❝ wonderguard (onew/key) ❞
Wonderguard
Onew/Key; 975 words; Kibum's too young to be growing white hair, but then he's still never learned how to win against Jinki.
At first it's just shyness or something akin to that. They are introduced to each other towards the end of the year, and they're all messy greetings and bows to each other. The boy on the left is the first to extend his hand. "Lee Jinki. Nice to meet you." The smile on the boy's lips betrays his age. His smile is awkward against the cool December air. "Kim Kibum. Nice to meet you, too."
Now he thinks he owes it to a friend, this meeting. Jonghyun's on the balls of his feet when he tells him he's met Jinki already. "You met him! That's so cool!" Turns out, Jonghyun has known Jinki for quite a while already, what with the Saturday night stalking at SM Academy. "Well, we didn't really meet. We just got... introduced." Jonghyun frowns at him for his being eloquent enough to cover up the awkwardness. Minho sits down with them for lunch, and he tells Minho about the incident. "Oh, really? That's cool." He rolls his eyes. Minho chuckles, says something about awkward people and 'You should stop staring at him and just talk to him, you know.' No more than five seconds later, Jinki's in front of them, and he swears he chokes on his food when Jinki greets him.
"Hi!" It's that bright smile again, and he has to gulp down the kimbap twice for fear of choking all the more.
They get to know each other more when they are put in the same classes, and Minho and Jonghyun are nowhere near to interrupt what can be remotely equated to a 'conversation'. Jonghyun does tell him, though, about a cute boy named Taemin, to which he replies 'I don't really care. Not looking for prospects'. "Oh, you have one already?" Why does he have to say the most stupid of things in front of Jonghyun? "Of course... I don't!"
Jinki cuts them midway through their conversation about prospects. "Kibum ah, lunch?" Jonghyun giggles, excuses himself. "I'll go ahead. Bye, love birds."
In the months he's known Jonghyun, he already knows that a) Jonghyun's always right when it comes to these kinds of things, and b) Jonghyun never lies.
Damn.
So they're put in a group, Minho, Jonghyun, Jinki and him, along with the cute boy named Taemin. Jinki takes a liking to ruffling Taemin's hair, to which he just rolls his eyes and shrugs. "Touchy, touchy," Minho whispers by his ear, and he almost jumps from his seat. "Careful, he might see!"
Jinki does, but he's laughing. (Or not.)
Three months after debut, familiarity of space is evident. Sometimes, while watching TV, Jinki puts an arm around him, or rests his head on his shoulder. Sometimes they've got their legs intertwined, or sometimes they're hearts pounding against each other when they're fighting for space on the couch.
Sometimes they're too close.
After six months, sometimes turns into most of the time and every chance they get. Most of the time, Jinki is the one who initiates, trapping him in between his arms and against the wall, leaning in close but not so much, always asking before he does anything rash, "Is this okay?" He's torn between saying yes and not yet, but he never considers no. So he answers, their faces barely an inch apart and his heart beating steadily against Jinki's, fast, "It can be more."
He doesn't count the number of times they've snuck in drunk after practice, doesn't count the number of times they've done it in the shower or in the kitchen right before Jonghyun wakes up. All he ever counts is the number of times 'it' spills from Jinki's lips after entire escapade is over. Jinki's got his face buried in the crook of his neck as he tries catching his breath, and he catches the faintest sound of a muffled confession.
"I love you."
At three in the morning and in the cool September breeze, Kibum finds it hard to move, much less breathe. He's been trying to sleep for an hour already, but the cold makes him feel uncomfortable and too stiff. He hears Jonghyun's mumbling come from the bed just across his, Taemin's soft snoring and... Minho's breathing. Jinki's head is buried in a pillow.
He cannot sleep.
So he gets down from his bed, fits himself somewhere in between Jinki's arms and fights for the blanket that Jinki's clutching so hard, tugs for it hard enough for Jinki to let go, but not so hard that Jinki might wake up. Five minutes after, his eyes fall shut, and hears the soft melody of Jinki's breathing in his ears.
They're too old for this. It's been five years since they've debuted and they've just come from a fanmeeting. Minho's steps are steady and slow as compared to Jonghyun's when Jonghyun complains about being hungry. Taemin joins Jonghyun, and soon enough Minho's shooting remarks about the ramyun shop nearby having good food. The manager says, "Well, if everyone's hungry, then we should eat." But then he prefers sleep over food and he can hear his bed calling to him and Jinki spins around and in front of him, stopping him in his tracks.
He's twenty-two and he's starting to grow white hair; he's too young for the white but he's supposed to be old enough. But then Jinki takes him by the hand, pulls him closer, tugs at his heartstrings and this feels like fourteen again. There's the same old boy he met six years ago in the back of Jinki's eyes, and there's the same awkwardness in the feel of Jinki's hands intertwined with his when they first met. He's twenty-two already, and he's supposed to have gotten immune to this already. "Ramyun," Jinki asks enthusiastically, all smiles. He takes a deep breath.
He never stood a chance.