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The dimmed moonlight sparks down through the glass windows of the storage room right underneath the roof of the house. The door is pushed open with a squeak and Jinki’s head pops in, expecting and a little scared. Every item stored and abandoned in the small tight space is covered with white blankets, and as Jinki makes his way deeper into the room, he crinkles his nose as an allergic reaction as almost every corner of the room is caked with dust and dirty cobwebs.

“Dad,” he pulls the door open slightly and looks out, “are you sure that the easel is in here?”

“Of course, son,” Another voice calls back a second later from outside, “pretty sure all the things we barely use are kept in there.”

Jinki doesn’t respond. He turns back inside reluctantly and pinches the bridge of his nose, his torchlight held by his waist and he presses it on. “Majoring in art is such a hassle,” he mumbles, and slides his way through cramped areas with the light guiding him. He looks at the covered items in all shapes and sizes.

His eyes are starting to water from the insane amount of dust, and he begins coughing as well, narrowing his eyes a bit and covering half of his face as he inspects the small space. His cloud-colored socks makes soft thudding sounds as he pitter-patters his way deeper, getting impatient by the minute. He bumps his forehead against the roof somehow and whines, ducking to avoid more harm to his face.

The deeper it gets, the more cramped the space, and Jinki only realizes so when his toes get contact against an object, which causes his upper body to stumble forward. He ends up falling on his chest with a startled shriek, flailing arms bumping and dropping the torchlight along the way.

His glasses slide off the bridge of his nose and onto the floor beside him, and he wheezes and pants and curls into a ball at the spot because he hit his toes pretty hard so he clutches at them like a baby, making small noises in his throat. When a split second of a tune abruptly erupts in the atmosphere, then stops, he freezes, eyes widening.

He collects himself and hurriedly scurries onto his knees, head snapping around in different directions. He tries to make out where the sound is coming from and when the tune appears again for another slight second, he snaps forward and lunges at a small rectangular hidden box under another bigger object; seemingly a table.

Jinki pulls it out, though slowly and filled with alert, and dusts away the dirt on the surface. He rushes to find the glasses that fell blindly and gasps after he perches it up his nose as he can read the words written on it clearly under the shining moonlight. He pulls it up onto his lap despite the dirtiness, eyeing it with awe.

From Minho to Jinki

Nostalgia hits him like a tidal wave, and his lower lip trembles and fingers start to shake as he clutches the sides of the music box. Memories from his teenage life flood his mind drastically and his original resolve starts to fade into dust. The key is jabbing into his thigh as he raises the front, running his thumb against the rusty lock slowly.

He pushes the upper side up and it responds with a click. Jinki’s breath hitches and he could feel himself feel lightheaded as he gently pushes the cover up, the hinges squeaking after not being used in such a long time.

His gentle gaze is met with a crystal heart perched on top of the spring in the middle, surrounded with green grass made of paper and his heart churns in longing when his eyes reflect through the alternated mirrors glued underneath the cover. Two curvy letters are engraved on the surface of the crystal carved into a heart, and as the moonlight surfacing from the small window on the roof creates a pinkish hue on his spot he starts to tremble, because the memories are coming back to him one by one so he squeezes his eyes shut, heart palpitating in his chest.

He calms himself down a minute later. Eyelids pulling open, he inhales a sharp breath and reaches behind the box, finger pads gently touching the smooth silver key. He grasps it between his index and thumb and stops breathing as he twists it for several rounds. He is not sure if he should let go. Slowly, he pulls back.

A soft tune hums all over the entire dark room and colors it with a piano-like melody, and Jinki’s heart is filled with sorrow and his eyes squeeze shut again because he is having a hard time taking all of these memories in, flooding into his circle of thought and leaving him in ruins all over again. The music box sings to him and cradles him into its arms with the notes, and he feels chilly and warm at the same time when he realizes he has longed that feeling of love when he is a teenager.

A silhouette reveals itself behind his eyelids and he is having a hard time to breathe, because it starts to expose itself with the brunette curly hair and soft wide eyes and perky nose and plump kissable lips in time with the melody. The lips smile like the sun and eyes crinkle into half crescent moons when it reveals itself as the Minho he knows, he knew, the backdrop all white and nothing, but filled with melancholy at the same time.

The image fades into another and he is met with an image of himself and Minho, under a shady tree laying side-by-side. The corners were still white but the middle is occupied with Minho and Jinki embracing each other’s presence, fingers tangled with one another and clenched tightly like a lock. Jinki has his head on top of his shoulder and their eyes are both closed, and chest heaving gently as they take in the fresh air and each other’s scent. When both pairs of eyes open, they glance at each other and lock gazes before leaning in for a chaste kiss, smiles coloring both lips.

The image changes slowly, and all of a sudden he is met with only Minho’s face again. But this time his milky skin has turned into a drastic paint of pale and his lips lost its rosy color, nose not high and mighty like usual, eyes blank and stoic and he is only clad in a white gown. Slowly, Jinki watches as pieces of hair fall and fade until nothing is left, and Jinki’s heart is screaming when his eyes begin to close, and everything fades into white again.

Jinki opens his eyes carefully, and sees he is still in the storage room. The room is quiet, and he knows why after glancing down at the music box and noticing the crystal heart is not twirling along to a melody anymore. He carefully lifts his gaze, and tears start to well in his eyes as he finds sorry for leaving carved on the mirror in the middle.

He pushes the music box back into place and eventually leaves the room in its lonely moonlight after he has found the easel.

The music box is drenched and left with tears.

X

hi! so basically speaking, jinki found a music box that minho gave him before he died of cancer years ago in their teenage years and was reminded of all the memories they had together.

in the end, jinki draws minho and the music box for his art project. hope you enjoyed! comments are loved.