because outside, adventure awaits [oneshot]
Title: because outside, adventure awaits
Author: salted_taiyaki
Pairing(s): Onew x Key, Jonghyun x Taemin
Genre: Romance, slice of life
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 4067
Disclaimer: Shinee members aren't mine~
Summary: Jinki lives his life by one rule, and one rule only: "enjoy everything and make the best out of all that is before you." Kibum's not quite following.
a/n: OnKey?! WHAT. ...yeah. Just experimenting. aha. hah. uh. Seriously though, it's OnKey through and through :) Quite long, but eh. It'll last for the week, I guess.
The pace of the story... it's fast, but slow at the same time. Drawn out for a reason, though it only covers about two days. It's supposed to be a simple slice of life story, you're not getting anything too exciting out of that in my world, aha. Anyway, hope you guys enjoy 8)
"Rule number one!" the boy spits as he swipes at the bug in front of him in interest. "Ya gotta be outside during the day."
"Two!"
"...Always take notes on the animals and plants you see."
"'Sactly! and three--"
"Enjoy everything and make the best out of all that is before you!"
A huge grin is plastered on Jinki's face as he pulls out two eggs from the fridge, with salt just barely balanced between his two pinky fingers. Shakily, he shuts the door with his knee and almost spins as he makes his way to the island in the center of his kitchen.
"Kibum," he continues while pulling out a bowl from the top cupboard, "why do I have to say that to you every day?" Said boy rolls his eyes and simply traces his finger along the rim of his cereal bowl, flicks the drop of milk from his fingers onto whatever. Jinki turns around, examining the slouching boy over, once, twice.
Then he grumbles, "You know, you really haven't been yourself lately."
Kibum laughs. "Myself, huh? Sorry, I just don't know what 'myself' is, anymore." Typical teenage brooding, he notes to himself in disgust. Christ.
With a small smile on his lips, Jinki cracks the egg -- a huge shell falls in and Kibum opens his mouth to say something, but closes it shut, just to get a kick out of it all -- and hums a nameless tune. "Well. Kim Kibum is a very smart guy, in more ways than one. Very fashionable, sociable." He glances over his shoulder quickly, eyebrows knit. "And he's very confused."
"You have no idea," the boy mumbles into his hand, propped up to support his sagging head. "Jinki, why don't you just let me go to sleep now?"
The boy jumps on his heels and exclaims in mock horror, "Kibum! It's still sunny outside -- how could you even think of such thoughts?"
A smile slips on his face and Kibum chuckles. "You're right. What was I thinking?" Jinki promptly nods and pours the eggs onto the frying pan that is restlessly waiting. He feels his ears tingle oddly and he smiles at Kibum with an air of content.
"Jinki, the gas isn't on."
"Oh!"
-
Kim Kibum thinks of himself as a typical, normal boy. A bit questionable, when your favorite hobby is picking out clothes and earrings and nail polish colors -- better than any other girl, he brags -- but otherwise, quite normal. He attends school with his friends, excels academically, fails in just about every sport except for kickball, and tries to put on that facade that says, "Hi, I love life." Which is clearly false, because he's kicking up daisies and uprooting baby blades of grass with his thin fingers.
"Damn it," he murmurs to himself, to the pink sky watching over him. A wind blows as if trying to comfort him, and he shrugs it away like a hand. "What do I do?"
"You could start by not moping anymore. I swear, it's driving all of us crazy." Kibum looks up and cringes, slightly, at the sight of a short faux blond cheekily grinning down at him. "Seriously, Key, it's not like you." The boy sits down next to the raven, and sighs aloud.
"Jonghyun," he curtly snaps with a flick of his wrist, a handful of grass blades showering down on his feet. "What're you doing here?"
Kim Jonghyun, Kibum thinks, is the fickle character that somehow makes or breaks everyone's day. With his odd sense of humor and occasional deep words, he tends to make a joke out of all that goes on. Which contrasts greatly with the raven's own serious approach to the aspects of life, but opposites attract, Jinki often reminds him when Kibum questions why they're friends. He feels his lips curl upwards at the image, at how odd they must be to others during school.
Feigning a hurt look, Jonghyun gasps, "Because my best friend is hurt! Duh." Kibum rolls his eyes at the gushing face next to him -- "Abbblt, lookie here, Kibummie!" he babbles -- and holds back his twitching hand.
"Really though, what's up?"
A sigh. "Jinki said that I haven't been myself lately."
Jonghyun hums. "Well, Key," Kibum frowns at his childhood nickname, "he's right about that. Attentive little bugger, isn't he." He receives a raised brow as a response and he snaps, "What? I've been reading, that's all."
"Sure, Jjong," the raven smirks as he throws the use of his nickname in there, just for fun. Jonghyun snorts.
"You just don't have a date today with Taemin, right?"
"Shut up."
Jonghyun furrows his brows and buries his head in his hands. "I swear, he's avoiding me. Like, I don't even know why but he just ends the call after I say hi, he doesn't stop by, and--" He picks his head up, eyes wide and full of worry, and panics, "What if he doesn't like me anymore?"
"I thought we said no more moping."
The blond twitches. "Oh. Right."
"Looks like we've both lost to love," Kibum sighs as he falls back, arms folding behind his head. "And to those two, of all people." The two look at each other before one chokes on spit and the other's rolling around in the pressed flowers once more.
