Love Me Whenever 11/?
Title: Love Me Whenever 11/?
Author: 23elevens
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 7, 478
Characters: mainly!Minkey, bff!JongTaeKey, Lunew, more characters to come
Genre: All kinds.
Summary: It shouldn't be right for a grown man of twenty-three to fall in love with a stripper that's a whole six years younger than him. But that's exactly what Minho does, and he will protect the boy at all costs.
“Kibum," sighs Jonghyun, reaching over the cafeteria table to push at the blonde's forehead as he hurriedly slides into his seat, promptly collapsing his head on Taemin's shoulder, pink-faced. "You should really stop having morning sex, y'know."
The teenager just shrugs nonchalantly and picks a fry right off of Taemin's plate, pushing it into the side of his mouth. "It wasn't like that today, hyung, honest." He digs Taemin back in the ribs before rummaging about his bright red rucksack for his pencil case and geography textbook.
"Oh Lordy, he's even forgotten about the test earlier on," groans Taemin, slapping a palm to his forehead as he watches Kibum stick out his tongue on concentration, scribbling and highlighting madly on his book and occasionally sneaking a fry into his mouth. "And hyung, get your own food."
"Kibum, you really-" begins Jonghyun tiredly, but the aforementioned boy cuts his off quickly with an exasperated little tsk.
"It wasn't morning sex!" The blonde immediately cowers behind his book as his words carry themselves to neighboring tables, causing fellow students to turn around and spot the commotion. His friends likewise do the same, only that they delve into their plates of half-finished western and pretend to be ravenously devouring everything. It is only till the last student has turned back to her own table does Kibum pip up again, much softer this time.
"It wasn't morning sex, guys." Kibum drops his pen and flips the page, staring out at his friends with what he hoped was a pair of beseeching gray.
"Then what was it?" Taemin says, reaching over all of a sudden and curling his fingers behind the cover of Kibum's book and bringing them forward, effectively shutting it. The elder's mangled protest is ignored, and he finds himself having to face two pairs of probing eyes. Kibum sighs, wriggling against the plastic seat and settling his back more comfortably against the black metal.
"I gave him a surprise blowjob at three AM, alright? And I really forgot about that test, not because I was preoccupied." He receives identical groans and temple-smacking from both boys.
"Figured it was something like that," sighs Taemin, scraping the last of the ketchup off the styrofoam with a stray fry and dropping the whole thing into his mouth. Jonghyun nods tiredly for a moment; Kibum is surprised at the sudden dark frown creeping over the elder's face.
He finds it even more surprising when happy-go-lucky, oblivious Jonghyun mimics Taemin by closing his re-opened text and grasping at his wrist, his chocolate puppy-eyes filled with nothing but worrying concern. Kibum's not used to this side of Jonghyun, so he gulps, finding a sudden blockage in his throat as the saliva becomes leaden and almost refuses to slide down the channel of his throat.
"Sex is sex, Kibummie, but you shouldn't forget about everything else normal after you've had your cherry popped by Minho-hyung. And have you notice how much less time we've spent together lately after detention filled up a spot in your schedules?" The husky, worried tone hits home along with the meaning it carries, and he feels Taemin's hand on his thigh, too. Kibum is suddenly overwhelmed by a stinging, pang of guilt, and he tries to push it back into his ego-box with the help of a few lifeless shrugs.
It's not that he's completely blind to the fact that he hasn't been hanging out with the both of them, especially Jonghyun, since that magic day. See, he's only just noticed how Taemin's trimmed his hair, and that Jonghyun's got a new bracelet on his accessory-laden right arm.
The words are sticky and heavy as they leave his lips, but once they do, Kibum feels the beginnings of the liquid guilt seep from an undetected hole in his heart. "I know, and I'm really sorry. I honestly didn't think I'd forget about stuff like homework, sleep, punctuality.. and you guys, because of, well- my- scratch that, my and Minho's- bedroom shit."
It is a sudden turn of events when his friends exchange unreadable looks and break into sunny smiles that squirm their way into the insides of Kibum's box, chasing away some of the awful things that he's feeling, lightening the dead weight on his chest. Kibum briefly toys with the possibility of the two of them being bipolar.
"It's okay, hyung, I kind of know how you feel at times. Just try not to fuck around at ungodly hours and be all preoccupied that you forget about everything, especially us, okay?" In spite of himself, Kibum stifles a laugh; swear words never looked at home in Taemin's vocabulary, in his opinion.
"You know how I feel? Tae-Tae, as far as I know, you've never taken anyone to bed- or have let someone else take you to bed."
