First Story! Chapter 1, all very exciting
Title:Key To the City- ch (1/?)
Author:Me
Rating: pg 15
Pairing: multiple
Summary: A mix of Disney's Robin Hood, dinner theater and College boy. nuff said.
“Who is ready for some good, clean wholesome fun?!”Three months Kibum had been introduced this way, and it still grates on his nerves. Not even the ensuing Christmas season helped. As he watched the previous signs of boredom and restlessness drain away from the faces of his audience, only to be replaced with adoration or absolute terror, Kibum mumbled to himself, yah, me neither, but you all are the idiots who paid for this shit. Unfortunately, manager-Hyung over heard him and gave him a reproachful glare.
“Kibum, I have warned you before about your language. This is a children’s restaurant!”
“My apologies,” Kibum said, executing a perfect 90 degree bow, “they all are the parents who paid for this shit.” He then smiled a sweet smile and ran onto the stage, relieving the emcee from her duties.
Trading scripted jokes and anecdotes with robotic forest creatures on a 10x11 platform in front of a roomful of screaming children and indulging parents who gorged on overpriced, overcooked and over clichéd party foods such as pizza and hotdogs was not at all how Kibum imagined his weekends of freshman year playing out. To be fair, he also never expected that he would lose his scholarship to Seoul University when they regretfully informed him that it was meant to be awarded to a Kimm Kibum, and not Kim Kibum, and many apologies and sorry’s for inconveniences later he had an entire tuition to pay and no money with which to pay it. So, his first act as an independent, grown up, man-about-town as he had described himself in letters home was a sobbing phone call begging for the money from his parents and the promise to repay them.
Of course, the promise was made much like those of mischievous children who are caught in some act: meant to heal over immediate misdoings and placate others ill feelings, but with no real meaning behind them other than a desperation to avoid getting “in trouble.” As he had not made the mistake, or acted wrongly in any way, Kibum felt even more the victim when the money was wired to him along with a timetable of repayments, broken down into weekly goals of income that were then interspersed with a food and school supply budget, followed by a pie chart that further broke down, to the decimal point mind you, how much he would need to make in a month in order to afford all the above mentioned. Sometimes, it did not pay to have a financial advisor as a father. In fact, it often cost more in pride than Kibum could afford.
He spent one week exactly feeling sorry for himself, gorging on ice cream in his dorm and buying things online with the credit card his mother had slipped him for “emergencies, and real emergencies only Kibummie, not semi annual sales and soon to expire special deals,” before he pulled himself together and took the first job that allowed him to meet his grueling quota: playing Robin Hood in the local themed children’s restaurant, Sherwood Forest. He came in to apply as a server there, having seen a help wanted sign on one of his moping ice cream runs. However, he had apparently looked so dejected upon hearing the spots had all been taken that the manager had felt a (rare) moment of pity and offered the sad boy the main part in their variety show, having just decided to demote the current performer, a middle aged woman with a short haircut and tolerance for children to match. Thus, a star was born.
Tonight, however, as Kibum feigned outrage over the robotic chickens retelling of how King John was treating the inhabitants of Sherwood Forest and traded quips with the bear on how cowardly said King was, his eyes kept wandering to a table in the back. Usually, he kept his focus on the creatures on stage with him, turning wide eyed or smiling to the front row, where the children often sat enraptured with the story and waited for the birthday roll call. On his first sweep of the room though Kibum noticed that a table in the back currently housed four boys, all roughly around his age, with no extra plate set for one of the children kneeling before him. What business did they have being here, if they had not brought a child? It set him on edge, made him wary of being further embarrassed by someone his own age knowing what he did with his weekends. At the end of his half hour song and dance gag routine, he announced it was time to round up his Merry Boys and Girls to celebrate both their birthdays and the downfall of the cowardly King John. As he read the names off the list provided him, he reached the last one.
“and Taemin-ah! Come on up and join our march!”
