Folding Chair
Title: Folding Chair
Pairing: Jongkey, ninja!onho
Genre: Romance, fluff, au
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2700
Summary: Albinism is, in a word, gorgeous.
It’s muggy and hot, uncomfortably so, and Minho decides it’s the absolute perfect day to go to the beach.
Being the good best friend he is, Kibum agrees to go, but also shamelessly reminds Minho that this sure as hell isn’t something he’s going to get away with without compensation; afterwards, Minho is buying him lunch-his favorite lunch, the really expensive meal at the shack near the coast-and, moreover, accompanying him while he eats however much of his weight he pleases.
Kibum lounges on a folding chair that Minho had carried for him. He had placed it under the shade of a large tree, just where Kibum likes-shielded by the sun but still atop the sand. Perfect, Kibum sums up mentally, sighing in relaxation.
Minho is off doing God knows what with a few other boys, seeing as Kibum can’t particularly take part in such activities. It’s a little depressing to say the least, but he doesn’t dwell on it; he looks at the brighter side, assuming that lazing in the muted warmth of the sunlight is a much better notion than getting all hot and sticky while half-naked.
Much better, Kibum thinks, pushing up his slowly-descending sunglasses.
Kibum isn’t sure how he can tell, but suddenly there’s something off, the dim light he sees behind his closed lids darkens in this strange way that assures Kibum the shadow over him isn’t only from the massive tree at hand.
He cracks his eyes open sluggishly, only to see a boy standing before him, unfolding a chair that looks annoyingly similar to his own. The boy places it right beside Kibum, then falls back into it, exhaling as he does so. When Kibum stares at him expectantly, eyebrows snootily hoisted behind his eyewear, the stranger only offers a grin as explanation, sinking further into his folding chair.
“Who are you?” Kibum asks, blunt as ever.
“Kim Jonghyun,” the boy replies without missing a beat, eyes now focused on the sea before them. “And who are you, Mr. ‘comes-to-the-beach-only-to-sit-in-the-shadows-and-wear-incredibly-heavy-clothing’?”
Kibum removes his sunglasses promptly, arching a well-groomed brow, ruby eyes gleaming with amusement. “I have albinism, thank you.”
Jonghyun’s mouth drops open, clearly not expecting such a response. “I-oh man, I’m so sor-”
Kibum waves a hand to cut him off, fluidly slipping on his glasses again and relaxing into his chair.
“I…I, um.” Jonghyun is obviously trying to clear the one-sided awkwardness in the air, and Kibum would be lying to say he wasn’t entertained by the other’s ridiculous sputters. “You looked…lonely.”
“I’m not here alone,” Kibum guarantees, pointing an extraordinarily pale finger to Minho, who is now pushing on the chest of some kid with honey-colored hair, causing the latter to cough up water brokenly. Jonghyun watches the scene with admiration, while Kibum nonchalantly remarks, “Wow, he saved his life again…”
“You’re here with the tall guy?”
“Yes,” Kibum murmurs. “He’s my best friend.”
Jonghyun seems to sigh with relief. “Oh,” he breathes, nodding a few times. “Good.”
“’Good’?”
Jonghyun smiles, completely ignoring Kibum’s comment. “How old are you?”
Kibum glances at him, albeit hesitantly. “…Nineteen.”
“Twenty,” Jonghyun’s smile morphs to a beam, and Kibum feels sort of like he’s lost a competition by being the younger one here. He shakes the thought; surely he isn’t the more immature one here, and that’s all that matters.
Kibum shrugs, adjusting his wide-rimmed hat whilst flipping his colorless bangs into place. Jonghyun seems to find the movement humorous and chuckles lowly.
“Why did you sit beside me?” Kibum asks, genuinely curious as he monitors Minho and the clumsy kid toss a beach ball around with little interest. “You could’ve picked anywhere else, you know.”
Jonghyun hums, “Hm, maybe. But I’m glad I picked here.”
Kibum isn’t sure what he means by that. They sit in silence for the rest of the afternoon, quietly watching the activities on the partially-busy shoreline.
When Minho invites Kibum to the beach the following day, Kibum worries slightly about his mental state because he isn’t even reluctant to agree.
