So – when I came back to open this prompt and begin writing I looked at the notes that I had written.  For this prompt I had one word: bedsprings.  I just started laughing, but decided against writing what my dirty mind came up with this time.  I do allude to that original intention, but I decided to go with something else for this one.

Enjoy!

#60 – Spring

Kibum threw open the windows of the apartment, desperate to air out the place after a too-long winter. 

Winter had struck hard and fast and lingered on for far longer than Kibum, and frankly most of the other residents of Seoul, had felt fair.

For the last month he had watched Munhee stick his nose against the glass of the window in his bedroom, causing little blooms of fog to spread across the pane and obscure his vision, wondering when he would be able to play at the play park across the street again.

It had really been too cold; even now it might be too chilly for the windows all thrown wide but Kibum was desperate, and willing to fool himself into thinking that the behavior was perfectly alright because he need Spring to just be here already.  He had shut the heat off first thing in the morning, and was now determined to let nature regulate the temperature for a while.  

Kibum smiled to himself and walked out to the little deck area, smiling at his barren pots that he would finally be able to start working on in a few weeks.  To be honest he could still see his breath slightly but as he looked down at the park below and saw the first brave souls of the season starting to run about the equipment he knew he would just have to deal with it today. 

He stepped back in, leaving the sliding glass door open for now, and quickly secured the billowing curtains in a loop of fabric that hung, waiting from a peg on the wall for just such an occasion. 

He felt hands slip lightly around his waist and smiled, leaning back into the touch.

“Isn’t it still a bit cold?” Taemin asked quietly, relishing the feel of his husband in his arms and still amazed, almost two years later now, that he could actually call the man his husband. 

“We’ve been cooped up too long,” Kibum argued back, disengaging himself, “and you should go and put a sweater on; we’re taking the kids to the park today.”

Taemin laughed, “That’s it!  You just can’t take their pouty faces any longer.”  Taemin pointed a finger at his love and mirth filled his face. 

Kibum tried, and failed, to keep his face straight.  “Oh alright, I’m the wussy parent, but you’ve been chomping at the bit to get out of the house too!” He pointed out, his own accusing finger into Taemin’s face, ending with a solid poke to the younger man’s nose. 

Taemin playfully nipped at his husband’s hand before scuttling off, out of the chilly air, to their bedroom to change out of his suddenly too thin pajamas and into some real clothes.

Kibum smiled blissfully to himself, letting out a soft chuckle before a beep in the kitchen alerted him to the fact that his coffee had finished brewing and was ready to bring him that last leap into full consciousness.

He always needed his coffee. 

He sipped slowly at the amazing liquid, smiling as it formed a small little pit of warmth in him that began to radiate outward, guarding him against the chill in the air.

He smiled; it was time to get the kids ready. 

He meandered his way down the hallway and ran into Taemin just as the man was walking out of their room, tugging his sweater just right so that it met the pockets of his jeans. 

Kibum stepped up to him and kissed the man quickly on his surprised lips. 

The older man stepped away but was pulled back by Taemin’s arm snaking out and wrapping around his waist pulling him back in for a slightly longer kiss.

Kibum smiled into the action and returned it, enjoying this pleasant, happy moment.

He knew that years later, looking back on his life, moments like this, that happened on the spur of the moment and were just simple little manifestations of their love for each other, would be the happiest times of their life.

Kibum hummed into the kiss before stepping back, “Alrighty, time to get the kids.”

In the back of his mind he had noticed the odd sound that was escaping from Jinae’s room, but as the couple approached the door, the rhythmic squeaking was becoming increasingly pronounced. 

“What are they doing in there?” Taemin wondered aloud as he reached out for the handle.

He swung the door open to reveal the forms of their two children flying through the air as they turned the girl’s bed into a makeshift trampoline. 

“Appa!” Jinae cried, hopping down from the bed and running over to crash into Kibum’s knees. 

“Papa!” Munhee called out, having fallen to the bed with the sudden shifting of weight when Jinae left. 

Taemin snickered and moved to pick up the little boy, kissing him on his dimpled cheek mid-swing as he was picking him up to tuck into his shoulder.

“Good morning you two,” he said, smiling.

Kibum however had an eyebrow raised, “Miss Jinae…” he began, squatting down to be on eye level with his daughter, “what did I tell you about jumping on the bed…?”

