[fic] follow the angel's lead
follow the angel’s lead
3,948w, pg-13
mixed, jonghyun/onew & key/iu
they say a butterfly doesn't know it's beautiful because it can't see their own wings but in this case, jonghyun doesn't know how much of an angel he is until someone points it out to him. [DISCONTINUED]
Jonghyun realizes, when he shrugs on his blazer and fixes his tie, that not everything comes easy.
Hot steam whistles from the rice cooker and the floor reverberates in his small one-room flat at every steady pound when he goes over to the kitchen to scoop his rice. His breakfast is not much. Not the usual kimchi stew like most mothers would serve with the usual and always abundant side dishes. Nah. He's just having plain ol' rice, old preserved kimchi his grandmother gifted him and the leftover beef his aunt bagged for him from last night's reunion grill. Being such a picky eater was not easy.
But he's late, he's five minutes off his usual schedule all because he forgot to cook rice yesterday and he had to wait an extra ten minutes because his rice cooker wasn't responding. He forgets about stuffing his face with food, forgets about savoring the remaining juices in the korean beef he took home. Instead, he just grabs the bundle of lunch boxes and containers sitting by the shoe rack and races out of the door.
It's half past five in the morning when the rice cooker clicks and briefly announces that the rice is ready.
It takes Jonghyun forty-five minutes to travel from his house to Seoul's central district and another twenty minutes to walk to Jinki's room. School's about ten minutes away so Jonghyun counts (with his fingers) that he's got about at least fifteen minutes with Jinki. He glances out of the bus windows, at least better than having no time at all.
"Jonghyun, thank you." Jinki says for nth time that morning and Jonghyun just softly jabs the latter's chopsticks at his lips. A bit of rice falls off from his lips and they both end up laughing, almost spilling the pork stew Jonghyun prepared.
When they both regain their senses, Jonghyun says, "How many times do I have to tell you? Stop thanking me for everything." He licks his spoon clean and knocks it against Jinki's crown. "I've been doing this for the past year and you still have to thank your friend for bringing you breakfast? Just stop, it's embarrassing."
Jinki chuckles tiredly. "Fine, fine."
They spend a few seconds staring at each other, finding out each other's intentions and almost bursting into laughter again before they were abruptly interrupted by a soft gentle voice. A voice as gentle as a deer, as gentle as Jinki actually. "Ah, I knew you were here. The door was left open a bit."
Twin smiles spread across both boy's faces as Jinki's younger sister enters, dressed in the same school uniform as Jonghyun.
"Jieun, come eat. Jonghyun brought pork stew, your favorite." Jinki says the second Jieun steps in and adjusts her skirt. Not too short but not too long either. Jonghyun stares at her, amazed at how she can look so beautiful everyday. Caramel brown locks, just like her brother's, falling off her shoulders as she sweeps it aside. Killer bright red shoes that looks like they can be used for dancing instead of school. Oh, let's not forget her smile; the very reason why Jonghyun can't tear his eyes off her.
("It's okay, oppa. I had breakfast before leaving. Oh, mum said that she's going to drop by today to accompany you for your next checkup."
"That's not necessary! She's just over-reacting, I can handle on my own."
"You message her then, oppa! Jonghyun oppa and I have--" )
"-- no time!" She cheerily declines and looks at Jonghyun's way, "Oppa! We're going to be late! It's already past seven."
Before disappearing, she waves one last time and beams towards her big brother. Jinki kicks Jonghyun off the bed and almost washes his face with salty soup as he waves around his bowl, "Why are you just staring! You're going to be late, I don't want you to be late because of me."
Usually, Jonghyun would obediently pick up his yellow blazer and school bag and hurry down the halls with Jieun but today, he decides to pulls Jinki down with him as well and spend a few moments, to compensate the moments lost, laughing at their ridiculous friendship before getting up and go.
"Eat well." He says when the door's about a cm open and runs past the white uniformed girl holding a clipboard to the yellow and black uniformed girl waiting by the elevator.
The school's canteen is usually full on Wednesdays because it's Japanese food but there are more tables clear of students than the tables in their classrooms. Everyone's out on the field for their monthly dentistry check up and it's a valid reason to be skipping class lessons so Jonghyun's almost happy when he spot the queue as short as it is during Fruits Friday but then he realizes he's short of cash because he deposited money into Kibum's bank account yesterday. He just pulls up a chair next to a window overlooking the large crowd of students on the soccer field and thanks god that he remembered to bring down his water bottle. When the sun has shifted a little from it's position in the sky, Jieun clunks her metal tray opposite Jonghyun who's just resting his chin against his hand and having a sip of water from his bottle.
"Not eating?" She frowns, noisily stirring her miso soup.
Jonghyun refuses to look, "Yeah, so?"
She scoops some rice inside the egg pocket and swirls it infront of Jonghyun, "Because it's Omurice, oppa's favorite."
