*
Few months ago
Sitting on the kitchen table, Kyungsoo is swaying his feet slowly back and forth, back and forth, watching a rushing Jongin with his round innocent eyes as he counts the times the other male has passed by in front of him. He beams.
"Seven!"
Stopping suddenly, Jongin trips to his black socks as he holds onto the wall for support. He is already late for his new part-time job, not to mention that this is his first day on the grocery store down the street of the neighboring district a bus away from his apartment. He chews on the toasted bread on his mouth, and hastily grabs his body bag while putting on his left sneakers.
"You already know how to use the microwave, don't you?" Jongin says without looking at his boyfriend. Five minutes, damn. He's really late. Why did he forget that he's on morning shift today? Groaning, he walks again in front of the sitting male on the table to get his red cap.
"Eight!" Kyungsoo exclaims, showing Jongin the ten of his fingers. If not for Jongin being late today, he would've already told Kyungsoo that that's not even an eight. He sighs.
"Listen, Kyungsoo," Jongin says, holding his boyfriend by the shoulder. "If you're hungry, just heat the food inside the microwave. If you're thirsty, the milk is in the ref, second drawer." He looks at the open door of the bathroom. "Oh, and if you need to poop, use the toilet paper and don't forget to flush the bowl. Don't mess with the bathroom floor, alright?"
Blushing, Kyungsoo slowly nods. "O-okay."
"Okay," Jongin replies, willing away the panic building up inside him, he's really nervous about leaving Kyungsoo alone in the apartment. If he had only enough money for the two of them, he wouldn't have to work and leave his boyfriend here by himself.
"You're going to be okay here, right?"
Tilting his head to the right, Kyungsoo chews on his lower lip.
"Why? Is Jongin going to a far away place?" Kyungsoo asks, a little pout making its way to his heart-shaped lips.
"No, no, I'm just-- I'm going to work. You see, we need money to buy food and pay the rent. So I have to work."
Kyungsoo's glassy eyes brightly shine. "Oh, oh, oh! Can Kyungsoo come with Jongin to work, too? Kyungsoo wants to help Jongin!"
"No, you can't. Just stay here." Jongin quickly looks at his wrist watch, and his eyeballs look like they would pop out anytime due to his shock, thus, missing the sadness reflecting in Kyungsoo's eyes.
"I-I really have to go!" Jongin yells, running towards the door with hurried feet. Eyes widening, Kyungsoo abruptly follows his boyfriend and latches his hand on the hem of Jongin's worker uniform, stopping Jongin to leave.
"Jongin, wait!"
"What now!?" Jongin yells, irritated.
"Where's Kyungsoo's goodbye kiss?" the boy demands, forehead wrinkling as he taps his right foot impatiently. He pulls Jongin's shirt tightly. "Kyungsoo won't let Jongin go without Kyungsoo's kiss!"
Jongin might've had ignored Kyungsoo and rushed to work to catch the 7:30 AM bus, but having Kyungsoo's angered eyes looking at him like he committed a huge crime makes Jongin hard to do that, especially if that jutting lower lip is urging him to lean in and claim it with his lips.
So Jongin does.
Taken by surprise by Jongin's mouth against his own, Kyungsoo releases a shaky gasp as his boyfriend kisses him searingly on the lips. Kyungsoo has to step backwards when Jongin deepens the kiss, as if Jongin were not very late on his first day on the job. The taller smirks, enjoying Kyungsoo's cute squeaks when he pinches Kyungsoo's chubby cheek.
"There. Now, can I go to work?" Jongin asks, noting the blush on the other males' face.
Nodding, Kyungsoo smiles brightly. "Okay. Take care, Jongin."
"You, too. Bye!"
And Jongin leaves.
Smiling, Kyungsoo goes back to sitting on the table and begins to count again until Jongin comes home.
"One.. Two... Three..."
