Description: Jonghyun wants to celebrate Christmas but Jinki keeps asking weird questions and that annoys the other three guys.
Rating: So very G.
Characters: Lee Jinki, Kim Jonghyun, Kim Kibum, Choi Minho and Lee Taemin
Disclaimer:
I do not own the characters in the fiction.
The story is only a narrative and does not involve any real life
situation. The whole plot of the story
is written originally by myself. If
there's any similarity to other fictions, it is totally a coincidence.
He scribbles, he reads it again and he erases it. He scribbles, he reads it again and he erases it. He scribbles, he reads it again and he erases it. Those action have been repeated a few times, and Jonghyun thinks he still cannot get the lyrics right. The pencil is getting blunt and the white snow is getting more and more polluted with the eraser’s dust. His fingers are getting numb and his nose is getting red.
“I should wear my gloves,” he says while putting the pencil and the notebook at his side.
He lies down on the cold snow. Not even ten seconds he closes his eyes, he feels something hits him in his face, hard and cold. He sits up immediately and the image of Jinki, grinning sheepishly, comes into his sight.
“Yah! Jonghyun-ah. Gotcha!” he says, jumping up and down like a bunny.
Jonghyun is supposed to be angry, but he cannot do that, because it is Jinki he is dealing with. But, his mind is instructing him to get his revenge, just once. Ignoring the fact that he is not even wearing a glove, he scoops a handful of ice and compresses it into a ball. Jinki sees that and is about to run, but he slips on the snow and falls on top of his stomach. His face is buried into the cold snow. Jonghyun quickly throws the snowball away and comes to Jinki’s aid.
“Yah! Hyung!” he pulls the guy into a sitting position, “Are you okay? Does it hurt?”
“Uh. Oh. I hate karma so much,” he says while rubbing his cheeks with both hands. Jonghyun laughs.
“I don’t even get my revenge yet. How on Earth did you fall?” Jonghyun asks the older guy.
“Blame the snow,” Jinki answers.
Visible air puffs out from their mouths as they speak. Jonghyun wonders what the guy is doing outside in the park when he can enjoy the warmness of the heater in the apartment.
“What are you doing here, hyung?” asks Jonghyun.
“I’m looking for you,” he says. He takes the muffler at his neck and wraps it around Jonghyun’s bare hands.
“Looking for me?”
“You are playing hide-and-seek again,” says Jinki.
Jonghyun laughs again, because of both Jinki’s answers and the way his hands are now wrapped in a piece of muffler. It feels warmer though.
“I’m here at the open space. I’m not playing hide-and-seek,” Jonghyun states.
“Doesn’t matter. Whenever you are not in my sight, that means you are playing hide-and-seek,” Jinki says.
Jonghyun laughs again. He looks at the older guy. Jinki might be older, but Jonghyun feels like he is the one who is responsible to look after both of them. After all, the other three guys in the apartment cannot tolerate Jinki’s weirdness.
“What are you doing out here, in the cold? Are you stupid?” Jinki asks while playing with his gloves.
“I was writing lyrics,” Jonghyun says. Jinki’s eyes turn very bright after he heard that.
“Can I see it?” he grins, showing his smiling eyes.
“The worst part is I didn’t write a single thing yet,” Jonghyun tells the older.
“Yah! Your time was wasted again!” Jinki throws a snowball to Jonghyun.
Jonghyun receives the hit squarely at his face. He hears the other guy laughs merrily and he remembers that he has not yet gotten his revenge for the first one. He pulls the muffler away and scoops a handful of snow. Then, he tosses it into Jinki’s face. It is officially begins, the snowball fight. They play like kids, shooting snowballs at each other. They shout, they fall, they laugh, creating their own version of Dumb and Dumber.
“Stop! Stop! I’m tired,” Jinki shouts with all his might. Jonghyun laughs. He agrees to stop too, because he couldn’t feel his fingers anymore.
They sit together on a bench at the right side of the park, and together, they see the bald trees with snow sticking on the branches.
“Jonghyun-ah…” Jinki calls him.
“Yes?”
“What if the snow is not white? What if the snow is green?” Jinki asks.
There he goes again, just a part of his weirdness, asking weird questions. They always receive questions like that and Kibum, Minho and Taemin cannot bear that part of Jinki. They say it is better to deal with Jinki’s clumsiness rather that Jinki’s questions. Oftentimes, they leave Jonghyun to entertain Jinki with his questions and Jonghyun admits that his is used to it now. The guy is just curious and Jonghyun thinks it is okay to feed him with answers which he thinks will partly makes sense.