He has half the mind to lean forward to clean her spoon but she draws her spoon back to her lips before that thought crosses his mind. She licks the spoon clean and knocks his crown, "Stop starving, oppa. You have money in your pocket and you're going to buy some Omurice for yourself."
Jonghyun shoves his hand down his pocket, feeling something crumpled kiss the tips of his fingers and glances up to furrow his eyebrows at Jieun but she just takes another spoonful of egg and rice, as if to urge him to go on and eat, so he takes his place in the line.
When he returns, metal tray suddenly heavy in his hands, Jieun's almost done with her plate and Jonghyun snorts. "Didn't you eat breakfast before you left? You should have eaten with Jinki, I wouldn't mind coming late."
Jonghyun gets another knock on his crown.
The sound of cans and potato chip bags being crunched up, excited yells coming from the private room in the back and low incomprehensible mumbles among students is common. For Jonghyun, it's like coming into another classroom. The girls who are avidly blogging near to the counter are discussing about fashion; about Kate Hudson and something about Burberry just like the girls who are seated near the hallways in his class. The guys at the back of the cafe, playing Call of Duty (The new COD Ghosts multiplayer probably or Battlefield 4... He glances down at the clipboard, of course, COD ghosts, I mean yeah, who doesn't love their new maps?) are loudly commentating and cursing, almost similarly to the boys who gather at the back of the class and pick on fights with the weaker and less studious boys of the class. Then Jonghyun's gaze falls on that one gamer in the corner, who just crushed a can of cola while playing Maplestory. Jonghyun tries hard not to roll his eyes but he can't help but think of that one quiet boy who sits in the absolute front (just like Jinki) and the only sounds you can hear from him is the sound of a page flipping. Well, that's if you can hear it over the noisy boys and girls in class.
As usual, the station behind the counter is lazy work. Just sign the kid's name on the clipboard, what game their playing for how long and assign them a time-limit and a computer for them to park their butts at. When the time's up, turn off their computers and collect the money. That's all Jonghyun really has to do. Any other nonsense that stirs in between, he doesn't really care and if it ever occurs, well, he has had plenty of experience on how to handle it. The one who cater to the kid's needs of drinks and food is Minho; an actual smart ass who really deserves Jonghyun's place in school but has no money to pay the yearly tuition fees. Minho is into gaming, hence why he works in a computer cafe but he's more curious about the programming than the gameplay. He finds it fascinating that certain commands have certain effects and how one possible cancels the other command completely, and -- "I think it's cool how Infinity Ward has really stepped up their game on graphics for Call of Duty. I'm pretty sure it'll look better on the Xbox One. Next gen gameplay, they say!"
"Yeah, me too. Kid fourteen's calling you, probably for more coke." Jonghyun drawls, his eyes staring blankly at the cafe.
Another thing about Minho is that he's very laidback and doesn't have any intentions of rebelling at his age. For a student who is supposed to be a sophomore in high school, he's surprisingly coping with any puberty urges well. With a whole-hearted smile (Jonghyun cringes), Minho grabs a can of coke form the mini-fridge and heads to computer fourteen.
Ever since they made a gaming room, installed with the latest platforms especially the Playstaion 4 and Xbox One, Minho has been getting less orders of snacks and drinks from the computer rows and has been making more daily trips to the back. Jonghyun remembers those kids used to play World of Warcraft but he knows the gaming trend well. Kids will be kids and kids will always be on Youtube, watching game commentators like PewDiePie and RoosterTeeth rise the ranks. Jonghyun knows this only because Kibum's exactly like that.
When Minho comes back, the coke can is still on his tray and Jonghyun raises an eyebrow at this. "What happened?"
"He asked me if he can evoke his membership in the cafe and get his remaining balance in cash."
"What did you say?"
"I said sure and asked him why. He's been our loyal customer ever since he dropped out of high school. You would know, right?" Minho belatedly puts the tray on the counter.
"Yeah. What did he say then?"
"He said he couldn't do it anymore. His brother is balancing both work and school just for him and he feels bad so he wants to go back to school again." Minho pauses, eyes trained on the coke as he pushes it towards Jonghyun. "The funny thing is that he told me to give this to you."
Jonghyun looks up and spots kid fourteen peering over the computer. He looks back at the coke and Jonghyun sighs as he tries to recall the recipe for his grandmother's special homemade kimchi stew.
When Jonghyun ends his shift, kid fourteen comes up to sign off and pay but Jonghyun snatches the clipboard away and pushes the can towards him. "I paid everything for you, drink it."
"Why? I was gonna pay."
"Just drink." Jonghyun folds his apron neatly as Minho comes out from the break room (slash mini kitchen) and pauses to smile politely at kid fourteen.
"You know him?" Minho asks as he sprinkles salt all over the fries.
Jonghyun snorts. Kid fourteen looks up, annoyed.
