Kpop Oneshots [Multifandom]

A Crooked Mile - Got7 JB

Finished: 1/30/2019
Word count: 1620 
Country house AU? (they have a long driveway)

***

I bent into the wind, but the cold still stole my breath. Gritting my teeth, I put my back into the next dig of the shovel as I worked on clearing a nice wide path from the house to the road – specifically, the mailbox. Jaebeom was expecting a package soon; with the snow up to my shins and rising, a shoveled path was becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity. And since I'd woken up before Jaebeom, why not get it done while he took some well-deserved rest? 

That had been my thought process, anyway; I was kind of regretting the idea now.

Swinging the shovel wide to throw the snow to the side, I watched the wind whisk half of the flakes away before they could land. It was a nasty day, and with longing I thought of Jaebeom cuddled up beneath the covers in bed. Why hadn't I just stayed there napping with him on his rare day off?

I tried to settle into a steady pace – dig, swing, dig, swing – but I found that it was becoming an angry rhythm. Whether it was because my face and fingers were freezing or because my coat was starting to overheat my chest and neck, I couldn't tell, but it was not good. Focus on how nice it feels to see how much progress you're making, I told myself. You're, like, twelve steps from the mailbox.

Standing up and feeling a crack in my back, I looked at what I'd accomplished in the past twenty minutes. I flinched – my path looked like it belonged in the nursery rhyme, "There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile...." No wonder it had taken me so long – I'd been veering all over the place. It was the ugliest, stupidest snow path I'd ever seen.

The thought's what counts, right?

Gripping the shovel tight, I set to work again, determined to keep things straight for the last few meters, even if my feet were starting to feel like inanimate objects. I mostly succeeded, with only a slight ripple in the parallel snowbanks right before the mailbox. I applied the shovel to some stubborn snow at the end – why did it insist on tumbling down? Why couldn't it stay piled up like sensible frozen water?

"Rah!"

I spun around, shovel flying up to defend myself, and hit Jaebeom right in the chest. He coughed and laughed, and I threw down the shovel. "Don't do that! You're lucky I was using a plastic shovel and not a metal one, you... you reprobate!" I crossed my arms, trying not to let his smile break my offended expression. Hell, the wind was cutting right through my jeans – if only I'd thought to put on Jaebeom's snow pants before I ventured out into the arctic clime.

He laughed, pulling me into a hug. "I'd be a lot more worried that you were angry if your nose and cheeks weren't all red. Why didn't you put on a scarf, huh?"

I backed away and grabbed the shovel. "I didn't think it would take me this long." As I checked the mailbox (empty), I caught Jaebeom looking at my path and laughing. "What?!"

He shook his head, trying to contain his mirth. "Nothing. It's... um... a very unique approach to snow removal. Quite artsy, you know?"

I smacked his shoulder on the way past him toward the house. "If you don't like it you could have done it yourself." I gripped the handle of the shovel tighter, barely feeling it in my hand. For heaven's sake, when would they make gloves that actually did their job of making hands warm without costing a fortune?

"I said I would, before we went to sleep. Why didn't you wake me up?" he asked, following me through the twists and uneven lines of my path.