Stitched With Affection

3.4 K

Fluff, Farmer!Jongin, Scarecrow!Kyungsoo 

Jongin’s made a scarecrow in hopes that his crops won’t suffer any more attacks from those pesky rats with wings, but something happens when he wakes up one day.

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Jongin smiles as he tightens the last stitch together but its short lived when the needle pokes his finger, “!”

Jongin on his finger to help ease the pain. It was never this hard trying to fix his scarecrow. The boy found it laying among the crops when he woke up this morning. The poor thing had its arm ripped off with the straw falling out from where it’s arm use to be. The brown haired boy smiles when he yanks on the arm to see if it’s good, nothing fall out as the arm fall lifelessly to the scarecrow’s side.

He chuckles as he picks up the straw doll, Kyungsoo, he’s named him. Jongin’s worked long and hard to make the scarecrow look decent enough to be placed out in his crop fields of wheat. A usual flock of black crows invade his precious crops during the summer and spring months leaving nothing to harvest for fall. So Jongin thought the best way to keep them out would be to make a scarecrow.

Jongin looks fondly at his stitched creation. It’s stuffed with old straw while its clothes keep them all in. The scarecrow wears blue jeans with a red plaid button up shirt. Around its neck it has a black bowtie; his sleeves of his shirt are rolled up to give the doll some style (Jongin says). The head is made out of an old flour sack giving the scarecrow a snow white complexion. While large black buttons are used for the eyes and its mouth is drawn into a heart-shaped smile.

The tanned farm boy stands up from a barrel of hay he was sitting on. He places the scarecrow between his arms. Walking out into the harsh sun, Jongin has to use one of his arms as cover. The eighteen year old was always warned to wear a hat, but he never listened. A caramel tanned covers his body, that Jongin’s grown warm of. He treks into the lush green grass that separates the farm from the wheat field that him and his family own.

It’s his father who mostly owns it, but he’s made Jongin work and look after the wheat crops to ensure that the field provides a good yield. Jongin carefully tiptoes in the wheat field; the plants haven’t turned color yet as their still green. His bare feet pick up traces of soft soil as farmer’s boy makes his way over to a tall wooden ‘T’ post. He stops for a second looking around; the crows haven’t come yet which is a relief since last year the boy had to fight them off without the aid of his beloved scarecrow.

Jongin gently places Kyungsoo down to sit at the bottom of the wooden post. His fingers feel around in the pockets of his jean overalls, it’s the only thing he usually wears around when he’s working on the farm (besides his underwear of course). He pulls out some lithe rope along to hook the scarecrow on to the post. Jongin pulls up the stuffed doll; it’s light, but a few inches short than him so it’s easy to lift without problems.

Jongin reaches up high to hook the scarecrow on the post as there’s a hook for Kyungsoo’s back to hang onto. He grunts as feels the hook snag on the scarecrow, “good.”

Next, Jongin grabs the arms and uses some rope to tie the arms in place. He has to stand on his toes to reach them though. Lastly, he ties the legs together (one folded over the other). He’s done this many times so he’s finished in no time at all. The sun is beating down on him as he works, and he wipes away some sweat that’s matted against the fringe of his hairline.

The farm boy stands back looking at Kyungsoo. He looks good with his arms stretched out and his smile looking at towards the sky. Jongin sighs, “Now, I think you’ll do much better this time Kyungsoo, good luck!”

Jongin waves to the scarecrow thinking it will wave back making the farm boy chuckle, the heat must be getting to him.

It’s a hot day for the rest of the afternoon as Jongin pulls out some weeds from the fields. He’s on the far side of it while Kyungsoo is planted in the middle of the field. He wipes some sweat off his face while he feels his back taking a beating from the sun’s harsh rays. The boy takes sits down when he plucks one last weed out; he lies in the grass looking up at the sky.  A few clouds are here and there, but nowhere near him to provide any shade while the sun is high in the air. Jongin sees some black crows hovering overhead; it must be time he thinks.

He sits up and pulls out a few more weeds, hoping his scarecrow will work this time. He pats the dust off his overalls and stands up. He looks around seeing a few more weeds to pull out. Jongin takes his eyes off the scarecrow for a second when he hears dozens of bird calls. Their distinctly crows making Jongin raise his head and turning it towards the field. His eyes widen when he sees the birds flocking around the scarecrow.

One bird, he notices, perches itself on the wooden pole holding the scarecrow up. It looks around curiously titling its head before it’s pecking away at Jongin’s creation.

“Hey!” Jongin says and soon he’s run over when more birds start pecking at the scarecrow. He uses his arms and flails them around in the air when he gets near the birds and the scarecrow tied to the post. The black birds quickly take notice before they’re flapping their wings and flying off. Jongin fights them off as more leave.

He sighs watching the large flock fly away, “And stay away you dumb birds!”

Jongin looks at Kyungsoo perched on the wooden pole, he has a hole in his flour sack head and some of the straw fell out from the birds making other holes in various parts of the doll. Jongin’s sad but more importantly disappointed, why isn’t Kyungsoo working?

He made the scarecrow from scratch and was sure this would solve his bird problems. Jongin fights down tears that threaten to fall, it’s not Kyungsoo’s fault, it’s his own for believing a doll could save his crops. The farm boy wipes away his tears as a huge gust of wind blows past him. Jongin looks puzzled as the wind blows violently and even makes the scarecrow wobble around on its wooden post.

“Jongin, boy, get in here don’t you know a storm is coming?” Jongin turns around seeing his father waving from the house. Confused, Jongin looks to where the wind is blowing and spots a huge storm cloud moving towards them. Its dark blue clouds make Jongin’s heart sink; he hopes his crops of wheat can last the night from heavy rainfall.

The boy in overalls runs towards the house. He gives a quick last glance at Kyungsoo the scarecrow getting tossed around on his wooden post. Jongin also hopes Kyungsoo can last the night too.

That night is filled with the prickling noises of rain hitting the house’s roof and the loud sound of thunder. Jongin tosses and turns in his bed, but another flash of lightening makes the boy jump. He falls out from his bed when the thunder crackles in the air. He quickly gets up and wanders over to his window checking on his crops.

The winds are brutal as the small plants are moving violently in the rain and wind. Jongin then looks over to his scarecrow, but it’s too dark to see much as Jongin can only see the first few rows of his crops. The farm boy sighs as he turns around moving back to the safety of his bed. He yawns and fights through the rough noises of the storm to fall asleep.

There’s a particularly bright flash of lightening and the loud sound of thunder that happens just outside his window before Jongin falls into deep slumber.

Jongin stirs awake brushing his sleepiness from