And thus his question was answered. Taemin turned out to be the baby-faced blond from the back table who had spent the entire evening with his eyes widened comically and his mouth half open. Kibum lost his composure for just a second, as he saw the boy stand on impossibly thin, long legs and bound up to the stage to get his complimentary bow and rubber tipped arrows before falling into ranks at the end of the line. He recovered quickly however, and marched each little (and not so little) boy and girl through the dining room, rousing everyone from their chairs to stand and clap while singing the birthday song. Their march ends back on the platform, where they receive another standing ovation, and catcalls from the back table. Kibum rolls his eyes, just a little bit, because some part of him thinks Taemin is awfully precious to have chosen a nostalgic birthday party over a booze filled one, while the other part thinks he may be just a tad bit touched in the head.
After the clapping and catcalls die down, the children are dismissed to their respective families and “Robin Hood” makes his grand exit by swinging on a rope off stage. Kibum usually takes the time after his last performance to change out of his tights and tunic and into the polyester and khaki monstrosity the other employees wear and helps out in the kitchen till they close and can all go home. Something about those boys at the table though, the way they did not seem to begrudge their friend dragging them to a child’s themed restaurant made him curious to see them interacting with one another uninterrupted by his show. He slipped through the service corridor and came out around the back of the restaurant, wanting to have just a moment to spy on them before he was swarmed by children, and a few leering adults. His lime green tights were not exactly camouflage-y, nor was all the makeup he wore around his eyes to make them appear bigger and more expressive. As he sidled up to the swinging door that opened near the foursomes table, he was able to clearly hear their conversation.
“Oh hyungs! Thank you thank you again for bringing me here! This was much more fun than the petting zoo last year! Nothing bit me this birthday!”
Well, obviously, that had to be Taemin. Petting zoo? Kibum was seriously doubting this boy’s ability to be anything more than he actually appeared: bright, bubbly and overly optimistic. These people usually irritated him, as he had explained to his dorm mate one night “I prefer not to seek the company of glass half-full people. They set my teeth on edge. I can find the good all on my own thank you; it’s the bad I sometimes need help recognizing.” However, he supposed he could make an exception. Just this once. The poor boy seemed practically starved for affection, and well, starved in general.
“Taeminnie, I am glad you enjoyed this dinner. I had hoped it would be the surprise you were looking for.”
This voice was very serious, despite the endearing nickname it had opened with. Perhaps it belonged to the tall, dark haired boy? He had looked like a serious person, if his impassive face was anything to go off of. Kibum really wished to see the owners of the voices, but then his eavesdropping would be ended so he stayed put.
“I will tell you what was the surprise, that Robin Hood! Good, clean wholesome fun for sure! Did you see his butt in those leggings?! You would think his act would leave a little more to the imagination, being geared to children and all!”
However, at this outlandish statement, he almost abandoned all sense of decorum (if any could be found crouching down behind a swinging door and listening to other peoples conversations) and confronted the owner of that voice. His manager was much too cheap to buy another costume, and in fact had not even bought this one. His wife had fit it to the previous Robin Hood, a woman Kibum had never met but who had apparently a much shorter torso and, unfortunately, a much smaller ass. He had hoped that the manager would eventually grow leery of the lewd stares thrown at his star, but it had yet to happen. Probably because said small tight uniform had brought in a few repeat customers, mostly harried housewives who indulged their little brats once a week with a trip to Sherwood. But to have his ass-ets spoken of so blatantly, so brazenly! A deep, lilting voice broke his concentration.
“Yah, only you would think of such things! No one else has an imagination as overactive! He looked great in his leggings. Well, I mean, he did great in his act and looked just fine in his leggings. Not that he only looked fine! He is more than just fine, but no better than anyone else would have looked in them…Yah, you know what I mean!”
“Yes Hyung, no one has as overactive an imagination as I.”
Suddenly the door swung in, sending Kibum backwards and landing on his (apparently massive and ever expanding personal couch cushion..okay, maybe he too had an overactive imagination) backside, and blinking up at his favorite work friend, a waitress named Jessica.
“Did you drop something Kibum-Oppa? I am so sorry I did not look before opening the door!”
As she held the door open, Kibum could see the four he had been eavesdropping on craning their necks around her body and eyes widening when they noticed it was the topic of their conversation.
“No, I mean yes, I did drop a, uh, contact! Contact, and I was trying to find it but it was not your fault, just a rather unfortunate place to have lost a contact.”
He gave a dazzling smile, hoping that it would hide how he had stammered and halted at the beginning. Thankfully, Jessica bought it and squatted down next to him, lightly running her fingers over the ground in concentration. Kibum stood and pulled her up with him, smiling again and telling her not to worry about it he was done for the night anyways and would just put in a fresh pair when he returned to the dorms. As she walked away, apologizing again, he was left standing in front of the four boys, exposed.