“Well…I think the astronauts in the International Space Station will see the Earth as a huge green ball,” Jonghyun answers.
“Why?”
“Snow is made from water. If snow is green, it must get the colour from water. That means the ocean will be green and the whole Earth will look very green,” says Jonghyun. He honestly thinks that is not the best answer, but as long as Jinki is satisfied, that will be okay.
“That makes sense,” Jinki nods a few times. Jonghyun smiles.
“You know that tonight is Christmas Eve?” Jonghyun asks Jinki.
Jonghyun wishes he could be a schoolboy again, who will get a month of winter break and be able to celebrate Christmas together with family. But, tomorrow his band mates will have to perform on a Christmas Show. Jonghyun hopes at least he could have a pretty decent Christmas Eve.
“Yeah…but I guess it won’t be as good as celebrating it with family,” says Jinki.
Jinki feels it as well. Their hectic schedule always prevents them from having a Happy Christmas. Not that he regrets living as a singer, but he just wants a one-day holiday.
“We can make it good though,” Jonghyun says.
“How?” Jinki asks.
“Let’s go shopping for grocery. Then, we can cook tonight and decorate our apartment,” Jonghyun suggests and Jinki is very happy with the idea.
+++++
Five of them are at the supermarket, finally, after Jonghyun shouted at the other three guys right into their ears. Jinki is in the trolley and Jonghyun pushes it, while Kibum, Minho and Taemin look very much irritated by the situation. Jinki trips three times on his shoelace for the first ten minutes they are in the mart and Jonghyun decides that he should not walk. Therefore, there he is, in the trolley, taking in packets of food being given to him.
“Do we really need to do this?” asks Kbum, looking at Jonghyun, with his hand giving Jinki a packet of flour.
“It is just once in a year,” says Jonghyun.
“Who is going to cook all this later?” Minho asks. Jonghyun looks at him with a stern face.
“Us, obviously,” he replies. Kibum is glad he won’t be forced to do it alone.
“Don’t involve me in this,” says Taemin. Ever since he is getting matured, Taemin just never listens to Jonghyun or Jinki anymore.
“You are already involved,” Jonghyun takes a box of spaghetti from the rack and gives it to Jinki.
Kibum, Minho and Taemin do not want to do anything that day, really. They just want to sit down and play games or surf internet. Being forced to go to the mart angers them so much and adding to that, Jinki in the trolley is very embarrassing. An adult, in a trolley? Seriously?
“I don’t think Jinki hyung should be in the trolley either,” Taemin says. Jonghyun sighs while Jinki flinches at his words.
“Then you expect me to let Jinki hyung falls a few more times before we get out of this mart?” Jonghyun asks him. The youngest keeps quiet after that, but his face clearly shows that he is infuriated.
After they are done at the meat section, Jonghyun pushes the trolley to the diary section. Jonghyun asks Taemin to get a packet of grated cheese and Taemin just grabbed anything that his eyes can see and his hand can reach. He is about to give it to Jinki when Jonghyun stops him.
“How could you just grab it like that? You should look at the expiry date,” Jonghyun says.
Taemin rolls his eyes and looks at the packet. He turns it in whichever way he could until he could see where the expiry date was stamped.
“It is February 28th next year,” he says while giving it to Jinki with annoyed feeling.
Jinki takes the packet from Taemin and looks at it. It is 28th February, alright. Then, his mind starts to become active again, thinking about the other day in February, the day that exists only in leap year.
“Hmmm…what if 29th February doesn’t exist in the calendar?” he asks that question specifically to Taemin.
Taemin gives Jinki a do-not-ask-me-weird-questions look, but Jinki seems slow to interpret it. Taemin sighs and looks at Minho and Key for some help, but they ignores that.
“I really need to go to the bathroom,” Taemin says and he leaves.
“I will get the vegetables,” Kibum says and leaves.
“I am going to get some breads and buns,” Minho does the same.
Jonghyun can only watch them leave. That is what usually happened whenever Jinki asks such a question. The other guys will avoid from having to answer it or pretend not to hear it at all.
“Am I asking the wrong question, Jonghyun?” he asks Jonghyun while holding the cheese tightly in his hand.
