Jul 01, 2010 23:04
“Hyung. Hyung?” Jong Hyun peeks inside Jinki’s bedroom, and frowns when he sees it empty.
“Boo.” Jinki comes up behind the boy, startling him, and a grin spreads across his face. Jong Hyun jumps slightly and drops the sock he’s been holding.
“I told you to stop doing that,” Jong Hyun shoves Jinki playfully, and bends down to pick up the sock. “Have you seen my socks? They’ve started disappearing lately.”
“No,” Jinki frowns. “Does it look like I’ve been taking your socks? Is that what you’re trying to imply here?”
“N-no! Not at all, hyung. Sorry.” Jong Hyun bows his head slightly, and Jinki laughs.
“I was kidding, yeesh.” He rolls his eyes at the boy, and Taemin pops out from his room.
“Has anyone seen my socks? The pairs have been missing.” The youngest frowns, holding a sock in hand. He spots the sock in Jong Hyun’s hand too, and smiles. “You too, hyung?”
Jong Hyun nods his head slightly.
“Well, to be honest I’ve been missing one or two pairs too.” Jinki states, and tries to think of an explanation for it all.
“Maybe we can go ask Kibum. He’s the one who does laundry, after all.” Jong Hyun suggests, and the trio marches off to find the umma.
“Kibum-ah! Kibum!” Jinki yells as they open the door to his bedroom, and a magazine is hurled at the eldest’s face.
“Have you ever heard of knocking?” Kibum mumbles sleepily, glaring daggers at them as they step inside his room.
“S-sorry.” Jinki grins.
“What do you three want? This better be worth my time.” Kibum exhales sharply and leans against a wall, closing his eyes.
The trio starts arguing about who should ask. Finally, Jong Hyun gives in and decides to do it. “Where’d you put our socks, Kibum?” he asks shakily, and Kibum peers at him and looks at Jong Hyun as if he were insane.
“What am I, your maid? I do the laundry, yeah, but what the hell would I do with socks?”
“Make a bag out of it? I don’t know. Something crazy like you always do, hyung.” Taemin shrugs, and quickly hides behind Jinki when Kibum snaps his head in his direction.
“Oh, Taemin. Lovely, lovely Taemin. I love you, but you’ve gotta learn how to keep your mouth shut.” Kibum sighs. “I don’t know where the fuck you guys’ socks are. Some of mine are missing too.”
“Maybe the sock monster ate it.” Jinki nods, a tone of seriousness in his voice, and Jong Hyun is the first to laugh.
“Hyung, are you crazy?” Jong Hyun snorts, and Kibum places a hand on the blonde’s shoulder to steady himself.
“Honestly, Jinki. What the fuck.” Kibum rolls his eyes at the nonsense, and Taemin giggles.
“Hyung you’re silly.” Taemin pats Jinki’s shoulder, and shakes his head. Jinki frowns.
“What? I’m serious. I’ll prove it to you guys.” Jinki marches off, and Jong Hyun is the first to follow, afraid that they might have stepped out of line and offended Jinki. Taemin follows after Jong Hyun, and Kibum hesitates, thinks the whole thing is crazy, but trails behind the maknae anyways.
They all end up in the laundry room, and Jinki approaches the dryer slowly, peering outside the small round window inside before he opens it. Jong Hyun stands there, confused for a moment, Taemin is genuinely interested, and Kibum watches with a bored expression on his face.
“Yah, Jinki. Stop this nonsense right now.” Kibum says as Jinki sticks his head inside the dryer.
“Oh my god!” Jinki exclaims, voice slightly muffled from inside the machine, “It’s. It’s--!”
“What? What is it, hyung?” Taemin gasps, eyes wide with anticipation. Jonghyun blinks and watches curiously. Kibum shakes his head and is ready to leave.
“It’s like another world! There’s another world inside the dryer! It’s like. It’s like. Whatchamacallit…Narnia!” Jinki lifts his head up excitedly, only to hit it on top of the dryer. Jong Hyun sighs and pulls Jinki’s head out, and Taemin giggles.
“Jinki, I seriously think you’ve lost it.” Kibum sneers, and Jong Hyun rubs the top of Jinki’s head as the oldest winces.
“No, I’m serious.” He says. “Go look for yourself.”
“Maybe you’ve just inhaled lint or something when you stuck your head in there, hyung.” Jong Hyun says, but Jinki shakes his head.
