He passes the sad little bag of goldfish over to the other boy while he barks out a laugh.
"No, really, she wanted us to empty the pool so her son could use it as, like, a skate park for his birthday party!" Beomgyu giggles, taking the goldfish and shoving a few in his mouth. It's Soobin's thirty minute break, and he'd opted to take up the empty chair behind the lobby desk and bother Beomgyu, because the boy always seemed so bored.
"No way, just for one day?!"
"I know right! I mean I told her no, but she threw a fit about it. I think she thought I would change my mind if she asked enough," Beomgyu replies, "But eventually Yeonjun showed up as backup and she left."
Soobin huffs his laugh out of his nose, "Hell, I'd probably leave too."
"Hm?" Beomgyu furrows his brows.
"Ah, like, Yeonjun can be intimidating from what I've seen is what I mean," Soobin replies. There's only a few of the little crackers left in the bag, so he dumps them on the lobby table and tosses the plastic into the trash can.
"Oh, yeah, I get you! He's a character. I knew him his whole life and he still scares me once in a while." Beomgyu smiles.
"Glad I'm not just imagining it then," Soobin hums, "I hate to accidentally judge people wrongly, but I feel like he doesn't like me."
Beomgyu pauses to think.
"I think it's more of he doesn't really like anybody, actually."
"Except you and Taehyun, I guess?"
"Yeah, I guess," Beomgyu smiles shyly. "But really, he's not all that bad. Just don't give him reason to be a problem and he won't be. I think when he warms up you guys can be friends."
Soobin huh s noncommittally, letting the conversation slow.
Friends with Yeonjun— isn't that a stretch. Two days ago he'd practically murdered Soobin with his eyes alone. The boy was mildly terrifying, but for some reason, not in the way that made you want to leave him alone. Somehow, if anything, he made you want to pull in closer.
At least if you asked Soobin.
But still— if looks could kill.
His train of thought is interrupted by the door of the lifeguard room swinging open, Taehyun prancing in even though he's still mildly dripping water.
Beomgyu's face sours at the puddles he'll undoubtedly have to clean up later.
"What's up, Bin? Binnie? Still working on a good nickname for you, but nothing yet, sorry," Taehyun sighs.
"It's okay. Most people just call me Soobin anyway."
Taehyun smiles. "Well, we'll see. So what's up? I was making a vending machine run but I thought I'd say hi."
Talking about how your best friend might hate me, Soobin thinks, but Beomgyu beats him to the punch.
"Oh, talking about the crazy skatepark lady," he laughs.
"Oh, dude, that week was a trip. She kept calling for like two days!" Taehyun snorts.
"Mm, I remember, her son ended up having his party at the bowling alley anyway," another voice chimes in. Speak of the devil and he shall appear— Behind Taehyun, Yeonjun leans against the lobby desk.
"Just a big waste of time, honestly," Beomgyu sighs.
Soobin smiles, "Makes for a good story at least."
Yeonjun isn't looking at him, instead focusing on the small pile of goldfish on the table.
And for that moment, Soobin sees him for what he is; not some scary figure, but a teenage boy, looking at goldfish crackers.
![DO YOU LOVE ME - yeonjun x oc [book 1]✔️ by SailorTaeFics](https://img.wattpad.com/cover/256951674-80-k518141.jpg)
"You want the last few? I wasn't gonna eat them, they've only been there a few minutes," Soobin asks.
Yeonjun frowns at them for a second, and then pauses, and reaches over and grabs two. "Sure."
He tosses them in his mouth. When he's done, he shoves the last two back to Soobin. "Ah, I don't want to take them all."
He finally looks Soobin in the eye, though it's intense as always, it's not quite as scary.
Soobin picks up the last two. "Sure, I owe you one." His timer pings on his phone to tell him that his break is over.
Standing up to head back out to the pool, he waves at the three boys. All of them have fallen silent, Beomgyu's frown finding its way back to his face. Suddenly there's an odd tension in the room, and Soobin wonders vehemently what he said; he replays the entire last twenty minutes in his head, finding nothing.
Yeonjun smiles first. "Sure. See you."
Soobin doesn't look a gift horse in the mouth and takes the scapegoat to leave. He walks out the door, back into the sunshine, and tries not to think about the glint in Yeonjun's eyes when he'd spoke.
He'd spent a good amount of his breaks for the week sitting in the lobby with Beomgyu, laughing about the wild people who come into the pool; Soobin finally felt comfortable in this city when Beomgyu was there, because he seemed real.
It's already Monday afternoon, a week since his arrival. Soobin had debated going home for the weekend, but between Kai being swamped with summer school homework and Soobin's own refusal to run away with his tail between his legs, he'd decided to give it a couple more weeks.
And then Tuesday flew by, much like Monday, uneventful and even mildly boring.
On Wednesday he'd grabbed dinner with Beomgyu and Taehyun after work around 8, at the same dulled out diner Soobin went to on his first night in Mare.
And the two were actually, despite all his premonitions, not that bad. Taehyun is funny, and willingly carries conversations when he has to, and makes even the boring diner seem like a movie with how he laughs.
Thursday is much like Wednesday, in that he shows up to work, yells at teenagers when they run on wet concrete, bothers Beomgyu on his break, swims on occasion, lets Yeonjun avoid him, and clocks out with a tired body.
He does note that, unlike the people who actually work there, Yeonjun has no reason to show up every day without fail. Soobin assumes it's because his only friends work there every day, and he practically does too by association— but Soobin never actually sees him walk in or out of the gates, opening or closing.
Either way, Friday rolls around inevitably.
He's starting to get the feeling that this is okay, and the first day jitters had him on edge about the whole city.
At least until Friday night.
He doesn't know how he ended up back here.
But he did.
He had been lounging in his room, scrolling on his phone, when he realized how bored he was.
He knows better than anyone that when you live in a small town, there's nothing more to do than drive around and listen to music, so that's what he'd done.
When he was back in his own city, that was somewhat the only thing he and Kai did, after they'd seen all the movies in theaters, after they'd exhausted the bowling alley and even just walking around the grocery store had lost its merit. Vaguely he misses sitting and eating junk fast food with Kai in the passenger seat.
