The Cereal Box Prize
Title: The Cereal Box Prize
Pairing(s): KiWoon
Rating: PG+
Word Count: 2610
Summary: Sometimes, it’s the simplest things that matter the most.
KK
The sky is beautifully grey. I love how it strips away color. It makes everything look pale and natural and calm. It’s beautiful to me.
It’s cold out tonight, but all six of us are braving it. We wanted to have a day of fun at this fair close to the shore. I really want to have some alone time with Woon. It’s been a while since we have been alone together.
He looks worried about something right now…
DW
…Damn it.
Damn it, damn it.
Of all freaking things. I forgot my wallet at the hotel. It’s too late to go back now… We’re already in the car. I did find a little cash in my pocket; it still won’t help. Aish, I’m such an idiot.
I look to my left, to hyung, just ‘cause.
He is already looking at me. He smiles and laughs softly.
Why are his eyes so deep? He makes me feel so weak.
Hyung makes me feel crazier than before now.
KK
“We’re gonna have fun tonight, ‘kay, Dongwoon?” I tell my new lover. I fix my hand on his right knee and I hope he doesn’t flinch. Dongwoon smiles and nods quickly.
We’ve only been officially seeing each other for a week, but of course, we’ve known one another longer than that. It’s different now that we’re officially a couple. Very, very different. I’m different. My heart leaps at every smile he makes.
I keep quiet the rest of the ride. I fear that if I open my mouth my heart will tumble down my tongue.
DW
The entirety of the fair is embellished with every color lantern. Kikwang and I pair up. Doojoon pairs with Seob and Jun’s with Hyunseung. They break off from us. Now Kikwang and I are truly all alone with one another.
“What do you want to do first, Dongwoon?” he asks me, blinking up to me expectantly. A faint, staggering pulse shoots up from my feet to my knees.
“Anything you want to do,” I reply, although there is not much we can do with the cash I have. I really didn’t want to hyung to have to spend his money.
Kikwang grins and rubs his lips, effortlessly seizing my attention. They are the loveliest pink, conflicting almost artistically with his soft and creamy skin.
KK
…I think he’s staring at my lips.
DW
“Okay,” Kiki says. He slips next to my right side.
We walk side by side down the narrow, cluttered street… slowly… quietly…
Minutes pass us…………
Hyung is very short.
KK
He’s so quiet… I wonder if he’s still worried about something. Maybe I should talk to him. I hope he’s okay…
“Are you feeling well, Dongwoon?”
“Y-Yes! I feel great.”
His enthusiastic response throws me off. He blushes at the face I give him.
“That’s good, then…! I was thinking that something may have been troubling you. You’re so quiet…”
“Oh… That’s because… I’m just, uh, lookin’ at stuff…”
DW
Idiot. Idiot. Idiot.
KK
“Alright. At least I know you’re okay. I was thinking that we could play some of these games first, but we’ll have to buy some tickets,” I spy a ticket booth not too far from where we’re currently standing, “Here’s a place!”
DW
Me and hyung approach another hyung to buy tickets. Kikwang asks for twenty. He’s short a few won. He looks to me and asks if I have any spare change I could lend.
I don’t, but I check my pockets anyway, knowing full well that I don’t have nearly enough for what hyung needed.
“I… I don’t… have… enough.”
His lips fall a little, but Kikwang quickly picks them back up in a small smile of understanding.
“Oh, okay,” Kiki turns back to ticket hyung and shrugs, “we’ll just take ten tickets, then.”
Idiot. Idiot. Idiot.
Ticket hyung breaks the sheet of green tickets in even halves. I give Kikwang some of the change I found as he pays, “Here…”
“No, Woon. You keep that.”
I insist, “Nooo, hyung. Here.”
“Woonie… I got it. Keep your money.”
I stand back, and I watch Kikwang pay ticket hyung.
And I still feel like an idiot.
KK
I place the tickets in my back pocket and me and Dongwoon leave the booth.
“Sorry, hyung. Sorry for forgetting my wallet…” Woon says to me. He looks to be very… ashamed. It’s cute.
I smile, “It’s fine, Dongwooon… Forget about it.”
“…Alright.”
At the thought, I reflexively reach back behind me to my pocket, “Are there any games you want to play?”
DW
“Sure,” I answer.
I already made him pay for the tickets. I’m very determined to win my hyung something. We walk around some for some good games. Every game is worth one ticket, fortunately for us. I see hyung eyeing this big frog.
KK
That is one huge frog. I would hate to carry that thing around.