“Here you are,” Minho declares, perfectly positioning Kibum’s folding chair underneath the shade. He smiles as his older friend takes a seat, proceeding to uncap the sunscreen, kneeling down.
“Yah!” Kibum shouts when Minho squirts a bit on his fingers, hovering them over Kibum’s cheek. Minho looks at the other boy questioningly, brows pulling together and Kibum rolls his eyes.
“I can apply sunscreen myself, thank you,” he grumbles, snatching the bottle from Minho’s grasp. The tall boy smiles fondly.
“Fine, but make sure you get it on every part of exposed skin, okay? All of your face, and don’t forget-”
“Minho,” Kibum disrupts, voice maddened. “I can handle it myself. Just go.”
Minho’s lips curl a little and he nods gently, scampering off across the fiery sand. Kibum sighs, unhappy with the sweat that’s already beginning to bead under his arms and over his stomach. He's wearing a turtleneck and heavy jeans today, so it’s only expected. And it’s especially hot today-hotter than yesterday, if that’s even possible.
“Hey.”
Kibum peeks up over his sunglasses, eyes narrowing upon seeing Kim Jonghyun, folding chair tucked under his arm. His smile is about as bright as the sun, unfortunately, and the younger only offers a tiny snort as greeting.
“Want some help?” Jonghyun proposes, dropping to his knees beside Kibum’s folding chair. A small noise of surprise emits from the younger as he instinctively jolts back.
“Doing what?” he asks warily.
“Applying sunscreen,” Jonghyun utters casually, snatching the container from Kibum in the blink of an eye.
“Wha-” Kibum ceases when his glasses are rather forcefully ripped from his face.
“Hey!” he protests. “My eyesight is bad enough with those on, now everything is fucking blurry-”
His breath hitches, cutting his complaints when Jonghyun leans in dangerously close. At this proximity, Kibum can make out every crease of the elder’s face, every flaw. He’s nearsighted, so it’s not a problem when there’s only perhaps an inch or two of space between him and the object he’s looking at.
“Is this any better?” Jonghyun asks sensitively, and Kibum distantly hears the sound of sunscreen squirting out. “Can you see me now?”
Kibum’s mind is telling him to go, make a complete U-turn and just kick this pedophile where it hurts, but his heart is tripping over itself in an oddly pleasant way, rendering all of his limbs useless.
“Here,” Jonghyun breathes, lips tipping maybe a fraction of an inch as he guardedly drags his coated fingers over Kibum’s cheek. The younger shivers unintentionally at the cool substance, his eyes fluttering shut.
Jonghyun gingerly rubs the sunscreen into his skin, almost a caress. His fingers are short and ugly but they feel so nice against Kibum’s skin-the mix of the body heat on his digits and the coolness of the thick liquid is so soothing. And the way Jonghyun’s hands cradle his cheeks, dragging over his jaw and rubbing over the small portion of neck that is exposed, so calculated and deft-it’s just…blissful.
“You’re so soft,” Jonghyun murmurs, more to himself than to Kibum, and the younger squirms embarrassedly, eyes forestalling.
“That’s enough,” Kibum whispers, halfheartedly wondering where his voice had gone.
“Are you sure?” Jonghyun looks sincerely inquisitive as he gazes up into Kibum’s eyes, his own rounded with an undeniable sense of puppy-like innocence.
Kibum falters. “I’m fine,” he says firmly.
Jonghyun nods and caps the bottle of sunscreen, tucking it under Kibum’s folding chair. He then hands the other boy his sunglasses back, and Kibum really hasn’t the heart to bitterly snatch them up like he wants to. Instead he mumbles a discomfited thank you and clumsily shoves them onto his face. They end up crooked, predictably.
It’s kind of awkward now, with the two of them just sitting there, watching the day go by. Kibum wishes it was like yesterday-yesterday it was much, much easier to ignore that stupid kid.
“I did some…research,” Jonghyun randomly says after a while of nothingness, merely the laughter of children and calm crashes of waves.
“Hm?” Kibum glances at him lazily, head lolling to the side. “About what?”
“Albinism.” Jonghyun is staring resolutely at the seashore.
“Oh?” Kibum is authentically surprised. “And why is that?”
Jonghyun seems to shy away a little. “Reasons.”
Kibum scoffs. Jonghyun smiles a little.
