Summer Lovin | Yoonmin ✔

The First Summer

Park Jimin had never been the port. His parents talked about the port, his grandparents talked about the port, and even he talked about the port. But he'd never been, never seen it in person, only in pictures or in videos. Until this year.

It had been his mother's idea to rent a house for the summer. "A new tradition," she had told his father while making dinner one evening. "Besides, Jimin's never been before. The port was a big part of my childhood, and I'd like him to experience it too."

Jimin had been ecstatic the moment he found out that he would finally get to see the port. He quickly ran to his room to make a bucket list of all he wanted to do, things his mother had done as a child. He wanted to walk the pier and eat ice cream from the cafés and swim in the ocean. He wanted to watch the fireworks, and go sailing. Well maybe not the last one, he had a tendency to get motion sickness every time he and his mother took the train, so he didn't think a boat would be any better.

So here they were, unpacking in a small beach house, that overlooked the ocean. Jimin got his own room, closest to the back door where he could run out onto the deck, down the back steps and be out on the beach in seconds.

The house had two bedrooms, 1½ baths (Jimin didn't understand what this meant until his mother pointed out that one of them didn't have a shower in it), a kitchen/dining room, and a living space. There was a back deck and a front porch, and a garage for the car. It was more roomy than their apartment in Busan, but that was because they had more stuff there, and Grandma and Grandpa were always visiting. But Jimin was sure that if he took everything out of the apartment it would look just as roomy as their summer home.

His bedroom was a light blue, and the bed was pushed right up against the window. Their was a small dresser next to it and a closet. Jimin had already unpacked, and was now sitting on the bed, watching the sailboats out on the water. He knelt on the mattress, palms pressed against the glass, face smushed their too, staring out at them. They seemed to move gracefully, elegantly across the water. Like dancers he thought. Jimin associated anything elegant or graceful with dancers because that's what dancers were. They glided across the sea effortlessly as they travelled to where they needed to be. Coming and going, going and coming, never staying still.

"Mom!" He called out, pulling his face away from the glass, his little fingers gripping to the base of the window sill. "Mom!"

"Yes!" She called back.

"Can we go exploring!"

He heard his mother laugh from her room, and the soft sound of her footsteps sounded through the hall. She suddenly appeared his doorway, and she was smiling at him, looking much younger than normal. Maybe it was because she was as just as excited as him or because so many memories were coming back to her.

"I thought you'd never ask,"

°

Jimin wasn't quite sure where to look as he and his mother wandered down the streets of the small town. There were so many shops, and stores and little market stands. It was enough to make the eight year old boy feel a little dizzy. He eventually settled on a small café next to the pier, where they got vanilla ice cream topped with strawberries and walnuts. Jimin sat quietly as his mother told his stories about how she would come here as a child, and then layer in her teens with her friends. She told him how she once saw a sea turtle out in the ocean while swimming and it scared her at first. Jimin giggled at his mother's story.

"You know, this is where I met your father," she said. It was a little past three, and they had just ordered milkshakes. Jimin cocked his head to the side, a puzzled look on his face.

"Here?" He questioned, looking around the café.

"Not here silly," she reached out and ruffled his hair. "But in this place. I was down by the pier one night, they were setting off fireworks for the festival. I was going into my second year of university then. There was this one firework, and it was so loud that it scared me. I would have fallen off the dock if it weren't for your father being there to catch me."

Jimin smiled. "Dad's a hero," he giggled again, and his mother nodded. "Do you want to walk the pier? Or are done exploring for the day?"

"Um..." Jimin took a sip of his milkshake, which he hadn't noticed until now, and came to a conclusion. "I'm done for the day. Otherwise I won't have anything left to see!"

They had barbeque that night and Jimin's parents took him down the beach so he could see the ocean before bedtime. The boats were still out there, but not as many as before. They were pulling into the docks now, settling down.

Even after his parents had tucked him in for the evening, Jimin found himself staring out at the boats, floating silently on the clear, blue ocean. He watched until every last one had gone to sleep before he said goodnight, and slid comfortably under his covers and fell fast asleep.