"Yeah, he's my half-brother I told you about. Kim Kibum."
The walk back home from the computer cafe is long but reasonable. His house is on top of a hill and all the roads going up are usually heavy with traffic so they go by the back, for safety measures. It's been two years since Kibum stormed out of the house and never returned but he hikes up the slope as if he does it everyday. Jonghyun notes that in his absence, Kibum's grown quieter unlike before when he used to only talk about cakes. How he'd decorate them with excessive icing for the charities or mold beautiful tiered ones for weddings. Now, he doesn't even talk at all. Jonghyun wonders why.
"So, what have you been doing?" Jonghyun asks.
There's silence for a while, nothing but the cars honking in the distance and the sound of their shoes scrubbing against the concrete floor until Kibum slows down his pace, hands previously shoved in his pockets now tugging on Jonghyun's arm. "You didn't have to tell Grandma."
"What?"
"That I'm doing well in school," Kibum pauses, stops walking and stops Jonghyun too. "That I'm in the top ten in school, that you're proud of me eventhough I don't spend time with you. Stop lying to grandma, I feel bad."
Jonghyun shrugs, "It's nothing. Anyways, you're going back to school so it won't be lying anymore. I'm going to find a home tutor for you and sign you up to a cram school too."
And despite all those years apart, despite Kibum's new quiet demeanor, he still hasn't quite changed at all. His smile softens just like how it used to and his eyes glimmer in a way that it reminds Jonghyun when Kibum had gotten his first baking recipe book from Grandma. In his defense, Kibum's eyes has always been his weakness and Jonghyun just couldn't resist but lean in and peck a kiss on Kibum's high cheekbones.
He admits that he miss seeing the light pink color on Kibum's cheeks.
"Who is Eunji?"
Jonghyun smiles mockingly at Kibum and snatches his phone away, "A friend."
Kibum smirks and then punches him lightly on the shoulder, "Why don't you share this precious news with your brother? I'm sure someone who is so handsome and smart would care to listen."
Jonghyun darts his eyes from the screen and to Kibum, "Up to this day, I still can't decide whether it was mother's vainness or father's ignorance that made you so narcissistic."
"Actually, it's your pedestal-like existence." Kibum says matter-of-factly as he flips open Jonghyun's old maths textbook. He resists the urge to laugh when he comes across a page full of pencil-drawn vaginas and dicks. "You better not be fucking her."
Jonghyun grumbles and reminds himself that it will take a lot more than textbooks-in-the-face to throw Kibum out of the house. Not that he's intending to do so again, especially not when he hears that signature silvery Kim Kibum laugh that used to fill and are filling the empty spaces of his apartment.
"Yeah, he said he was going to call you after dinner. Do you want to talk to him now? No? Okay, I'll tell him. Bye, eat well." Jonghyun puts down the receiver and turns to Kibum, "Call grandma after you eat and wash the dishes. How's the stew?"
"Just the same as grandma's. Are you going now?" Kibum says with a mouthful of rice and Jonghyun wants to tell him to swallow first but he needs to head out.
"Yeah, another part-time job called and said it's an emergency. I don't know how long they want me to stay so just go to sleep without me. Your clothes and toothbrush are still as they were but I don't have any facial products. Still remember where's the convenience store?"
Kibum nods and Jonghyun just hums, "Okay, I'm leaving. Goodnight, Kibum."
Jonghyun leaves with two hands shoved down his pockets, but not before Kibum pulls him back. "You forgot your lunch boxes. Goodnight, hyung."
A surprise peck on the lips. Jonghyun hasn't had that in two years.
"Your kimchi stew taste delicious, are you sure you made this?" Jinki asks as he shuffles his weight under the sheets.
"Yeah, I did. My grandma taught me." Jonghyun says with a mouthful of rice.
Somehow, Jonghyun always sneaks past the nurses and staff to reach Jinki's room after visiting hours and he would always smuggle the latter delicious food knowing his best friend would always skip his dinner due to his lack of appetite or the timing of his appointments that would always make him late for his dinner. Rather more proud of the fact that he can outsmart a few adults, he is more proud that he's doing a well job keeping Jinki as chubby as he was when he first got admitted. His eyes caress Jinki's glowing cheek in the dark as it casts a shadow over his pale lips. How he wished he could have kept Jinki's lips as red though.
At first, this visiting thing was only to bring Jinki some food he craved for but now it had become a nightly ritual because they always talked about deep stuff especially since the hour was around midnight. More often than not, Jinki always muses when he was going to die and more often than not, Jonghyun never responds. He just lets Jinki continue musing, talking about how God is such a bastard to pick him or how Satan must really like him to kill him. Jinki is Christian and Jonghyun knows it's taboo for him to talk about such things but he never stops the boy, never wants to hear Jinki break down because the one time he did stop Jinki from is thoughts, the boy was such a sobbing mess and had been blaming himself until those deity-kind of thoughts clouded his mind again.
