Roleplaying

Kibum likes roleplaying his mom becuase she's a grown up and grown are cool but also weird.

kidonkey! Kids are so cute and impressionable.

Kibum likes roleplaying. He's a nurturing child by default so he prefers to play a nurturing role. Not really roleplaying per se but it keeps him busy since his mom is pregnant and apparently unborn humans need caring of as well. While his mother's tummy is full of Jongin, he spends his time creating a family with Jinki because Jinki is his friend and playmate and Jinki is nice. PLUS, Jinki is too nice of a 11year old to oppose to Kibum's suggestion of how they should spend their playtime.

Kibum loves his mother. There is no doubt about it. He loves the way her hair hangs down the middle of her back, the smell of spices on her apron when she cooks meals for him and his dad, and her laugh so gentle like little bells. He loves her and that's a good reason why he tries to hard to emulate her in every way because his mother is the best in the word. She's even better than Jinki's mom though he'll never say that in his presence or else Jinki will refuse to play for a day or two. It has happened before.

"Are you finished with Leetuk's bath yet?" Kibum high pitched voice squeals over the cooking. The cooking is actually him stirring the mud in his plastic toy bucket with a flimsy stick he stole from Jinki's mother garden. His mother didn't have a garden because she's allergic to quite a few flowers. It still stands that his mother his beyond awesome.

Jinki reaches for the teddy bear drowning under the tap with little fingers, the water drains all over his bare feet and the dirt becomes saturated and fits in the space beneath his toe nails. 

"Yep all clean. " He responds holding Leetuk with two fingers. Leetuek is drenched and no longer the tan colour he was but now he's looking very black.  

"Come on dinner's ready," Kibum calls and Jinki obliges. Jinki sits on little concrete area and Kibum brings over the meal. He scrunches his little nose at the sign of a wet Leetuk, reaches and squeezes out the excess water since Jinki didn't. "Tsk," His mother would have said that too. "Men have no eye for detail. " He then places the child against a rock for support because his mother always telling him to sit up at the dinner table so Leetuk should sit up as well. Kibum then leans over and kisses Jinki on the lips and proceeds to have dinner. Jinki lets their lips connect for a couple seconds before he leans back. Kibum takes the hint and begins the meal.

"How was work?" He asks and scoops up a spoonful ( an actual spoon he stole from his mom's kitchen) of the rice ( mud) and shoves it ungracefully in the stuff toy's face. It falls into its eyes and drains all over. 

Jinki pretends to eat as well. "It was good." 

Kibum's father is a man of few words . Jinki's father is dead so Jinki's role is quite...boring and not really there. Not awesome like Kibum's role. 

They continue playtime until they're exhausted and Kibum's mother and her swollen tummy return home and they have dinner for real this time. After they eat to their hearts' desire Kibum runs upstairs his short legs propelling him each step with Jinki following behind and in the direction of the former's room. Kibum's room is big unlike Jinki's room though Jinki is two years older. Well, Kibum has two parents and Jinki has one. Kibum thinks that's why. 

"Last night my parents kept on jumping on the bed!" Kibum complains when Jinki sits beside him on the bed covered in spiderman sheets. Spiderman is awesome and has super spidy powers. Kibum's going to get bitten by a spider one day and get super spidy powers too. 

Jinki doesn't respond but his eyes are glued to the wii game tucked below Kibum's tv. Kibum is so lucky to have a wii.

"Because of the squeaking I had nightmares and-" Kibum notices Jinki looking at his game and not listening to him. So he reaches out cups Jinki's chin, grabs it and kisses him full on the lips. Their kips don't fumble and it's not clumsy because they've done this numerous times. Kissing is like second nature and they both agree that they like it, and it feels good to do adult stuff. Grown ups are cool. His mom always does it when his dad is not looking. It works on Jinki too. All the time. 

When they move apart Jinki huffs. 

"They weren't jumping on the bed , stupid. They were-" Jinki stops because he remembers Kibum is 9 and he is 11. Kibum is still a child.

"When you're older like me I will tell you." Jinki grins. He likes withholding information from his friend because he can get to do stuff and play games in exchange for telling him in bits and pieces. Jinki thinks he's smart. It works though and Kibum is pulling out the controls and Jinki turns on the tv.

"My mom says I'm too young to understand but-" He begins.

...

Kibum gets angry when Jinki starts hanging out with a new neighbour. The boy is two years younger than him and less of a grown up than he is. He has brown hair and very fair skin. His name is Taemin. Kibum doesn't like him becuase the last time he saw Jinki which was 3 days ago, Jinki was holding hands with the new boy. It made Kibum mad. Oh how it made him mad like the time he saw his dad holding a woman's hand at the train station. Jinki told him 'dad's have friends too.' And he couldn't say anything becuase Jinki's older and fatherless, older and more of an adult than he is. 

He doesn't want to see Jinki holding Taemin's hand again.

....

Kibum gets back his playmate along with Taemin who willingly plays the child.

"Yah!" Jinki exclaims and pushes Kibum. The force sends him falling backwards on his bum. It hurts and the tears are almost there in his eyes but instead of his friend running over to help him to his feet or seeing that he's ok, Jinki is helping Taemin get the mud out of his mouth. 