Jonghyun wants very much to say yes, but he can’t bring himself to do it because Jinki looks so pitiful with that face and cheese in hand and sitting in the trolley. He looks like a rabbit that couldn’t get his carrot.
“No, hyung. Not that you are asking the wrong question, but that question might be a bit hard for them to answer,” says Jonghyun. Jinki is quiet for a while.
“Okay,” he says after a while. His face doesn’t look happy and Jonghyun feels desperate and tries to find an answer that would partially make sense.
“What was the question again, hyung?” Jonghyun asks.
“I asked what if 29th February doesn’t exist in the calendar,”Jinki said.
“Then I would say that every four years, we will live a day ahead of the Earth’s orbiting the Sun,” he says.
Jinki keeps quiet after that and Jonghyun makes a mental note for himself to Google the answer when they get home.
+++++
Kibum nags at them about how they are supposed to keep the kitchen clean and safe even though they are cooking. Jonghyun is giving a first-aid to Minho’s ring finger which is bleeding because Jinki had accidentally broken a glass bowl and Minho prevented clumsy Jinki from picking it up with his bare hand and resulting in his own finger bleeding. Jinki looks like he can’t forgive himself for Minho’s bleeding finger. Taemin boringly kneads the dough for pizza as Kibum instructed.
“Jonghyun, you are responsible to clean the kitchen afterwards,” Kibum says, with a very sharp
tone, as if giving him a warning.
Jonghyun quickly gets it. It is his idea after all, for all of them to be in the kitchen cooking. But, Jonghyun just wants to feel the Christmas more at home. He really doesn’t expect this to happen.
“Sure,” he answers.
Jonghyun wants to blame Jinki for what happens but again, Jinki shows his pitiful look and Jonghyun is angry with himself for could not get any more angry with Jinki. He goes on bandaging Minho’s wound with a plaster.
“I’m sorry, Minho,” he says.
“It’s okay, hyung. It is just a small wound. Not that I cannot play games with it,” Minho states.
Jonghyun knows Minho is looking at Jinki. But, Jonghyun is grateful that he doesn’t look at Jinki with that angered look as Taemin did at the mart, but this sympathy looks, because Jonghyun knows that Minho might know that Taemin wants to throw the dough into Jinki’s face. Jonghyun washes his hand clean from the antiseptic.
“Jinki hyung, pass me that 2kg chicken,” Kibum asks Jinki, but this time to pass something that won’t break in case it falls from his hand again.
Jinki is shocked by the mention of his name, but otherwise, quickly jumps to his feet and grabs the chicken. He passes it to Kibun along with a question Jonghyun wishes he wouldn’t ask.
“What if 2 is written as 3 and 3 is written as 2?” asks Jinki.
Jonghyun freezes on his spot. Taemin gives a very angry grip to the dough as though he is imagining it as Jinki’s head. Minho pretends to rummage the refrigerator. Key takes the chicken without any thanks, without any word.
“Thanks, Jinki hyung,” Kibum says after a while, “I excuse you from the kitchen now.”
Jinki looks at Jonghyun and Jonghyun looks back at him. Jinki looks very troubled by that situation and with his shoulders slumped, he walks out of the kitchen. Jonghyun wipes his hand and quickly follows Jinki.
“Hyung,” he calls him.
“I just want to ask people’s opinions about it,” Jinki states, “You know how hard it was when knowledge was first invented and nowadays, we live in a world where everything is there for us, and we forget.”
Jonghyun smiles to Jinki’s statement. He knows how the older doesn’t take things for granted and always thinks about them from the fundamental. He knows that Jinki asks those questions because he is just a curious thinker but Jonghyun still thinks that Jinki should realize it when people start to draw a line.
“Alright, in case you really want to know, this is my opinion. No matter how many times people change how 2 is written, two will still be two. Only the symbol changes, the value will still be two,” Jonghyun says.
Jinki smiles when he hears the answer and he thanks Jonghyun for that. Jonghyun walks back into the kitchen and pulls Jinki along. When they enter the kitchen, Minho’s eyes meet Jonghyun’s.
“Sometimes I wonder if both of you are really dumb or just pretend to be dumb,” Minho says.
+++++
Minho scores a goal and he shouts and jumps happily. Taemin throws the controller, luckily it lands on the cushion or Minho will get mad. Kibum glances at them and smiles. That is the tenth time Taemin loses to Minho that day.
“Damn it! I hate PES,” Taemin says.
“Oh, I love PES and I love TV and I love myself,” Minho says.
