tilting his head to one side.

When you asked him if he had made any friends, he told you that he had met a few people and they were living in a house together now.

“The residences here were just terrible. My roommate got so drunk, he punched a hole in the ceiling! It was funny, but I got in trouble for it just because I didn’t stop him. So anyway-”

There were some loud yelling noises that blocked out Jinhwan’s voice, and he turned around in his chair as the door to his room opened.

“Junhoe, leave! I told you I was going to video call [y/n] today,” Jinhwan said. This Junhoe person didn’t seem to care, though, and proudly walked into the room while only wearing his pyjama pants. He looked into the screen at you closely.

“Ah, so this is the [y/n] you’ve been telling us about? Hello, [y/n]! I’m Junhoe,” he said, grinning and waving. You waved back, glad that your friend had made some new friends of his own.

“You know, Jinhwan doesn’t ever stop talking about you. You probably know that, since he’s going to transfer to your school because of how much he-”

“SHUT UP!” Jinhwan yelled, kicking Junhoe’s leg.

“I haven’t told them that yet!” Jinhwan whined, pushing Junhoe out of his room. Junhoe yelled goodbye and you started to process everything you had heard.

Jinhwan was transferring to your school in the middle of first term?

“Jinhwan, are you really transferring?”

He ran his fingers through his hair and let out a sigh while still smiling.

“Yeah, but that kid just ruined the whole surprise.”

“Wait, why? You’ve already made friends!”

“Actually, this might sound kind of hard to believe but I got accepted to attend your school on a swimmer’s scholarship. And my roommates are all swimmers too, who all got accepted. Your school’s swimming program is notorious!”

“Wait, what? You all got accepted?”

“Yes! There were 10 scholarships and all seven of us got one. My swimmer friends are really good, you’ll see when we get there.”

You suddenly sat upright, excited.

“Wait, when do you get here?”

“We’re coming next week! Are you a coach at the swim team there, too?”

You laughed, shaking your head. “College varsity teams are no joke. They wouldn’t want me.”

“You’re joking! If you told them that you worked for one of the best high school coaches…”

“Well, maybe if you and your friends come here, I might consider it.”

And when they all came, Jinhwan dragged you to the swimming pool to talk to the head coach who accepted you immediately because of her ties with your old coach.

“He and I were on the same team throughout high school and into college! Of course I’d accept someone who worked for him.”

Once again, your days were filled with classes and your evenings with studying. Jinhwan’s student house that he shared with his other six friends soon became your second home, and you spent more time in there than in your own dorm.

“No, NO, NO! I SWEAR YOU WERE CHEATING!” you yelled at the TV screen and then at Chanwoo, one of Jinhwan’s friends, who was next to you.

He pretended to brush off his shoulders and sent you a wink.

“No cheating, I’m just that good.”

“Can you guys stop yelling? I’m actually trying to study!” Hanbin yelled from his room upstairs.

You and Chanwoo both tried to hold in your laughter.

Jinhwan walked up to where you were sitting on the couch and sat in-between the two of you, handing you a glass of water.

“Remember to stay hydrated, [y/n]!” he told you.

“Where’s mine?” Chanwoo asked, pouting.

“Get it yourself!” Jinhwan said, taking the controller from his hands.

“Now let me play a round!” he said.

“You could literally have taken the extra controller…” Chanwoo mumbled, going to grab it himself.

“[y/n] can you tell Jinhwan to stop only acting nice to you? He only listens to you anyway!”

“Jinhwan, be nice,” you said, trying not to laugh.

“Okay,” Jinhwan sang. “Wait, [y/n] are you wearing my hoodie?”

You pressed your lips together, realizing that you were caught red-handed.

“No…”

“You’re not getting out of this easily!” Chanwoo laughed, leaving the couch and running upstairs.

“That’s definitely mine, though. I’m taking a photo as evidence,” Jinhwan said, pulling out his phone.

You wrestled to take the hoodie off, but Jinhwan managed to take a photo of you too quickly.

He giggled while staring at it.

“Delete it!” you shrieked, reaching for the phone.

