“What’s this?” Minho asked interestedly, peering closely at a wrinkled, smeared sort of photograph placed specially in the centre of a page. Taemin turned towards the album and looked as well. His eyes were trained at it for a few seconds, trying to recollect. Then, almost instantly the memory came to his mind and a wide smile adorned his pretty lips. He threw his head back and laughed in the most adorable fashion while Minho looked on with amused eyes, “Are you done?” He asked, gazing affectionately at Taemin who could hardly suppress his laughter.

        Taemin wiped tears from his eyes and nodded, smiling, “I’m sorry, that picture always makes me smile so much. Actually, not so much the picture as this,” He pointed at the crinkled corners and the creamy liquid splattered on the photograph. “It’s banana milk, you see?” And his mouth threatened to burst into a flight of giggles once more. “You and I hated this picture, so we thought of spoiling it with huge dollops of banana milk. Unfortunately, Umma caught us doing it and yanked the picture from us! We got a terrific hiding. Well, I did, actually. Umma loves you.” A sudden, adorable pout came upon his lips and he turned his nose up at Minho.

“I’ll bet you did. And I’m sure it was your idea!” Minho laughed as well, trying to picture two little boys with hands smeared with banana milk, dropping it all over the floorboards and brushing it generously on a little piece of paper. “We did a good job though! I can’t make a thing out of this picture! Why did we hate it so much?”

“Well, we didn’t. I did.” Taemin smiled, “It was a picture you had taken of me after I managed to slip brilliantly on the little peel of banana you had laid out for me to step on. You were quite mean back then you know.”

“Then why on earth did I help you spoil the picture?” Minho asked interestedly, “I should have loved the picture!”

“Oh, but you loved me more, didn’t you?” The words slipped out of Taemin’s mouth almost nonchalantly, but when he realised the significance of the words, he started. His hands clasped upon his mouth in a most ungainly fashion, he struggled to ease over the words even as a sudden awkwardness overtook the two of them. “I mean, I stopped talking to you. I refused to talk to you and you were quite the loner back then. Without me to talk to you had no one! So the kind soul that you were, you promised to make it up to me by allowing me to spoil the photograph. And since it was a banana peel that I had slipped on, it was only fitting that it should be destroyed by banana too.” He said the remaining words airily. He hoped his earlier words hadn’t changed anything, that they hadn’t brought things back to the way they were before.

“Well, I suppose that makes sense,” Minho said, considering, “But I wish I could have seen you slip on that. At least a photograph that was not this harmfully hurt! You must have looked a sight!” And saying so, he bit his lip and roared in a fit of laughter.

“Meanie.” Taemin pouted, just like he used to do in playschool, “You’re still such a meanie.”

         And as though by cue, the memory began to flood through Minho’s mind. It shook through his brain, pulverized his every other thought and wondrously threw him back into playschool. He shivered in anticipation and closed his eyes as the memory rushed through his mind akin to a bullet fired from a rifle. He wanted to soak in the memory. He was afraid the memory would be taken away from him just as fast as it had sudden arrived. He felt the colours brighten up his mind. He grasped Taemin’s hand and curled his fingers around his thin wrist. He wanted to relive the memory; it was his first brush with the life of happiness. He waited.

           Two small boys dressed in blue coats and sailor caps rushed past each other hastily, each wanting to reach the finish line first. A brown-haired boy with round, arresting eyes and a pursed mouth determinedly tried to keep ahead, while a flaxen-haired boy with a mushroom cut and pouty lips kept calling out to the other. Minho rushed ahead. He liked coming first, it was fun. He looked back only to see Taemin flopped on the floor, his eyes wrinkled in tears and his mouth drawn in a sad line. Minho faltered and jogged back. He came to stop in front of Taemin and peered concernedly at Taemin.

“Minne, are you hurted?” His cute, four-year-old voice was filled with concern as Taemin’s eyes rumbled with tears. Taemin whimpered and pointed at the ground with revulsion, “The ground hit me!”

Minho looked sternly at the ground and came down upon his knees. He thumped the ground with his fists and looked at Taemin happily, “I teached ground a lesson!” Taemin shook his head, unsatisfied, “No, hit ground more, more!” Taemin’s sharp eyes gazed on as Minho completely sat down on the ground and began thumping the floor. Ah, that was the opportunity he needed! Taemin suddenly stood bolt upright and stuck his tongue out at Minho, before running away as fast as his tubby legs could carry him. Oh that delightfully cruel child! Minho stared with an open mouth at this cheeky little faker who ran all the way to the finish line and screamed, “Ho-ho lost! Minnie won! Ho-ho lost! Minnie won!”

          Minho pouted and walked to the cheeky boy with an upturned nose. He refused to talk to Taemin. At least, he tried to. But Taemin wouldn’t have it. Taemin patted Minho’s arm gently and said, “Sorry! I won’t do it again! Ho-ho is the most fastest runner in, in the world! Ho-ho is the best! Ho-ho is so nice! Ho-ho is not angry with me, no?” Oh, Taemin, he was a born little flatterer and a bundle of adoration. Minho looked back at Taemin and conceded to his pathetic little flattery with a resigned air, “It’s okay, Minnie.”