"It's actually really interesting. I think the red eyes and white hair are beautiful, really."
Kibum rolls his eyes. "I'm beautiful regardless."
Jonghyun peeks at him, grinning sleazily. "You're full of it."
The younger shrugs, crossing one of his ankles over the other. "Did you learn anything useful?"
"Um...well, people with albinism have really bad eyesight, right? So I was thinking, if you ever needed a ride..."
"I don't even know you," Kibum states. "Besides, I have Minho to chauffeur me around."
Pause. "Well, I mean...if you ever needed help being guided anywhere, like, you can't see well enough-"
"I'm not blind, my eyes are just bad," Kibum disrupts him squarely.
Jonghyun stares at him with a bit of incredulity, and Kibum fidgets when his gaze is becoming too intense to ignore. He shoots him a fierce glare. "What?"
"You're really dense, you know." Jonghyun drops his face to his hands.
Kibum blinks. "What?" he repeats, this time more quizzical than warning.
"I'm trying to make an excuse to hang out with you, but you just keep dodging it and brushing me off," he admits, looking Kibum dead in the eye. Kibum's eyes stretch a little, his body heating up slightly.
"I-but, why..."
"You fascinate me," Jonghyun confesses with wonder, squishing his cheek into his fist.
Kibum sneers. He refuses to admit it, but he rather likes the wording Jonghyun used. I'm fascinating...?
"Anyway," Jonghyun turns to the sea, cheeks tinting with pink. "It was just an idea."
Before Kibum can grasp the situation, can even understand what an idiot he's being, he's reaching out, delicate, quaking fingers pinching the hem of Jonghyun's sleeve.
"Yeah," he nods, gulping, and Jonghyun stares with expansive eyes.
Kibum thinks maybe this isn't such a great idea as he sits there awkwardly in the dim-lit, high-class restaurant, posture straight and eyes lingering everywhere but in front of him.
Because in front of him is an equally awkward guy, Kim Jonghyun, to be exact, and it's strange that they're acting so uncharacteristically withdrawn because Kibum is quite the blunt person, and Jonghyun didn't seem to hold back when speaking his mind the first day the pair met.
Kibum silently picks up his chopsticks, beginning his meal. He feels pathetic to admit that he's utterly relieved whenever the waiter stops by and distracts him for a moment, refilling his beverage.
"You...you look really pretty, you know," Jonghyun finally speaks as the waiter strolls off, chopsticks poking shyly at his food. Kibum glances up, raising an eyebrow.
He's not wearing anything all that special-just some not-too-casual but not-too-formal jeans and a loose-fit t-shirt. He's lacking the sun hat from earlier, as well as the glasses, so his red eyes and white hair are in full view. He's a bit self-conscious about it...he always has been.
"I do?"
"Yeah," Jonghyun chews slowly, looking up through large eyes that Kibum can hardly make out. "Your hair is so shiny and cute...and your eyes..." he blushes a bit, ducking his head. “They sort of intimidate me."
Kibum actually giggles at this. "Yeah? Don't worry, I don't bite."
Jonghyun peers at him, lips curling timidly.
"So," Kibum tries, feeling a little looser now, "do you go to a university?"
Jonghyun nods animatedly, mouth full. Kibum stifles a laugh behind the back of his hand.
"Major?"
Jonghyun swallows his too-big mouthful. "Music."
Kibum's eyebrows jerk up. "For real? That's cool."
"Guys who sing are always cool," Jonghyun says certainly.
Kibum smiles affectionately. There he is.
They chat for the rest of the night about trivial matters, and before Kibum comprehends it, three hours go by.
"Yah, you're here to watch the movie, not mess with my fingers," Kibum scolds lowly as the previews start, the lights weakening until it's purely black. Jonghyun is currently in the seat beside him, both of his hands fiddling with one of Kibum's. The latter's hand somehow got dragged over onto Jonghyun's thigh, and the feeling of said body part beneath his skin is so warm-so annoyingly warm that it makes Kibum's face reluctantly burn with fruitless abasement.
"You're so pale," Jonghyun says in awe, sweeping the cushions of his fingers over Kibum's knuckles.
"Well, duh," Kibum weakly defends, lacking bite.
