On my own

Tags: romance, strangers to lovers, disability au, post trauma

Synopsis:

Jinki is a carer for special needs children and works in a facility that shares a big outside space with a rehab clinic outside of the city. He's just the most regular dude there is carrying a big heart and a strange sense of humour, that not many people understand.

Minho is a former professional free climber whose career ended abruptly after one wrong move that left him paralysed in a wheelchair. Two years have been spent in rehab where uncountable doctors and nurses tended his injuries - both physical and mental ones. Though he is making progress physically, he has a hard time coping mentally. Hating to be pitied, to be looked down upon. Hating to depend on people which leads him into social isolation.

The two meet in the park that connects the two institutions when the kid, Jinki is with, pulls Minho’s hair.

Jinki doesn’t care about Minho’s disability, they fall for each other yadda yadda awfully romantic and cute love story. Urgh eww

Prologue

“Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?” Jinki asked, clearly annoyed while holding Minsoo close to keep him from pulling the handsome stranger’s hair again – something that seemed to be the most important thing in the world right now, to the boy at least.

“You pity me.”

Jinki couldn’t help but chuckle ironically, struggling to keep Minsoo by his side, the boy was getting stronger by the day and he didn’t know how much longer he would be able to keep him under control.

“Why would I pity a rude who insults this wonderful child huh? He can’t control it; I am sure you are aware. So why don’t you roll your sorry out of our way, I am having a bad day as it is.”

“Who is rude now?” the wide-eyed guy gave back and Jinki shrugged his shoulders.

“Oh right, excuse me.” Jinki cleared his throat theatrically. “Oh mighty lord, may we please pass through?” he spoke as posh as he could manage, bending his legs in curtsey while Minsoo pointed at the stranger’s fluffy hair.

To his surprise the latter laughed out loud. Not ironically. Real laughter. Honest laughter in which his lips opened wide, his big eyes forming crescent moons while a sound as clear as a bell filled the air. It was a beautiful laugh and Jinki wanted nothing more than to hear it again.

“Sure, peasant. I will grant you and your child passage.” The man said after calming down, Jinki still mesmerised by the other’s incredible presence while he rolled out of the way giving them enough space to pass by without stepping into the flower bed.

“Your generosity is unmatched my lord. May I know your name, so I can tell the tale of thy merciful actions?” Jinki replied, his lips pulling into a gentle smile when he noticed that the stranger was finally relaxing, the sparkle of his smile not leaving his eyes just yet.

“I go by the name of Choi Minho.”

“NGGG” Minsoo was asking for his attention by resting his whole weight on Jinki’s arm, immediately making him lose his footing to catch the boy.

“Nice-“ Jinki uttered between gritted teeth – pulled back to his reality faster than he would have wished. “-to meet you urgh – Choi Minho.”

“AHhHng” Minsoo mumbled, pointing at Minho’s hair again

“You can’t pull other people’s hair. I know Minho-ssi’s hair looks soft and fluffy, but you can’t just touch it like that.” He said, looking at Minsoo’s face despite the fact that the boy wasn’t paying attention to his carer at all. “Minho-ssi, we’ll be off then. See you around man!”

With these words, Jinki put his arm around Minsoo’s shoulder, pulling the kid along to get back to the others who were far ahead by now.

Minho watched the two disappear with a foreign pull at the corners of his lips, trying to remember the last time he had laughed like this. He barely recalled. It must have been before the accident. Not wanting to awaken any memories, Minho shook his head, bringing his hand up to his hair, touching it gently.

Was his hair really that fluffy? He hadn’t even bothered combing through it this morning, having no one he wanted to look good for anyway.

With a sigh, he brought his hands back to his wheels, knowing would be late for his therapy session. Having spent a majority of the past two years in this institution, he knew every corner, every bump and pretty much all the people who worked here. Not one of his proudest achievements but the only one he had, now that his career was over.

He still dreamt about it, pulling himself up a cliff, the roughness of the rock, the heat when he climbed a south slope, sun burning on his back while his fingers were barely holding on a tiny edge. He remembered the exhilarating feeling of accomplishment when he reached the top, adrenaline pumping through his veins giving him an almost drug like high.

Minho never regretted getting into the sport, it had been his life, his happiness and his calling but loosing it was like loosing himself and he knew that he would never fully be able to recover from it. No matter what the doctors said, it was hard. Accepting that he would ever be back on a cliff, that the only harness he would ever wear again was the one that that was used to regain some sort of motor skills in his legs, keeping up his weight while he put everything he had into a small step on a treadmill.