They rarely talked about Jonghyun and if he did, they talked about his work life and Minho and sometimes Jieun about how well she is doing in school and how is she coping with Jonghyun taking over Jinki's big brother role in school. He always tells him that she doesn't seem to mind, that Jonghyun's been watching her from the distance and dealing with her problems when she needed help. And when a wave of reassurance washes through Jinki, the other boy can't help but feel his chest swell a little.
"Kibum finally came home today. He's finally eating properly and studying." Jonghyun says as they are tucking away utensils and lunch boxes away into Jonghyun's bag. "I'm going to have to feed him more than you."
"No, you can't!" is Jinki's immediate response and usually he would know when his friend is joking or not but the answer was so straight-forward and quick that Jonghyun's heart nearly skips a beat and feels bad for even joking about it in the first place.
"I--I mean, you should... He's your brother after all." Jinki stutters belatedly and quietly withdraws his hand away from Jonghyun's side of the bed but the younger reaches out for his hand and runs his wrinkled thumb over Jinki's prominent knuckles.
"And he's an aspiring pastier, he should know how to cook for himself. You actually need more food than he does." Jonghyun reaches a hand up to Jinki's cheek, in which is burns hotly at the touch as he pinches it, "Your chubby face must be a family thing then cause Jieun's is just as chubby too."
Jinki swats his hands away and says, "There's nothing wrong with having a chubby face. It makes us look cute."
Jonghyun thinks, yes it does because it makes Jieun look too adorable when she's smiling to other boys and he can't help but feel jealousy bubble when she does.
It's past 3 in the morning when Jonghyun reaches home. The bus services had stopped hours ago so he had to walk back home. Thank god some kind man offered to drive Jonghyun to his house just as he was about to fall over his wobbly knees.
He quietly steps around the house, careful not to wake Kibum up knowing he has terrible flooring in this apartment. When he glances at the clock, he decides that he has enough time to prepare a few servings of fish stew and considering he had maintained perfect attendance last semester, it wouldn't hurt for him to skip school just for a day.
Kibum is staring down at him with disappointment as he nudges his brother awake. Jonghyun glances at the small dinner table and sees the soup is no longer steaming as sunlight is filtering in through the curtains of their tiny house. He glances at the clock again and realizes he's been asleep for only less than an hour, the hour clock hand dangerously sitting on 7 as the minute hand is past the 30 minute mark. He then spares Kibum a glance before he sits up, holding his head as it spins, like it would help him get a grip of reality.
"You're late for school, hyung." Kibum points out, walking over to the prepared meal and sipping at the soup before making a disgusted face and says, "Too salty. You forgot to put pepper in, hyung."
Jonghyun joins him only ten minutes later, when Kibum has already poured both of them a drink and started eating slowly his rice. "I'm going to be busy looking for a tutor for you or a cram school today. You can hang out with my colleague at the cafe until I come in for work if that's too boring for you."
He notices that Kibum has taken the bowl with lesser contents in it and swiftly swaps when Kibum turns his head to sneeze. "I'll hang out with you, hyung. Besides, they might wanna see me in person if they want to teach me. I feel bad you skip school for me."
The last sentence comes out as a mumble from Kibum's lips before he stuffs his mouth with rice but Jonghyun knows all too well how Kibum acts when he's feeling guilty and pushes the kimchi side-dish to Kibum, "It's grandma's, eat up."
Jonghyun only stops taking dainty bites and stuffs his mouth with food when Kibum leaves to take more rice.
They were more than just a few willing cram school willing to enroll Kibum into their classes since they were approached by his brother who attending such an elite school. Jonghyun had just brought along his blazer to put on Kibum to fool the counter attendants but when he shrugs it on for himself, he is quite baffled by how more than willing these teachers were to pamper Kibum in his studying process. The brothers decide to give them a week, having time to themselves to short-list the best cram schools before calling them back.
Home tutors were hard to find but some teachers that serve in cram schools also offered home tutoring services so once again, Jonghyun and Kibum were handed a long list of people to call and they felt it was rather ridiculous that they just picked a random person and hired him. If he was not according to Kibum's taste, they would decide to sack him and hire a new one from the list. Process repeated if needed.
"Hyung, why are you carrying those lunch-boxes around?" Kibum asks as they're sitting in a corner restaurant that served french cuisine. He's cautiously eyeing the tall stack of lunchboxes wrapped in a towel and Jonghyun's a little nervous about what his younger brother might crack. Their mushroom crepes arrive then and Jonghyun casually pretends he didn't hear Kibum's question before asking, "My work is in 4 hours, I have other stuff to do and I don't think you'll like it so do you wanna head home after this or spend some time in the cafe?"
"Other stuff? Are you going on a date? Is that what the lunch boxes are for?" Kibum mumbles under the chewing of his mushrooms and Jonghyun groans, shaking his head.
