[3] HANDKERCHIEF
Title: Handkerchief
Pairing: Jonghyun/Onew
Rating: PG
Genre: General/fluff
Word Count: 1910
A/N: Dedicated to
readyforever who pummeled me into writing this, and yeoboseyo whose birthday is today! Have a happy one! A bit of a change from my regular pairing, but this was fun to write too. XD
Tears were starting to blur the boy’s vision. Panicking, he stopped running and took stock of his location. He had just spent the past 20 minutes running around the giant department store, riding up and down escalators, ducking in and out of aisles. The boy was now in an aisle lined with pots, pans, and rice cookers. None of it looked remotely familiar.
He remembered walking into the store with his mother, holding her fingers with his own smaller hand. Not much older than the age of 7, he followed his mother dutifully as she went about the store looking for sundry items. Of course none of this really interested the little boy, who was much more concerned with hiding from imaginary pirates amid the coat racks. His mother told him to stay within sight, lest he stray too far from her. He only stopped following her for a moment to look at a ceramic pig, but when he looked up the heels he was trailing were no where to be seen. Running in the direction his mother had been going, he didn’t see her down any of the aisles. He had refrained from yelling out ‘umma!’ for fear that a stranger might approach him instead. Instead he figured he was a big boy. He could find his mother by himself.
At first, he had blamed this on his mother, mad that she had been careless enough to leave him behind. He began to formulate a plan: upon finding his mother, who was scared out of her wits for losing her beloved son, he would calmly suggest buying him all the candy he wanted in retribution for leaving him by himself. Chuckling to himself, he walked quickly, looking forward to the prospect of candy.
He wasn’t worried for the next 5 minutes. At 10 minutes his smile was starting to fade, and at 15 he was crying and quickening to a run. He found himself in the kitchen department at 20 minutes, staring at a large steel pot, trying to wipe his nose on his sleeve. Was his mother even looking for him? Would he ever find her?
A tap on the shoulder made him turn around, fearful that a stranger was there to harm him.
“Please don’t cry.”
The face looking at him was a stranger all right, but it wasn’t an adult face that was looking at him. A boy slightly taller with small, smiling eyes held out a handkerchief to the crying child.
“It’s okay. Pots and pans make me cry sometimes too. Here, you can borrow this.”
The lost boy cautiously took the handkerchief. Taking note of the L J sewn onto the corner, he pocketed the handkerchief. As soon as the lost boy had calmed down, the smiling boy walked down the aisle. He looked behind. The lost boy stared at him, afraid to ask what else he wanted.
“I know a place that won’t make you cry. Are you coming?”
Regaining a bit of courage, he pouted as he shuffled along next to the smiling boy. Afraid his voice would squeak, he refrained from saying anything. He was embarrassed that he had been crying in front of someone. Although he still looked down every aisle for a glimpse of his mother, he kept a calm composure so as to avoid another loss of grace.
He didn’t want to be known as a crybaby, after all.
He was looking down an aisle when the smiling boy grabbed him by the sleeve and pulled him across the floor. The lost boy quickly turned to look at where the smiling boy was leading him, and saw a large collection of toys waiting aisles away from where they were now. The hand pulled at him, keeping the lost boy from walking any further. Confused, he looked at the smiling boy, who was pawing at the linoleum with a grubby sneaker.
“I’ll race you to the toy department, okay? Unless you’d rather stand here and cry some more, that’s okay too. I hope you don’t though, that wouldn’t be any fun for the both of us. Unless maybe you think it’s fun to cry? But toys will be a lot more fun than standing here anyway so I thought that maybe…”
The lost boy looked at the smiling boy, who, although he wouldn’t stop talking, continued to direct a gentle smile in his direction. It seemed that he was trying so hard to console the lost boy that he decided to look for his mother after he had seen what the smiling boy had to show him. He gave a few big nods and a hint of a smile to signal his own willingness, to run, not to speak. They deemed a giant T-Rex model as the finish line, and stood behind a line to start. The smiling boy counted down from 5 and they were off at an even pace. Dodging shopping carts and noonas left and right, the two boys weaved their way to the toy department. The lost boy could hear the smiling boy laughing amid the shrieks from the old ladies.
The smiling boy was so far ahead, he didn’t expect to win, but all of a sudden he didn’t see the smiling boy anymore. He slowed to a trot when he saw his new friend, face down on the floor. Helping him up, the lost boy dusted the smiling boy off.
“A little clumsy, aren’t you?”
At that, the lost boy and the smiling boy burst into a fit of giggles and play punches. They had only just met, but already they felt as if they knew each other for a lifetime.
