Wasteland // Kim Seungmin

21 - Date Night, I Guess?

Sky shrugged, "Like you said, he's nervous about waiting any longer. Besides, everyone is excited to get some more home cooked meals from you."

I smiled, "I am glad. Thank you."

He sat across from me, then folded his hands in a business-like manner. "Tell me about your parents." Sky said. And so like that, mostly in awkward clipped unconnected questions, I shared with Sky almost everything about my life before release. When I exhausted a subject, I asked him the same questions, often needing to push more to get more from him. After a few hours, I learned that he had three older sisters, the oldest of which made it out of the wasteland, the youngest had died in the wasteland about 6 months after she got in, and they never found out how. The middle sister was in the wasteland when he came in, but he has never heard anything about her, and doesn't know where she is. If she is alive, she should have been released by now, even just going off her own date she would have gotten.

His parents met after their time in the wasteland, when they were both in their thirties. His dad was in poor health when Sky was released, and he wonders if he is okay, better by now, or if he had died. He doesn't think about life after returning much, but he thinks he will continue with college if he can get in. He had always made excellent grades. When prompted, he did not really have a field of study in mind. Maybe business, or engineering, he said. It was clear though, he had never given it much thought.

Like he had mentioned before, when he wasn't spending time with his family or at school, he was playing baseball. He played all through school, and played his last game the day before release. Where he grew up, apparently, people didn't drop out weeks before release; they just kept going to school and living their lives until it was time to go.

I had never been to the region he came from, but my understanding is it was much more rural. It was odd to think of the version of Sky he described. I asked him how he dressed and he said "A lot less fancy than how I dress now." I smiled because for me it was the other way around. I used to dress up every day, people barely ever wore casual clothes in my town.

"Do you want to go back there?" I asked. By now, we were laying on the bed together, me staring up at the stars through our little window.

"No. I plan to move to a city. More like where you lived."

"Why?"

"Well, there's nothing to do where I come from. I want to try something new. What about you?"

"I think I never really thought about leaving my home. But maybe an even bigger city?"

Sky chuckled, "I never even left my hometown before I came here. Mom didn't work because she was taking care of us kids, and dad was always sick so he never really worked. We never had much money for trips or anything. I remember being excited for release, just because it was something different."

I shook my head, "I can't imagine being excited. I was scared shitless."

"My first partner was more like that, I think."

"Who was she?" I asked softly.

Sky clicked his tongue, "Just some girl from a year above me I barely knew. We ate lunch at the same table, but never really talked much. I didn't realize she was 18 until her 19th birthday was coming up and she begged me to take her when I turned 18. She only had a month left before she got paired with a random. Really I never should have agreed, seeing how badly that ended."

"Why did you do it?"

"She had a real sob story, and she made me think she liked me but was too shy to tell me, and who knows, maybe that was true, but she did not stop trying to have me killed in our first month here. Every morning I woke up and she was gone, off looking for someone to kill me so she could pair up."

"How did you find out she was doing that?"

"Some guy she tried to hire to kill me. He told her he'd do it, then came by and warned me. When she got back to our campsite, I killed her that same day. Packed everything we owned and left that night. Never went back."

"What did you do next?"

Sky let out a laugh and a groan. I pursed my lips to stifle a giggle. He had finally had enough. Honestly, I am amazed I got as far as I did. "That might be a story for another day, I am sick of talking. How can you still want to listen to me?"

"I wanna know all about you, partner." I said lightly slapping his chest. "Seriously, thank you for sharing."

He caught the hand I slapped him with and held it, "I can say, beyond a shadow of a doubt, you now know more about me than anyone. Possibly in this whole world."

"Not your mom."

Sky shrugged, "She doesn't know me now. You do. I don't think my mom will even recognize me if I see her again."

"I am sure she will." At that moment, my stomach let out a low rumble. We had eaten a late lunch, and decided to skip dinner, expecting to be fast asleep by now. "I am a little hungry, you want a snack? I can pop some popcorn?"

Sky smiled, "Sure."

I stood at the stove, humming to myself while heated up the oil and poured kernels in. This was another easy, non-perishable purchase at the market.

The intermittent popping had just started when I felt Sky come up behind me. His hands slid over my waist and joined at my belly, and his head rested on my shoulder. It was the exact kind of easy intimacy he sometimes showed that made me melt, and I bit my bottom lip to suppress making a comment. It felt like it had been a long time since we had a moment like this, and I know our long talk brought it out.

When the popcorn stopped popping and were pressing up against the lid, I took them off the heat and poured them into a bowl which Sky held out in front of me. He reached into the bowl and pulled out a piece of popcorn.

"I haven't had popcorn since before release." He remarked, inspecting it before popping it in his mouth.

"All we need is TV to watch a movie on." I mused.

At that, he rolled his eyes with a small grin, grabbing another piece of popcorn. He held it in front of my lips, and flicked it in when I opened my mouth. He popped a couple in his own mouth, and then held my hand to pull me back toward the bedroom.

"Hold on, let me grab salt!" He slackened his grip enough for me to reach for the plastic container of salt, and then resumed pulling me in. We sat down on either side of the mattress, taking turns throwing popcorn at each other, trying to shoot it in the others mouth, while we talked some more. Mostly me, Sky seemed to clam up, true to his word from earlier. One piece of popcorn turned into 3 pieces thrown at once, and then a true popcorn fight ensued. The fight came to an abrupt end when I, refusing to be outplayed, dumped the entire remaining contents of the bowl over Sky's head.

Sky stared at me, his jaw dropped. The wild glint in his eyes prompted me to run. As I tried to escape, his hand wrapped around my ankle and yanked me back onto the bed. He hovered over me, pinning my arms to my sides, scooping up a handful of popcorn and smashing it in my face like cake at a wedding. I tried to whine for him to stop, but my mouth just became filled with popcorn. I was about to choke on popcorn and laughter when he finally let up the deluge and slid off of me, lying beside me while we both caught our breath.

"I'm going to kill you." I deadpanned after a moment.

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A/N 

Will Paila really kill Sky???

Prolly not. 

Kind of a weak cliff hanger.

Buckle up for next chapter y'all