"Why did you do that?!" Jinki shouts. Jinki never shouts. 

"I didn't know he was going to actually eat it. He's the stupid one!"

Jinki gives Taemin water to rinse his mouth and Kibum almost feels bad. Taemin's crying and choking , his pretty face smeared in tears, snot and spit. 

Jinki takes a hold of Taemin's hand and Kibum's eyes burn.

The playtime ends with Jinki taking Taemin home. The roles have been reversed and Kibum suddenly feels abandoned. 

Roleplaying .

His mother makes up for it that night by playing card games with him and letting him feel the baby's kicks. 

They play all night til his dad comes home.

The bed doesn't sqeak that night.

...

Kibum pushes away the curtain to see Taemin on tip toes kissing Jinki. They break apart still unaware of piercing eyes looking at them and erupt in peals of giggles. 

"What's this?" Kibum's voice is hard and low.

"I was playing with Jinki hyung." Taemin's small voice pipes up.

Kibum narrows his eyes and looks at Jinki who is busily ruffling the kid's hair.

"Taemin you're mom was calling."

"Really?" His eyes widen and in that moment terribly hated that the boy was so cute. 

"Yes." He lied and soon Taemin scampered off to the other side of the complex.

"Why do you hate him so much?" 

Kibum raises and drops his shoulders. "I don't know. I don't like him."

Jinki gives him a confused look and dismisses the topic. Jinki isn't the one for probing and Kibum is greatful for that, that is, until he continues talking.

"He's so cute. And his little fingers are like half the size of mine!" Jinki holds up his palm for emphasis. Kibum doesn't look.

They play video games for a while. Jinki is not in his element and so Kibum wins. Every. Single. Time. Roles are reversed again because Jinki is always the one winning even though Kibum owns the games. 

Kibum notices and slams his control on the floor.

"What's wrong with you today?!" 

Kibum doesn't like shouting at his best friend. He really doesn't.

"I saw my dad."

"Your dad?" Kibum echoes. 

"A couples minutes ago he was by the door." Kibum's frantic eyes snap to the slightly opendoor door of his bedroom, a little scared by Jinki's words because Jinki's father is dead. 

Their playtime ends soon after.

That night Kibum hears his door creak open a bit but no one enters.

 .......

It's getting late and hot and Kibum is waiting for Jinki to get back from the bathroom becuase their train is coming shortly. He sees Jinki coming after and continues to wait. He notices that his friend's eyes are red from crying but is distracted from asking what's wrong when he sees a woman kissing his father. 

It's the woman that's always at the train station with a little girl. Today the little girl is not with her. The woman is young and fancy-looking, a lot of bracelets and necklaces that jingle when she moves.

Jinki sees Kibum staring and looks too.

"What the..?"

"... hell?" Kibum finishes.

Just then there is a hand on his lower back which sends him spiralling around to his mom beaming at him.

"Mrs.Kim!" Jinki shouts becuase Kibum is still shocked. Because Kibum wonders if she sees what he just saw. He turns around again but the space is vacant.

"Anyone wants ice-cream?" 

Jinki and Kibum forget it for a moment.

"Mom I saw dad at the train station today." Kibum begins, playing with his fork and avoiding the vegetables on his plate.

"No you didn't , honey." She dismisses him.

"But I did and he was with a woman."

His mother slams her knife against the plate frightening Kibum and effectively shutting him up.

"Eat." She commands.

He's scared. This is not the person whom he always want to roleplay. This is not his mother.

He cries a little becuase he's a boy and boys don't cry only sissys do. Kibum's not a sissy.

.....

Taemin doesn't come over today.

"He's sick." Jinki says and Kibum tries to care but he can't.

"Did your mom say anything about the woman yesterday?" Jinki asks.

Kibum shakes his head.

"Adults are weird." Jinki says and Kibum agrees. "She saw her though and she didn't do anything. The lady was freaking kissing your dad!"

" I know!" Kibum finally says. "You think all the time we see her she's waiting on my dad?"

Jinki pouts in thought."I don't think so.Why would she need to wait when she lives here?"

"What do you mean? You know her?"

Jinki looks Kibum directly in the eyes. "It was Taemin's mom."

Kibum knows there was a good reason he doesn't like that brat.

That evening after talking with Jinki, Kibum goes home to see his mom crying. His perfect mom is not so perfect and he doesn't know how to react.

She glances up and sees him by the door and hurriedly wipes her face and laughs.

"You're back already?" Kibum nods and approaches her slowly.

"I think the baby wants to come out." She jokes and takes her son hand and places it against her high tummy. 

He doesn't feel the kicks and realizes she's lying. In that moment he feels angry for his mother messing with him and wonders how many times has she lied to him becuase he adored her. He wonders why she didn't do anything when the woman was kissing dad. When he saw Taemin kissing Jinki, he wanted to pull the kid's hair own one by one. With. His. Bare. Hands.

"Yout father is working late again." Lies. "But let's play a game before he comes."

Kibum nods. He then hugs her. His arm can't go around much but he tries. "I love you mom." One again the roles are reversed with Kibum comforting his mom. He has to be strong cause that's what boys do.

She's still the best mom ever.

And Jinki is still the best friend ever.