"It's gorgeous," Jonghyun whispers under the near-deafening surround sound, but Kibum hears anyway.
Kibum sometimes questions whatever he and Jonghyun are doing; he refers to their outings as ‘dates’ but later finds himself wondering if he can really call it that, since the two of them aren’t romantically involved and Jonghyun never really makes a move on him. As far as affectionate gestures go, it’s usually skinship. Sometimes, though, it’s Jonghyun simply lost in his thoughts as he naively shoves Kibum’s collar aside so he can study his white collarbones. Or sometimes it's him staring intensely at Kibum's face, only to use the airy excuse of ‘you’re just really fascinating’.
And should he consider the older boy’s actions as flirting? It doesn’t really seem like that, at least not to Kibum. He supposes Jonghyun is just captivated by him (which he’s still marveling about, to be honest), and that’s why he’s always so touchy-feely about everything. Surely there aren’t any emotions driving him to do what he does. Surely.
The only thing that causes Kibum to suspect otherwise is when Jonghyun blurts, “Your lips are really pretty.”
Kibum blinks, removes his sunglasses, then turns his head to look at Jonghyun, presenting him a smoothly arched brow. “Excuse me?” he asks, honestly not understanding.
“I…” Jonghyun appears flustered, hastily ducking his head to adjust the hem of his shirt, to tinker with the loose strings on the seams of his pants-in short, to avoid Kibum’s gaze.
He doesn’t provide an explanation, and that scares Kibum. It truly does. If he doesn’t back up his actions then what is Kibum supposed to think? What would any sane person think when receiving such an intimate compliment?
“Why did you say that?” he asks, trying so hard to keep the tremor out of his voice.
“I just wanted to tell you,” Jonghyun confesses, not glancing up.
Kibum wets his lips uncertainly. “I don’t understand, Jonghyun.”
Jonghyun lifts his head rather quickly and their gazes catch. Shortly then, Kibum understands, it doesn’t take long for him to when the other boy is perched over his sprawled body, lips against his own, only the most ginger of touches surfing across his cheek.
Kibum’s breath snags in the middle of his throat but he doesn’t have time to process it, he just does, somehow, perhaps by impulse, and his pallid fingers curl around the backs of Jonghyun’s thighs, pulling the elder onto his lap. Jonghyun whines a little in his throat, but it’s a pleasant whine, a characteristic noise that stands flatteringly alongside Jonghyun’s personality, and at the small sound Kibum smiles. He smiles against the other boy’s lips and caresses down to the backs of his knees, and suddenly he is hyperaware of the heat-the sun’s heat, the heat from his layered clothing, but most of all, Jonghyun’s body heat.
They break apart simultaneously in laughter, Jonghyun throwing his head back and Kibum giggling softly, leaning in so his forehead bumps the smaller boy’s shoulder.
Jonghyun gradually trails a hand upward, drifting from its place on Kibum’s shoulder to the back of his head. Kibum shivers against him, closing his eyes and letting his shoulders tense at the arrays of bumps that spring to his sweater-clad arms.
The elder knocks his hat off, and as dangerous as that is, Kibum can’t give a damn. He finally moves back and looks up, only to see a grinning Jonghyun, the sun directly behind his head, backlight shadowing his merry expression.
“Gorgeous,” Jonghyun mouths, pressing his lips to Kibum’s white, sun-warmed hair.
And Kibum, misty-eyed, laughs again.
A/N: so I wrote this like...maybe half a year ago? and never finished until like a month ago. I didn't upload it because I was gonna put it in this big story of different little jongkey stories but that's gonna take longer than I thought to finish, so I just decided to upload this on its own. ^^
I started writing this and got the idea from the song folding chair. c:
wouldn't key be really pretty with albinism? of course he's really pretty now, but I always thought about it. I've always thought albinism was really beautiful. <3
I don't get to post as much anymore because marching band started and I'M ONE OF THE DRUM MAJORS AHHH /sorry I'm just nervous and scared and what if I fall off my box while I'm conducting askdljsdlfk okay sorry enough geek talk. also school starts in like two weeks so bleh. :/
that's about it! one of my shorter oneshots, but still thought I'd post it nonetheless. have fun reading, I hope you enjoy! c:
oh and gorgeous is like my favorite word hahahahaha could you tell