Saving Tokki

It probably wasn't such a good idea to rush and climb the tree before thinking about the consequences; that was the thought running on a loop in Taemin's mind as he sat on a sturdy looking tree brunch, approximately 8 to 10 feet away from the ground, his legs dangling from either side of the brunch, back resting against the trunk. He looked down at the ball of fluff sitting carefree on his lap, it's paw. Rolling his eyes, Taemin poked the kitten's nose. It was after all the little kitty's fault that he was literally stuck in this situation, on a tree with no ways down.

To top it all off, Taemin had an unexplainable fear of height.

He was royally screwed.

'When we are getting down, you better come home with me.' He rubbed the kitten's fur and pulled it closer to his tummy, hugging it.

He had been stuck on the tree for the last half an hour. Minho, his abnormally tall friend, who helped him reach the branch by letting him climb his shoulder disappeared after they realised that there was no way that Taemin could climb back down using Minho's shoulders, saying he was getting help. Taemin had a niggling suspicion that Minho probably met the love of his life, or so he says, on the way to getting help and forgot all about his friend's predicament from flirting with his all time crush since high school. Just his luck.
Thinking he might as well make himself at home, he reached out for an apple and plucked it off with ease. The kitten made a noise close to a grumpy growl as she was jostled in the process but settled down after seeing what her human was up to and rested her head on Taemin's stomach again, purring at the warmth. Taemin chuckled and wiped the apple on his shirt and bit into it. As soon as he did, his face scrunched up in distaste and spit it out, gagging.

Tasteless would be too much of a tamed word to describe it. It was horrible.

His luck was not on his side.

If all the incidents that led up to it wasn't evident enough, what happened next definitely was. After spitting out the bitter bite of apple, he threw the fruit, without checking if anyone was walking past under him.
The yelp was very familiar and Taemin had grown up hearing that nasally voice and would recognise it anywhere, even from a ten feet height.

'Yeonnie?' He peeked down. As soon as he did, he knew that it was the wrong thing to do, his height fright kicked in and overwhelming dizziness enveloped him. Closing his eyes didn't really help much either.
It seemed that the kitten sensed his distress as she was his hand as if to ask if he was fine. That helped a little, distracting him. Smiling, he patted the cat's head reassuringly, making her purr and his hand.

'Minnie?!'
He could hear his sister's voice, filled with a little confusion, probably because she couldn't tell where his voice was coming from.
Taemin smirked, a sudden idea popping into his head.

'Yeonnie, don't freak out, but I think I'm dead...' He barely contained the giggle that was about to burst out of him.

Beneath him, he saw his sister look around frantically, to find out where Taemin was, no doubt. When she couldn't find him, arms crossed over her chest in a sassy way, she yelled.
'What the hell?! Lee Taemin..don't joke around...where the hell are you.'

Taeyeon sounded annoyed.

Taemin saw her looking around again and snickered softly. This was fun.

'It's true Taeyeonnie. I just choked on a toffee, you know those strawberry flavoured ones you like so much, and before I knew it I was floating away from my body. No one can hear or see me..except from you. Maybe it's a twin connection or something. But yeah, I think I'm dead.'
No matter how hard he tried to sound depressed about his death, he just couldn't.

'What the hell..you can't be serious. Please Taeminnie..don't joke like that!' She pleaded, now sounding scared as she couldn't find her brother anywhere.

Taemin felt a little twinge of guilt but he pushed it away as it was way too much fun to wind her up for once. It was always Taeyeon who pulled pranks on her brother and now that the younger, by 5 minutes apparently, got his chance, he wasn't going to let it go without having a few laugh of his own. So he carried on.

'I wish I was only joking, but I'm not. Listen, I don't have much time. I see the light already. But before I go..I just wanted.....'

'Taemin-ah. Please don't mess around.'
Taeyeon interrupted him with a wavering voice.
'Listen, you can't die. I would've known if you did..you can't die so young..please tell me you're alive.'
She was tearing up and started sobbing.