Jonghyun finally finds the will to calm down and wheezes, "Kibum-ah, you and I both know that you have to make the first move. Jinki's an idiot." The blatant truth, which Kibum tends to overlook sometimes at the price of his patience and sanity -- but Kibum finds something about it anyway, that makes it all the more likeable.
"Hard to, when you really can't see eye to eye." The blond throws him a look of inquiry. "You know. Him being so positive and all. I don't know how I can possibly live up to that. His standards of happy and right."
With a flex of his fingers, Jonghyun catches in his hand, drifting dandelion seeds that came from the patch a few feet away from them. He breathes in the summer air calmly, as if preparing to say something profound and out of this world.
"Well, approach it in your own way."
Kicking his legs, Kibum flips onto his left side and distracts himself from Jonghyun's presence for just a while, before the anxious blond prods him with his foot, "Hey, what's up?"
He blinks slowly and rubs his eyes. It stings because of the dirt from the grass, but he doesn't really care. "I don't know what my own way is, anymore." He sits up, gaze staring down at the shimmering sun. "I feel like-- I just feel like I'm not myself. There's nothing left in me that makes me myself." A wry smile darkens his figures, and he laughs, "When did I lose all of this?"
"When you fell in love."
The raven quickly glances to his right where Jonghyun blissfully grins at the sky above them, eyes closed and brows raised. "Kibum, you're young. You think you have everything in your hands. You think that you've got control, that you're so mature and mighty just because you're about to become an adult soon." An eye slips open, twinkling in delight. "But you're far from that point. You have no idea just how much love costs."
A scowl grows on his face, and Kibum barks, "Who are you to say that?"
"Christ," Jonghyun laughs under arms held above him in protection, "this is me we're talking about. The guy who fell in love a year ago and totally understands?" Kibum remains silent as they hold their gazes, and Jonghyun breaks it off first. "Kibum, I know that prep talks like these are horrible. And hell, I wasn't even planning on giving one today, to you no less."
"Then don't."
Jonghyun lets a sigh escape. "But I'm just telling you, all of this moping isn't going to get you anywhere. Remember me?"
Kibum involuntarily chortles and covers his mouth with both hands in an attempt to block the obnoxious sound. The image of the lovesick puppy Jonghyun was scarring to all of his friends, what with him drooling and crying, then laughing and bawling again soon afterward. As his closest friend, Kibum was the receiver of all of his sorrows and late night phone calls -- "I want to kill myself, Key!" Jonghyun often sobbed, but of course, he'd never mean it -- and he too was overly joyous when Taemin finally confessed. A mental party was thrown for his efforts.
"Yeah." Kibum runs his fingers through his hair with a groan. "Am I like that right now?"
"Sort of. Kind of." A pause. "Yeah."
Kibum picks at the chipped layer of nail polish on his fingers and murmurs, "What should I do?" A clap resounds in his ears irritatingly, soon accompanied by Jonghyun's booming voice.
"Just make the first move. You know how he feels about it. Just gotta get it out of him."
Kibum tosses the idea in his head back and forth, before he throws another handful of grass at Jonghyun, this time at his face.
-
"Adventure awaits!"
"But where, Jinki?"
The boy whirls around with the most dazzling smile decorating his sun-kissed skin, and laughs. "Anywhere and everywhere, duh! Ya can't keep limiting yourself to borders, Kibummie! The sky is your limit!" And he throws his arms up in the air, laughter twinkling from open lips and down to the ground, rejuvenating the yellowing grass.
"But Jinki," the other whines as he pats down his khakis with scratched up hands. "My knees hurt."
Jinki giggles, "Sissy!" But his words contradict his actions, and he bends over to lightly kiss the reddening patch of skin that Kibum is impatiently pointing at. The two of them snicker in the backyard and pull themselves back up.
"First one to get to the tree--"
"--gets to choose where the next treasure chest'll be!"
With stubby legs, the two boys scramble their way across the cleaned yard with playful shoves and exclamations of "Hey, you're cheating!" and "There're no rules, what're you talkin' about?"
Kibum lunges forward and stumbles to the ground, Jinki tripping on his own laces not too far behind. Their hands barely graze the aged bark and they laugh together as they roll around with careless abandon. Kibum's mother peeks her head out from the kitchen window, her grin widening when her eyes land on the two boys locked in a staring contest. She pulls the curtains and goes back to her kitchen work.
"I won," Kibum proudly boasts with a thump on his chest -- then not caring about nails or wrinkles in clothes -- and Jinki nods fervently. "The next treasure chest is in..." He ponders a bit as he looks up at the blue sky. "In heaven!"
Jinki's eyes widen unbelievably, and he gapes, "Heaven? But that's impossible!" Kibum turns on him with his petite hands on his hips, lower lip pulled back between his teeth.
"I thought you said the sky's the limit!" For a second, Jinki thinks and recalls his words, and shrugs.
"We'll just have to build a plane to get there!"
And the two frantically begin to search their backyard for twigs and leaves that had been raked up by Kibum's mother hours before.
"Kibum?" Jinki asks as he slowly cracks the door open, both eyes peering in carefully to watch the boy work hard at whatever task was at hand. "What're you doing?"
"Something," he grumbles in response. A pout tugs at Jinki's lips, and he closes the door before turning around to face the white wall before him.
Jinki's the type who can't sit still, and everyone in school knows that. So, taking his free time, Jinki stumbles down the halls and into open rooms -- they've known each other for so long that, no matter the season or time, they both know where every single broom is and what each shelf in the bathroom holds -- and soon makes his way down the flight of stairs into the backyard. He prances about, arms spread and legs kicking, and he starts singing with his voice jumping and landing with each plié.
