ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ여름ㅤㅤㅤㅤTIDES OF JUNE
ʚ pairing : james x femreader
ʚ summary : summer settles into its familiar rhythm of ocean waves, paddleboards, and late afternoons spent with friends—except this year, there's someone new. As James quietly becomes part of the group, you find yourself looking for him without meaning to, and wondering when exactly that started.
ʚ other notes : cortis! fluff! nonidolau! summervibes! sfw! sliceoflife! (3.0k)
The sun filtered through the trees overhead, scattering fragments of gold across the narrow trail as the branches swayed lazily in the sea breeze.
The farther you walked, the stronger the smell of salt became.
A familiar scent that somehow managed to feel like home every single year.
Warm sand and loose dirt clung stubbornly to your shoes as the path wound between trees and jagged rocks.
Like every summer, your group had made the trip to the cove.
Not that any of you technically owned it.
But after years of claiming it as your headquarters, it felt close enough.
Getting there, unfortunately, remained a form of torture.
An unreasonable amount of walking.
And, perhaps worst of all, Keonho complaining for the entire journey.
"You said that twenty minutes ago."
"That's called being tired."
Keonho wiped imaginary sweat from his forehead.
Martin didn't even look up from the path.
"If you die, can I have your room?"
"I'm just planning ahead."
"YOU CAN'T CALL DIBS ON MY ROOM."
"You people are vultures."
Martin pointed dramatically.
You laughed despite yourself.
Ahead of you, Seongyeon groaned.
"You've been complaining for forty minutes."
"And I'll do forty more."
Juhoon, somehow conserving energy better than the rest of you combined, glanced over his shoulder.
"We're literally almost there."
Mostly because everyone was busy suffering.
And suddenly every complaint vanished.
No matter how many times you saw it.
No matter how familiar it became.
The cove always stole the breath from your lungs.
The beach stretched below, hidden between towering cliffs covered in greenery.
The ocean shimmered beneath the afternoon sun, thousands of silver reflections dancing across the surface with every passing wave.
White foam curled around the shoreline before disappearing back into the sea.
The wooden dock extended from the sand into the water, weathered by years of salt, sun, and reckless teenagers.
Beyond it, the cliffs curved around the cove like protective walls.
Sheltering it from the rest of the world.
For a moment nobody spoke.
Which honestly felt historic.
James stopped dead beside you.
His gaze moved slowly across the cove.
For once, he looked genuinely speechless.
And somehow that was almost as satisfying as seeing the cove itself.
"Told you it was worth it."
Keonho sounded unbearably smug.
James let out a breathless laugh.
"You guys have this just... sitting here?"
"We practically live here."
"You never mentioned the private paradise."
A second later Martin stumbled out from the trail.
Then immediately face-planted into the sand.
Directly on top of Juhoon.
The moment was ruined instantly.
Martin groaned dramatically.
"Let me become one with nature."
"Tell my family I loved them."
"You are literally lying on my kidneys."
Eventually Juhoon shoved him off.
Martin rolled onto his back.
And continued mourning his tragic existence.
Seongyeon watched the entire thing with visible disappointment.
"The paddleboards are still here."
Keonho instantly forgot he had been dying.
His recovery was miraculous.
One second he was exhausted.
The next he was sprinting toward the dock.
One flip-flop flew off somewhere behind him.
Or maybe he simply didn't care.
Martin rose from the dead immediately.
A true medical phenomenon.
The two of them disappeared toward the dock.
James followed after them at a slower pace.
The guy looked fascinated.
His eyes kept drifting everywhere.
Like he couldn't quite believe places like this existed outside of postcards.
You should have been looking at the scenery too.
The ocean stretched endlessly beyond the cliffs.
The water sparkled beneath the sunlight.
A fishing boat drifted lazily across the horizon in the distance.
The entire cove looked like something pulled from a travel brochure.
You'd spent the last five minutes watching James.
Which was becoming a problem.
One that seemed to be getting worse every day.
The paddleboards had barely made it ten meters away from the dock before Martin nearly killed all of them.
Seongyeon's voice echoed across the cove.
"I'm literally standing still!"
The board tipped violently.
Keonho screamed way too loudly.
And Martin somehow looked offended.
You watched from the dock as the four of them became smaller against the ocean.
The water around them glittered beneath the afternoon sun.
Every movement sent silver reflections dancing across the surface.
The cove felt warm, lazy.
The kind of summer afternoon that seemed determined to last forever.
Beside you, Juhoon stretched out further across the dock.
The other dangling lazily over the edge.
His fingertips skimmed the water occasionally whenever a wave rolled beneath the wooden planks.
The dock creaked softly beneath you both.
For a while neither of you said anything.
One of the nice things about Juhoon was that silence never felt awkward.
You didn't need to fill every second with conversation.
The waves handled the rest.
The others were still arguing in the distance.
Martin was gesturing aggressively.
Keonho was gesturing back.
Seongyeon looked one inconvenience away from murder.
James appeared to be enjoying himself far too much.
You found yourself smiling.
Juhoon's voice broke the silence.
You already knew that tone.
That was the tone people used right before ruining your day.
"You don't even know what I was going to say."
Your head turned toward him.
Juhoon's eyes remained closed, unbothered.
Without opening his eyes.
The ocean suddenly seemed very interesting.
You considered kicking him into the ocean.
Unfortunately, that would require effort.
So you settled for glaring instead.
Juhoon remained completely unaffected.
A sudden splash echoed from across the cove.
Martin had fallen in again.
At this point it was less surprising when he stayed on the board.
His voice carried remarkably well across water.
"Gravity isn't sabotage."
Seongyeon sounded exhausted.
"Because that's not how sabotage works."
James almost doubled over laughing.
Keonho was already lying across the board.
His voice echoed across the cove.
You immediately regretted looking in their direction.
"I haven't even asked anything yet!"
The resulting laughter reached you even from across the water.
That one was easy to recognize.
About twenty minutes later, the paddleboards finally returned.
Mostly because Martin claimed he was starving.
A statement nobody trusted considering he'd eaten half a bag of chips during the hike on his own.
The second the boards touched the dock, Keonho jumped off.
The scream that followed could probably be heard from neighboring towns.
"You still have that one too."
Seongyeon stepped around him.
Like a man who had seen this exact performance far too many times before.
Everything he did looked annoyingly easy.
Very rude of him, honestly.
You were busy minding your own business when a shadow suddenly appeared overhead.
James was standing there.
Sunlight framed his shoulders.
His hair was still damp from the ocean.
Drops of water slid slowly down the side of his neck.
Your brain immediately stopped functioning.
Your stomach immediately betrayed you.
You were beginning to suspect it was actively working against you.
Across the dock, Juhoon made a suspicious choking sound.
You didn't even need to look.
That asshole was absolutely witnessing this.
And enjoying every second.
James looked genuinely confused.
Which somehow made everything worse.
The kind that almost never escaped him.
Without a shadow of a doubt.
The rest of the summer was going to be a problem.
You weren't entirely sure you minded.
thank you to my beautiful @yeokii for this gorgeous header!!
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