Title: Preschool Isn't Easy
Rating: PG
Pairing/characters: 2Min (TaeMinho), Minho, Taemin
Genre: AU, Fictional, fluffy, toddler stuff
Word count: 1,551
Summary: Being a careless toddler was the best time of life for innocence. Minho was finger-painting a pretty picture for his class and got done earlier than the rest. He saw the boy next to him had only one thing on his paper. . . And Minho was curious.
Minho clapped his hands together, swirling around the squishy red and blue paint on his hands after being satisfied with his creation.
He stuck his tongue out as he vigorously rubbed his hands together to create the pretty color that he was told was called purple. He rubbed and swirled until every inch of his little hands were covered in the newly discovered paint color.
He stared at the creation in amazement before looking at his paper on the stretcher with a goofy smile.
His hands reached outward and stuck them to the paper for a few seconds before pulling away and looking at his art.
His hand prints were everywhere in the colors he first learned. Blue, red and yellow.
But he knew everyone else would have the same thing, so he suggested to himself to make that exotic purple color.
Maybe there were more colors he could discover!
He cleaned off his hands with a towel beside him and eagerly doused his hands into yellow and blue. He shook his hands a little to make sure there wasn’t too much excess paint before rubbing his hands back together with a baby giggle.
Slowly, magic was in front of his eyes. The two colors mixed and gradually started changing-and Minho was hopping gleefully that he was so smart.
Without even thinking about the name, he pressed his hands on the paper again, overlapping yellow handprints in the bottom left corner with the new color.
He stepped back to admire his work.
“Green,” he said to himself without a hint of doubt, “That’s green.”
He wiped his hands off with the towel, giving a pensive glance at the paper before blowing up his cheeks and forcefully exhaling on to the paper so it would dry faster.
The teacher came up behind him, getting on to her knees to look at his work, “Oh, Minho-ah! There’s so many colors!”
“I know!” he exclaimed, hopping up and down to show off his excitement. His froggish eyes grew wider and his premature teeth stuck out to bite his lip. He was getting praised and he really liked it.
“Keep that up, Minho-ah!” she encouraged, “You’ll do well in kindergarten!”
He nodded, making a small bow to the teacher before she left.
He beamed at all the handprints and colors proudly, wondering if he was allowed to take it home and show his parents-surely they’d be proud.
To be respectful, he put the lids back on the paint cases before setting them away in a small box beside the stretcher. The other kids weren’t done, so he just sat down and crossed his legs, rocking himself back and forth, looking around to everyone’s hard working faces.
Particularly, he stopped at the kid that was on his right. The boy was just staring at his paper that only had one thing on there.
His name written in red in the very middle of the paper.
Minho looked at his face; it looked blank, yet it seemed the kid was thinking deeply about his next choice of movement. Multiple times he reached out to do something only to let his arm go back to his side and think some more.
Minho scooted over, getting a decent look at the symbols in red.
“Tae-Min?” he asked out loud as he read.
The boy jumped, nervously clutching his smock with the hand that had paint on it. His face turned red and he stared at the floor, not giving a specific answer, but one clear enough for Minho, nonetheless.
“Your name is Taemin?” he asked with a bright smile.
The boy’s hand kneaded into the smock and he quickly nodded his head.
“I’m Minho,” Minho nodded, pointing at the paper, “Your painting only has your name on it. Don’t you want to do more with the other colors?”
Taemin looked at his paper again, reaching his red hand out towards it before snapping back his arm, “No.”
Minho raised an eyebrow in curiosity, “Well, why not, Taemin?”
“I . . . I don’t know what to put on there,” he admitted, face getting brighter than the paint.
Minho giggled and shook his head, standing while trying not to trip over his smock, “Well, since you put your name there, why don’t you put your name all over the paper in different colors? It will look pretty!” he encouraged.
He grabbed the blue paint and gestured for Taemin to put his finger in-even with the red on him.
Taemin gave him a long and unsure stare before hesitantly sticking his finger in.
Minho smiled appreciatively and took away the container, point to a free space on the top right corner of the paper, “Write your name right here!”
The boy stood frozen at the order.
Minho didn’t give a childish thought about it and moved behind Taemin, slightly pushing him forward and lightly grabbing his wrist (Taemin was so little and skinny . . .), deciding to draw on the paper himself using Taemin’s finger as the paintbrush.