Kibum raises a brow as he stares down at his friend from his bedroom window. With the bright curtains pulled back to allow the relentless sun shine through, Kibum cups both hands over his eyes. "What the hell is he doing?" he asks to no one in particular, and gets back to work.
Five minutes later and Kibum's trudging down the steps with his eyes darting back and forth. There's an obvious bulge in his shirt, but he figures the shape to be indistinguishable, and slides the door leading to their patio open with a foot.
"Jinki!"
The boy whips his head and stares with curious eyes at the smirking raven. He leans against the white frame, one hand in his pocket as the other cradles the object. He had created a plan while working, and he assumes that it'll go well.
"Guess what."
"What?" Jinki shouts excitedly, his feet taking him right to the spot in front of Kibum. Kibum flashes a smile.
"Remember," he starts with a low voice, "that time when I got to choose where the treasure chest would be?"
A finger pecks at his chin and as Jinki thinks, the raven patiently taps his foot. "Well, sure. Many times."
"But that one time. That one time." And soon, Jinki's eyes begin to sparkle as the memory floods him like the heat is through the cracked door, and he exclaims,
"Heaven!"
Kibum chuckles quietly to himself and pulls out the item from his shirt, presenting it to the other boy with an air of pride and accomplishment. "Think that'll ever take us to heaven?" With twitching fingers, Jinki touches wings, touch feathery and light, and when he gets to the body, he jumps up and down on his toes.
"This is so much better than what we made years ago!"
"Duh," he scoffs playfully, and with a winding of his arm, Kibum throws it into the air. It glides smoothly on top of the humid layer, level to their shoulders, until it hits the tree. Jinki exclaims something in awe and dashes for the plane, and Kibum crosses his arms over his chests.
By the time Jinki sprawls himself across the uneven patches of grass, the evening had already begun to settle in without them realizing it. Kibum buries his face in his hands, stomach chilling from the cold blades that tickle his sides, and he sighs out loud.
"I don't think I've run that much since we were six."
Jinki only laughs in response as he continues to twirl the model plane around in his fingers. "How long?"
"Eh, it was a kit."
He breathes in the cooling air and mumbles, "Wasn't that so great? Those times where we'd just run around and not worry about anything at all. I miss those days." Jinki squirms a bit and then props himself up on both arms so that he's looking down on Kibum's head that looks slightly purplish because of the evening's tinting rays.
"Remember when we had that, like, club thing with just the two of us?"
"Until Jonghyun came," Kibum drawls in mock exasperation. "It went downhill from there." He hears Jinki stifle a snort and smiles to himself.
"Rule one."
"Gotta be outside during the day."
Jinki's eyes widen. "How'd you actually remember that?" When he receives only a shrug in response, the boy narrows his eyes. "Rule two?"
"Always take notes on the plants and animals you see-- y'know, you'd hound me on that one every single friggin' day," Kibum proclaims as he points an accusing finger at the beffudled Jinki. "Didn't even like caterpillars anyway." A desperate, contorted snicker leaves Jinki's lips before he can help it, and then his arms give out so he falls chin-first into the dirt, eyes squinting as laughter racks its way through his body.
"I think I remember the third one." Kibum smiles at his own sarcasm and reaches out for the plane placed between them. His fingers skip around the perimeter of the model, and he continues, "I mean, you've hammered it into me since day one."
"This is true," Jinki nods, only happiness to be read on his features. Kibum snorts.
Unconsciously his fingers begin to drum against the grass, and then he links them together in an attempt to calm them down, but it doesn't work because soon his whole hand aches and jitters. Kibum swallows down his nerves. When he had planned this, he had expected Jinki to proclaim that he was hungry and in need of a bath, but Jinki's only staring at him with wondering and encouraging eyes that he can't tear himself away from. He lets out a ragged sigh.
"Three. Enjoy everything and make the best out of all that is before you." Jinki gives him jerky nods of approval. "Tell me, Jinki."
"Hm?"
"Are you enjoying everything right now?"
A stupid smile stretches its way across Jinki's face, and he chuckles, "Of course, Kibum."
"Why is that?"
Jinki blinks, hesitates slightly before he responds. "Well-- you know."
"I don't, really."
"Jerk." They smile at each other. "I've got my friends, got a good school to attend, got loving parents. They're all safe and happy. The weather's fantastic, and you just made this fantastic plane. Food's still great. Mom's still buying me chicken. Jonghyun's still off our backs." He stops in his long list, and after a brief moment of more thinking, he beams. "Yeah. I enjoy everything."
Kibum then takes a moment to roll onto his back and stare off into space, into the opposite direction of where Jinki is resting. He chews his lip, stopping himself before the unpleasant taste of blood taints his tongue, and licks them tentatively. "That's a lot of things."
"Life's good like that sometimes."
"Yeah. True." He hesitates but urges himself to continue with a slight ounce of reluctance. "Know what I enjoy?"
"Fashion?"
A nervous laugh rumbles past his lips. "Err, not exactly." He then gives up and stares back at Jinki, stares into his eyes, and gulps. "I enjoy you, Jinki."