*
"You're lucky the Manager is away today," the cashier, Soojung, whispers to Jongin's ear as they line up for employee inspection. Jongin nods and gives the girl a shy smile, before straightening his crooked nametag on his chest
"Oh, you're the new bagger guy," Jongdae, the Assistant Manager says with a friendly smile. Jongin nods enthusiastically, and apologizes for being late at the first day of his job.
"It's alright. I hope it won't happen again next time, especially when Junmyeon is around," Jongdae reminds him with a gentle pat on the back. He's kind, Jongin decides, making him feel a slight relief after he heard about Jongdae's brother, the Manager Kim Junmyeon, who's really an uptight boss when it comes to time.
"Thank you, Sir," Jongin mutters, bowing his head. "I will do my best in this job."
Jongdae nods. "You can start now. Soojung, can you please show him the stock room and the employee lounge? I'll have Minseok to take care of the register for you for the meantime."
"Okay, Sir," Soojung answers, before leading Jongin the way inside the grocery store.
"Hey, thank you for getting me into this job by the way," Jongin says as they pass by the junkfood stalls. "I heard this grocery store pays high. I really need a source of income now that my parents had stopped sending me money."
Soojung playfully shrugs, smiling widely. "Anything for you. Good thing I'm close with the Manager to recommend you here," she jokes. "I have connections, you know."
"That's because you're using your pretty face."
Soojung chuckles. "At least you said I'm pretty."
"Anyways, how can I make it up to you, though?" Jongin asks, picking up the piled boxes of candies on the floor. "Is lunch okay?"
"Are you asking me out?"
Jongin blinks, averting his eyes to the other direction. "Huh? No. I-I already have.. uh, someone."
"Yeah? Who?"
"Kyungsoo."
Soojung stops walking, turning her back to face Jongin. "I thought you were.....single."
"Ah, no," Jongin mumbles, shaking his head. "You know the boy I always take here with me whenever I go grocery shopping? That's him. We're going out for about, three years now and we're living together."
"Oh, right. Him," Soojung says, images of a boy always trailing behind Jongin flashing in her mind. She knows Kyungsoo by face, and she thought Jongin is just babysitting that boy as his part-time job. She should have known.
"You're dating a child."
"He's not a child, Soojung."
The cashier rolls her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. "Okay, whatever. And yeah, lunch is good."
Jongin nods, and he doesn't miss the slight annoyance in Soojung's eyes when she said that. She's his friend after all.
"Alright," he says, following Soojung inside the stock room as he mentally reminds himself to bring Kyungsoo his favorite cereal when he gets back home.
*
Jongin is surviving for two weeks now, so far.
He didn't know working at a grocery store could be this utmost tiring, that after his shift was over, he's not thinking of anything but to crawl under his sheets and sleep.
There were many costumers today, and Jongin's hands and body are really exhausted considering he had wrapped and bagged hundred of grocery items nonstop. But, he is really thankful he had gotten his paycheck for the week inside his pocket, which he will use to pay their rent, to buy food good for a week as well as to spend for Kyungsoo's medication and vitamins. The rest would be allotted on his allowance for school.
"See you tomorrow!" a co-worker, whose name is Minseok, says as he waves Jongin goodbye. Waving back at him, he tiny smiles and yawns as he turns his back to leave.
Thirty minutes of a bus ride plus a few-meter walk, Jongin arrives at the apartment at exactly, he looks at his watch, 9:35 PM. Kyungsoo should have eaten and is sleeping by now, so Jongin is quite surprised seeing the lights inside the apartment still turned on.
"Kyungsoo?" Jongin calls, slight worry and annoyance filling his voice as he observes the whole place.
The last time he left the apartment this morning, there weren't any scattered dirty and clean clothes everywhere yet, let alone spilled milk on the kitchen floor up to the living room.
Open books are stacked messily on the couch while broken crayons are left discarded on the table. There are cooking untensils on the sink which Jongin guessed Kyungsoo used to play cooking. The unplugged microwave looks like it crashed, and the food on the tabe that was supposed to be reheated was totally burnt.