“I didn’t, I swear I’m being serious!” Jinki yelps, and Kibum steps forward to take his hand in concern.
“Jinki, really-“
“You guys!” Taemin exclaims, who has taken the opportunity to stick his head in the dryer while everyone else was bickering, “Look! Jinki hyung wasn’t lying!” The youngest pulls his head out quickly and smiles. “There’s a completely different world in there.” Taemin beams. Jong Hyun and Kibum exchange worried glances.
“Taeminnie, it’s not good to lie,” Kibum warns, and the youngest frowns.
“But it’s true!” Taemin pouts. “I’m not lying!” Taemin whines, and Jong Hyun sighs.
“Okay, fine you guys, stop screwing arou-holy crap!” Jong Hyun’s jaw almost falls off when he sticks his head inside the dryer. “I’m going in.” He states, before he starts approaching the so-called ‘different world’. Jong Hyun disappears inside and Kibum watches with disbelief.
“Told you so,” Jinki smirks at the younger one, and proceeds to go in after Jong Hyun.
“Hyungs! Wait for me~” Taemin smiles and follows Jinki inside. Kibum shakes his head. They’re crazy. They’re all crazy, he thinks, but he follows anyways.
“Where the hell are we?” Kibum stumbles down on the soft ground, and finds its made of-socks.
“Don’t know. But this is interesting, isn’t it?” Jong Hyun muses, and Jinki looks around with a huge grin on his face.
“It’s like, sock world!” Taemin laughs and runs through the knee-high socks hanging from the bare tree branches. Jinki would have said something to warn him, but hey, the whole place looked pretty harmless.
“Hey, let’s go there!” Jong Hyun points forward, and starts walking.
“Why?” Kibum asks, hesitantly following the rest who had marched behind Jong Hyun, letting his feet sink into the soft, colorful array of socks underneath him.
“Because that sign says so,” Jong Hyun turns back and grins at Kibum. Jinki shrugs and Taemin is holding two different knee length socks by his ears.
“Look hyungs, I’m a bunny!” He laughs, and Kibum can’t help but smile. Still, there was some sort of bad feeling he got from the place. And so, he starts complaining.
“Oh Kibum, will you just shut up,” Jong Hyun pauses briefly to turn back at Kibum and roll his eyes. “Honestly.”
“I would, but fuck, what are we doing here in the first place? Let’s turn back. I-I don’t like this place.” Kibum stutters, trips over slightly, but Taemin catches him.
“Hyung, it’s okay! It’s just socks.” Taemin smiles and steadies the older one, and Kibum takes his word for it. Jinki nods in their direction and sends Kibum a reassuring smile, before they head off again. But Jong Hyun is more than sure that Kibum will start yapping away again sooner than later. And when he doesn’t, Jong Hyun stops, frowns, and looks back.
“Kibum, you haven’t said anything in a whi-“ He’s cut off mid-sentence when he finds Kibum missing. “What the hell. Where’s Kibum?” There’s a tone of worry in his voice, and Jinki’s eyes widen.
“Maybe he decided to turn back. Taemin, didn’t you notice he was gone?” Jinki questions the maknae, who just stares at his hyungs wide-eyed, shaking his head.
“O-or maybe, his ‘bad feeling’ about this place was right. Hyungs, I’m scared. I want Kibum hyung back.” Taemin pouts, and Jinki pats his back to reassure him.
“There, there, Taemin. It’s okay. He-he probably just turned back.” Jinki smiles at the younger boy.
“Well, then why don’t we just turn back too? There’s too many socks here, and I don’t know.” Taemin’s eyes are threatening to spill with tears, and Jong Hyun shushes them down when he hears something.
“What was that? Did you guys hear that?” Jong Hyun’s eyes are alert, ready for something to pop out of nowhere, and Jinki takes his arm off Taemin, and turns around to look in the direction Jong Hyun was looking at.
“I didn’t hear anything. Did you hear anything, Tae-“ Jinki turns around, and Taemin is gone. He swears he hears a little whimper, and he jumps slightly when one of the nearby sock bushes move. He locks eyes with Jong Hyun for a second, frightened, and they approach the bush together.
Jong Hyun moves the bush with his foot, and Jinki is hiding behind him. Nothing-nothing is behind there, and Jinki clings onto Jong Hyun’s arm.
“Jong Hyun. W-where are the others? I-I’m scared now, too. Let’s turn back.”