"I'm not gay, hyun-" Taemin starts indignantly, but he catches the skeptically-raised brow of Kibum and immediately switches tracks, his cherubic face colored an amusing red. "I mean, I know because I've heard twenty too many stories of Jonghyun's sexual escapades and can thus figure out what sex feels like."
"Twenty?" echoes Kibum, and he contentedly dives deeper into the sparked debate as Jonghyun sits up a little straighter with his cheeks puffed out, more than ready to defend his reputation from devastation, courtesy of his juniors. The boy eventually forgets about his need to study for his test, finding that flunking one in exchange for a few stolen moments with his friends and a semi-renewed friendship more than worth it, despite knowing how Minho gets about his academics.
~
Kibum licks the last of the stamps and sticks it on the brown manila envelope before looping a clumsy knot into the metal ring at the font. He hums a lazy tune to some half-forgotten song dredged up from the back of his mind as he picks it up carefully, hugging it to his chest as he strides purposefully to the front. How exciting it must be for Jonghyun-hyung to have a chance to apply for a scholarship at one of the largest music-enterprising schools in Seoul! The blonde knows for a fact that the elder is more than psyched, having bore the brunt of his incessant ramblings about how his lifelong (nineteen years, actually) dream was about to take off, should he receive a positive response from the board. Today is the last day or procrastination for the application to be sent out, and Jonghyun so happens to have an unavoidable shift-switch with a colleague at work, so Kibum has taken it upon himself to mail in the envelope for him.
"Destination?" The fat lady at the front desk drones, clearly uninterested in handling Kibum's letter. The boy shrugs, unaffected, and fixes a composed grin on his face, pushing the envelope obnoxiously into the woman's space.
"Seoul, and please take care of my application! Have a nice day." Kibum watches with mild satisfaction as the woman takes a cursory glance over the front of the envelope, her face alternating between delightful shades of warm colors. He does not stay long enough to catch her semi-impressed harrumph, preferring to pick his way through the crowd of utterly lifeless working citizens into the open air outside the post office.
Ah, well. At least he had a little fun pretending to be an aspiring music major.
Kibum is entirely lost in his own thoughts of what he might become as he trails down the bustling street, distracted to the point that he doesn't notice an equally out-of-it man coming towards him, and they collide painfully, almost head-on. The next few seconds is a flurry of limbs, flying papers and a certain red backpack having its straps trodden on by unconcerned passers-by.
"I'm so sorry!" the teenager spills out, hastily picking himself off the ground and wrenching his bag away from the harmful points of various stiletto heels and scooping what bundles of paper he can messily into his bag. He scrutinizes the unknown man, who was still bent double on the cement and clutching his knee. Mentally kicking himself for having stoned for so long, Kibum reaches out with long, wiry arms and grasps at the stranger's elbows, muttering ceaseless sorrys as he pulls him up. Kibum keeps up the running commentary of apologies and half-hearted explanations as he dusts the man down, noting at his casual wear and working from pant-leg up- Jinki?
"H-hyung?" Kibum stutters, almost dropping his bag onto the ground again as the elder man's features come into view. Jinki's face is set
in similar surprise, though there is something shadowy about his eyes that Kibum can't place.
Jinki looks really, really tired, and his jeans cling to him a little less than the usual. His bright smile is still in place as he greets Kibum in return, still wincing a tiny bit, but the sparkle of his straight teeth never quite reaches his eyes. "Kibum? Is that you?"
Kibum's voice sinks back into its natural snark the minute the obvious question leaves Jinki's lips, and his eyes roll good-naturedly. "No, hyung. I am an apparition and a figment of your imagination. And oh, have I mentioned that it's fucking hailing right now?"
Droplets of sweat film the tip of Jinki's nose, parading in glistening spheres down the sides as he wrinkles his nose at Kibum and pushes the boy carelessly on the arm, almost causing him to lose his balance. "You're still the same, Kibum-ah." A quick hand flicks out to steady him, and despite the warmth flooding through Jinki's voice, Kibum returns a robotic smile and wriggles free of the other's grasp, his arm suddenly acutely sensitive to every touch that is courtesy of the man.
"How are you?" He manages to ask, squinting against the weak afternoon rays at the brunette and stepping back a little. In the process, he notices an inch or so of dark roots showing through the brown dye.
As lax as Jinki could be about his appearance, he would never have let his hair get into such a state of bi-color and dullness. What had happened to this sunny man?
As if on cue, the mini light-strobes in Jinki's teeth go off, and the flesh of his lips curl stiffly around the rows of white. "Pretty much good, but just tired. And how about you, Kibum-ah?"