Before the boy can react, Kibum sits upright and continues with his voice cracking at random intervals. "I've done a lot of thinking. You know, ever since we were kids, you were my best friend. You stuck with me through middle school, and now we're nearing the end of high school." He sees out of the corner of his stinging eyes that Jinki's waiting for a moment to interject, but he scratches his neck and only rambles on. "And y'know, sometimes you get me wondering just who I am. I got so confused-- like, what makes me, me, and what my reactions are based on that. By the time I-- the time I realized that I liked you, I just. I lost it all." He bites back a bitter laugh. "It's the price of my love for you, or something like that."
"But you know," he stutters, "it's not that bad, now when I think about it. Because I can stick around with you without worrying, and-- and I don't have to give a damn about what others think. It's natural, it fits." Kibum finally breathes, eyes slipping shut. "I can actually make the best out of everything, without any burdens."
The raven waits for a moment. "Pretty funny, huh?" A few more pauses later, Kibum roughly rubs his face up and down. "Christ, that was embarrassing. I just--"
"Do you like me?"
Kibum starts, jolts in his spot on the grass, and feels his face burn. "Straightforward, much?"
With his brows knit and hands nestled in cloth, Jinki stumbles on his words again, "D-Do you like me? Because it seems like you do."
In all honestly, Kibum finds the fact that Jinki had even managed to detect the confession between his stringent words to be all too amusing, and he randomly laughs. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess."
"Oh. Good." Jinki sheepishly rubs his arm up and down. "It took a while but-- but I never would have admitted or anything. I mean, y'know? There's only so much one guy can do. S'like. Something."
Kibum rubs his chin. "Yeah. Jjong just told me to do it, anyway. He was getting impatient." They let awkward laughter fill the space between them, and it isn't until Jinki leans forward, just slightly, that Kibum lets a small squeak from the back of his throat tumble out of his lips. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess I do."
Thumbs twiddle and fingers flex as they look for spots to stare at, anywhere but in front of them. They finally stare at each other with baited breath and wavering gazes until Kibum blinks. "So. You like me too, right?"
Jinki laughs as he scratches his chin, feeling the heat prickle his neck. "Yeah. Well. Yeah, I do." His smile is full of confidence, and he looks at Kibum straight in the eye. "I like you."
Kibum feels his face flush oddly at the proximity of their faces, the unrelenting yet merciful gaze making him squirm. "Cool."
They both laugh as the tension ebbs. Jinki wraps his twitching fingers around the plane once more and moves its wings, just slightly, up and down. He reddens, from the ears to his nose and cheeks, and bashfully stammers, "So, what next?"
Kibum pulls in a lungful of the warm air and thinks. "Dinner, I guess."
His eyes drop and then they look at each other once more, until Jinki laughs and tugs the raven off of his feet.
-
Jonghyuns glances from left to right, from the unusually sheepish and red Kibum, to the energetic Jinki who chose to leap this morning, instead of walking. He feels his face twist as he wrings his hands. Angrily he slams his hands down against the counter.
"I come here on a Saturday morning, and this," he emphasises the last word, "is the attention I get?"
"What?"
"Did you say something?"
Jonghyun groans. "My point exactly." The faux blond pulls at the small strands of hair weeping on his forehead in the summer heat.
"Well, you're only here because Taemin rejected you again," Kibum spits impatiently as he spoons too much sugar into the cup of coffee. "Get your lazy ass outta here and go talk to him."
"He's at Minho's house right now." He sighs loudly and melodramatically, finally snagging the full attention of Jinki. "I can't believe he'd choose that little twat over me." The onlookers of Jonghyun's one-man drama know that he doesn't mean what he says, what with Jonghyun and Minho being co-captains of the soccer team, but they understand that trivial love problems always trigger something in the blond. They glance at each other and simply turn back to their jobs. As Kibum chops vegetables and Jinki drains the rice, they steal quick smiles and looks.
A disgusted moan fills the room, and Jonghyun cries, "Okay, stop it. Just-- oh Christ." He stumbles out of his chair and exits the kitchen with his arms flailing, bits of "Jerks" and "Damn it" filtering through the entrance.
Kibum drops his knife onto the cutting board. "I give up." Jinki laughs.
"I don't think he wants his breakfast now," the boy murmurs as he glances at the small, neat piles of chopped vegetables on a plate. He breathes in deeply through his nose and faces the open window in Kibum's kitchen. "What do we do now?"
He can't help but smile behind one arm propped on top of the marble counter, so Kibum just laughs, "Anything."
Jinki quirks a brow. "Anything or anywhere specific in mind, mister?"
An arm reaches out and tugs playfully at Jinki's wrist, before Kibum lifts both their arms up to point out into the open sky right outside of the glass pane that separated the two of them from the outer world.
"Oh Jinki. Anything and anywhere. Because outside, adventure awaits."
Jinki guffaws at the oddly cute paraphrasing on Kibum's part and nods to himself. "Sounds like a plan."
Kibum closes his eyes in agreement, and leans forward to place a gentle kiss on an upturned corner of Jinki's mouth. They stay still for a moment, until the raven barely whispers, "Let's go."
Simultaneously, they turn on their heels and make their way for the front door, laughter twinkling behind them. Jinki makes sure to bring their airplane with them.
.end
---
Uh... what? L O L ;;;;;; this is so... boring and everything I mean I don't even. Ugh. I kept having that picture of Up in my mind when writing this. omfg I love that movie to bitsssss
I'm a bit weary of my use of present tense. I might go back and change it to past tense. Sigh.
Well anyway, there's tons of cheesy bits in this, but it was all experimental. Hope you guys enjoyed it ha ha ♥ please drop a comment! thanks for reading.
