Shout out to taemint0001 for the idea (like a long time ago….)!

#86 – Bone

“Appa!  Papa!  Look at me!” 

Taemin laughed with happiness and pride as he watched Jinae teaching Munhee how to roller blade. 

Kibum stood next to him with a video camera out watching as the little boy shuffled along, nearly swallowed in padding, his hands clenching his sister’s and she led him forward slowly and evenly.

“You’re doing great buddy!” Taemin called out.

“Let go!” Munhee called out, smiling up at his big sister. 

“You sure?” Jinae asked. 

“Go ahead Jinae!” Taemin called out, keeping a keen eye on his children as Kibum continued to roll camera on them.  “Let him try on his own!”

“Okay!” Jinae called out and slowly released her grip on her brother.    

Munhee stutter-stepped forward, each step forward resulting in momentum that sent him half a step backward, but the smile on his face proved to the world that he was truly enjoying himself at that moment.

Munhee stumbled and fell to his knees, the padding taking the brunt of the force and the little boy pushed himself back up with the aide of a nearby bench and went right back at it.

A small hand curled around Taemin’s and the man looked down and smiled at his little girl. 

“You did a great job Jinae!”

A big beaming smiled took over her cheery face.  “I did, didn’t I?”  And Taemin had to laugh because that was totally something that Kibum would say. 

“You did wonderful princess,” Kibum added, his eyes darting away from the screen and crinkling at the corners as he smiled at his daughter. 

Taemin glanced over at the camera and smiled as he saw Kibum zoom in on Munhee’s face.  The small features were set in a look of deep concentration but his eyes were alight with wonder and joy. 

The writer could imagine all that the little boy was feeling.  A little uneasiness as the new sensation of trying to balance yourself on a row of wheels.  The uncomfortable-ness of all of the padding, that was only made better by the slight sense of security that you felt knowing that they were there should you fall.  The anticipation of what the next motion would bring and the delight when it was successful.

All wrapped up in the easily excited mind of a small child. 

That boy was having the time of his life. 

Jinae tugged her hand away and she smoothly skating off to join her brother, flanking him as he tried to negotiate a turn for the first time to head back the way that he had come, not yet confident enough in his newfound skills to branch outside of that small area. 

After a while Kibum turned the camera off and slid it into his bag, content that he had captured another first for their child on film and now ready to watch with his own eyes. 

Jinae started literally skating circles around her brother, showing off a little as the boy started making surer strides with his skates, not sliding quite so far back before each new of the blades. 

With a giggle, Jinae ce more, but her skate caught on a pebble, causing her wheels to loose traction and slide out from under her.  Her skate tipped sideways and she fell hard to the concrete below, the plastic of her skate scraping against the hard surface and creating a horrible grinding noise, her arms thrown out in front of her in an instinctual reaction to brace her fall.

Jinae was silent for a moment as the suddenness of the fall surprised her to the point where it took a second for the pain to register. 

Taemin and Kibum were already running over to the girl when her moan started. 

Taemin grabbed the shocked Munhee who just watched in a slight shocked and looked surprised when he was placed against Taemin’s hip.

Kibum knelt down next to Jinae who was holding her arm tenderly against her chest.

“Baby, are you okay?”  Kibum asked, his eyes darting over her body, taking in the scrapes that now covered the outside of her left leg from sliding along the pavement. 

“Appa,” the girl whimpered, her face scrunched up in obvious pain, “my wrist hurts daddy…”

“Okay sweetie, okay.”  Kibum tugged her into a seated position as Taemin sat Munhee on a bench and began removing the boy’s blades and pads, knowing that they were going to have to leave soon to help his sister.  “Does anything else hurt?  Your head?  Your neck?”

“My leg hurts too,” she whispered, biting her lip. 

Kibum noted the injuries in his mind.  “How bad does everything hurt?” 

“My leg is sore…my wrist really hurts…”

Taemin and Munhee tugged off Jinae’s blades and removed the pads on her knees. 

“Can you stand up for me baby?”  Kibum asked gently. 

Jinae tucked her head against her father’s side but nodded, and she lurched to her feet with his help to balance her out. 

There she stood, in socks, some blood dripped down her leg and tears slipping down her cheeks, cradling her left arm to her body to protect it from further damage.

“Okay, Jinae…leave the wrist guards on, but can you twist your wrist at all?”

The girl tried, but her face quickly twisted in pain.  “Owww, ow, ow, ow…”

“Alright, we’re going to the hospital,” Taemin decided as he through all the discarded materials into a bag and hiked it onto his shoulder.  He reached under her chin and unclipped the helmet that was drifting off the side of her head anyway.  “We’re going to see if it’s broken and get it taken care of alright?” He said, trying to give the little girl strength by giving her an idea of how they were going to handle this.  “You’re going to be just fine.” He passed along an encouraging smile that the girl tried, and failed, to emulate and she shakily got into the car, not even complaining when Kibum reached over to do up her seatbelt like she was a small child. 

“Okay Papa…”

*****

“It’s a small fracture…basically a small crack in the ulna bone just above her left wrist.”  The doctor explained, indicating the small split on the x-ray the hospital had taken of Jinae’s wrist.

“It should heal perfectly,” he said with a genial smile, looking at the little girl who lay miserable on the white gurney that they had placed her on when she first arrived.  “Will put a cast on it for a few weeks and see how it goes from there alright?”

Jinae nodded and pouted while her father’s asked the doctor a couple of questions, though she didn’t want to pay attention.  She was showing off and had ended up hurt.  And poor Munhee had been on the verge of tears since it happened, not taking his eyes off of his sister, probably someone thinking that it was his fault. 

Jinae gave a small smile to her brother.  “Will you be the first to sign my cast Munhee?” 

Munhee looked confused but nodded enthusiastically – anything that would make his sister feel better.

The cast was a bright neon green that went up to just below her elbow and wrapped partially around the tops of her fingers, completely immobilizing the wrist – which was its purpose of course.  Jinae could only be grateful that she was right handed and would still be able to write in school.

When they got home she rummaged through her backpack for a marker and gave it to Munhee with a smile.  “When someone gets cast you are supposed to write them a note and sign it, and they’ll have it to look at until their hurt gets better.”

“Really?”

Munhee looked between the marker and the cast with a deep determination.  He uncapped the marker and held it with the sincerity of a calligrapher about to make a piece of art. 

He wrote with deliberate , his letters overly large like many small children…and his spelling left something to be desired…but they figured it all out.

‘Jinae – I’m sorry.  Be better! – Munhee’     

The boy re-capped the marker and placed a kiss on Jinae’s cheek before he was directed off to shower before bed by their Appa.

Taemin kissed the top of his daughter’s head.  “I’m proud of you.”  He said quietly, hugging the girl slightly to his side.  “You were a real big sister today.  You taught your brother to skate.  And you cared for him in the hospital, and even now, even though we should all be caring for you.”

Jinae blushed at the praise and hugged her Papa around his waist, careful of her wrist to hide her cheeks before running off to her room and shutting the door quietly behind her. 

taemint0001 I know that your idea was for Munhee to break a bone, but I thought it was kind of a twist to have it be Jinae who did instead – don’t ask me why.  Maybe because she’s a girl?  And boys tend to be more rambunctious and accident prone than girls?  I dunno…but this is how it worked out.  Anyway – hope you liked it!