It was embarrassing. Excruciating to be praised for lifting a foot when he had taken part in the world’s most renowned climbing events, winning numerous, placing on every single one.

He, who carried the Redbull logo on his shorts, was being praised for bending his leg.

There he was, upright for the first time this week, teeth biting on his lower lip as he put all he had into the next step.

“You are doing great Minho-ssi.” The therapist said, helping him lift his other leg to repeat the action a fifth time. “Let’s try to do ten before we take a break.”

Minho swallowed hard, there was no pride left to lose and he took another step.

“How did it go today?” Taemin waved at him when he rolled into the cafeteria where his cousin always waited for him.

“Fine.” He just commented, waiting for the younger to pack his things. “Just tired.”

“Then let me push you. Hold this.” Taemin said, placing his bag on Minho’s lap already walking behind him to do as he had planned before the older spoke up.

“Not in your dreams. Those days are over; and you can carry your yourself.”

“No need to insult my novel.” His cousin pouted, taking the bag back, putting the belt over his shoulder.

“Sorry.” Minho replied with a deep sigh, moving himself forward.

It wasn’t long until they were both seated in the car – the procedure of getting Minho inside being something they would be able to do in their sleep if they had to.

“Is my hair fluffy?” Minho suddenly asked and Taemin tilted his head, not having expected anything alike.

“Uhm… I guess… Kinda?” the younger replied. “why?”

“No reason…” Minho replied, pulling on his jeans to reposition his useless legs.

Minho didn’t meet the peasant stranger again. Not the next week, not the week after nor by the time snow hindered him from getting around comfortably, and he was slowly giving up on ever seeing him again.

It was almost ridiculous how much the short interaction had stuck with him over the past seven months. From time to time, he thought back at the surreal incident, the guy rushing over as soon as he saw the kid pulling his hair, calling him an because he had let out his frustration on the boy.

He thought about him suddenly changing his tone to act out the role of a peasant asking for passage and he remembered the exhilarating feeling of the laugh that had escaped his body that day. Maybe it had been the surreal situation, maybe it had been the stranger’s overacted performance, or maybe it had been the fact that the act was so utterly misplaced, that made Minho laugh; all he knew was that he had felt good, accepted for the first time since he woke up in the hospital almost three years ago now.

It wasn’t that that one encounter had given him back joy in life – far from it. But the simple gesture had made him realise that not everyone was going to reduce him to his injury. That there were people out there who would call him out on being an without regards to his traumatic story.

Without knowing it, the random stranger had given him back a sense of self. That even if he wasn’t who he had been before the accident, he could still be a person like everyone else, having to live by the rules and norms of society and strangely enough, it gave him hope. Hope that one day he would get back on track, be the Choi Minho he wanted to be, even if that Minho was a different one than the one he had aimed for before the accident.  

Though he was still barely able to take more than ten steps, he was doing it without the harness now, holding up his weight with his arms that had almost returned to their original state – constant training rebuilding the muscles he had lost throughout his first year of hospitalisation.

“Minho!” Taemin shouted, pulling him back to reality a small smile playing around his lips while thinking about the stranger with the gentle eyes struggling to keep the kid still while they were roleplaying as medieval people.

“Be right there.” He shouted back, reaching for his gloves before rolling down the ramp to get to the car.

“Elegant” Taemin said when Minho pulled his legs into the car, bumping his knee on the dashboard.

“Shut up and drive.” The older gave back and Taemin chuckled.

“Remind me again, when are you finally going to get your driver’s licence?”

“Remind me again, who had their driver’s licence first?”

“Remind me again, who lost their driver’s licence and is now chauffeured around by me?” Taemin teased and Minho’s face fell.

“The process takes longer than I though. I’ll get there. You won’t have to do this much longer.” He replied, not knowing how long “not much longer” actually was. He had signed-up for driving lessons a few months ago, wanting some of his independence back but apparently, he wasn’t the only one and the process of approval was way more tedious than expected.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s the truth.”

“For what it’s worth: I don’t mind driving you around.” Taemin replied and Minho rolled his eyes.

“I know. You tell me weekly, but I still feel bad to be a burden.”

“Oh just shut the up emo boy.” Taemin groaned, stepping on the gas when the light turned green.

A/N

that's it XD not much I know but it had potential - and then I came up with the you are you plot.. oh well.

feel free to leave a comment if you liked this i guess? eventhough it isn't even a real story nor will it ever be ^^

xx r