dbsk_flashfic | Growing Up, Growing Old (response to flashfic challenge 7: (becoming) real) (Reply)

Title: Growing Up, Growing Old
Author:

Word Count: 378 words
Concrit?: I'd be insulted if you didn't
Pairing: Jaeho
Rating: PG

A/N: Okay, so I completely rationalized the meaning of the prompt. Sorry! But, aside from that, I did put a lot of thought into it. Please tell me how I did!

Yunho sat quietly in one of the bright red plastic chairs scattered across the room. How they had ended up volunteering at the day care center, he was still unsure. He glanced around the room at his fellow members: Yoochun was sitting in the middle of a giant circle of children, reading some story about a princess and a castle and blah, blah, blah…; Changmin was standing in front of a miniature volcano, pouring tons of vinegar into it, causing the baking soda already in it to spew bubbles all over the counter; Junsu was outside leading a chaotic game of soccer (Yunho had given up trying to figure out which team was which 10 minutes ago); and of course Jaejoong was in the kitchen baking cupcakes with what probably made up half of the girls.

Yunho’s mind had been wandering a lot lately. Ever since his birthday, he’d felt… well, old. He missed being able to spill his juice on the floor and have someone else clean it up for him. He missed scraping his knee and holding back tears as people flocked over to him to ask if he was okay. He missed being tucked in at night, eating peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches after school, watching Saturday morning cartoons.

He watched two little boys crash tiny toy cars together a few feet away and sighed.

“Oppa!”

He thought about how young he felt around his fellow members.

“Op-paaaaa!”

He remembered how Jaejoong had insisted on mopping up a mess he’d made in the living room last week, no matter how many times Yunho had said he’d take care of it.

“OPPA!” Yunho jerked, hitting his head on the wall behind him. He groaned and looked down at the little girl who’d been screaming at him.

“Sorry,” she said, holding up a small cupcake. “But Joongie Oppa told me to give you this.”

“Thank you,” he replied, accepting the cupcake and glancing at the doorway leading into the kitchen. Jaejoong stood there, his face dotted with flour, one icing-covered finger in his mouth.

It wasn’t until he’d seen the entire batch that Yunho realized that his cupcake was the only one with pink icing and heart-shaped sprinkles. He bit into it, and a youthful smile spread across his face.