        But all in all, his own four-year-old mind plotted for revenge. After all, no one stole first place from Minho without paying for it! He said to Taemin, “We’ll play hide and seek?” And Taemin nodded.

“You hide, I seek!” Minho said, with an air of finality.

          Taemin pouted but nodded. He didn’t want to push his luck too far. Minho counted to hundred, well, okay, he counted as far into the numbers as he knew with recurring tens and fives. Taemin in turn ran around trying to figure out places to squeeze in and hide from Minho. Minho was a good seeker and he knew that! So now was the time to be smart.

         Minho waited, counting as loudly as he could with his hands making strange gestures in the air! Oh, he was excited, wasn’t he? He waited till he was sure Taemin had hidden somewhere and then screamed loudly, “Ready or not, here I come!” But instead of craning his neck and looking down at corners and crevices, he ran straight to the lunch-lady. Well, it had never been his idea to seek out Taemin, anyway. He tumbled up to her and asked her with a cute smile adorning his puffed, red face, “May I have a banana?” His voice sung out in a wonderful chime. The lunch-lady smiled at the bouncy little boy before her and nodded gently. She knelt down and handed him a banana. “Do you want me to peel the outside off for you, sweetheart?” She asked, extending the banana towards him.

         Minho shook his head and said chirpily, “No thank you!” And his chubby hand closed round the banana with a happy grip. He walked a little away, peeling off the skin with a careful hand. He then stuffed the whole of the banana into his mouth at one go, chewing vigorously while cradling the skin in his other hand. Now was the time to set his plan in action. He waited, trying to choose the best place to place the peel, at the opportune moment when Taemin would come out running. There, he found it! It was a smooth granite flooring that adjoined the muddy garden. Perfect!

         He placed the peel gently there and rubbed the place vigorously to make it extra-smooth. It was then that another brainwave overtook his mind. He rushed to the playschool teacher and tugged at her long dress, “Teacher, teacher, can I use the...the..ca-mer-aa?” He struggled over the last word, while looking eagerly at the teacher. She smiled down at him and said, “Of course you may, Minho! It’s on the table. But why do you need it?” She asked interestedly.

Minho shook his head decisively and said, “Secret!” And with a beaming smile ran off to the table to yank the camera. Minho wasn’t about to reveal his plan to anyone, not until he was sure of its success. The teacher gazed at his hurried self with an affectionate glance. He was such a cute boy.

        There! All was set for the big show! Minho stood a few feet away from the cheeky little banana peel with the camera hanging treacherously down his short frame. He waited and then screamed in what he hoped was a disconsolate voice, “Minnie, you win! I can’t find Minnie! Come out! I don’t want to seek! Minnie is a very good hider!”

          Almost at cue, Taemin strolled out with a triumphant grin! Ah, his hiding place was successful. He noticed Minho standing calling out to him and ran towards him with terrific speed. He had to gloat over his amazing hiding skills, you see. He ran, his speed increasing with each step when suddenly...FLOP! Down came Taemin, first circling into the air, his feet slipping on something and then landing bang in a dirty pool of mud kept expressly for the purpose of making him grimy. And the banana peel, oh it landed on poor Taemin’s beautiful hair! Minho burst into laughter and rushed to Taemin. With the camera positioned in an ungainly, clumsy fashion, he clicked a blurry picture of Taemin’s humiliation!

“Ho-ho wins! Ho-ho tricked Minnie! Ho-ho tricked Minnie!” Minho crowed his success out at Taemin’s cross face even as he danced around the muddy soul with a sort of frenzy. Taemin stuck his tongue out at Minho and pouted, “Meanie!”

        Oh it was all coming back to Minho! He said slowly, smiling, almost in a reverie, “You deserved the banana treatment!” Taemin stared at Minho with questioning eyes. There was something so strange about him. He had been quiet for a few minutes, clutching almost desperately at Taemin’s hand and suddenly out comes this statement! “Yeah, weren’t you the one who tricked me first?” He continued in a dreamy voice, still swimming in the memory he had suddenly regained. Taemin’s face clouded in surprise, then he shook Minho hurriedly by the shoulders almost daring to hope, “Minho! Minho! Do you-”

“Taemin, I remembered this! I remembered it!” There was such a happiness in his voice, such a miraculous awe. He had acquired back one of his memories and with each memory, he seemed a little more alive. It was not much, he admitted. He couldn’t still place anything or Taemin for that matter. It was just that the remembrance of this memory brought back to him the assurance that he had a happy childhood, that he knew someone like Taemin, that his life was once beautiful.

         Taemin gazed at him tenderly and asked softly, his hands gently patting Minho’s excited palms, “Do you remember anything else?” Minho shook his head, but there was no bitterness in his manner. It was an improvement, it was. After thirteen years, he had got back one fragment of his childhood.

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I want to thank ContemporaryBanana and youngshipper for the upvotes, honestly, it's a wonderful feeling! 

And thanks so much to all of you for your comments! And the new subbies! I love you all! <33