Author: salted_taiyaki
Pairing(s): Onew x Key, Jonghyun x Taemin
Genre: Romance, slice of life
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 4067
Disclaimer: Shinee members aren't mine~
Summary: Jinki lives his life by one rule, and one rule only: "enjoy everything and make the best out of all that is before you." Kibum's not quite following.
a/n: OnKey?! WHAT. ...yeah. Just experimenting. aha. hah. uh. Seriously though, it's OnKey through and through :) Quite long, but eh. It'll last for the week, I guess.
The pace of the story... it's fast, but slow at the same time. Drawn out for a reason, though it only covers about two days. It's supposed to be a simple slice of life story, you're not getting anything too exciting out of that in my world, aha. Anyway, hope you guys enjoy 8)
"Rule number one!" the boy spits as he swipes at the bug in front of him in interest. "Ya gotta be outside during the day."
"Two!"
"...Always take notes on the animals and plants you see."
"'Sactly! and three--"
"Enjoy everything and make the best out of all that is before you!"
A huge grin is plastered on Jinki's face as he pulls out two eggs from the fridge, with salt just barely balanced between his two pinky fingers. Shakily, he shuts the door with his knee and almost spins as he makes his way to the island in the center of his kitchen.
"Kibum," he continues while pulling out a bowl from the top cupboard, "why do I have to say that to you every day?" Said boy rolls his eyes and simply traces his finger along the rim of his cereal bowl, flicks the drop of milk from his fingers onto whatever. Jinki turns around, examining the slouching boy over, once, twice.
Then he grumbles, "You know, you really haven't been yourself lately."
Kibum laughs. "Myself, huh? Sorry, I just don't know what 'myself' is, anymore." Typical teenage brooding, he notes to himself in disgust. Christ.
With a small smile on his lips, Jinki cracks the egg -- a huge shell falls in and Kibum opens his mouth to say something, but closes it shut, just to get a kick out of it all -- and hums a nameless tune. "Well. Kim Kibum is a very smart guy, in more ways than one. Very fashionable, sociable." He glances over his shoulder quickly, eyebrows knit. "And he's very confused."
"You have no idea," the boy mumbles into his hand, propped up to support his sagging head. "Jinki, why don't you just let me go to sleep now?"
The boy jumps on his heels and exclaims in mock horror, "Kibum! It's still sunny outside -- how could you even think of such thoughts?"
A smile slips on his face and Kibum chuckles. "You're right. What was I thinking?" Jinki promptly nods and pours the eggs onto the frying pan that is restlessly waiting. He feels his ears tingle oddly and he smiles at Kibum with an air of content.
"Jinki, the gas isn't on."
"Oh!"
-
Kim Kibum thinks of himself as a typical, normal boy. A bit questionable, when your favorite hobby is picking out clothes and earrings and nail polish colors -- better than any other girl, he brags -- but otherwise, quite normal. He attends school with his friends, excels academically, fails in just about every sport except for kickball, and tries to put on that facade that says, "Hi, I love life." Which is clearly false, because he's kicking up daisies and uprooting baby blades of grass with his thin fingers.
"Damn it," he murmurs to himself, to the pink sky watching over him. A wind blows as if trying to comfort him, and he shrugs it away like a hand. "What do I do?"
"You could start by not moping anymore. I swear, it's driving all of us crazy." Kibum looks up and cringes, slightly, at the sight of a short faux blond cheekily grinning down at him. "Seriously, Key, it's not like you." The boy sits down next to the raven, and sighs aloud.
"Jonghyun," he curtly snaps with a flick of his wrist, a handful of grass blades showering down on his feet. "What're you doing here?"
Kim Jonghyun, Kibum thinks, is the fickle character that somehow makes or breaks everyone's day. With his odd sense of humor and occasional deep words, he tends to make a joke out of all that goes on. Which contrasts greatly with the raven's own serious approach to the aspects of life, but opposites attract, Jinki often reminds him when Kibum questions why they're friends. He feels his lips curl upwards at the image, at how odd they must be to others during school.
Feigning a hurt look, Jonghyun gasps, "Because my best friend is hurt! Duh." Kibum rolls his eyes at the gushing face next to him -- "Abbblt, lookie here, Kibummie!" he babbles -- and holds back his twitching hand.
"Really though, what's up?"
A sigh. "Jinki said that I haven't been myself lately."
Jonghyun hums. "Well, Key," Kibum frowns at his childhood nickname, "he's right about that. Attentive little bugger, isn't he." He receives a raised brow as a response and he snaps, "What? I've been reading, that's all."
"Sure, Jjong," the raven smirks as he throws the use of his nickname in there, just for fun. Jonghyun snorts.
"You just don't have a date today with Taemin, right?"
"Shut up."
Jonghyun furrows his brows and buries his head in his hands. "I swear, he's avoiding me. Like, I don't even know why but he just ends the call after I say hi, he doesn't stop by, and--" He picks his head up, eyes wide and full of worry, and panics, "What if he doesn't like me anymore?"
"I thought we said no more moping."
The blond twitches. "Oh. Right."
"Looks like we've both lost to love," Kibum sighs as he falls back, arms folding behind his head. "And to those two, of all people." The two look at each other before one chokes on spit and the other's rolling around in the pressed flowers once more.