“W-we can’t. We can’t leave without the others, hyung!” Jong Hyun places a hand over Jinki’s arm over his, and gulps.
“You’re crazy.”
“Thought you knew that already,” Jong Hyun laughs, and Jinki’s tense body seems to ease up a bit. Something moves behind the bushes again, and Jong Hyun turns sharply. Jinki grabs his hand by impulse, and Jong Hyun’s heart races just a bit when he feels Jinki’s hand in his.
“I-I uh, sorry.” Jinki flushes and lets Jong Hyun’s hand go, but the younger one catches it again.
“Don’t be. We uh, need to stick together.” Jong Hyun nods, pleased with his made up excuse, and laces Jinki’s fingers in between his.
They continue walking down, endless path of socks thrown around, hanging off tree branches, some moving, Jinki swears, and he grips Jong Hyun’s hand tighter. Jong Hyun looks forward, tries to hide that smile on his face, and chuckles a bit at the sight of the frightened Jinki.
Another sharp movement, this time from underneath them, and Jinki jumps and clings onto Jong Hyun. The younger one’s eyes widen at how close Jinki is-this is the closest they’ve ever been.
Ah, what the hell, I’ve got nothing to lose,
“H-hyung-just in case, just in case we don’t make it, I’d like you to know-“
“Jong Hyun, I like you.” Jinki shuts his eyes and clings tighter onto Jong Hyun, but something pops up from behind them, something tall and covered with socks, and it grabs Jinki from Jong Hyun effortlessly, and starts to run away. Jinki screams, but the monster keeps him in place steadily. It takes a moment for Jong Hyun to snap out of shock and realize that he should run after them.
“Come back here you! No one takes Jinki from me! Not after…not after….” Jong Hyun pauses to catch his breath and replays what Jinki had said to him earlier. But he shakes the thoughts away again and focuses on catching up to the monster. To Jinki. “Long legs! Give me back Jinki! And the others!” Much to his surprise, the monster stops. He catches up, a few feet away just in case, and looks up.
“Minho?! What the fuck.” Jong Hyun squints at the unmistakably doe-eyes of Minho, peering through the countless of socks covering his body.
“No. I am the sock monster. Rawr.” Minho/Sock Monster says, and Jong Hyun is stuck between laughing and punching him out.
“Jong Hyun, run away. Leave me here.” Jinki squirms, and Jong Hyun shakes his head.
“No, I’ll get you back! I’ll get the others back, too.”
“You mean them?” Minho speaks up again, and Taemin bounces from behind him, playing around with the knee high socks he placed on his head earlier, now permanently stuck there. Kibum comes out after Taemin, tugging and pulling at the socks by his head, trying to take it off. “They’re my minions now. So is Jinki.” Minho places a sock on top of Jinki’s head, and laughs evilly.
“NOOOOOOOOO. HYUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNG~!!!!!”
--
Jinki laughs as he watches Jong Hyun toss and scream, murmuring words like ‘socks’ and ‘sock monster’. Honestly, he didn’t even really want to know.
“NOOO! HYUNG I LOVE YOU!” Jong Hyun sits up abruptly, eyes wide open, and he fixes his sight on Jinki, faces inches from him, smiling like hell. “W-what? It was all? But…” Jong Hyun shakes his head and lies back down, staring up at the ceiling. “Fuck. I’m so glad it was all a dream.” He laughs, slight tears streaming down the corner of his eyes.
“Jong Hyun? Did you have a nightmare or something?” Jinki tries to hide a laugh.
“Yeah. But I guess it was pleasant in a way, too.” Jong Hyun sits up and smiles. “You were in it, hyung.”
“I know.”
“What? How-“
“I love you too.” Jinki grins, and the look of surprise on Jong Hyun’s face is priceless. “You said it. In your dream.” Jinki nods, and bites down on his lip. He can’t help but feel that it’s slightly awkward, but when Jong Hyun starts inching towards him, Jinki knows he made the right decision.
“Hey you guys, have you seen my…….socks?” Minho opens the door and finds the two too close to each other, and he clears his throat. “Sorry for interrupting whatever you guys were uh…doing.” Minho scratches the back of his head, and Jinki was quick to grab Minho’s balled up socks and threw it in the tall boy’s direction.
“Oh, put a sock in it and just go.” Jinki grins, and Minho chuckles, closing the door behind him. Jong Hyun laughs, and turns Jinki’s face towards him.
“Now, where were we…”