“Make me,” Jinhwan said, sticking his tongue out at you and running away.

While you were doing land training in the gym with the swim team, you stood next to the coaches and kept an eye on everyone.

“Okay, how about we split up and go cheer them on individually? We have a few important races coming up, so let’s give them some encouragement!”

You grabbed a towel and water bottle and quickly raced your way to Jinhwan before anyone else could reach him. He was sat at a chest press machine, huffing as he struggled to do more sets.

When you held out the water and towel to him, he stopped and smiled at you gratefully, taking the towel and water from your hands.

“You always rush in at the right time,” he said, wiping his sweat before he drank some water.

“That’s what coaches are here for,” you said.

“You’re finally calling yourself a coach? Wow, I need to record this!” he said, pretending to reach for his phone which was on the ground by his foot.

As he began to do more sets, you continued to cheer him on until his phone lit up with a notification and you noticed a familiar picture on the lockscreen.

“Is that me wearing your hoodie in your lockscreen?” you asked in bewilderment.

“No,” Jinhwan said nervously, quickly picking up his phone.

“That was clearly me, let me see! Why am I on your lock screen?”

“It’s a photo of me! You’re confusing it because I’m wearing that hoodie you borrowed.”

There’s no way…

You shrugged it off since he was training, but you spent all night thinking about it. This wouldn’t do.

You got up from the couch of Jinhwan’s house and paced over to Junhoe’s room, who you thought would have some answers.

When he told you that you could come in after knocking, you found him sat at his desk.

“Junhoe, is Jinhwan’s lockscreen a photo of me wearing his hoodie?”

Junhoe turned around to face you, as if scanning your expression would give him the answer.

“There’s two ways I could answer this…” he said.

“Just give me an honest answer!”

“Jinhwan will kill me…”

“So it is me, right? Thanks, Junhoe!”

“Okay, but I never explicitly said anything so it’s your fault!” he yelled after you as you trudged towards Jinhwan’s room. Yes it was the middle of the night and he was probably sleeping, but you needed answers now.

Maybe you were jumping to conclusions but if you were his lockscreen… then that meant he liked you, right? Would friends really do this?

You stopped yourself in front of his door. Yes, of course friends could do this. You once set a photo of Jinhwan wearing this really tall hat as your lockscreen because it was funny - but you also liked him. You like him…

You took a deep breath and knocked on Jinhwan’s door. Hearing a groan, you entered and walked right up to his bed.

“Who is it?” he asked, still half asleep.

“Jinhwan I know that I’m your phone background.”

Seeing his phone beside him, you picked it up and checked: it was true. You turned the phone around to show it to him.

“No, it’s fake! Fake..” he rolled over, trying to go back to sleep.

“Jinhwan I’m not going to let you sleep until I have an answer about why I’m your lockscreen.”

His back towards you, he sighed and rubbed his eyes. Then he sat up and faced you with puffy eyes.

“[y/n], do you really need an answer?”

“Yes!” you said, sitting on the edge of his bed.

“I like you [y/n]. That’s your answer. I wanted to tell you later, not now when I’m half asleep and my face is a mess…”

You couldn’t hear anything he said after those first four words.

So it was true? So your love wasn’t one-sided? You thought you were just going to live in the friend-zone this whole time, but he really-

“[y/n]? Are you okay?” Jinhwan asked, waving his hands in front of you.

Your heart felt like it was swelling, bursting, in need of expressing its emotions. You stretched your arms out and wrapped them tightly around Jinhwan. Shocked at first, he also embraced you and rested his head in the crook of your shoulder.

“Jinhwan, I’m so relieved. Jinhwan I’ve liked you for all this time and I thought I would stay in the friend-zone for life-”

He pulled away from you, still holding onto your shoulders.

“The feeling is mutual?” He asked, grinning.

When you nodded, he got so excited that he gently brought your head down so he could kiss the top of it softly.

“[y/n] I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to move so fast I’m just-”

“No, it’s fine!”

Both of you were in such a strange, excited, heart-bursting, panicked state that you started to laugh.

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