Jonghyun finally finds the will to calm down and wheezes, "Kibum-ah, you and I both know that you have to make the first move. Jinki's an idiot." The blatant truth, which Kibum tends to overlook sometimes at the price of his patience and sanity -- but Kibum finds something about it anyway, that makes it all the more likeable.
"Hard to, when you really can't see eye to eye." The blond throws him a look of inquiry. "You know. Him being so positive and all. I don't know how I can possibly live up to that. His standards of happy and right."
With a flex of his fingers, Jonghyun catches in his hand, drifting dandelion seeds that came from the patch a few feet away from them. He breathes in the summer air calmly, as if preparing to say something profound and out of this world.
"Well, approach it in your own way."
Kicking his legs, Kibum flips onto his left side and distracts himself from Jonghyun's presence for just a while, before the anxious blond prods him with his foot, "Hey, what's up?"
He blinks slowly and rubs his eyes. It stings because of the dirt from the grass, but he doesn't really care. "I don't know what my own way is, anymore." He sits up, gaze staring down at the shimmering sun. "I feel like-- I just feel like I'm not myself. There's nothing left in me that makes me myself." A wry smile darkens his figures, and he laughs, "When did I lose all of this?"
"When you fell in love."
The raven quickly glances to his right where Jonghyun blissfully grins at the sky above them, eyes closed and brows raised. "Kibum, you're young. You think you have everything in your hands. You think that you've got control, that you're so mature and mighty just because you're about to become an adult soon." An eye slips open, twinkling in delight. "But you're far from that point. You have no idea just how much love costs."
A scowl grows on his face, and Kibum barks, "Who are you to say that?"
"Christ," Jonghyun laughs under arms held above him in protection, "this is me we're talking about. The guy who fell in love a year ago and totally understands?" Kibum remains silent as they hold their gazes, and Jonghyun breaks it off first. "Kibum, I know that prep talks like these are horrible. And hell, I wasn't even planning on giving one today, to you no less."
"Then don't."
Jonghyun lets a sigh escape. "But I'm just telling you, all of this moping isn't going to get you anywhere. Remember me?"
Kibum involuntarily chortles and covers his mouth with both hands in an attempt to block the obnoxious sound. The image of the lovesick puppy Jonghyun was scarring to all of his friends, what with him drooling and crying, then laughing and bawling again soon afterward. As his closest friend, Kibum was the receiver of all of his sorrows and late night phone calls -- "I want to kill myself, Key!" Jonghyun often sobbed, but of course, he'd never mean it -- and he too was overly joyous when Taemin finally confessed. A mental party was thrown for his efforts.
"Yeah." Kibum runs his fingers through his hair with a groan. "Am I like that right now?"
"Sort of. Kind of." A pause. "Yeah."
Kibum picks at the chipped layer of nail polish on his fingers and murmurs, "What should I do?" A clap resounds in his ears irritatingly, soon accompanied by Jonghyun's booming voice.
"Just make the first move. You know how he feels about it. Just gotta get it out of him."
Kibum tosses the idea in his head back and forth, before he throws another handful of grass at Jonghyun, this time at his face.
-
"Adventure awaits!"
"But where, Jinki?"
The boy whirls around with the most dazzling smile decorating his sun-kissed skin, and laughs. "Anywhere and everywhere, duh! Ya can't keep limiting yourself to borders, Kibummie! The sky is your limit!" And he throws his arms up in the air, laughter twinkling from open lips and down to the ground, rejuvenating the yellowing grass.
"But Jinki," the other whines as he pats down his khakis with scratched up hands. "My knees hurt."
Jinki giggles, "Sissy!" But his words contradict his actions, and he bends over to lightly kiss the reddening patch of skin that Kibum is impatiently pointing at. The two of them snicker in the backyard and pull themselves back up.
"First one to get to the tree--"
"--gets to choose where the next treasure chest'll be!"
With stubby legs, the two boys scramble their way across the cleaned yard with playful shoves and exclamations of "Hey, you're cheating!" and "There're no rules, what're you talkin' about?"
Kibum lunges forward and stumbles to the ground, Jinki tripping on his own laces not too far behind. Their hands barely graze the aged bark and they laugh together as they roll around with careless abandon. Kibum's mother peeks her head out from the kitchen window, her grin widening when her eyes land on the two boys locked in a staring contest. She pulls the curtains and goes back to her kitchen work.
"I won," Kibum proudly boasts with a thump on his chest -- then not caring about nails or wrinkles in clothes -- and Jinki nods fervently. "The next treasure chest is in..." He ponders a bit as he looks up at the blue sky. "In heaven!"
Jinki's eyes widen unbelievably, and he gapes, "Heaven? But that's impossible!" Kibum turns on him with his petite hands on his hips, lower lip pulled back between his teeth.
"I thought you said the sky's the limit!" For a second, Jinki thinks and recalls his words, and shrugs.
"We'll just have to build a plane to get there!"
And the two frantically begin to search their backyard for twigs and leaves that had been raked up by Kibum's mother hours before.
"Kibum?" Jinki asks as he slowly cracks the door open, both eyes peering in carefully to watch the boy work hard at whatever task was at hand. "What're you doing?"
"Something," he grumbles in response. A pout tugs at Jinki's lips, and he closes the door before turning around to face the white wall before him.
Jinki's the type who can't sit still, and everyone in school knows that. So, taking his free time, Jinki stumbles down the halls and into open rooms -- they've known each other for so long that, no matter the season or time, they both know where every single broom is and what each shelf in the bathroom holds -- and soon makes his way down the flight of stairs into the backyard. He prances about, arms spread and legs kicking, and he starts singing with his voice jumping and landing with each plié.
