Taemin didn’t think he was particularly that interesting. For him, he felt like an alien as Jongin would ask him various questions every now and then. Not that he minded, in fact, he enjoyed it. Having a friend in so long felt nice.

“You didn’t give me my weather report yesterday.” He reminded the fellow tanned boy.

“Oh, well it was fairly windy and pretty cloudy. There was a bit of rain at some point too.” Taemin frowned.

“Make it interesting!”

“How?”

“I don’t know, surprise me. Use metaphors, I like to picture what you say.”

Jongin spent a good amount of time thinking of what to say.

“The trees bent as if in prayer by the angry wind, a tightrope of light starting at me, ending at you was dissolved as… it rained like water pouring from a bucket. Is this good enough for you?” Although the question sounded harsh, Jongins voice was soothing and light.

“’A tightrope of light.’ I like that.” Taemin smiled.

He could hear shuffling from next to him as well as a bag being zipped open.

“Since the first part of my job is done, now for the second part.”

Taemin could only listen as it seemed like objects were being moved around.

“I have brought a bunch of my old piano books with me. I was thinking of starting at the very beginning”

Jongin took Taemin gently by the hand over to the grand piano which gleamed in Jongins eyes.

“Could you show me where the key C is?”

Taemin shifted his hands over the black keys before resting his hand down onto the C note. He felt slightly uncomfortable playing on this piano after so long.

“Are you alright? It’s ok if you want to stop at any point” Jongin could sense discomfort in Taemins expression which worried him slightly.

“Oh no, lets carry on”

“Alright, could you play C, E, G and D for me?”

It took a bit of time to find the keys. Taemins felt annoyed with himself. These were the simplest chords and he kept messing up.

“Don’t think about it; let your fingers move to the sound.” Jongins voice broke his trail of thoughts. Taemin nodded. His second time playing, he felt it was somehow slightly easier.

“You’re doing really well! Now how about something a bit harder?”

 It took less than 30 minutes until Taemin could play Twinkle twinkle little star, Mary had a little lamb and Yankee Doodle without any mistakes whatsoever. They were both singing Yankee Doodle by the end of song.

“Thank you, Jongin, this was fun!”

“This is only the beginning! Soon, you’ll be able to be as good as me”

“Yeah… I doubt that”

“Don’t give up! I’m sure if you stay positive, everything will turn out just the way you want it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Taemin thought that would be enough for today. He was starting to feel sick, sitting on that stool, not that he would ever tell Jongin that though. When the time was right, he would tell Jongin everything.

“How old are you Taemin?”

“Have I never told you? I’m 17”

“Same! When’s your birthday?”

“July 18^th”

“August 2^nd. You’re older than me, I seriously thought you were younger,” Jongin laughed.

“Say, tomorrow is a Saturday right? Are you doing anything?”

“I’m free. There’s not much for me to do anyway” Jongin looked down towards his thumbs.

“Would you like to have lunch with me?”

“Oh, is this a date? Ok, Jongin” Taemin joked. Jongins face flushed slightly pink.

“So I’ll come round to pick you up at 12:30, is that ok?”

“Perfect!”

“Great! Cool, well I got to go for now, it’s getting late. I wish I could stay longer but I don’t want to waste too much of your time, I’ll see you tomorrow!” Jongin said with his bag hanging over one shoulder. He took one last look at Taemin before walking out the front door.

Taemins mother bumped into Jongin as he turned the corner of the pathway.

“Oh, sorry, ma’am” Jongin bowed politely.

“It’s ok, oh; do you happen to be the famous Kim Jongin?” The woman with lovely brown wavy hair asked with dark brown eyes. She reminded Jongin of his own mother.

“Taemin talks a lot about you” she smiled. Taemin?

“Are you his mother?”

“Yes, I must thank you, Jongin, for helping my son. You see he’s been through a lot lately and it’s so nice that he has a friend after so long.” Her voice was smooth and kind.

“It’s my pleasure. If you don’t mind me asking, what do you mean by that?’

“Well, after he became blind, he had to quit school and all his friends stopped visiting. As a mother, it’s heartbreaking to see your child so sad.” I know. Jongin internally thought without really thinking. Miss Lee’s eyes turned towards the floor and her smile faltered a little bit until she took a small breath.

“But now he has you so please look after him, well it was lovely meeting you, Jongin, I have to get back home now, take care!” Her smile was back and it made Jongin imagine his own mother smiling like that.

“Thank you and you can count on me!” There were still millions of questions buzzing around in Jongins mind as they both parted ways. What made him blind? What was he like before? Why does he seem so sad at the piano? What hardships did he face?

Hopping onto his bike, Jongin peddled slowly towards the small supermarket in town. He couldn’t bare sitting alone at that dining table. He would also need to buy lots of picnic food. But he’d do that tomorrow morning, right now Jongin didn’t have enough and he wanted to make it special. Entering the small supermarket, he instantly walked over towards the toasties section, not expecting to find a familiar face there too.

“Sehun?” Jongin asked as he saw his friend holding two toasties and looking from one to the other.

“Oh, Jongin! Didn’t see you much today”

“Yeah, went off early to Tae- Tanya! Tanya.” Jongin coughed.

“Wouldn’t have guessed. So, this morning…”

Oh. Right. Jongin had been in such a mood that morning because of what happened last night that he totally ignored Sehun for most of the day, scowling and shouting at random things like when a student had knocked into him and he had a huge argument over the spilt food that was all over the floor and on the two boys’ jumpers.

