My Heart Skipped a Beat 

A Kai Fanfic (Part 8)

*Ree’s POV*

The air was crisp and cool and it felt good, but the nice weather did nothing to appease Ree’s current state of thought.  She walked down the streets near her apartment seeing people bustling by and living their lives. Everything was quaint and perfect, but still Ree could find no solution to her problem.  She gave up trying to walk the streets and settled onto a random bench at a bus stop. She looked down at her feet as she shuffled them and listened to the sounds of the life surrounding her. What was she going to do with Kai? She simply didn’t know how to heal him. If writers had writers block she was having a healers block. Last healing session she was lucky enough to remember the duck pond, but this time she had no plan and no inspiration. And the healing session was coming up in three days. To heal a broken heart was not an easy task, yet that was what she had to do. She thought back to 5 days ago when they were at the café after the last healing session and how Kai had told her what happened the day she first saw him.  It was tragic really. How was she supposed to help the damaged boy?

She huffed in frustration and continued to shuffle her feet. It was only a few more seconds later before she saw it. There in one of the alleyways hidden by layers of trash was where it laid. Ree immediately jumped up from the bench and walked towards the alleyway across from her. She then bent down and sifted through the trash to pick out what she wanted. To any other person this sort of item would have just looked like a bunch of bent/mangled metal and some yellow sheet, but to Ree who spent years around toys knew what it truly was. It was a kite. And not just any kite, it was HUGE, although based on it’s broken state it didn’t seem like it. Ree picked up the pieces that made up the kite and headed back to her apartment with high hopes.

She spent many hours the next few days with deft hands to reconstruct the metal catastrophe and bring it back to it’s former glory. As it slowly but surely returned to a functioning state, Ree could feel her excitement building and bubbling up within her. She was anticipating her next healing session with Kai and what his reaction would be to seeing the huge kite that she was working on. She could imagine his shocked face, just like the ones he used to put on when he was still unaccustomed to her dragging him after her. She giggled to herself as she worked. But then she immediately stopped. Why was she acting like a love sick school girl who was going to meet up with her crush? Did she like Kai in that way? She took a break from her work letting her mind swirl with ideas and theories. To be honest she had never been romantically involved with anyone in her life, were these the kind of emotions one felt when they liked someone? But they were friends right, or were they not? Ree didn’t know how to define their relationship. She was the healer and he was the one she was healing, that was the only thing that had been established so far.  Maybe these were just feelings that girls get from being friends with a male? Ree thought that was the reason. Since she had never had a “male” friend before, then these were the feelings that accompanied such a friendship. Ree nodded in content finally settling on the reason for her confused feelings and desperately hoping they wouldn’t get out of control the next time she saw Kai.

It was finally the day of the healing session and Ree stood there with the bright yellow and big kite. She stood up proudly next to it and held on to it with one arm.  She kept her eyes on the clock wondering whether or not she gave Kai the right time to come. There were only three more minutes till the clock would strike 11 and he still had not arrived. Ree suppressed her anger remembering that Kai said he would come and that she shouldn’t be mad if he was late. It was already hard enough to plan this day because his dancing schedule took up a lot of his time. So she waited.

*BANG*

The sound of the shop’s door banging open startled Ree and she jumped back in surprise. Thankfully the perpetrator happened to be Kai, and then Ree couldn’t help but let a little of her bottled anger surface. He was almost late and he may have just broken her door. Ree was definitely a little irritated. She scolded him and told him not to bang open the door next time. She could see that he had been running and he apologized from his hunched over and tired state. Still she reprimanded him by telling him that she would be ok with his tardiness but not his recklessness with her door. The whole time she was waiting for Kai to look up from his current position and see what she was holding. And when he finally did his shocked expression overcame his face and she could feel her breath hitch in the back of and her confused feelings returned. Kai was definitely handsome, but for some reason his shocked face revealed an innocence and ignorance from him that just catered to her affections. Even the way he stumbled over his words as he asked about the kite she was holding. Feelings that she was sure she wasn’t supposed to feel came full force on her. She remembered getting these same feelings as he held on to her hands back at the café to bandage them. So she gave herself a reality check. She was the older of the two and she was the healer. She would not allow these feelings to distract her from doing what she was supposed to be doing. She WOULD have her feelings in check. So before she spoke she cleared her mind a bit and then cleared readying it for speech.

“This is a kite.”

Ree watched as Kai’s confusion deepened.

“But. It’s so big. Do they really come in sizes like these?”

“Not really. But I happened to find this one here lying in the trash in pieces. I took it home, fixed it up, and now it’s as if it were brand new.”

Ree smiled and took pride in what she had accomplished.

“Ok…so I’m guessing we’re going to fly that?”

“Hmmm I don’t know I haven’t actually tried it out yet, but we’re going to attempt to fly it.”

Kai just laughed earnestly and nodded his head.

“Well I guess we’re not staying here to fly it. So, where are we going?”

“You’ll see. Now come help me carry this monster.”

Kai came over and held onto the other side of the kite and hoisted it just a little off the ground. Ree led the way out the door and Kai closed it after he came out. They started to walk with Ree leading the way and them awkwardly dodging people on the sidewalk. There were many strange and incredulous looks that were sent their way, but Ree paid them no mind and continued on. Finally they arrived at the park where Ree was intending to go.

“Here we are!”

This park was definitely busy. There were many people milling around. And there were a lot of kite flyers out. Most of the kite flyers were just young children accompanied by adults. They walked towards the field where all the kite flyers were and then gently put the kite down on the ground. Ree turned to Kai and watched as he just stared at the kite with furrowed eyebrows.

“I’ve flown a kite before but not one this big. Are you sure it’s going to work?”

“It’ll work fine as long as you properly get it going in a strong breeze.”

Even though Ree assured Kai of the kite’s flying success, his expression still held doubt. And that expression of doubt hurt Ree’s pride just a bit. But she knew that he was not aware of just how good she was at repairing toys, so she decided to let it go and let him see her amazing ability through the kite’s flight.

She watched him unsurely grab a hold of the kite and lift it into a certain position. He brought his hand up as if to feel the direction and force of the wind. A satisfied expression overtook his face and he lunged forward with the kite in his arms leading the kite in what Ree believed to be a current of wind. Then at one point he let go of it and held on to the spool of string connected to the kite. Amazingly, the kite continued on in it’s stream of wind and slowly began to lift up higher into the air. Kai let the string of the kite unravel from the spool as it ascended. It was almost reaching the same height as the other kites around them. Ree turned to look around her and was surprised to find that everyone’s eyes were on Kai and the kite.  The children’s wondrous eyes and gaping mouths watching the yellow object as it increased it’s height. Soon all the kids started handing off their own kites to their adult guardians and headed over to Kai. He was soon surrounded by at least 20 children watching him as he floated the kite even higher than all the others. Kai finally took notice of the huge group surrounding him and then turned to Ree. He flashed her a smile, one that could melt an ice cold heart in less than a second and nodded downwards towards the group of kids. The gesture relayed a message to Ree: Do you see this? The kite’s working. And look at these kids!

Ree nodded her head at him and displayed both of her hands in thumbs up style to him. She wanted to encourage him to continue and keep up the good work.  And somehow he smiled even brighter and more handsomely than before.  Ree was unsure of the sudden fluttery feeling in her stomach, but it was definitely pleasurable and not painful.  Kai turned his attention back to the kite steadying it with his grip on the spool. The little kids were cheering him on wanting the kite to reach as high as it could go. Ree continued to watch from her spot away from the crowd and settled her eyes on Kai’s delighted face. She would’ve continued to stare at it more were it not for the soft whimper she heard to her right.