3,948w, pg-13
mixed, jonghyun/onew & key/iu
they say a butterfly doesn't know it's beautiful because it can't see their own wings but in this case, jonghyun doesn't know how much of an angel he is until someone points it out to him. [DISCONTINUED]
Jonghyun realizes, when he shrugs on his blazer and fixes his tie, that not everything comes easy.
Hot steam whistles from the rice cooker and the floor reverberates in his small one-room flat at every steady pound when he goes over to the kitchen to scoop his rice. His breakfast is not much. Not the usual kimchi stew like most mothers would serve with the usual and always abundant side dishes. Nah. He's just having plain ol' rice, old preserved kimchi his grandmother gifted him and the leftover beef his aunt bagged for him from last night's reunion grill. Being such a picky eater was not easy.
But he's late, he's five minutes off his usual schedule all because he forgot to cook rice yesterday and he had to wait an extra ten minutes because his rice cooker wasn't responding. He forgets about stuffing his face with food, forgets about savoring the remaining juices in the korean beef he took home. Instead, he just grabs the bundle of lunch boxes and containers sitting by the shoe rack and races out of the door.
It's half past five in the morning when the rice cooker clicks and briefly announces that the rice is ready.
It takes Jonghyun forty-five minutes to travel from his house to Seoul's central district and another twenty minutes to walk to Jinki's room. School's about ten minutes away so Jonghyun counts (with his fingers) that he's got about at least fifteen minutes with Jinki. He glances out of the bus windows, at least better than having no time at all.
"Jonghyun, thank you." Jinki says for nth time that morning and Jonghyun just softly jabs the latter's chopsticks at his lips. A bit of rice falls off from his lips and they both end up laughing, almost spilling the pork stew Jonghyun prepared.
When they both regain their senses, Jonghyun says, "How many times do I have to tell you? Stop thanking me for everything." He licks his spoon clean and knocks it against Jinki's crown. "I've been doing this for the past year and you still have to thank your friend for bringing you breakfast? Just stop, it's embarrassing."
Jinki chuckles tiredly. "Fine, fine."
They spend a few seconds staring at each other, finding out each other's intentions and almost bursting into laughter again before they were abruptly interrupted by a soft gentle voice. A voice as gentle as a deer, as gentle as Jinki actually. "Ah, I knew you were here. The door was left open a bit."
Twin smiles spread across both boy's faces as Jinki's younger sister enters, dressed in the same school uniform as Jonghyun.
"Jieun, come eat. Jonghyun brought pork stew, your favorite." Jinki says the second Jieun steps in and adjusts her skirt. Not too short but not too long either. Jonghyun stares at her, amazed at how she can look so beautiful everyday. Caramel brown locks, just like her brother's, falling off her shoulders as she sweeps it aside. Killer bright red shoes that looks like they can be used for dancing instead of school. Oh, let's not forget her smile; the very reason why Jonghyun can't tear his eyes off her.
("It's okay, oppa. I had breakfast before leaving. Oh, mum said that she's going to drop by today to accompany you for your next checkup."
"That's not necessary! She's just over-reacting, I can handle on my own."
"You message her then, oppa! Jonghyun oppa and I have--" )
"-- no time!" She cheerily declines and looks at Jonghyun's way, "Oppa! We're going to be late! It's already past seven."
Before disappearing, she waves one last time and beams towards her big brother. Jinki kicks Jonghyun off the bed and almost washes his face with salty soup as he waves around his bowl, "Why are you just staring! You're going to be late, I don't want you to be late because of me."
Usually, Jonghyun would obediently pick up his yellow blazer and school bag and hurry down the halls with Jieun but today, he decides to pulls Jinki down with him as well and spend a few moments, to compensate the moments lost, laughing at their ridiculous friendship before getting up and go.
"Eat well." He says when the door's about a cm open and runs past the white uniformed girl holding a clipboard to the yellow and black uniformed girl waiting by the elevator.
The school's canteen is usually full on Wednesdays because it's Japanese food but there are more tables clear of students than the tables in their classrooms. Everyone's out on the field for their monthly dentistry check up and it's a valid reason to be skipping class lessons so Jonghyun's almost happy when he spot the queue as short as it is during Fruits Friday but then he realizes he's short of cash because he deposited money into Kibum's bank account yesterday. He just pulls up a chair next to a window overlooking the large crowd of students on the soccer field and thanks god that he remembered to bring down his water bottle. When the sun has shifted a little from it's position in the sky, Jieun clunks her metal tray opposite Jonghyun who's just resting his chin against his hand and having a sip of water from his bottle.
"Not eating?" She frowns, noisily stirring her miso soup.
Jonghyun refuses to look, "Yeah, so?"
She scoops some rice inside the egg pocket and swirls it infront of Jonghyun, "Because it's Omurice, oppa's favorite."