“Annyong! I am Taemin, well you already know that!” at this, Taemin let a little giggle and waived around his little plastic bow, “and these are my friends, Minho, Jonghyun, and Jinki!”
“Annyong, and again Happy Birthday Taemin. I am Kibum. It is nice to meet you all.” As they all greeted him in turn, he was able to place the voices with faces and learned that Minho was the serious one he had thought, that Jinki was the verbal diarrhea and that Jonghyun-please-call-me-jjong-all-my-friends-do was the one who had rudely pointed out his backside.
“So do you do this because you have always known how good you looked in hose, or some sort of a lost dare?”
Kibum stared at Jonghyun, and decide to be just as blunt in his answer.
“I work here to pay tuition for SU. My legs and ass were a consequence of good breeding and poor measurements. Enjoy your evening.”
Kibum tilted his head and turned on his heel, stomping back through the door while pulling his tunic down to make sure he was covered. He was so ready to go now, screw waiting to help clean up. He convinced his manager that he was feeling ill and wanted to go back to the dorm to rest his throat before he returned for tomorrow. As he changed out of his costume, he tried to push the encounter with the four boys out of his mind. To be so forward with someone you had just met, to flirt so salaciously, as if anyone should just fall to his feet for the honor of his smirk and the sound of his voice. Kibum sighed and pulled on his grey suede ankle boots and tucked his skin-tight jeans into them and stood up, surveying himself in the mirror. He resisted the urge to turn sideways and see if he looked fat in them; because he already knew that he most emphatically did not. And if he took a quick glance while he turned to reach for his sweater, it was just to make sure that he did not have any creases in his hair from having it tucked up under his triangle hat.
A/N- I have been lurking for awhile now, and I love SHINee so much, and Key in particular, that I decided to finally start writing! I am a total NOOB however so please bear with me! I welcome any and all help! Oh, also, I am from America and know very little about Korea except what I have gleaned from Hello Baby and Kpop videos. So I apologize know for any O/C-ness!
Author:Me
Rating: pg 15
Pairing: multiple
Summary: A mix of Disney's Robin Hood, dinner theater and College boy. nuff said.
“Who is ready for some good, clean wholesome fun?!”Three months Kibum had been introduced this way, and it still grates on his nerves. Not even the ensuing Christmas season helped. As he watched the previous signs of boredom and restlessness drain away from the faces of his audience, only to be replaced with adoration or absolute terror, Kibum mumbled to himself, yah, me neither, but you all are the idiots who paid for this shit. Unfortunately, manager-Hyung over heard him and gave him a reproachful glare.
“Kibum, I have warned you before about your language. This is a children’s restaurant!”
“My apologies,” Kibum said, executing a perfect 90 degree bow, “they all are the parents who paid for this shit.” He then smiled a sweet smile and ran onto the stage, relieving the emcee from her duties.
Trading scripted jokes and anecdotes with robotic forest creatures on a 10x11 platform in front of a roomful of screaming children and indulging parents who gorged on overpriced, overcooked and over clichéd party foods such as pizza and hotdogs was not at all how Kibum imagined his weekends of freshman year playing out. To be fair, he also never expected that he would lose his scholarship to Seoul University when they regretfully informed him that it was meant to be awarded to a Kimm Kibum, and not Kim Kibum, and many apologies and sorry’s for inconveniences later he had an entire tuition to pay and no money with which to pay it. So, his first act as an independent, grown up, man-about-town as he had described himself in letters home was a sobbing phone call begging for the money from his parents and the promise to repay them.
Of course, the promise was made much like those of mischievous children who are caught in some act: meant to heal over immediate misdoings and placate others ill feelings, but with no real meaning behind them other than a desperation to avoid getting “in trouble.” As he had not made the mistake, or acted wrongly in any way, Kibum felt even more the victim when the money was wired to him along with a timetable of repayments, broken down into weekly goals of income that were then interspersed with a food and school supply budget, followed by a pie chart that further broke down, to the decimal point mind you, how much he would need to make in a month in order to afford all the above mentioned. Sometimes, it did not pay to have a financial advisor as a father. In fact, it often cost more in pride than Kibum could afford.