Jinae bit her lip, “Not to do it…” she mumbled, her face towards the floor.

“And why did I tell you not to do it?” Kibum continued.

Jinae twisted slightly, a kind of dancing fidget.  “Because I could get hurt…”

“Exactly, and I don’t want to see you or your brother hurt.  Do you want that?”  Kibum had tucked a finger under Jinae’s chin and lifted it so that she had to look at her father.

“No,” she said softly, shaking her head.

“Good,” Kibum kissed her forehead and she knew that she wasn’t in bad trouble, “so let’s not do it again.” 

“Okay Appa…”

“Now!” Taemin started suddenly, making Munhee in his arms giggle in surprise. “We’re going to eat breakfast, and then we’re going to the park!”

“Really?!”  Munhee squeal happily, clapping his tiny hands together.  “Really Papa?!”

“Please say yes Appa!” Jinae begged.

Kibum snorted, “You’d think it wasn’t all my idea in the first place…”

Jinae shrieked with happiness, flinging her arms around Kibum again.  “Yay!  We get to go to the park! 

Munhee squirmed down from Taemin’s arms and danced around the room in joy.  He had been wanting to go out for so long!

“Let’s eat quick!” Jinae exclaimed, grabbing Munhee’s hand and pulling the little boy out to the kitchen.

Kibum just sort of watched in a semi-shocked state.  “Who need’s sugar?  My kids are hyper by the prospect of air…”

Taemin laughed, “I’ll go feed the restless natives.  They’re not going to sit still beyond cereal now…”

Kibum swatting at Taemin’s as the man walked past.  “And who’s the one who spilled the beans on them going to the park before they ate?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, blame everything on me.”

Kibum couldn’t stop his laughing smile as Taemin just smirked at him, walking backwards out of Jinae’s room and lightly bumping into the door jam on the way out. 

“Clumsy oaf,” Kibum muttered, slipping into his own room to slip a sweater onto his lanky frame. 

By the time that he meandered to the kitchen, the kids had already devoured their cereal and were hopping around begging to get out. 

“Alright! Alright!” Taemin finally succumbed to their pleading faces.  “Go get dressed and we’ll head out now.”

“Woohoo!” Munhee cheered as he ran as fast as his small legs would carry him down to his room, eating Jinae’s dust who had ran off as soon as Taemin had said the word ‘dressed.’

The family had a lovely, though chilly, early Spring morning at the park.

It was one of those days when you can still see Winter’s back, and you almost fear that it will turn around and come back and you’ll find yourself shut up inside again.  But despite that, you venture out and you start to breathe life back into a listless city.  In a forest of grey, steel skyscrapers, winter can almost the life out of existence.  But then the weather thaws out and you find yourself taking off a layer instead of wishing that you had worn another.  And you wake up one morning and swear that the world turned green overnight.

Spring allowed life and magic return to the world and their family would be right in the thick of it. 

Kibum would cling to these moments in later years, when the children were in their teens and being around their parents was anything but cool.  When they would fight and scream and doors would slam and Kibum and Taemin were frustrated to the point of tears, wondering how their child could scream that their parents didn’t really love them, they would remember moments like this.

Chilly early spring days.

Munhee’s giggle of delight as he swooped down the slide to be picked up by Kibum and swung high into the sky.

Jinae’s demand for Taemin to, “Watch me Papa!  Look how high!” as she arched towards the sky on the swings.

Moments like this would remind them what their children really felt for them, and left them secure in the knowledge that their children were loved, and had felt and experienced that love whenever their and in every way that fathers had been able to provide for them. 

Later on, the men collapsed in a tired, happy exhaustion onto the worn couch in their living room while the children still ran about the apartment, hyper and excited about having been at the park.

"I love Spring," Taemin whispered, his eyes closed as he tried to engrain the memory in his mind forever. 

"Me too," Kibum sighed happily, allowing his eyes to drift shut to the melodic tones of his children's voices.  "Me too."

So there is Spring.  I hope that you all enjoyed reading it.  There is seriously something about Korea.  I can't seem to stop writing while I'm here.  It is seriously the most inspiring place that I have ever been.  Just looking out of a window makes me want to find a computer and start clacking away at the keys to try and describe what it was that I had just seen.

Anyway, I hope that this one met all expectations. 

Comments are beloved! *hint hint*