He has half the mind to lean forward to clean her spoon but she draws her spoon back to her lips before that thought crosses his mind. She licks the spoon clean and knocks his crown, "Stop starving, oppa. You have money in your pocket and you're going to buy some Omurice for yourself."
Jonghyun shoves his hand down his pocket, feeling something crumpled kiss the tips of his fingers and glances up to furrow his eyebrows at Jieun but she just takes another spoonful of egg and rice, as if to urge him to go on and eat, so he takes his place in the line.
When he returns, metal tray suddenly heavy in his hands, Jieun's almost done with her plate and Jonghyun snorts. "Didn't you eat breakfast before you left? You should have eaten with Jinki, I wouldn't mind coming late."
Jonghyun gets another knock on his crown.
The sound of cans and potato chip bags being crunched up, excited yells coming from the private room in the back and low incomprehensible mumbles among students is common. For Jonghyun, it's like coming into another classroom. The girls who are avidly blogging near to the counter are discussing about fashion; about Kate Hudson and something about Burberry just like the girls who are seated near the hallways in his class. The guys at the back of the cafe, playing Call of Duty (The new COD Ghosts multiplayer probably or Battlefield 4... He glances down at the clipboard, of course, COD ghosts, I mean yeah, who doesn't love their new maps?) are loudly commentating and cursing, almost similarly to the boys who gather at the back of the class and pick on fights with the weaker and less studious boys of the class. Then Jonghyun's gaze falls on that one gamer in the corner, who just crushed a can of cola while playing Maplestory. Jonghyun tries hard not to roll his eyes but he can't help but think of that one quiet boy who sits in the absolute front (just like Jinki) and the only sounds you can hear from him is the sound of a page flipping. Well, that's if you can hear it over the noisy boys and girls in class.
As usual, the station behind the counter is lazy work. Just sign the kid's name on the clipboard, what game their playing for how long and assign them a time-limit and a computer for them to park their butts at. When the time's up, turn off their computers and collect the money. That's all Jonghyun really has to do. Any other nonsense that stirs in between, he doesn't really care and if it ever occurs, well, he has had plenty of experience on how to handle it. The one who cater to the kid's needs of drinks and food is Minho; an actual smart ass who really deserves Jonghyun's place in school but has no money to pay the yearly tuition fees. Minho is into gaming, hence why he works in a computer cafe but he's more curious about the programming than the gameplay. He finds it fascinating that certain commands have certain effects and how one possible cancels the other command completely, and -- "I think it's cool how Infinity Ward has really stepped up their game on graphics for Call of Duty. I'm pretty sure it'll look better on the Xbox One. Next gen gameplay, they say!"
"Yeah, me too. Kid fourteen's calling you, probably for more coke." Jonghyun drawls, his eyes staring blankly at the cafe.
Another thing about Minho is that he's very laidback and doesn't have any intentions of rebelling at his age. For a student who is supposed to be a sophomore in high school, he's surprisingly coping with any puberty urges well. With a whole-hearted smile (Jonghyun cringes), Minho grabs a can of coke form the mini-fridge and heads to computer fourteen.
Ever since they made a gaming room, installed with the latest platforms especially the Playstaion 4 and Xbox One, Minho has been getting less orders of snacks and drinks from the computer rows and has been making more daily trips to the back. Jonghyun remembers those kids used to play World of Warcraft but he knows the gaming trend well. Kids will be kids and kids will always be on Youtube, watching game commentators like PewDiePie and RoosterTeeth rise the ranks. Jonghyun knows this only because Kibum's exactly like that.
When Minho comes back, the coke can is still on his tray and Jonghyun raises an eyebrow at this. "What happened?"
"He asked me if he can evoke his membership in the cafe and get his remaining balance in cash."
"What did you say?"
"I said sure and asked him why. He's been our loyal customer ever since he dropped out of high school. You would know, right?" Minho belatedly puts the tray on the counter.
"Yeah. What did he say then?"
"He said he couldn't do it anymore. His brother is balancing both work and school just for him and he feels bad so he wants to go back to school again." Minho pauses, eyes trained on the coke as he pushes it towards Jonghyun. "The funny thing is that he told me to give this to you."
Jonghyun looks up and spots kid fourteen peering over the computer. He looks back at the coke and Jonghyun sighs as he tries to recall the recipe for his grandmother's special homemade kimchi stew.
When Jonghyun ends his shift, kid fourteen comes up to sign off and pay but Jonghyun snatches the clipboard away and pushes the can towards him. "I paid everything for you, drink it."
"Why? I was gonna pay."
"Just drink." Jonghyun folds his apron neatly as Minho comes out from the break room (slash mini kitchen) and pauses to smile politely at kid fourteen.
"You know him?" Minho asks as he sprinkles salt all over the fries.
Jonghyun snorts. Kid fourteen looks up, annoyed.
"Yeah, he's my half-brother I told you about. Kim Kibum."