DW
Maybe he likes it…
I’m gonna win it for hyung!
I step up to the game with the big frog, and I give my ticket to the hyung behind it. He takes it and he tells me the rules, which aren’t that hard. Just throw a ball and knock down all three bottles. The bottles are so close to me.
Hyung gives me three balls.
I throw each one…………… and I miss each time.
I don’t win the frog for Kiki.
KK
Dongwoon sadly walks away from the booth. I hurry to follow him.
“Dongwoon! You can play again if you want! Do you want to play again?”
“I’ll try a different game…”
“Okay…”
I trail him… He keeps looking up at all the stuffed animal prizes. I think he wants to win one. Another game booth shortly holds his attention. It involves a basketball. It was a simple shoot-or-miss game.
“You want to play this one?” I ask, breaking the trance Dongwoon had with this giant, white bunny.
“Yeah… I’ll try this one.”
DW
Hyung gives me a ticket, and I pass the ticket to the other hyung. He gives me a basketball, and tells me I have three tries to make it through the hoop. I nod in understanding, and I throw the ball once.
And miss.
I throw it twice.
And I miss.
I throw it a third time
And I also miss.
I walk away bunny-less.
This is the repetitious story for the next five games I try and comically fail at playing. I get upset… probably more upset than an average person would. I also wasted hyung’s money… and I can’t even win him anything in return. Because I suck.
I suck at everything.
KK
I hope Woon is still having fun. It doesn’t look like it now. He’s talking less. I’ll try to cheer him up; I want him to be happy.
“You can only do your best, Dongwoon…”
“Yeah, but my best sucks.”
“M-Maybe you’re not good at those games. You’re probably better at different ones!”
Dongwoon scoffs.
So much for trying…
We start approaching where they cook and hold all of the food. I think I have just enough for cotton candy…
“I’ll be back, Dongwoon.”
DW
I nod. Kikwang goes off to buy the cotton candy.
I sit back and I sulk more… Hyunseung and Junhyung are there, too. They’re sitting down at a bench-table. Hyunseung has a ton of food, and he’s just stuffing his mouth with one thing after another. Jun looks exhausted. This is probably true for his wallet, too, at that point.
I could’ve spoiled my hyung with sweet foods, too, had I’ve brought my money.
And then, I see Doojoon hyung, carrying one of those big bunnies that I tried to win Kiki. Seobie is close behind him, holding his free hand. In a large, transparent plastic bag, Yoseob is toting three other stuffed animals. One is a yellow fish, and the other two I can’t tell because he’s moving so fast to match his steps with Doojoon’s. There’s no doubt that Joon won all of those.
He’s good at winning stuff…
I wish I could win hyung that many…
Kikwang comes back with the cotton candy. It’s very big and fluffy and pink and blue. He tears me off a big, blue piece.
“Here~” Kikwang puts it close enough to my lips. I eat it out of his hand. Kiki laughs a little. I like making him laugh… He looks too precious.
KK
Dongwoon’s smiling again. I knew the cotton candy would do it.
There are times when his lips touch my fingertips, and it stings pleasurably. He’s so close to me… His misty breaths melt and stick to my cheeks.
“Is it really sweet?” I ask him.
Woonie tears a pink piece off for me and puts it before my lips, “You try it.”
I ate all of the wispy candy that I could without touching his fingers. Dongwoon brings the cotton candy that lingered on his fingers-the pieces I didn’t get-into his mouth. He smiles at me. I have to look away, but I smile in return.
We finish eating the cotton candy just like this…
DW
Of course I’m still hungry, but I’ll eat dinner later. Preferably after the fair. I’ll take Kiki with me, too. It could be like a date. I hope he would like that.
…It starting to get colder, too. I’m shivering through my jacket.
Me and hyung walk a little more.
KK
“Dongwoon… wanna play this game? It says you win something every time.”
It attracts his interest. It’s a cute game… one of chance. There are rubber ducks of every color floating in a concentrated pool of water. All one has to do is pick a little duck, look under it, and see what size prize they win. The prizes range from large, medium and small.
“I’ll try.”
I lend Dongwoon a ticket. We have two remaining.
DW
I give the ticket to noona. She tells me to pick a duck.
I hover my hand over the rainbow sea of rubber ducks. I move it left, then I move it to the right some, imagining that I’m drawing and seeking the energy of the duck that’ll win me a large prize for my sweet hyung. I think I hear him giggle, too.