“I feel like crushing the TV,” Taemin mutters.
“Oh, don’t be like that Taemin. TV is invented for fun…” Minho tries to get the youngest back to the game.
Taemin mouths foul words and Kibum scolds him for that. Taemin rolls his eyes and saying something about killing the inventor of PES. Kibum shrugs it off and saying something about do not kill the inventor of me2day. Minho and Taemin are just about to go on with the game when Jinki asks again, but this time it is directed to Minho.
“Minho, what if John Logie Baird and Charles Babbage were never born?” Jinki asks while cutting the white and red ribbon.
It is silence for a while, except for the sound of Kibum’s vigorous typing and controller being punched and the football commentator’s voice. Jonghyun almost thought Minho is pretending not to hear it when that guy suddenly answers.
“I don’t care if those guys were never born into this world,” Minho says while making a face.
“And I don’t care about you,” Taemin says bluntly, seems to be pouring all his angers towards Jinki.
“Nor do I care about your weird questions,” Kibum continues after that.
Jinki freezes. He looks at Jonghyun and hurt is evidence in his eyes. He puts down the ribbon and the scissors and walks into his room, shared with Taemin and Kibum. Jonghyun feels angry. Why can’t they just answer the question? The older guy wants nothing but opinions. He doesn’t demand perfect answers and the three freaking housemates can’t just answer that. He puts down his LED light and walks to the main plug and pulls off every wire that is connected there. Immediately, the TV and the computer are switched off. Kibum, Minho and Taemin looks at Jonghyun shockingly, if not furiously.
“That just shows how much you care if John Logie Baird and Charles Babbage were never born,” Jonghyun says and he walks into the room, where Jinki is now hiding and probably crying.
“What?” Taemin is still clueless about the whole situation.
“Jonghyun hyung is right. John Logie Baird and Charles Babbage invented TV and computer. Without them, we will not be able do what we were doing just now,” Minho says, silently feeling guilty towards Jinki.
“And we thought Jinki hyung and Jonghyun hyung are supposed to be a version of Dumb and Dumber,” Key states while looking at the floor.
+++++
They are having dinner together in the kitchen. After all the things happened during the day, finally they are having dinner as a family, and Jonghyun is really glad that his plan went well, despite all the commotion. Taemin eats like he is not eating for years and Jinki is happy that he is not angry anymore.
“After a few years, this is the first time my Christmas Eve becomes bright again,” says Minho while chugs down his glass of red grape sparkling. Jonghyun has strictly not allowed alcohol that night.
“Really, hyung. I almost forget how it feels like,” Taemin bites his drumstick and Jinki stares longingly at that part of chicken as Taemin eats it.
“You can have mine,” Jonghyun gives his drumstick to Jinki and Jinki exchanges it with his chicken breast.
“Thanks, Kibum. You are a very good cook,” Jinki voices, for the first time since they have their dinner.
“Nothing much. Thanks for decorating the house though,” Kibum says, still slightly feeling guilty for what had happened between them earlier.
“I did not do that much,” Jinki says sincerely.
Honestly, he doesn’t think he decorate it that well. The Christmas tree just doesn’t look like Christmas tree anymore and the wall is full with nothing but silver snowflakes which he bought all-done-just-need-to-paste from the mart. He also puts a small Santa everywhere in the house just to make it look like Christmas.
“What if Santa really exist?” the question comes out of his mouth before he couldn’t even stop himself and he immediately thinks he deserves to die for asking that question. Surprisingly, everybody makes an effort to answer it.
“The kids will be happy, hyung,” Taemin says.
“I will go out tonight to see his sleigh,” Minho goes.
“We will have something waiting for us next morning, won’t us, hyung?” Key answers.
Jinki smiles. But, he is not satisfied, because Jonghyun doesn’t answer his question. The boy always does, but it seems like he is ignoring it now.
“Jonghyun?” he asks. The other three looks at Jonghyun as well.
“Oh, I don’t know hyung. Maybe Taemin, Minho and Kibum will behave better especially towards you because Santa gives present only to good guys,” Jonghyun says and continues with his meal.
Jinki is surprised with Jonghyun’s answer because he doesn’t expect Jonghyun to be that thoughtful. As for Minho, Kibum and Taemin, guilt develops again in their hearts and they promise not to mess up with the Clever and Cleverer brothers again.
__________
heaDeVil^23
Mood: Hungry
Music: Taeyang - Wedding Dress
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