“Yeah, well I can explain. You see, I listened to you-“

“For once”

“Yes, and well, it didn’t turn out well. I seriously want to leave that dump.” Jongin frowned.

“I must admit, I didn’t think it would. But I’d keep trying. Show him that you’re stronger than him”

“Thanks, man. And sorry for this morning, just had a lot of built up anger inside me.”

“I can understand! Anyway, could you help me out here? Ham or cheese?”

“That’s hard… Cheese, I’ll have ham. I’m meatier than you, after all.”

Jongin entered the chilly streets with a bag of crisps, a ham toasty (after many complaints from Sehun) and a slice of chocolate cake with strawberries. He had to peddle the rest of the way home as it was too far to walk and took the back entrance to avoid the butler with small glasses. There is a short tree over on the side of the house, underneath Jongins window. Since it was much later than he had planned (#blamesehun) there would be many questions fired at him which was a pain to deal with. Plus he was hungry and wanted to eat.

Placing the rusty red bike against the side of the white wall, Jongin started to drag himself up the tree trunk and into the branches. The top branch didn’t quite reach his bedroom window which meant he would have to jump onto is window sill. This was a fairly easy task as Jongin is good at athletics and can jump a good height. Luckily for him, his window was open and Jongin easily crawled inside, turned his light on and placed his bags on the table in his room. The bag was slightly torn on the sides but the food itself was unharmed.

Jongin tiptoed down the dark corridor towards the wide kitchen. The marble surface glistened in the dim light. He clutched his toasty in one hand and held his stomach in the other which was grumbling noisily. The kitchen was in sight and Jongin was about to speed walk to the toaster when he noticed the light was on in his father’s room. Usually his father would be locked up in his room with some chick on a Friday night, did he decide to change locations? There wasn’t any sort of ual noise, Jongin thought. There was a slight crack in the door which made Jongin curious so he slowly walked up to the thick door and peered inside.

On his desk, Mr. Kim had his head in his hands, his shoulders shook lightly. Was he laughing? He then lifted his head up and his cheeks were wet and tears silently ran down them. Mr. Kim’s hands were clutching something his lips were forming words.

“Katherine… oh Katherine”

Jongin took a step back. He swallowed a lump that was formed in his throat and turned around to go back upstairs. All hunger was lost.

Taemins heart was beating at a fast pace as he sat at the dining table. He drummed his feet against the table and bit his lip.

“What’s got you so worked up?” a calm voice spoke from behind the boy.

“Jongins taking me out for lunch”

“Oh, that’s nice!”

“I think it’s a picnic. He said something about bringing lots of delicious food.”

Taemins mother smiled fondly as she washed her hands underneath the sink and tying a white apron around her waist.

“Nervous?”

“What? No!” Taemin said flustered.

“I saw him yesterday; he seems like a sweet boy.”

 “He is.” A smile flashed his lips.

The doorbell went off twice. Taemin quickly stood up and took a deep breath, walking to the front door, running his fingers along his surroundings as he did.

“Hi Jongin”

“Hi Taemin! You ready?”

“Yeah”

“Take your stick!” His mother shouted from the kitchen.

“Fine…”

The two boys started walking along the path around the corner of Taemins house.

“Would you mind if I placed my hand here…?” Taemin had his hand on Jongins shoulder, standing behind him.

“Yeah sure.”

“It helps me walk a bit better and faster.”

They arrived at a park by a river which had a few children splashing around in. There were a few other couples and the grass was trimmed short. There were a few autumn leaves scattered around from the trees that were in a ring around the picnic area.

“We’re here!” Jongin said placing the blanket down near the river. He placed his basket down and helped Taemin by the hand to sit down.

“It sounds nice here.” Taemin smiled.

“I used to come here with my mother. It’s special to me and I wanted to share it with you.” Jongin said a little shy. His cheeks were tinted pink.

“Wow, thank you! I don’t really know what to say” Taemin laughed.

“It’s my pleasure. How about some food then?”

“Oh yes, what do you have?”

Jongin placed items from his basket onto the blanket underneath them, labelling everything as he went. Smoked salmon & poppy seed palmiers, coronation drumsticks, scotch eggs, curried chicken and mango salad, pressed picnic sandwiches, homemade pink lemonade, apple crumble slices and lots more.

“Did you make all this?!”

“Some.” Jongin lied. Come on people, he wants to impress the guy.

“This is amazing! You really shouldn’t have”

“You mean you don’t want it?”

“Oh god no, I’m gonna stuff my mouth with everything.” Taemin said bringing most of the food to his direction. Jongin laughed as he watched.

To say it was delicious was an understatement. Taemin had never felt more like a pig as he gobbled everything down with the slight help of Jongin.

“So you like it then?”

“Oh my god, I’ve never tried so many flavors!” Taemin said falling down onto his back on the blanket.

“I’m so glad.”

The two boys playing in the river were drying off, wrapped in large white towels and rolling down the small hill like sausages.

“Say, I have something… to tell you…”

Taemin sat up onto his arms, a large smile plastered across his lips.

“Go on.”

Jongins voice was stuck in his throat and he had to take five large, deep breaths to calm his screaming heart.

“I… I…”

“Hmm?”

“I’m… I’m in love with you, Lee Taemin.”  

Thinking of updated more often but here you go! 

Please comment x 

Word count: 2161