“Hey, Jinki?”

Jinki blinked, remembering he was hanging out with Joon again, sitting on the school wall. He kept forgetting to not stare into space when inevitable silence came as they watched people go by.

  “What?” he raised his brows, yawning.

Joon exhaled and nodded his head, lightly smacking the wall for a good moment, “How was Taemin born? You’ve never told me.”

Jinki slightly flinched at the subject; he never told anyone about Taemin’s reason for existing. It wasn't ceremonious at all, really.

And the subject being about Taemin also made him cringe. He should’ve been home by now to make sure Taemin was in the attic out-and-about, but didn’t want to refuse Joon’s offer to hang out for a little while. It’d been a good long time since he actually let himself have a social life.

  “Oh,” Jinki breathed, pulling back his hair, “Well, Taemin was an accident.”

Joon looked over at him, “Really?”

Jinki internally shuttered, not wanting to go on. Joon was only sincerely curious, though, so why should it hurt?

  “Yeah,” he sighed, “We were eleven and I was out with you, actually. Your Mom called me over, remember?”

Joon thought it over for a moment, watching a family of three walk by before snapping his fingers, “I remember. She got called by your neighbors.”

  “Right,” Jinki sighed again, “Both majorly drunk. Both majorly out of it.”

  “Both majorly ,” Joon added.

Jinki choked, “Joon—that’s gross, don’t say that!” he pushed him by the shoulder.

Jinki hated the memory. They both were angry with each other that they both started drinking whatever alcohol was consumable within the house borders. It became almost like a drinking contest that turned into a habit.

Next thing Jinki knew, things were flying, including clothing.

So he shot out of the house and went next door.

  “You were so red,” Joon thought of the memory, “You barely spoke to me. The only thing I could do to lighten you up was pretend to be you and trip over everything.

Jinki had a good second to laugh when he thought about Joon deepening his childish voice ands saying ‘Oops!’ or ‘Ack!’ before tripping over air.

It was weird to think Jinki had good memories during and after their parents made Taemin real. After Taemin became a thing, everything just went downhill.

He never meant it in a bad way, but it was literally going downhill.

His parents were fine through the nine months. After Taemin was born, his Mom went back to drinking and his father disapproved with how much she consumed. But he fell to it, too. They claimed in every drunk episode that Taemin was a mistake; that he was a burden to have and that it tore them apart.

When they were sober again, the baby would be a little neglected while they underwent a hangover, so Jinki did his best to keep the baby’s voice down.

Jinki didn’t know what set his father off, but the longer he stayed, the angrier he got, and the more his Mom picked on him over everything he did. They’d go back and forth, and some days, they’d go without speaking at all. And it left Jinki to remember about the baby.

Where his Dad went, he didn’t know. Last time he saw him was a morning Jinki was getting ready for school and said their goodbyes before he departed. Jinki thought nothing of it—he thought he’d be home when school was over.

But it was only his Mom with a bottle in her hand, slouching on the floor slurring, “He’s gone, baby. Gone like the wind.”

  “Jinki?”

He snapped his head back up, “What?”

Joon smiled again and lightly punched his shoulder, “I know. You need to go home for Taemin. Sorry for keeping you out. I just keep seeing you get brushed off by that Minho guy and I’m thinking he’s being a jerk of a friend, so I wanted to replace him.”

  “No one could replace you,” Jinki smiled, “Who can replace a natural idiot? Those are hard to find, you know?”

Joon playfully swore at Jinki and hopped off the wall, “Fine, I won’t catch your fall.”

  “You have no coordination, anyway,” Jinki chuckled, removing himself from the wall, grabbing his book bag, “I still would’ve fallen flat on my face.”

Joon grabbed his own things and nodded shrugging his shoulder, “What can I say? Anyway, wanna walk until we’ve got to go separate?”

  “Sure,” Jinki agreed. It was a long time since Jinki walked with someone home. He could use that kind of company for once.

----Note~-----

Months.

It's literally been months.

FORGIVE ME.

I've been working on my fic that an actual fic instead of a collection of oneshots (cough--this fic--cough).

I know I'm going to keep neglecting this fic, but it's hard to write at the same time, you know? It's like, the pessimist corner for all the people who want to come to be depressed.

But I figured, I've been updating tons today/yesterday, why not come over here again?

Seriously, I'm sorry for neglecting this fic.

I'll make it up somehow; but I hope this chapter was enough. <3

Thank you to everyone for everything!

~FlaMinhoe

( Escape to Redemption Redirect )