In Taylor Swift’s “august,” the 17-year-old boy pursued by the narrator is James.
The song presents a fictional summer romance from the perspective of a girl involved with James, who is already connected to Betty. When summer ends, James returns to Betty, leaving the narrator with memories of a relationship that was never fully hers.
James is one corner of Folklore’s teenage love triangle. “cardigan” is associated with Betty’s perspective, while “betty” gives James’s perspective. The three songs use overlapping characters and events, but they are not a literal account of Swift’s personal relationships.
A common mix-up is treating Augustine as the boy’s name. Swift described the female narrator as “August,” “Augusta,” or “Augustine” in her own imagination, while James is the named teenage boy in the story.