Walking side by side, the two boys chattered about the toys in the aisle. They pointed at things they had, things they wanted, things that struck them as weird. Fear had left the lost boy, who was now smiling as much as his new friend.
The two came upon the electronics department, where a theme song for a popular children’s show was playing on the televisions. The lost boy became really excited, as he was the biggest fan of the show of all his friends. But before he could even open his mouth the smiling boy had already began to sing along with the television.
“I want to be the very best, that no one ever was…”
The smiling boy looked at the lost boy expectantly, as if coaxing a voice out of an unwilling singer.
“Come on! Let’s sing loudly!”
A little embarrassed to be in public, the lost boy joined the smiling boy shakily, until they came to the chorus of the song, wherein both boys began to sing enthusiastically.
“You teach me and I’ll teach you!”
They both sang the title of the show loudly, howling it to the ceiling of the department store. The lost boy noted that it was the first time he had not only sung in public, but sung with someone else. His family always made him sing during dinners, bribing him with candy. He figured it was just something parents did to embarrass their kids. But when he sang in public, at the top of his lungs, he could feel a slumbering power within himself begin to awake.
It was all thanks to this smiling kindred spirit beside him.
They didn’t notice that a crowd had surrounded them until the crowd started to clap. Murmurs of “What talented little boys!” and “Is SM doing another audition? For a junior group or something?” could be heard as the two boys proceeded to take their bows, waving their arms like seasoned pros.
“Jonghyunnie!”
The lost boy turned around to see his mother, crying, running up to him from the midst of the crowd. She bent down and embraced her son, frantically whispering how worried she was and how she had been looking for him for almost an hour. Jonghyun thought about scolding her for leaving him, demanding the candy, but settled with just hugging his mother back, enjoying the warmth of her love.
“I know the timbre of your voice anywhere, so when I heard you I came running. Hold on to umma from now on, okay?”
She held his little hand and started to walk. Jonghyun looked back and saw his smiling friend, waving with spread fingers an enthusiastic farewell. He yelled out loud, for the retreating boy to hear loud and clear:
“We’ll meet again someday and sing together again, so stop crying already! Don’t forget, I want my handkerchief back!”
Jonghyun was no crybaby. He started to run back and teach that fellow a thing or two, but his mother held him tightly. He looked up to pout at her, but when she looked at him he was startled by her face. It had transformed to the face of Kibum.
“Hyung, you’re starting to scare us. Would you wake up already! You’re freaking us out!”
“...Huh?”
Opening his eyes, Jonghyun found himself lying on the couch in SHINee’s apartment. Taemin was sitting on the floor in front of him watching television, but he turned around to get a look at Jonghyun’s face. Minho was reading a book at the kitchen table, but looked up to stare at him as well. Kibum gave Jonghyun a glass of water.
“Hyung, you were singing in your sleep again.”
“I … I was? What did I sing?”
At this, Taemin started to laugh. He pointed to the show he was watching on television.
“It was so weird hyung! I sat down to watch my favorite show, but as soon as the theme started you began singing too! I didn’t know you watched this show.”
Jonghyun drank his water, confused. Was that a dream, or was it a memory?
He stood up and walked to the bedroom they all shared. Jinki was sitting on his own bed. He looked up from his PSP, smiling at Jonghyun. Very confused, he nodded at Jinki as he climbed on Taemin’s bed to get to his own. He reached for a box of things he brought with him from home. Rummaging through yo-yo’s, CDs, wristbands, he finally found what he was looking for. It wasn’t a dream.
“Hyung?”
Jinki looked up.
“What’s wrong, Jonghyunah?”
He climbed down from his bed, and sat with Jinki. Holding up an old, creased handkerchief that smelled of laundry, he started to smile.
“I think this belongs to you, hyung.”
Jinki gasped as he touched his handkerchief, amazed that it had returned to him after almost 10 years.
“But how did you get this! I gave it once to a kid I saw crying in a department store, but I didn’t think I’d ever see it again! Unless… you’re THAT Jonghyunnie?”
Wrinkling his face at his mom’s old nickname for him, he nodded, amazed as well with the twist of fate that had befallen them. They really did meet again, sing again, but so much more.
Jinki began to stand up and hug his old friend, but hit his head on the bottom of Kibum’s bunk. Falling forward, he found his chin resting on Jonghyun’s chest.
If it were anyone else, Jonghyun probably would have shoved them off of him. But instead, he moved Jinki’s hair away from his eyes, smiling at the man who helped him to stop crying and start singing.
“A little clumsy, aren’t you?”
Comments are deeply appreciated. :D