Kibum raises a brow as he stares down at his friend from his bedroom window. With the bright curtains pulled back to allow the relentless sun shine through, Kibum cups both hands over his eyes. "What the hell is he doing?" he asks to no one in particular, and gets back to work.
Five minutes later and Kibum's trudging down the steps with his eyes darting back and forth. There's an obvious bulge in his shirt, but he figures the shape to be indistinguishable, and slides the door leading to their patio open with a foot.
"Jinki!"
The boy whips his head and stares with curious eyes at the smirking raven. He leans against the white frame, one hand in his pocket as the other cradles the object. He had created a plan while working, and he assumes that it'll go well.
"Guess what."
"What?" Jinki shouts excitedly, his feet taking him right to the spot in front of Kibum. Kibum flashes a smile.
"Remember," he starts with a low voice, "that time when I got to choose where the treasure chest would be?"
A finger pecks at his chin and as Jinki thinks, the raven patiently taps his foot. "Well, sure. Many times."
"But that one time. That one time." And soon, Jinki's eyes begin to sparkle as the memory floods him like the heat is through the cracked door, and he exclaims,
"Heaven!"
Kibum chuckles quietly to himself and pulls out the item from his shirt, presenting it to the other boy with an air of pride and accomplishment. "Think that'll ever take us to heaven?" With twitching fingers, Jinki touches wings, touch feathery and light, and when he gets to the body, he jumps up and down on his toes.
"This is so much better than what we made years ago!"
"Duh," he scoffs playfully, and with a winding of his arm, Kibum throws it into the air. It glides smoothly on top of the humid layer, level to their shoulders, until it hits the tree. Jinki exclaims something in awe and dashes for the plane, and Kibum crosses his arms over his chests.
By the time Jinki sprawls himself across the uneven patches of grass, the evening had already begun to settle in without them realizing it. Kibum buries his face in his hands, stomach chilling from the cold blades that tickle his sides, and he sighs out loud.
"I don't think I've run that much since we were six."
Jinki only laughs in response as he continues to twirl the model plane around in his fingers. "How long?"
"Eh, it was a kit."
He breathes in the cooling air and mumbles, "Wasn't that so great? Those times where we'd just run around and not worry about anything at all. I miss those days." Jinki squirms a bit and then props himself up on both arms so that he's looking down on Kibum's head that looks slightly purplish because of the evening's tinting rays.
"Remember when we had that, like, club thing with just the two of us?"
"Until Jonghyun came," Kibum drawls in mock exasperation. "It went downhill from there." He hears Jinki stifle a snort and smiles to himself.
"Rule one."
"Gotta be outside during the day."
Jinki's eyes widen. "How'd you actually remember that?" When he receives only a shrug in response, the boy narrows his eyes. "Rule two?"
"Always take notes on the plants and animals you see-- y'know, you'd hound me on that one every single friggin' day," Kibum proclaims as he points an accusing finger at the beffudled Jinki. "Didn't even like caterpillars anyway." A desperate, contorted snicker leaves Jinki's lips before he can help it, and then his arms give out so he falls chin-first into the dirt, eyes squinting as laughter racks its way through his body.
"I think I remember the third one." Kibum smiles at his own sarcasm and reaches out for the plane placed between them. His fingers skip around the perimeter of the model, and he continues, "I mean, you've hammered it into me since day one."
"This is true," Jinki nods, only happiness to be read on his features. Kibum snorts.
Unconsciously his fingers begin to drum against the grass, and then he links them together in an attempt to calm them down, but it doesn't work because soon his whole hand aches and jitters. Kibum swallows down his nerves. When he had planned this, he had expected Jinki to proclaim that he was hungry and in need of a bath, but Jinki's only staring at him with wondering and encouraging eyes that he can't tear himself away from. He lets out a ragged sigh.
"Three. Enjoy everything and make the best out of all that is before you." Jinki gives him jerky nods of approval. "Tell me, Jinki."
"Hm?"
"Are you enjoying everything right now?"
A stupid smile stretches its way across Jinki's face, and he chuckles, "Of course, Kibum."
"Why is that?"
Jinki blinks, hesitates slightly before he responds. "Well-- you know."
"I don't, really."
"Jerk." They smile at each other. "I've got my friends, got a good school to attend, got loving parents. They're all safe and happy. The weather's fantastic, and you just made this fantastic plane. Food's still great. Mom's still buying me chicken. Jonghyun's still off our backs." He stops in his long list, and after a brief moment of more thinking, he beams. "Yeah. I enjoy everything."
Kibum then takes a moment to roll onto his back and stare off into space, into the opposite direction of where Jinki is resting. He chews his lip, stopping himself before the unpleasant taste of blood taints his tongue, and licks them tentatively. "That's a lot of things."
"Life's good like that sometimes."
"Yeah. True." He hesitates but urges himself to continue with a slight ounce of reluctance. "Know what I enjoy?"
"Fashion?"
A nervous laugh rumbles past his lips. "Err, not exactly." He then gives up and stares back at Jinki, stares into his eyes, and gulps. "I enjoy you, Jinki."