He spent one week exactly feeling sorry for himself, gorging on ice cream in his dorm and buying things online with the credit card his mother had slipped him for “emergencies, and real emergencies only Kibummie, not semi annual sales and soon to expire special deals,” before he pulled himself together and took the first job that allowed him to meet his grueling quota: playing Robin Hood in the local themed children’s restaurant, Sherwood Forest. He came in to apply as a server there, having seen a help wanted sign on one of his moping ice cream runs. However, he had apparently looked so dejected upon hearing the spots had all been taken that the manager had felt a (rare) moment of pity and offered the sad boy the main part in their variety show, having just decided to demote the current performer, a middle aged woman with a short haircut and tolerance for children to match. Thus, a star was born.
Tonight, however, as Kibum feigned outrage over the robotic chickens retelling of how King John was treating the inhabitants of Sherwood Forest and traded quips with the bear on how cowardly said King was, his eyes kept wandering to a table in the back. Usually, he kept his focus on the creatures on stage with him, turning wide eyed or smiling to the front row, where the children often sat enraptured with the story and waited for the birthday roll call. On his first sweep of the room though Kibum noticed that a table in the back currently housed four boys, all roughly around his age, with no extra plate set for one of the children kneeling before him. What business did they have being here, if they had not brought a child? It set him on edge, made him wary of being further embarrassed by someone his own age knowing what he did with his weekends. At the end of his half hour song and dance gag routine, he announced it was time to round up his Merry Boys and Girls to celebrate both their birthdays and the downfall of the cowardly King John. As he read the names off the list provided him, he reached the last one.
“and Taemin-ah! Come on up and join our march!”
And thus his question was answered. Taemin turned out to be the baby-faced blond from the back table who had spent the entire evening with his eyes widened comically and his mouth half open. Kibum lost his composure for just a second, as he saw the boy stand on impossibly thin, long legs and bound up to the stage to get his complimentary bow and rubber tipped arrows before falling into ranks at the end of the line. He recovered quickly however, and marched each little (and not so little) boy and girl through the dining room, rousing everyone from their chairs to stand and clap while singing the birthday song. Their march ends back on the platform, where they receive another standing ovation, and catcalls from the back table. Kibum rolls his eyes, just a little bit, because some part of him thinks Taemin is awfully precious to have chosen a nostalgic birthday party over a booze filled one, while the other part thinks he may be just a tad bit touched in the head.
After the clapping and catcalls die down, the children are dismissed to their respective families and “Robin Hood” makes his grand exit by swinging on a rope off stage. Kibum usually takes the time after his last performance to change out of his tights and tunic and into the polyester and khaki monstrosity the other employees wear and helps out in the kitchen till they close and can all go home. Something about those boys at the table though, the way they did not seem to begrudge their friend dragging them to a child’s themed restaurant made him curious to see them interacting with one another uninterrupted by his show. He slipped through the service corridor and came out around the back of the restaurant, wanting to have just a moment to spy on them before he was swarmed by children, and a few leering adults. His lime green tights were not exactly camouflage-y, nor was all the makeup he wore around his eyes to make them appear bigger and more expressive. As he sidled up to the swinging door that opened near the foursomes table, he was able to clearly hear their conversation.
“Oh hyungs! Thank you thank you again for bringing me here! This was much more fun than the petting zoo last year! Nothing bit me this birthday!”
Well, obviously, that had to be Taemin. Petting zoo? Kibum was seriously doubting this boy’s ability to be anything more than he actually appeared: bright, bubbly and overly optimistic. These people usually irritated him, as he had explained to his dorm mate one night “I prefer not to seek the company of glass half-full people. They set my teeth on edge. I can find the good all on my own thank you; it’s the bad I sometimes need help recognizing.” However, he supposed he could make an exception. Just this once. The poor boy seemed practically starved for affection, and well, starved in general.
“Taeminnie, I am glad you enjoyed this dinner. I had hoped it would be the surprise you were looking for.”
This voice was very serious, despite the endearing nickname it had opened with. Perhaps it belonged to the tall, dark haired boy? He had looked like a serious person, if his impassive face was anything to go off of. Kibum really wished to see the owners of the voices, but then his eavesdropping would be ended so he stayed put.