Taemin never thought that his sister would cry for him like this. Like any other siblings, the twins fought like cats and dogs and Taeyeon never played fair with her brother, so Taemin thought she would realise that he was joking and shout at him or think she was going crazy. He expected many reactions from her but not that one.

'Minnie-ah, you can't leave me and dad like mom did, you can't.' She sobbed.

'Yah..calm down. I'm not dead..I'm stuck on the tree.'
Feeling of guilt rushed over him as he saw his sister's figure leaning up against the tree trunk in reliefs and more so when she looked up and he could see her red eyes and black trails of mascara laced tear tracks down her cheeks.

'You will be when I get my hands on you.. Bastard.'

Taemin smiled guiltily as taeyeon glared up at him.

'If I'm a bastard than so are you Yeonnie! We are twins..remember?!' He tried to joke but even he knew that it wasn't funny.

Taeyeon crossed her arms over her chest again after wiping her tears away.
'How the heck did you mange to get up there?! I thought you were too afraid of tall things..but then again you're friends with that giraffe. So maybe not! And where is that friend of yours?!' She took out a compact mirror out of her designer bag and started wiping away the mascara and reapplied power on her face.

'Yeonnie. I'm scared of heights..not tall things. And I was saving this little cutie.' He held out the kitten for the other to see, ignoring the mewls of protest from the fur ball.

Taeyeon arched her brow in a perfect imitation of their dad and scowled.
'When are you going to grow out of your hero-wannabe tendencies?! And that thing, it better not be coming into our house. I won't tolerate cat hair on my clothes or all over me.' Her nose shot upon the air in a snotty way.
Taemin rolled his eyes and the kitten swiped her claws down as if she wanted to sink them on Taeyeon.
'It's my house too you know! And Tokki doesn't seem to like you anyway, she won't go anywhere near you.' He pulled the kitty to hug it to his chest again. 'Don't worry. You're mine now Tokki. This wicked witch of west can't keep you away from me.' He kissed the top of the cat's head and smiles.

'Tokki? You named your mangy old cat Tokki? You're such a loser.'

Taemin ignored her scoff and whispered to the growling kitty. 'You can scratch her to your heart's content when we get down, got it?!'
The cat seemed to be pleased by that offering and purred.

'Do you plan on getting down anytime soon? Or should I just go home?!' Taeyeon yawned after as reapplied all her makeup, smacking her bright pink stained lips together. 'I'll tell dad that you really died and take over the company in your place.' She inspected her nails and smiled in appreciation. 'That place needs a pretty being like me to liven things up.' She wiggled her fingers.

Taemin was about to scoff and say something but before he could, Minho came running with a long silver ladder and Krystal clinging to his side, looking up at him in adoration. Taemin rolled his eyes. His tall friend must have boasted how he was going to save Taemin and the little kitty in distress
Like superman or something along that line. Minho was way too predictable. Sometimes Tae wondered why he was friends with such a weird guy.
It must be because he was used to have a weirdo by his side since he was in his mother's womb, he smirked.

'Oh look, dumb is here to help dumber. What a pair.' Taeyeon looked up. 'Now that your knight in shining..well more like ugly maroon jumper is here, I'll be off. See ya at home.. Or not.' With that, she was off, leaving them with a background music of click-clacking of her pencil heels.

It took them another hour to get both Taemin and the kitten down from the tree. Taemin was way too scared to climb down with the kitty still on his hands and Tokki refused to go with Minho when he climbed up the ladder to get her. At least Krystal seemed to be very intrigued by the battle scars Minho sported on his arms, angry red scratches slashing across his skin.
But if someone asked Minho, he'd say that it was getting Taemin to climb down the ladder that was the hardest. He kept on hugging the ladder handles, shivering and whimpering, whining about how he was going to haunt both Minho and Krystal if he fell down and broke his neck.

Once both him and Tokki were safe and sound, standing on the firm ground, Taemin finally remembered that his dad had texted him to come home early as they had a dinner date to attend at his friend's house. Swearing under his breath, he checked his phone. It was already past six and he had about 10 texts from his dad who abhorred using any form of technology out of work.

He really was screwed this time, royally.