Archive of Our Own ^beta

One of the cool things about being an only child with parents who both worked all the time meant you had special privileges that other kids didn't. For Hyunjin, that meant getting an in-ground pool one summer at the age of 16. His mother was the one who wanted it, and after 2 or 3 months of work, the Hwang family finally had one in their backyard. Hyunjin was ecstatic to have the pool in their backyard. He had joined the swim team recently in school, and the new pool would help him be able to train even in the summer time.

It was currently one of those hot summer nights when both Hyunjin and Han were hanging out in Hyunjin's room like they always did. As Han was telling Hyunjin a story about something embarrassing Gob-Bin had done, Hyunjin's focus was on his window facing the backyard. Like a siren's song, the pool was calling to Hyunjin. He had spent the whole day in it already, but he couldn't lie and say he didn't want to already be back in it. Consumed with the need to swim, Hyunjin was shocked when suddenly the view of the pool in the window was replaced with Han's red eyes.

"Are you even listening to me!?" Han asked his human friend angrily as he watched him flinch in surprise.

"Sorry Hannie," Hyunjin replied sheepishly as he rubbed his neck, craning it a bit to look at the pool again.

Han sees him keep looking out of the window, so he himself looks out of it too. He walks over to it and peers outside to finally lay eyes on the brand new swimming pool, not that Han knew what it was though.

"Hyunjin, when did your backyard get a lake?" Han asked, tilting his head in confusion at the odd looking body of water that has now randomly appeared.

"It's not a lake, it's a pool." hyunjin says laughing a bit at his monster friend's confusion. No matter how long they've been friends, there always seems to be something new and exciting to teach Han. Even after almost 10 years of friendship, they still are learning things about each other.

"Alright well how did a pool get there?" Han asked as he turned around still angrily pouting at his friend. Han didn't understand what was so eye catching about the body of water back there.

"My parents had it built," Hyunjin begins to explain as he gets up from his bed, and walks over to the window. "It's to swim in."

"Like the thing you do at school?" Han asks now incredibly curious. When Hyunjin joined the swim team, he had to travel and stay over night for many competitions. Of course, Han questioned why he wasn't able to see him some nights and that's how he learned about swimming. It was something that Han had wanted to learn more about, but Hyunjin had said it would be impossible to teach him more since he didn't have something to swim in.

Hyunjin nods his head as the wheels in his head start turning. There weren't many lights around the pool, only the two inside the pool and the back porch light were the ones shining. If they stayed quiet, which with those two it's always 50/50 chance they might get too loud, they could both go night swimming. It would be the perfect chance for teach Han more about one of Hyunjin's new found activities.

"Hannie," hyunjin starts with a mischievous expression on his face,"how would you like to learn how to swim finally?"

Once Han registered what Hyunjin had asked, a smile broke out on the monsters face. He looked at Hyunjin excitedly, his eyes changing into a beautiful light blue color.

"Are you sure we won't wake your parents?" Han asks a bit skeptical. He doesn't really know anything about swimming, but he knows that the two of them together can get loud if they aren't too careful.

"We can ask kkami to keep watch for us," hyunjin says as he points to the sleeping shape shifter on his bed. He then walks over to his dresser drawers, pulling out two pairs on black swim trunks before he hands a pair over to Han. "You'll need to put these on before we go though."

"Why?" Han asks but he's already pulling off the tattered black tshirt he always wears.

Instead of paying attention to hans question, Hyunjin found his focus to be on Han's shirtless form. He didn't have many opportunities to see his friend shirtless, and he wasn't expecting the boy to have a faint six pack. Once he realized he was staring, he blink rapidly before looking back up at hans face with a small blush on his cheeks. Hyunjin clears his throat once awkwardly before he finally answers,"It's just easier to swim in just swim trunks instead of pants and a t-shirt."Luckily for Hyunjin, Han was too busy trying to figure out how to put on the swim trunks to notice his flushing face. As Han changed, Hyunjin quickly did the same.