So that is why the place reeks of smoke, as well as something bad. It smells like trash.
This is going on for several days now since he got a job, leaving Kyungsoo alone by himself. Jongin shouldn't have felt surprised about this scenario though. But seeing this repetitive mess everytime he arrives at night from work, spent and hungry, makes him sick.
But no. He doesn't want to get angry. Not now. It's not Kyungsoo's fault. He doesn't know things.
"Kyungsoo," Jongin calls again in a low voice, slapping his palm on his forehead when he receives no response. "Kyungsoo!" he hollers louder.
"Jongin? Jongin!!!"
A muffled crying voice comes out from the opened bathroom door, so Jongin rushes there only to see his boyfriend crouched on the floor wearing nothing apart from his shirt. Kyungsoo looks up to Jongin with his puffy eyes, sniffing his nose as he shudders from the cold.
"J-jongin..." Kyungsoo says, his tiny voice shaking in fear when Jongin looks at him with cold tired eyes. "I-I'm sorry..."
Wordlessly, Jongin turns off the opened faucet, thinking how long it might had been left unattended. The water bill is quite expensive this month. He closes his eyes shut and restrains himself from bursting out, because he's goddamn tired, he just wants to rest. He has to go to school early tomorrow, he still has an exam. He hasn't reviewed a single lesson yet. He has to--
"J-jongin?"
"What!?"
Kyungsoo winces, not bothering to get up from his crouched position on the bathroom floor. Fumbling with his fingers on top of his knees, Kyungsoo looks at his toes shyly.
"K-kyungsoo forgot to--"
"Don't tell me you sh*tted on the floor."
Kyungsoo tenses, hiding his face low behind his folded arms. He feels like his heart is getting heavy, knowing he did something to make Jongin mad again.
"How many times do I have to tell you to use the toilet bowl!?" Jongin yells, voice raising high as it echoes throughout the bathroom. "Damn it, why are you so f*ck*ng dumb!?"
Kyungsoo's tears start to fall from his eyes. Jongin hasn't told him that kind of words ever before, and even in his young mind, Kyungsoo knows his boyfriend has just cursed at him, and it realy hurts so much as if his heart were breaking into two. He feels like he's useless, he's a burden.
"S-sorry, Jongin..."
"Get up, and wash your--" Jongin looks away, sighing exasperatedly under his breath when he gets a glimpse of the stool on the tiled floor. Now, he has to clean up the mess Kyungsoo made instead of just going to bed to sleep.
"Jongin, Kyungsoo is really sorry.. Don't be mad at Kyungsoo.."
Jongin doesn't say anything.
Quietly, he turns on the shower head and gets the mop and disinfectant while Kyungsoo watches him anxiously by the side.
"Jongin?"
Stopping for a while, Jongin turns to look at him, so Kyungsoo lowers his eyes sadly at his feet, watching his wet toes curl and uncurl on the puddle of water on the floor.
"Come here," Jongin sighs.
Kyungsoo steps closer silently, and like he already knows, raises his arms up in the air. Jongin sighs, wiping with his arm the beads of sweat that formed around his forehead. He pulls Kyungsoo's damp shirt up his head, taking it off, so that the older is standing stark naked in front of Jongin.
"I-is Kyungsoo... going to take a bath?" Kyugsoo curiously asks, seeing Jongin getting a soap and his bath sponge. He frowns. "B-but it's already night and Kyungsoo is done taking a bath this morning..."
"So you want to sleep smelling like that," Jongin states. "Fine. Go to bed and I'll sleep on the couch." He stands up, but Kyungsoo's fingers attached on his wrist stop him from leaving.
"Kyungsoo already told Jongin that he was sorry.." Kyungsoo mumbles in a gentle voice as he keeps his hand on Jongin's shirt. "Why is Jongin... still mad?"
