⇝ Australia!Au: jeongin, seungmin, felix, jisung, hyunjin, changbin, minho, chan, woojin
⇝ Pairing: Han Jisung / Gender neutral reader
⇝ Words: 2026 its v short sorry
⇝ Summary: You worked at the local pool with Jisung Han, and no amount of sunscreen could protect you from his radiance.
⇝ A/N: this is to try and get out of my slump, sorry its so shitty!
“It’s well over 40 degrees out today! Local pools are overflowing with people, I wouldn’t be surprised if the water was half sunblock by now!” The radio host blared over the speakers that stood tall surrounding the hectic squeals and shrieks of laughter coming from the three large pools that were almost filled today. You wiped your brow and swirled your feet in the cool water of the 25m length pool before standing up, watching as a group of teens snuck-up on each other in attempts to dunk their friends under the water.
You’d always liked it, the smell of chlorine and the bright smiles of kids with sunscreen that wasn’t quite rubbed in properly over their cheeks. This summer proved to be busy, constant customers walking through the gates as the heat reached 30 degrees by 9AM. Some regulars never failed to ask you about your day, your opinions on the weather, if any accidents had happened yet.
You always got the summer job at the pool. No matter how many applied, you had simply worked with them for 3 consecutive summers as a part-timer, they weren’t going to let you go.
“Y/N!” Your head snapped upwards from the pool you were watching over towards the sound. A smile instantly found its way onto your lips as Jisung made his way towards you. “Leemo wants you to take a break. Go re-apply so you don’t get burnt, I’ll watch over for you.”
Jisung only worked with you on busy days like these, he tended to only come in for a few random shifts aside from his Tuesday junior beginners swimming class. You did a Friday class free of cost with refugees and other Australia newcomers, most didn’t have the chance to learn very well, and you weren’t going to let any drown in the harsh Australian waters, whether it be river or ocean.
Jisung always admired you for that, and you always admired Jisung. He was great with kids, they all loved him and loved to play pranks on him. They always stayed behind to play Marco Polo with him after their lessons.
You sorta really liked Jisung, it was impossible not to with his bright smiles and flushed cheeks that came with the heat. You’d got to spend extra time with him this summer, even lucky enough to share a shift at the top of the waterslide, both smiling and maybe letting kids go down wrapped up in pairs which most definitely wasn’t allowed. It wasn’t like your boss cared, those rules were only to appease those obsessed with the ‘safety’ of children.
You nodded thankfully, feeling the sting on the very tops of your cheekbones already. Taking off your broad-brimmed hat and running fingers through your damp hair you walked away from Jisung, murmuring a quiet “You can let the kid in the red drown if ya want.”
Jisung laughed and shoved you lightly in the general direction of the office. Your bare feet walked carefully over the wet concrete, excusing yourself through the freakishly long line of kids on the stairs to the waterslide. Your boss smiled at you once you reached the window he sat at, next to the canteen, bright red raspberry twist hanging from his teeth.
“Hey kiddo, drink up.” He said, shoving an ice cold bottle of water into your arms. You picked it up and immediately placed it on the back of your neck, sighing in content as the perspiration on the bottle dribbled down your neck. Your other hand reached out for the litre bottle of SPF50, pressing the head with your thumb and squeezing out a generous amount onto your hand before smearing it onto your cheeks and putting the water bottle down.
“Thanks Leemo, it’s so hot out today.” You said as you covered your arms and legs with massive bouts of the sunblock.
“Don’t thank me, it was Jisung that offered to cover for you a bit.” You paused as your hand reached out for the blue coloured zinc on the table. Jisung wanted you to take a break? You shook your head slightly and grabbed the zinc, spreading it over your cheeks.
“Right, well, anyway.” You said, finally unscrewing the cap off of your water bottle and chugging it down.
You peaked one eye open in the shade and caught a glimpse of your co-worker, Iniya, rolling her eyes as she grabbed three bags of Zooper Doopers from the freezer. You pulled the bottle from your face and put the lid back on.
“Here, take this back with you for Jisung.” Leemo slid another water bottle onto the counter after giving a group of girls their tickets for the waterslide. “He’s a sweet kid, no doubt he’ll wanna stay with you and help you out.”
You felt heat rise to your cheeks at the thought of Jisung wanting to help you and you thanked the lords that the blue zinc probably covered your blush. Jisung was a sweet kid, he’d help out anyone, but you still liked to think that maybe he liked you back.
“Righto, seeya Leemo!” And with that you scurried off, passing the kiddie pool and walking in between the 25m and 50m, a young teen running up ahead of you and almost slipping over. You shook your head and called out to him.
“Mate! You can’t run up here, alright?” The boy turned to you and smiled sheepishly.
“Sorry! My friends are up here.” You nodded at him and told him it was all good, just to not do it again before continuing walking towards where you last saw Jisung.