"Just- fine. School's busy and all.." The waif-like boy abruptly notices something different that he can't exactly place, and just as this thought passes through his mind, another slips into place, and a lightbulb flashes continuously in his head. "Jinki-hyung, where's Luna?"
"Ah, about that. I've just gotten back to settle a couple of things-"
"Jinki-hyung, where is Luna-noona? I've missed her a whole bunch." Kibum hurriedly cuts in, not really wanting to play along with the elder's evasive round-the-bush tactic with his suspicious mood rapidly setting in.
"We-" Jinki looks as if he wants to say something more, but his face clears just as quickly as it darkens. A blithe smile that almost blinds Kibum settles itself comfortably on the edges of his full lips, and the younger has to fight the urge to wrench himself away from Jinki's all-too-familiar hold around his waist as he is steered into the opposite direction, towards the main street. "Let's go out to tea and catch up. I know this quaint shop-house just shy of half a mile from here."
~
Kibum just points haphazardly at the first item that catches his eye on the menu- chocolate éclairs- while Jinki rattles out a memorized order to their server. After a pleasant thank you and an exchange of polite smiles, however, the atmosphere slowly dips down.
"Oh, I almost forgot to give you this-" Jinki breaks off for a moment or two, browsing through the contents of a rich-looking paper bag that Kibum hasn't even noticed him holding onto for something and drawing it out. He presses a deep-purple velvet pouch into the table top and slides it over the table, the gold drawstrings just visible through the gaps of his stubby fingers. Kibum picks at one frayed end of the cord, looking up at Jinki with eyes more filled with ash confusion than anything else.
"What's this?"
Jinki merely chuckles and flicks a wrist lazily at the boy. "Look and see."
The pouch sits in the centre of his palm, drawstrings pooled aristocratically around it's edges, its contents barely taking shape at it's sides, as of taunting Kibum. The schoolboy sighs inaudibly as shaky fingers pull away at the fastenings, dipping into the material to fish for the present. The tips come into contact with hard metal, and Kibum doesn't have to guess at its identity before he pulls it out. An intricate silver knuckle-duster dangles from the loop created by his thumb and pointer finger as he swivels it around slowly, marveling at how the decorative lights of the shop reflect themselves into the flawless material. Three differently-carved skulls sit a-top of each ring, with the second segment of it holding a gargantuan, glittering, black diamond. Kibum is momentarily breath-taken by its beauty.
"This-"
"Is gorgeous, even I'll have to admit. It was the last Alexander McQueen piece when we got there, by the way." Jinki tries to play off his words with another smile and the casual rub of his palms, but Kibum doesn't buy anything. He slides the exquisite knuckle duster back into its confinements and leaves it on the table, still searching through Jinki's unreadable eyes.
"We?"
"Kibum, w-" The teenager grounds his teeth in exasperation as the waitress stops by with their orders, placing each piece of china excruciatingly slowly on the table before taking a deep bow and leaving. Kibum wants answers; he hasn't got all day to spend with Mr. Lee Overly-Touchy-And-Suspicious Jinki.
The professor closes his eyes and folds his arms across his chest, sighing quietly before settling back deeper into his straight-backed chair. At this point of time, Kibum can barely hear the banter going on in the room, being too focused in their own little bubble.
"What, hyung? I've got a date with Minho later, he'll be really surprised to hear that y-"
"Kibum, Luna sends her love to you. The knuckle-duster is from the both of us."
"You're not telling me something." Kibum is leaning over his side of the table now, and invading the premises of Jinki's personal space. However, the elder seems unfazed as he holds out an eclair to Kibum.
"Eat, Kibummie. And I'll tell you as we go along." Jinki takes an annoying slurp of his tea. Out of options, the younger reluctantly bites into the food, chewing without tasting as he awaits an answer.
"We've broken up. Luna's staying over in Europe for a little longer- Are you alright, Kibummie?"
The blonde's throat clenches all of a sudden, and he slams a hand onto the glass top as he chokes and rapidly sucks in air, feeling the remnants of the sticky delicacy cluster at the base of his jaws. His eyes water as his throat works furiously over the dry material, and he accepts a glass of his iced tea from Jinki, hurriedly sloshing the liquid down his throat and feeling it clear. He blinks furiously, willing away all sensory nerves in his back and shoulders as Jinki slides a would-be comforting hand up and down the planes of his school shirt. Kibum cannot believe what he's just heard, and the room suddenly begins to spin unkindly around him.
"You.. What?"
And then Jinki is back into his seat again, knitting his fingers awkwardly together as he looks back at Kibum with a sad smile gracing his features. "We've broken up, Kibum- or rather, Luna's broken up with me."
NEXT, and I apologise profusely for the awkawrd font colors. I'm not sure what's wrong.