The walk back home from the computer cafe is long but reasonable. His house is on top of a hill and all the roads going up are usually heavy with traffic so they go by the back, for safety measures. It's been two years since Kibum stormed out of the house and never returned but he hikes up the slope as if he does it everyday. Jonghyun notes that in his absence, Kibum's grown quieter unlike before when he used to only talk about cakes. How he'd decorate them with excessive icing for the charities or mold beautiful tiered ones for weddings. Now, he doesn't even talk at all. Jonghyun wonders why.
"So, what have you been doing?" Jonghyun asks.
There's silence for a while, nothing but the cars honking in the distance and the sound of their shoes scrubbing against the concrete floor until Kibum slows down his pace, hands previously shoved in his pockets now tugging on Jonghyun's arm. "You didn't have to tell Grandma."
"What?"
"That I'm doing well in school," Kibum pauses, stops walking and stops Jonghyun too. "That I'm in the top ten in school, that you're proud of me eventhough I don't spend time with you. Stop lying to grandma, I feel bad."
Jonghyun shrugs, "It's nothing. Anyways, you're going back to school so it won't be lying anymore. I'm going to find a home tutor for you and sign you up to a cram school too."
And despite all those years apart, despite Kibum's new quiet demeanor, he still hasn't quite changed at all. His smile softens just like how it used to and his eyes glimmer in a way that it reminds Jonghyun when Kibum had gotten his first baking recipe book from Grandma. In his defense, Kibum's eyes has always been his weakness and Jonghyun just couldn't resist but lean in and peck a kiss on Kibum's high cheekbones.
He admits that he miss seeing the light pink color on Kibum's cheeks.
"Who is Eunji?"
Jonghyun smiles mockingly at Kibum and snatches his phone away, "A friend."
Kibum smirks and then punches him lightly on the shoulder, "Why don't you share this precious news with your brother? I'm sure someone who is so handsome and smart would care to listen."
Jonghyun darts his eyes from the screen and to Kibum, "Up to this day, I still can't decide whether it was mother's vainness or father's ignorance that made you so narcissistic."
"Actually, it's your pedestal-like existence." Kibum says matter-of-factly as he flips open Jonghyun's old maths textbook. He resists the urge to laugh when he comes across a page full of pencil-drawn vaginas and dicks. "You better not be fucking her."
Jonghyun grumbles and reminds himself that it will take a lot more than textbooks-in-the-face to throw Kibum out of the house. Not that he's intending to do so again, especially not when he hears that signature silvery Kim Kibum laugh that used to fill and are filling the empty spaces of his apartment.
"Yeah, he said he was going to call you after dinner. Do you want to talk to him now? No? Okay, I'll tell him. Bye, eat well." Jonghyun puts down the receiver and turns to Kibum, "Call grandma after you eat and wash the dishes. How's the stew?"
"Just the same as grandma's. Are you going now?" Kibum says with a mouthful of rice and Jonghyun wants to tell him to swallow first but he needs to head out.
"Yeah, another part-time job called and said it's an emergency. I don't know how long they want me to stay so just go to sleep without me. Your clothes and toothbrush are still as they were but I don't have any facial products. Still remember where's the convenience store?"
Kibum nods and Jonghyun just hums, "Okay, I'm leaving. Goodnight, Kibum."
Jonghyun leaves with two hands shoved down his pockets, but not before Kibum pulls him back. "You forgot your lunch boxes. Goodnight, hyung."
A surprise peck on the lips. Jonghyun hasn't had that in two years.
"Your kimchi stew taste delicious, are you sure you made this?" Jinki asks as he shuffles his weight under the sheets.
"Yeah, I did. My grandma taught me." Jonghyun says with a mouthful of rice.
Somehow, Jonghyun always sneaks past the nurses and staff to reach Jinki's room after visiting hours and he would always smuggle the latter delicious food knowing his best friend would always skip his dinner due to his lack of appetite or the timing of his appointments that would always make him late for his dinner. Rather more proud of the fact that he can outsmart a few adults, he is more proud that he's doing a well job keeping Jinki as chubby as he was when he first got admitted. His eyes caress Jinki's glowing cheek in the dark as it casts a shadow over his pale lips. How he wished he could have kept Jinki's lips as red though.
At first, this visiting thing was only to bring Jinki some food he craved for but now it had become a nightly ritual because they always talked about deep stuff especially since the hour was around midnight. More often than not, Jinki always muses when he was going to die and more often than not, Jonghyun never responds. He just lets Jinki continue musing, talking about how God is such a bastard to pick him or how Satan must really like him to kill him. Jinki is Christian and Jonghyun knows it's taboo for him to talk about such things but he never stops the boy, never wants to hear Jinki break down because the one time he did stop Jinki from is thoughts, the boy was such a sobbing mess and had been blaming himself until those deity-kind of thoughts clouded his mind again.