Since both Hyunjin and Han were at the age where puberty starts to hit, both of the boys bodies had went through changes. Hyunjin had hit a growth spurt, making him taller than his monster friend. For Han, his horns had finally started to grow out. Instead of being two short stubs on his head, they were now starting to curl back like a goats. Hyunjin couldn't stop himself from staring at his monster friend as they both changed. There was just something so captivating about Han. He's still the same monster kid he befriended, but something about him now makes Hyunjin's stomach churn pleasantly. Hyunjin, once again, catches himself being weird and shakes his head as if to dislodge his thoughts from his head.

"Kkami," hyunjin says as he finishes changing, waking up the shifter who groaned at the disturbance,"can you please keep watch for us so I can teach Han how to swim?" Hyunjin asked, giving the shifter the best puppy dog eyes he could muster. No matter how much Hyunjin may grow and change, his puppy dog eyes will always be the shifters one weakness. Begrudgingly, Kkami agrees, sauntering off to go keep watch by the parent's door.

With that settled, Hyunjin grabs Han's hand, leading them both out silently to the backyard. As they walked quietly through the house, Hyunjin made sure to keep a tight grip on hans hand. It was only to make sure to keep him safe, and totally not for any other reason. It definitely didn't make Hyunjin's heart pound a bit to have Han's hand in his. He was always shocked to feel Han's skin against his since due to his monster genes, his skin was more rough and calloused unlike his. It was nice.

Hyunjin abruptly let go of Han's hand making Han give him a confused look. Hyunjin looked over to the door, noticing they were right beside the laundry room which was next to the back door. A perfect excuse.

"I need to grab us some towels," Hyunjin explained in a rushed whisper as he runs into the laundry room, leaving a confused Han alone in the hallway. Hyunjin took a deep breath as he grabbed two clean towels.

"God what is wrong with me?" Hyunjin internally questioned as he walked back out into the hallway. Instead of grabbing Han's hand this time, Hyunjin just opened the back door and gestured for Han to exit first. And if Hyunjin stared at the monsters lower backside as he walked out, well that was Hyunjin's business and Hyunjin's business alone.

As Han took in the sight of the pool, he didn't get the excitement. It was just a body of water, how cool could it be? However, Han was excited to learn how to swim. Swimming wasn't a skill he needed since in the monster world only sea monsters need to swim since they live in the water. He's not a sea monster of any kind, so he never needed to go near water. But humans however, they liked to be in the water. Swimming was apparently a skill most humans learned for fun or for safety reasons as Hyunjin had explained to him.

"What now?" Han asked as he turned towards Hyunjin as Hyunjin laid the clean towels on a chair.

"Well," Hyunjin said as he walked over to the steps of the pool," we get in first. Don't worry though, the shallow end is 3 feet deep so you'll be fine."

Han didn't really understand what most of Hyunjin said meant, but he trusted his human friend with his life. He slowly followed behind Hyunjin as he too stepped into the pool. As his feet hit the water, he jumped back. He didn't expect it to be a bit chilly since the night air was so hot.

"It's cold," Han said as he crossed his arms, pouting a bit at the temperature change he wasn't prepared for.

"It's not that cold," Hyunjin said laughing a bit at hans antics. He walked over to the pool steps, holding a hand out for Han to take. "Come on, it's not so bad once you get used to it."

Han was still skeptical about the pool, but again, he trusted Hyunjin completely. With the pout still on his face, Han took Hyunjin's offered hand, slowly making his way into the water. In the shallow end, the water only came up to about Han's waist. As Hyunjin had said, the water wasn't so bad once he let his body get used to it.

"Is this swimming?" Han asked as he walked beside Hyunjin in the shallow end.

"No," Hyunjin answered as he let go of hans hand,"this is just walking in the pool. Do you want to see what swimming is first?" Han had never actually gotten to see Hyunjin swim before, he only ever heard stories of what swimming was like. From those stories however, Han really had no clue what swimming really was.

"Yeah, I do," Han answered softly as he stood near the edge of the pool, waiting to see how Hyunjin would swim.

