Prompt: 25 year old Kibum learns how to ride a bicycle using training wheels at night. Jinki, his neighbor, saw him and laughed at him.

This is a fill for leetaeminmom! I hope you enjoy this dear :)

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To Lee Jinki, the world was rather dull. The same push and pull of ordinary life had ensnared him once he had hit his mid-20s, the last glimmer of childlike fascination with the world extinguished as reality caught up with him. It had hit him so suddenly that he almost felt breathless, the air knocked out of his chest and instead filled up with a heaviness that hadn’t been there before. He supposes that perhaps this is a bit more dramatic than the actual happenings, but he stands by this description nonetheless of the day he “grew up”. It’s bittersweet growing up, he thinks. You spend all of your childhood rushing to get to adulthood, to the fancy cars and luxurious apartments. But once you actually get there, and you realize that things are not as they seemed in your memories, you wish nothing more than to put a hold on time and simply live forever in the twilight zone between adolescence and adulthood. Unfortunately time doesn’t work like that. 

Jinki works as a nurse at the pediatrician office a few blocks away, assisting the doctors and distracting kids with his blinding smiles and bad puns during their check ups. Working with children made the transition into adulthood easier, and is partially why he chose his profession, he must admit. Seeing the kids with their endless hopes, eyes still alight with the same curiosity he had once held only a few years ago, warms his heart with the same bittersweet feeling from before. It helps remind him that there is too much light in the world to focus on the dark; and that, he believes, is what helps him combat the dullness of the world around him, even for just a little bit. 

It was late one summer evening that Jinki finally finished up with his reports for the three siblings with pink eye that came into the office earlier that day, relief flooding through him as he finally pushed away from his desk and stood up, raising his arms over his head and stretching his back to loosen up the tension in his trapezius muscles along the posterior of his neck. All Jinki could think about was fixing himself a cup of Earl Gray and slipping into a hot bath, wanting some time to himself to unplug and relax. 

It was the sound of shouting outside that put a halt to Jinki’s plans of R&R time. Figuring it must be some rowdy kids passing by, Jinki walked over to his front room windows, ready to scold anyone and everyone who would dare touch his precious gardenias outside. Those were his babies, and he would protect them with his life. 

Jinki gently nudged part of his curtains to the side, looking out onto the street in front of his house for the source of the noise. The lamps lining the road were on, bathing the street in a warm orange glow. No traffic was passing by, but that wasn’t unusual considering the time of night. Nothing was out of place, and there wasn’t a person to be seen. 

“You’re losing it Jinks…,” he mutters softly to himself, scanning the street once more for good measure. Maybe that yell was from another street over, the acoustics in his neighborhood carried far away sounds pretty well after all. Content with this explanation, Jinki moved away from the window, letting the curtain flutter back into place. However, he didn’t even make it five steps away before that same piercing yell faintly filtered in, making Jinki pause in his tracks. 

Now this was getting weird. Frowning, Jinki quickly strode over to his front door and undid the locks, stepping out onto his front porch once he was able to pull it open. Maybe there was someone who needed help? Jinki was a nurse after all, and he was nothing if not helpful. Glancing around, he still couldn’t make anyone out, and it was beginning to unnerve him. What if he was just hearing things? 

Thankfully, his sanity was proven intact not too long after, as the source of the yelling- or rather, excited whooping- was revealed. 

Jinki watched at first with confusion, then endearment as recognized his next door neighbor, Kibum, riding down the street on a bicycle that Jinki had never seen before. Kibum was only two years younger than himself, being 25, but lived a much more exciting life from what Jinki could tell. From their brief interactions with one another Jinki had found out that Kibum was an editor for some big fashion magazine in Korea, often away from home on business trips for fashion weeks around the world. The boy’s hair seemed to change every other month; this past week it went from a light auburn to platinum blonde. Jinki always found that he preferred the different shades of brown that Kibum would sometimes revert back to, but the blonde color suited his eccentric personality nicely. There was something about Kibum that always left Jinki wishing he could talk to him just a little longer. As silly as it may sound, being around Kibum always seemed to make Jinki’s world less dull in the brief moments their lives would interlude. 