Before the boy can react, Kibum sits upright and continues with his voice cracking at random intervals. "I've done a lot of thinking. You know, ever since we were kids, you were my best friend. You stuck with me through middle school, and now we're nearing the end of high school." He sees out of the corner of his stinging eyes that Jinki's waiting for a moment to interject, but he scratches his neck and only rambles on. "And y'know, sometimes you get me wondering just who I am. I got so confused-- like, what makes me, me, and what my reactions are based on that. By the time I-- the time I realized that I liked you, I just. I lost it all." He bites back a bitter laugh. "It's the price of my love for you, or something like that."
"But you know," he stutters, "it's not that bad, now when I think about it. Because I can stick around with you without worrying, and-- and I don't have to give a damn about what others think. It's natural, it fits." Kibum finally breathes, eyes slipping shut. "I can actually make the best out of everything, without any burdens."
The raven waits for a moment. "Pretty funny, huh?" A few more pauses later, Kibum roughly rubs his face up and down. "Christ, that was embarrassing. I just--"
"Do you like me?"
Kibum starts, jolts in his spot on the grass, and feels his face burn. "Straightforward, much?"
With his brows knit and hands nestled in cloth, Jinki stumbles on his words again, "D-Do you like me? Because it seems like you do."
In all honestly, Kibum finds the fact that Jinki had even managed to detect the confession between his stringent words to be all too amusing, and he randomly laughs. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess."
"Oh. Good." Jinki sheepishly rubs his arm up and down. "It took a while but-- but I never would have admitted or anything. I mean, y'know? There's only so much one guy can do. S'like. Something."
Kibum rubs his chin. "Yeah. Jjong just told me to do it, anyway. He was getting impatient." They let awkward laughter fill the space between them, and it isn't until Jinki leans forward, just slightly, that Kibum lets a small squeak from the back of his throat tumble out of his lips. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess I do."
Thumbs twiddle and fingers flex as they look for spots to stare at, anywhere but in front of them. They finally stare at each other with baited breath and wavering gazes until Kibum blinks. "So. You like me too, right?"
Jinki laughs as he scratches his chin, feeling the heat prickle his neck. "Yeah. Well. Yeah, I do." His smile is full of confidence, and he looks at Kibum straight in the eye. "I like you."
Kibum feels his face flush oddly at the proximity of their faces, the unrelenting yet merciful gaze making him squirm. "Cool."
They both laugh as the tension ebbs. Jinki wraps his twitching fingers around the plane once more and moves its wings, just slightly, up and down. He reddens, from the ears to his nose and cheeks, and bashfully stammers, "So, what next?"
Kibum pulls in a lungful of the warm air and thinks. "Dinner, I guess."
His eyes drop and then they look at each other once more, until Jinki laughs and tugs the raven off of his feet.
-
Jonghyuns glances from left to right, from the unusually sheepish and red Kibum, to the energetic Jinki who chose to leap this morning, instead of walking. He feels his face twist as he wrings his hands. Angrily he slams his hands down against the counter.
"I come here on a Saturday morning, and this," he emphasises the last word, "is the attention I get?"
"What?"
"Did you say something?"
Jonghyun groans. "My point exactly." The faux blond pulls at the small strands of hair weeping on his forehead in the summer heat.
"Well, you're only here because Taemin rejected you again," Kibum spits impatiently as he spoons too much sugar into the cup of coffee. "Get your lazy ass outta here and go talk to him."
"He's at Minho's house right now." He sighs loudly and melodramatically, finally snagging the full attention of Jinki. "I can't believe he'd choose that little twat over me." The onlookers of Jonghyun's one-man drama know that he doesn't mean what he says, what with Jonghyun and Minho being co-captains of the soccer team, but they understand that trivial love problems always trigger something in the blond. They glance at each other and simply turn back to their jobs. As Kibum chops vegetables and Jinki drains the rice, they steal quick smiles and looks.
A disgusted moan fills the room, and Jonghyun cries, "Okay, stop it. Just-- oh Christ." He stumbles out of his chair and exits the kitchen with his arms flailing, bits of "Jerks" and "Damn it" filtering through the entrance.
Kibum drops his knife onto the cutting board. "I give up." Jinki laughs.
"I don't think he wants his breakfast now," the boy murmurs as he glances at the small, neat piles of chopped vegetables on a plate. He breathes in deeply through his nose and faces the open window in Kibum's kitchen. "What do we do now?"
He can't help but smile behind one arm propped on top of the marble counter, so Kibum just laughs, "Anything."
Jinki quirks a brow. "Anything or anywhere specific in mind, mister?"
An arm reaches out and tugs playfully at Jinki's wrist, before Kibum lifts both their arms up to point out into the open sky right outside of the glass pane that separated the two of them from the outer world.
"Oh Jinki. Anything and anywhere. Because outside, adventure awaits."
Jinki guffaws at the oddly cute paraphrasing on Kibum's part and nods to himself. "Sounds like a plan."
Kibum closes his eyes in agreement, and leans forward to place a gentle kiss on an upturned corner of Jinki's mouth. They stay still for a moment, until the raven barely whispers, "Let's go."
Simultaneously, they turn on their heels and make their way for the front door, laughter twinkling behind them. Jinki makes sure to bring their airplane with them.
.end
---
Uh... what? L O L ;;;;;; this is so... boring and everything I mean I don't even. Ugh. I kept having that picture of Up in my mind when writing this. omfg I love that movie to bitsssss
I'm a bit weary of my use of present tense. I might go back and change it to past tense. Sigh.
Well anyway, there's tons of cheesy bits in this, but it was all experimental. Hope you guys enjoyed it ha ha ♥ please drop a comment! thanks for reading.