Taemin was shocked but stayed in spot as he let Minho drag his finger different directions to write his name.
“There!” Minho giddily squeaked, letting go of him, “See, it added color to the picture!
“Do you know what color that is, Taemin?” he asked.
The kid’s eyes shot straight to Minho’s and clutched the smock again, his face showing fear of answering.
“I-I . . .”
“Look at the paper, silly!” he laughed.
Taemin’s eyes wandered around the blue symbols of his name and seemingly searched his mind.
“Um . . . I don’t . . . know.”
Minho’s smile slightly fell as he realized he must’ve been one of the students who had a slow learning habit. He felt a little bad and angry at himself for not realizing it sooner, but maybe this was an opportunity to help him.
“That’s color is blue, Taemin,” Minho told him, pointing to it, “And that one right there is red.”
He pointed to the unused jar, “That one is yellow. And you can mix them in all these ways to make something cooler; it’s so cool!” he added, voice high in hyper.
The boy’s brows furrowed and he took a long stare at all of them, “You . . . there’s more colors?”
Minho nodded clapping his hands as Taemin comprehended, “Yeah! Lots more!”
Taemin’s shoulders slumped and he took off his smock, wiping his hands on it.
“Hey . . . what are you doing?”
Taemin sat on the floor and stared up at the symbols that he learned were blue, “I don’t wanna do anymore, Mi-Min . . . Ho?”
The other boy bit his lips and sat down next to Taemin, patting on his legs, “You know my name, Taemin! You’re such a fast learner!” he praised.
Taemin tried hiding his face with anything he had, but didn’t really have anything at all. He mumbled a polite ‘thank you’ before curling up his knees.
Minho learned what emotion that was.
“Why are you sad, Taemin?”
Taemin’s mouth turned to a frown and he looked up at Minho with helpless eyes, “Preschool is hard. I can’t . . . I can’t learn like everyone else. It makes me sad.”
Minho stared at him in thought for a second.
Preschool could be hard at times, but it didn’t make it any less fun-and it seemed like Taemin seemed too upset to even try to be happy.
Taemin claimed he couldn’t learn like everyone else . . . But he still learned something new, today! Surely Minho could be a good teacher!
“But, Taemin! You learned something new! You may think you can’t be like everyone else, but you’re still with us! We learned three colors today,” he held up three fingers, “What were they?”
Maybe if Minho quizzed him and he got them right, Taemin would feel better about himself.
“Uh . . . Blue,” Taemin emphasized, “Blue . . . R-Read?”
“Red! Good!” Minho supported.
Taemin’s frown slowly started curving upward as he looked at the easel, “Blue, red, and . . . and . . . that’s . . . I know it. It’s the color of my toothbrush! It’s . . .”
Minho leaned in with a smile that could stretch around the world.
Taemin smiled even wider and held his hands up to the ceiling, “Yellow! That’s yellow!”
Minho clapped in approval and took Taemin by the wrists, “See? You learned! You know three colors today! School isn’t hard!”
Taemin smiled, his eyes turning to crescents, clenching his fists in excitement, “I know it! Thank you, Min-Min-Ho!”
The high fived each other and Minho pulled Taemin up so he could write his name all over the paper in all sorts of colors.
“Do you still think preschool is hard?” Minho asked as Taemin lastly took the blue again.
Taemin’s eyes lit up when he looked at Minho and shook his head, “Because of you, it’s not! Teach me everyday, Minho! Be my teacher!”
Without a thought (or even a care for paint), Minho felt so flattered that he straight out hugged Taemin from his left and smiled by his face.
“I’ll be your teacher forever and ever, Taemin!”
---Note~---
Ugh. Safari just crashed while I made the Note. Have to rewrite this again. xD
HI!
So, I seriously wanted to make a toddler oneshot and I really thought 2Min could do it justice. I was originally going to expand it to their years in real school, but I kept to the title in the simplest way possible because it best fit.
I find it a lot easier to write people as toddlers; basically no one knows what idols were like when they were babies, so it's always able to be interpreted differently.
I seriously want a Minho baby. That baby would be so presh. Frog eyes. I. Love. Frog eyes.
I'd appreciate anyone to check out my other oneshots. c:
Thank you to all views/comments. They all make me so happy that you won't understand. c:
Bye!
~Piplupz/FlaMinhoe
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