As he stood there, Jinki looked on as Kibum scrunched up his face in concentration, carefully peddling his way down the street. It wasn’t until Kibum rode underneath one of the street lamps did the fact that there were actually training wheels attached to the back wheel occur to Jinki. It took a few seconds to put it together, but once he realized what was going on Jinki couldn’t help but laugh, doubling over from just how cute a 25 year old adult could be. Jinki was laughing so hard that he almost didn’t catch the surprised gasp from Kibum, the next second filled with the sound of metal hitting the concrete street and a muffled groan. Jinki’s laughter died out as he glanced up and noticed Kibum’s slender form curled up on the ground, feebly trying to move away from the middle of the street where his bike lay tipped over on its side. 

Jinki rushed forward, ignoring the fact that he was still in his scrubs from work and barefoot, gently looping his arms around Kibum’s waist when he got to the younger boy and pulled him over onto his lawn out of the street. 

“Oh my god are you alright?” Jinki ignored their close proximity as he checked Kibum over for any major injuries, thankfully only finding minor scrapes on Kibum’s palms. When he didn’t get a response from the younger, Jinki paused in his examination and tilted his head, curious as to why Kibum refused to even look at him. 

“I’m sorry if this was my fault, I didn’t mean to startle you…,” Jinki offered quietly, hoping that Kibum wasn’t too angry with him. The blonde certainly didn’t look very angry. In fact, he looked almost flustered, as though he was unsure how to respond.

“I’m fine, just a scrape really,” Kibum finally settled with, carefully tugging his hands out of Jinki’s grasp which the elder didn’t even realize he was still holding. Kibum looked at him pointedly after a beat of silence, his normal demeanor sliding back into place. “You have to swear on your life that you’ll tell no one about…this.” Jinki pouted and looked past Kibum towards his upturned bike, unsure why the younger was so adamant about keeping his practicing a secret. 

“It’s not embarrassing you know, everyone has to learn sometime. Plus, I think it’s kind of admirable that you’re trying even though you’ve grown up.” They were sitting out of the direct beam of the closest street lamp, but Jinki could’ve sworn that he saw a blush crawl up Kibum’s neck and cheeks at his statement. 

“Shut up, it is embarrassing! I can’t even ride a damn bike, how pathetic.”  Kibum shifted his gaze away from Jinki and settled on looking at the palms of his hands, softly dragging his fingertips along the angry red scrapes along his soft skin. “Thank you though, for helping me. Even if it was your fault I fell in the first place.” Jinki knew that the thank you was sincere, judging by the fact Kibum’s lips were struggling to hide an amused smile at his own snarky attitude. Adorable, he thinks to himself.

After Jinki cleared Kibum to go back home with the orders of putting antiseptic medicine on his scrapes before bed, he found himself walking beside the blonde, toting along the younger’s bike so Kibum wouldn’t have to worry about it. As they got to Kibum’s garage, the blonde relieved Jinki of the bike and placed it inside, hiding it away from plain sight despite the fact the garage door would be closed for the rest of the night anyways. Jinki couldn’t help but wish that Kibum wasn’t so mortified over something as silly as this, it really wasn’t that big of a deal. But to Kibum it was, so Jinki stayed quiet.

“Thank you again Jinki, have a nice night alright?” Kibum smiled and waited a moment, looking like there was something else on the tip of his tongue, but ended up shaking his head in dismissal and turned to make his way inside the house through the garage, reaching out for the panel switch to shut the door.

Something inside of Jinki didn’t want this to be the end though; despite the rough start to their conversation that night, Jinki couldn’t help but feel that old childlike mirth, the genuine smile on Kibum’s face mirroring his own. It was pleasant, and Jinki didn’t want to lose his chance.

“I can teach you…if you, uh, would like my help? I promise I won’t judge, I just think it’d be safer if someone were out here to assist, and um…help, yeah.” It was awkward and ineloquent, and just as clumsy as Jinki, but the offer made Kibum pause nonetheless. 

The smile on Kibum’s face was answer enough. 

A/N: Ahhh I forgot to do the note at the end when I posted this yesterday xD Sorry if it comes up as an update, I just needed to add this in. If any of you would like to request a prompt, as always just feel free to message me personally on here or in the comments! Thanks for reading <3