James is the boy connected to Taylor Swift’s “august” in the Folklore story.
The song is narrated by a girl involved in a summer relationship with James. He is already connected to Betty, and the three characters form the fictional teenage love triangle represented across “Cardigan,” “august,” and “Betty.”
“august” presents the summer relationship from the other girl’s viewpoint. She experiences the romance as meaningful, even though James ultimately returns to Betty. In “Betty,” James tells his own side of the story and apologizes for what happened.
The characters are fictional creations associated with Folklore’s storytelling framework. The name James is sometimes mistakenly attributed to a real person in Swift’s life, but the album’s narrative uses invented characters and perspectives rather than confirming a literal biography.