"I'm not mad. I'm just," Jongin takes a deep breath, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Tired."
Kyungsoo releases Jongin's shirt, still looking at the tiled floor as he feels warmth creeping up to his cheeks. He bites on his bottom lip, thinking of ways on how Jongin could be happy again.
"Is that so? K-kyungsoo can make Jongin feel good! Kyungsoo will do things that Jongin likes on the bed at night before we sleep. Oh! Kyungsoo can hug and kiss Jongin," Kyungsoo says eagerly and almost out of breath, blushing, as he snaps his head up, "K-kyungsoo will make love to Jongin and---"
"No. Not now."
Kyungsoo tenses, mouth opening slightly.
"I'm sorry. But let's just sleep tonight."
Not looking straight at Kyungsoo's disappointed face as he washes the male, Jongin turns off the running water and grabs a fresh towel to wrap it around Kyungsoo's body when he's done.
"Jongin?" Kyungsoo softly calls after his boyfriend has toweled him dry, but Jongin just ignores him. Instead, Jongin gets the forgotten mop and brush to continue cleaning.
"Wear a pair of clean boxers," Jongin mutters in a restrained voice as he mops the floor. "Inside the laundry basket."
Kyungsoo doesn't move.
"Didn't you hear me?"
Shooting up, Kyungsoo scurries outside the bathroom and does what he was told. He pulls his underwear up to his legs carefully and plans on going back to watch Jongin, but his boyfriend telling him to stay inside makes Kyungsoo sit on the bed obediently.
After an hour of cleaning the bathroom and the apartment in general, Jongin slumps his tired body beside Kyungsoo who has his eyes now closed. He brings a gentle hand on the crown of Kyungsoo's dark hair, ruffling it tenderly as he mutters,
"I'm sorry about earlier, I didn't mean it."
Kyungsoo opens his eyes. "Jongin?"
"You're still awake..."
"I-is Kyungsoo..." he averts his eyes, and even in the dark, Jongin knows he was hurt based on how his once bright eyes now glimmer with sadness. "Is Kyungsoo making Jongin's life difficult?"
"No, of course not," Jongin answers, furrowing his eyebrows. "Why are you saying that?"
"Kyungsoo can't help Jongin with anything... Kyungsoo can't do things by himself and Kyungsoo doesn't know how to make Jongin happy," Kyungsoo mumbles. "Kyungsoo is just a burden..."
"No, babe. Don't ever say that again," Jongin says, sighing under his breath. "You make me happy, Kyungsoo. You're not a burden. You don't have to help me with things which are hard for you just to please me, because I am the one who should be taking care of you... I promised you that."
"Is it really okay... if Kyungsoo will stay like this?" Kyungsoo asks. "Can't Kyungsoo find a job, too?"
"Having you here is enough already," Jongin says, facing his side so that he can clearly see his boyfriend's beautiful face. "Seeing you here when I get back from work and school waiting for me, is more than enough." He pokes Kyungsoo's nose. "Understand?"
Giggling softly, Kyungsoo nods his head in reply. "Yes, Jongin."
"I'm sorry if I made you feel that way," Jongin mutters, snuggling closer to Kyungsoo's warmth. He has his head pressed on Kyungsoo's soft chest as he places a hand on top of his boyfriend's waist. "Sorry if I told you words I shouldn't have said..."
Kyungsoo smiles warmly, and pats Jongin's back with his soothing palm as he softly hums a nursery rhyme tune. He really has a nice voice, Jongin thinks, that if Kyungsoo weren't mentally challenged, he might've been a successful singer of his age.
"Good night, Jongin."
"Good night."
When Jongin senses that Kyungsoo is fast asleep, he carefully releases his boyfriend's arms around his body as he quietly sneaks out of the bed. He pulls the sheets up to Kyungsoo's chest, before grabbing his book and highlighters on his study table and heading to the dining room. It's one in the morning, and he still has studying to do few hours before his exams.
*
To be continued.