I think I feel the energy of the most valuable duckling and I sink my hand lower until my fingertips brush the top of his plastic, yellow head.
“Go ahead, Dongwoon. Grab it…! See what prize you’ll get!” Kikwang encourages.
I grab the duckling, almost in reluctance. I stare and stare at his little head, at his wearing eyes.
I turn it to peer at its bottom.
I see the letter “S.”
……“S.”
…
“S” for “small.”
I sigh.
Noona says to show her the letter. I show her the “S.” She smiles knowingly and brings to me the smallest bucket of small, cheap prizes. The majority of gem “garnishing” it. The others are childish and stupid. I chose one with a blue gem, and I walk away.
KK
Dongwoon walks from the booth so fast. I can’t see the prize that he chose.
“Woonie what prize did you choose!?”
“A-” I hear him muffle.
“A what? I can’t hear you. You’re walking too fast.”
Dongwoon stops walking. He turns around. His backside is no longer to me.
He peers at me with sadness.
“I’m sorry that I made you pay money for tickets that I used, only to lose at all the games I played.”
Dongwoon…… “That’s okay. You tried.”
Woonie bowed his head, his fringe dropping with it, hiding his eyes from me.
“……di’n’t w’n anythin’.”
“Hm?”
Dongwoon lifts his head, “I wanted to win you a big prize. I couldn’t.”
I… I understand now, Dongwoon. I understand why he would become so disappointed. He tried really hard to win me a large prize.
I feel a large, stupid grin coming. I fight it off; it makes my lips twitch.
I’m so elated.
“Woon…ie. Sweetheart, you don’t have to win me anything. I’m just happy that I get to spend some time with you, and be with you.”
DW
His tender voice… Hyung’s confession melts me.
“I did win you something.”
I hold my hand out to Kiki. He understands and places his left hand in my palm.
In my pocket, I pinch the ring and bring it to his attention. The gold paint’s already chipping from it.
I refuse to look into his eyes.
“I wish I could’ve won you something better,” I say as I guide the ring onto his finger.
KK
My eyes don’t leave my ring finger.
My eyes don’t leave that ring.
It’s skinny and cheaply painted gold, and would probably break if I made a tight enough fist. In the middle of it rests a little blue gem. It glitters in spite of its material uselessness. But it’s beautiful.
It’s beautiful because of the person standing in front of me.
I stare at Dongwoon. My bottom lip falls from my top.
Something dense curling inside my heart dangerously bloats with abruptness and with no warning. I swing my arms around Dongwoon’s neck carelessly, pushing myself onto my toes. I think I would’ve fallen if he didn’t snap his arms around me.
I kiss his waiting lips. My eyes are squeezed closed.
DW
Kiki’s heat swamps me like a woolen blanket. Then the feeling of the thin skin of his hot lips is upon me. It is like electricity is born. His lips do not stop. He kisses me and kisses me, his lips moving confidently all over my mouth. He only pauses to wet them before plastering them onto mine with unparalleled, graceful vigor. I kiss him back with the same if not more energy. The next time he wet his lips I took the chance and coaxed his tongue into my mouth, warily sucking on his. It seems as though he was thinking to do the same thing, because his tongue shyly struggles past my lips after I parted them.
I want him to feel how I’ve felt for him for all this time.
KK
Our kisses slow in pace, but they become stronger and impassioned. His tongue feels like velvet… I feel lightheaded; I keep coming for more and more. I quiver with every third or so stroke of Dongwoon’s patient tongue, feeling every little bit of soundness I have blown into the wind. I give up. I let him swallow me up.
He tastes like cotton candy.
DW
I hold him in my arms until the gentleness I feel leads me to believe that we are one. We stand in the middle of the narrow, damp walkway, kissing one another out in the open, letting others brush past us and think whatever they want.
He feels amazing. Everything about him is.
I feel his heart knocking at my breast. Mine is doing the same, be it from hardly any oxygen, or just the sheer excitement and pleasure of our very first, very passionate embrace of the lips.
Somehow, some way, our kissing ends. Kikwang’s brow is pressing into mine.
KK
“I like you so much, Woonie,” I whisper from my heart, both it and I breathless.
I have the sweetest boy, and he doesn’t even know it.
I belong to him.
DW
“I like you, too, Kiki.”
Kikwang’s eyes search me. His eyes, his lips, everything is twinkling, smiling: the very reasons why and how I fell for him.
He’s so happy.
I love seeing him happy.
He’s beautiful.
…
Silent snowflakes are beginning to fall between us.