Glancing around a bit, you saw him over near the fence, sweetly asking an elderly woman on the path next to it to throw over a lost ball. He smiled widely once she did, catching the ball and turning back to thank her profusely. You couldn’t help but look at the way his yellow and red shirt reflected up and made his face glow.
Once he chucked the ball back to the kids in the pool he spotted you on the other side. A devious smile replaced his sweet one as he yelled to the kids in the pool to prepare themselves. They all squealed in delight as Jisung ran up and bombed into the pool, splashing them all with water. Once he came up from the water, shaking the hair out of his eyes, he told them all that only he’s allowed to do that because he has special privileges. The kids didn’t mind, some regulars in his classes moving to jump up and latch onto him as he waded through the water towards you.
It was mesmerising, honestly, the way the water trickled down his face and his hair dripped. He laughed and detached the children clinging to him, fighting them away with some playful splashes. That was when you realised you were smiling, not even trying to hide it as the boy reached you, letting his legs float as he rested his arms on the edge. You think your heart skipped a beat when he pressed his cheek against his arms and gazed up at you, one eye squeezed shut at the glare of the sun. You subconsciously moved so you were shading him.
“You’re meant to keep the kids from dying, not drowning them with your fat-ass.” You smiled down at him, and he laughed wholeheartedly, the sunblock on his face returning to a white-ish colour because of the water.
“I’ve got you to save them instead, let me have my fun.” He shot back, beginning to lift himself up onto the side of the pool. You smiled, reaching a hand down to help him up.
He smiled brightly again once he stood in front of you, eyes boring into yours. Once again, you thanked the zinc for hiding the red of your cheeks once you noticed his cold fingers were still just barely wrapped around your own.
Suddenly, you called out. “Oi, guys! Watch out!”
Everyone in the pool looked up towards you, and Jisung’s eyes went wide with a wince from your volume. You smiled at him sweetly before bringing up your hands to his chest, and pressing it back harshly. Jisung shrieked as he fell back into the pool and you laughed loudly at him, his hair covering his eyes as he came up with a gasp before pushing it back to reveal furrowed brows and betrayal tracing all over his features. This only made you laugh harder as you bent over in your glee.
This went on for a short 15 seconds before you felt multiple hands on you and pushing you hard enough so that you lost your balance, clenching your lips shut just before you fell into the coolness of the pool, water enveloping you invitingly. Once you resurfaced, you imagined you had a similar expression to the one he had. You opened your eyes and took off your hat that was barely attached to your head anymore in search of the culprits.
Jisung’s manic laughter caught your eyes before you felt him jumping on your back, wrapping his arms around your shoulders and hugging his legs around your waist. Your hands immediately went to hold underneath his thighs as you found three kids standing on the edge of the pool, laughing too, before jumping in and swimming towards you and Jisung. He reached out in front of you to high-five the kids and you finally smiled, laughing lightly at the mischievous look in the children's’ eyes.
Water dripped from Jisung’s neck onto your shoulder and you flinched at the ticklish feeling before leaning back, Jisung leaped off of your back to avoid being submerged into the chlorine of the pool.
You turned to him and smiled brightly, heart beating from excitement and happiness and the feeling of Jisung clinging to you still lingering on your skin. He smiled back, just as bright as usual and threw your hate to you as it was floating around in the water.
This was a moment where your liking for him was truly prominent in your mind. Where you wanted nothing more than to be spending your summer days with Jisung, getting ice cream and potato cakes with questionable amounts of chicken salt. Maybe you should just tell him, tell him that you like him and that you want to go on a date with him. You should tell him that b-.
“If Y/N and Jisung could go back to doing their jobs, that’d be great.” You heard Leemo’s amused and jokingly tired voice boom over the loudspeaker, and listened to the laughter coming from some of the parents that watched the whole fiasco, amused.
Jisung just laughed again and swam to the edge of the pool to haul himself out, shirt dripping water all over the concrete. He turned back to you to offer a hand in getting you out, and in that moment everything was perfect. Jisung’s smile outshined the sun that gleamed picturesquely behind him, his hair dripping as his glistening hand reached out towards you. His eyes waited for you as you were hesitant to grab his hand.
“I won’t push you.” He said.
And maybe, after that shift, after the pool closed at 6PM, Jisung asked you to hang out with him. Maybe he ordered pizza and you both ate it in the park nearby, maybe he nervously sat closer to you once the sun started setting.
Maybe he held your hand as he walked you back to you car, softly intertwining your fingers with his, maybe he told you he liked you with a shaky voice and blushing cheeks and maybe you kissed him, gently with your hands on his cheeks, thinking about how he smelt like chlorine and tasted vaguely of sunblock. Maybe he kissed you back, pressing you lightly against your car and pulling back because he was smiling too much.
Maybe this summer, the summer where the heat made your clothes stick and the summer where Jisung and you kissed, was your favourite summer of all.
