Eveready
PG-13 / 500 words / Kim Kibum (SHINee) ; Lee Jinki (SHINee)
One of your clearest memories of your childhood is secretly staying up past bedtime and quietly reading by flashlight under your solar system sheets. You don’t ask stories to be read to you because you think it’s much more exciting to turn the pages and discover new places by yourself so you kiss your mommy and daddy goodnight, crawl under the covers, and wait until you no longer hear their footsteps outside your door.
You’ve read your bedtime books to death, worn them out until their spines broke. You’ve gone through so many batteries, gone under so many sheets, and you didn’t outgrow your bedtime ritual until you hit your double digits. You decided you’re already too old for it so your flashlight sits forgotten among your old bedtime storybooks in that old box at the darkest corner of your closet.
You miss the excitement of a different adventure every night but you share your room with four other people now and as the eldest and the leader, you think it’s your responsibility to appear mature to them. (You think you’re doing a horrible job at this leading thing but as long as Kibum isn’t berating you about setting a bad example for Taemin by reading under poor lighting, maybe there’s still hope for you.)
Kibum crawls under the sheets with you because it’s winter and it’s cold, and his jacket is apparently not enough to keep him warm, and you immediately wonder if there’s a flashlight nearby because you suddenly feel the temptation of a good book begging to be read.
You find that there is no need for flashlights as he lets you turn his pages slowly (and quietly, lest you wake up the other boys), bend his spine the way no one can and read him to the end because you can feel him clearly, as if you’re seeing him under the warm morning sunlight.
It eventually becomes an evening ritual because Kibum claims your bed is warmer than his is. You don’t protest and the boys continue to pretend they know nothing (you’re very sure they know everything because you caught Kibum threatening them into keeping their mouths shut but how can they not know anyway?) and you feel as if you’re a little boy again, going on adventures as soon as manager-hyung’s footsteps fade away outside your door and Jonghyun starts snoring. It amazes you that each time you open him like a book, you are presented with a story different from the night before. You ask Kibum how he does it but he laughs and tells you how silly you are.
You think, perhaps, reading under the covers isn’t really an immature thing to do although it’s probably not going to have a happily-ever-after, considering who you are and what you are, but you figure you’ll worry about the future when it comes. For now, you’ll just pride yourself with the fact that only you have seen how far that book’s spine can bend.
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note: inspired by j.w. miller's rechargeable dry cell poem
my drabble type things have been getting longer and longer.... o____o