They rarely talked about Jonghyun and if he did, they talked about his work life and Minho and sometimes Jieun about how well she is doing in school and how is she coping with Jonghyun taking over Jinki's big brother role in school. He always tells him that she doesn't seem to mind, that Jonghyun's been watching her from the distance and dealing with her problems when she needed help. And when a wave of reassurance washes through Jinki, the other boy can't help but feel his chest swell a little.
"Kibum finally came home today. He's finally eating properly and studying." Jonghyun says as they are tucking away utensils and lunch boxes away into Jonghyun's bag. "I'm going to have to feed him more than you."
"No, you can't!" is Jinki's immediate response and usually he would know when his friend is joking or not but the answer was so straight-forward and quick that Jonghyun's heart nearly skips a beat and feels bad for even joking about it in the first place.
"I--I mean, you should... He's your brother after all." Jinki stutters belatedly and quietly withdraws his hand away from Jonghyun's side of the bed but the younger reaches out for his hand and runs his wrinkled thumb over Jinki's prominent knuckles.
"And he's an aspiring pastier, he should know how to cook for himself. You actually need more food than he does." Jonghyun reaches a hand up to Jinki's cheek, in which is burns hotly at the touch as he pinches it, "Your chubby face must be a family thing then cause Jieun's is just as chubby too."
Jinki swats his hands away and says, "There's nothing wrong with having a chubby face. It makes us look cute."
Jonghyun thinks, yes it does because it makes Jieun look too adorable when she's smiling to other boys and he can't help but feel jealousy bubble when she does.
It's past 3 in the morning when Jonghyun reaches home. The bus services had stopped hours ago so he had to walk back home. Thank god some kind man offered to drive Jonghyun to his house just as he was about to fall over his wobbly knees.
He quietly steps around the house, careful not to wake Kibum up knowing he has terrible flooring in this apartment. When he glances at the clock, he decides that he has enough time to prepare a few servings of fish stew and considering he had maintained perfect attendance last semester, it wouldn't hurt for him to skip school just for a day.
Kibum is staring down at him with disappointment as he nudges his brother awake. Jonghyun glances at the small dinner table and sees the soup is no longer steaming as sunlight is filtering in through the curtains of their tiny house. He glances at the clock again and realizes he's been asleep for only less than an hour, the hour clock hand dangerously sitting on 7 as the minute hand is past the 30 minute mark. He then spares Kibum a glance before he sits up, holding his head as it spins, like it would help him get a grip of reality.
"You're late for school, hyung." Kibum points out, walking over to the prepared meal and sipping at the soup before making a disgusted face and says, "Too salty. You forgot to put pepper in, hyung."
Jonghyun joins him only ten minutes later, when Kibum has already poured both of them a drink and started eating slowly his rice. "I'm going to be busy looking for a tutor for you or a cram school today. You can hang out with my colleague at the cafe until I come in for work if that's too boring for you."
He notices that Kibum has taken the bowl with lesser contents in it and swiftly swaps when Kibum turns his head to sneeze. "I'll hang out with you, hyung. Besides, they might wanna see me in person if they want to teach me. I feel bad you skip school for me."
The last sentence comes out as a mumble from Kibum's lips before he stuffs his mouth with rice but Jonghyun knows all too well how Kibum acts when he's feeling guilty and pushes the kimchi side-dish to Kibum, "It's grandma's, eat up."
Jonghyun only stops taking dainty bites and stuffs his mouth with food when Kibum leaves to take more rice.
They were more than just a few willing cram school willing to enroll Kibum into their classes since they were approached by his brother who attending such an elite school. Jonghyun had just brought along his blazer to put on Kibum to fool the counter attendants but when he shrugs it on for himself, he is quite baffled by how more than willing these teachers were to pamper Kibum in his studying process. The brothers decide to give them a week, having time to themselves to short-list the best cram schools before calling them back.
Home tutors were hard to find but some teachers that serve in cram schools also offered home tutoring services so once again, Jonghyun and Kibum were handed a long list of people to call and they felt it was rather ridiculous that they just picked a random person and hired him. If he was not according to Kibum's taste, they would decide to sack him and hire a new one from the list. Process repeated if needed.
"Hyung, why are you carrying those lunch-boxes around?" Kibum asks as they're sitting in a corner restaurant that served french cuisine. He's cautiously eyeing the tall stack of lunchboxes wrapped in a towel and Jonghyun's a little nervous about what his younger brother might crack. Their mushroom crepes arrive then and Jonghyun casually pretends he didn't hear Kibum's question before asking, "My work is in 4 hours, I have other stuff to do and I don't think you'll like it so do you wanna head home after this or spend some time in the cafe?"
"Other stuff? Are you going on a date? Is that what the lunch boxes are for?" Kibum mumbles under the chewing of his mushrooms and Jonghyun groans, shaking his head.