“I will tell you what was the surprise, that Robin Hood! Good, clean wholesome fun for sure! Did you see his butt in those leggings?! You would think his act would leave a little more to the imagination, being geared to children and all!”
However, at this outlandish statement, he almost abandoned all sense of decorum (if any could be found crouching down behind a swinging door and listening to other peoples conversations) and confronted the owner of that voice. His manager was much too cheap to buy another costume, and in fact had not even bought this one. His wife had fit it to the previous Robin Hood, a woman Kibum had never met but who had apparently a much shorter torso and, unfortunately, a much smaller ass. He had hoped that the manager would eventually grow leery of the lewd stares thrown at his star, but it had yet to happen. Probably because said small tight uniform had brought in a few repeat customers, mostly harried housewives who indulged their little brats once a week with a trip to Sherwood. But to have his ass-ets spoken of so blatantly, so brazenly! A deep, lilting voice broke his concentration.
“Yah, only you would think of such things! No one else has an imagination as overactive! He looked great in his leggings. Well, I mean, he did great in his act and looked just fine in his leggings. Not that he only looked fine! He is more than just fine, but no better than anyone else would have looked in them…Yah, you know what I mean!”
“Yes Hyung, no one has as overactive an imagination as I.”
Suddenly the door swung in, sending Kibum backwards and landing on his (apparently massive and ever expanding personal couch cushion..okay, maybe he too had an overactive imagination) backside, and blinking up at his favorite work friend, a waitress named Jessica.
“Did you drop something Kibum-Oppa? I am so sorry I did not look before opening the door!”
As she held the door open, Kibum could see the four he had been eavesdropping on craning their necks around her body and eyes widening when they noticed it was the topic of their conversation.
“No, I mean yes, I did drop a, uh, contact! Contact, and I was trying to find it but it was not your fault, just a rather unfortunate place to have lost a contact.”
He gave a dazzling smile, hoping that it would hide how he had stammered and halted at the beginning. Thankfully, Jessica bought it and squatted down next to him, lightly running her fingers over the ground in concentration. Kibum stood and pulled her up with him, smiling again and telling her not to worry about it he was done for the night anyways and would just put in a fresh pair when he returned to the dorms. As she walked away, apologizing again, he was left standing in front of the four boys, exposed.
“Annyong! I am Taemin, well you already know that!” at this, Taemin let a little giggle and waived around his little plastic bow, “and these are my friends, Minho, Jonghyun, and Jinki!”
“Annyong, and again Happy Birthday Taemin. I am Kibum. It is nice to meet you all.” As they all greeted him in turn, he was able to place the voices with faces and learned that Minho was the serious one he had thought, that Jinki was the verbal diarrhea and that Jonghyun-please-call-me-jjong-all-my-friends-do was the one who had rudely pointed out his backside.
“So do you do this because you have always known how good you looked in hose, or some sort of a lost dare?”
Kibum stared at Jonghyun, and decide to be just as blunt in his answer.
“I work here to pay tuition for SU. My legs and ass were a consequence of good breeding and poor measurements. Enjoy your evening.”
Kibum tilted his head and turned on his heel, stomping back through the door while pulling his tunic down to make sure he was covered. He was so ready to go now, screw waiting to help clean up. He convinced his manager that he was feeling ill and wanted to go back to the dorm to rest his throat before he returned for tomorrow. As he changed out of his costume, he tried to push the encounter with the four boys out of his mind. To be so forward with someone you had just met, to flirt so salaciously, as if anyone should just fall to his feet for the honor of his smirk and the sound of his voice. Kibum sighed and pulled on his grey suede ankle boots and tucked his skin-tight jeans into them and stood up, surveying himself in the mirror. He resisted the urge to turn sideways and see if he looked fat in them; because he already knew that he most emphatically did not. And if he took a quick glance while he turned to reach for his sweater, it was just to make sure that he did not have any creases in his hair from having it tucked up under his triangle hat.
A/N- I have been lurking for awhile now, and I love SHINee so much, and Key in particular, that I decided to finally start writing! I am a total NOOB however so please bear with me! I welcome any and all help! Oh, also, I am from America and know very little about Korea except what I have gleaned from Hello Baby and Kpop videos. So I apologize know for any O/C-ness!