Hyunjin, always being the one to never disappoint his monster friend, grabbed his goggles where he left them beside the pool and put them on. He casually swam a few laps around the pool doing a front crawl stroke to show Han. Once he thought he had shown him enough, he swam back to the shallow end. As he finally stood back up in the water, he heard Han clapping for him enthusiastically.

"Hyunjin!" Han says as he looks at his friend with wide eyes filled with childlike excitement, "that was so cool! You looked like a siren!"

Although the praise made Hyunjin's cheeks turn a slight pink, not that Hyunjin will ever admit to that, Hyunjin quickly puts his finger to his lips as he shushes Han. "Not so loud. My parents will hear," He warns as he glances at Kkami at the door making sure they're still good.

Han, for his part, does immediately cover his mouth as his own green cheeks darken in embarrassment at forgetting that important fact. "Whoops," he says quieter now as he places his hands back into the water, "I'll be quiet."

Hyunjin's heart was doing the stupid thing again where it beats rapidly in his chest due to the cute embarrassed blush on Han's face. Hyunjin clears his throat as he rubs at his chest, as if the fluttering in his chest is heartburn and not something he won't acknowledge, before walking closer to Han.

"Alright," Hyunjin grabs hand again and he shoved down the fluttering feeling it gives him down, "are you ready to learn?" Hyunjin already knows the answer is yes, Hans enthusiastic but quiet "yes!" confirming it, so he began to gently drag Han towards the edge of the pool.

"Before you learn to swim we need to work on you getting used to being in and under the water," Hyunjin explains professionally, guiding Han and himself lower into the water until they water touches their chest. "Now I want you to place your mouth like this," Hyunjin sinks lower until his mouth is under and blows a few bubbles before going back up, "and when your mouth is under the water start blowing bubbles like I did." Since Han is a complete beginner, Hyunjin has to start with the most basic first.

Han looks at Hyunjin skeptical at first. In the monster world, you don't touch water unless you're a water creature. Han is not in any shape one of those, so the idea of putting even a small part of his face under the water is a bit terrifying but also exciting.

"Okay, I'll try," Han says with that gummy monster smile that makes Hyunjin's heart race in a different terrifyingly exciting way,"I trust you." And with that, Han copies what Hyunjin did by sticking only his mouth under the water blowing bubbles.

Hyunjin watches, oh he watches alright. His eyes are glued to the innocent excitement on Han's face as he does the task correctly. Hand words ring in Hyunjin's ears "I trust you." The way Han said that unprompted makes Hyunjin do something stupid.

Without thinking completely and acting purely on instinct, Hyunjin pulls Han out of the water. Before Han can question what is happening, Hyunjin's lips are on his.

Han has no idea what's going on when Hyunjin's lips land on his. Han blinks a few times in confusion, but he doesn't stop the human. Hyunjin's lips are wet and soft unlike his own wet and rough ones. Hyunjin's lips start to move against Han's, and that's when Han finally has to ask," is this to help me swim?"

Hyunjin pulls back and can’t help but look at Han confused. However, it’s quickly overshadowed by the overwhelming shame and embarrassment he feels. Of course Han doesnt know what a kiss is. Of course Han doesnt know Hyunjin just sacrificed his heart for a moment only to regret it.

“No- yes- I don’t know,” Hyunjin replies lamely as he scrambled to get out of the fucking pool. “I think my parents are gonna wake up soon. You should go,” they aren’t waking up soon. It’s probably only 1 am which is still early in their standards to end the night.

“Oh um… okay…” Han gets out of the pool trying to follow behind Hyunjin’s retreating form, but he barely has time to step out before Hyunjin is already inside.

Kkami runs out growling, asking Han what he had downs to upset Hyunjin. Not even Han could answer though. “What did I do?” The monster teen asks sadly to no one in particular.

That night, when Han slips into the shadows to go to Hyunjin’s room, Hyunjin is already pretending to sleep. Han knows Hyunjin is pretending, and Hyunjin knows Han knows he’s pretending.

“Goodnight Hyunjin,” Han says at the door of the closet, knowing he’s not going to get a goodnight back. When the silence is his only answer, he leaves hoping tomorrow he can fix whatever he ruined.