Chapter 5
The singing unfortunately took longer, as they had to test her vocal range. Her voice was just as amazing as her dancing, clear and smooth, but still powerful, Eeteuk made her sing all sorts of different genres, songs, pitches and tempos.
Eeteuk had taken control of this and had basically made it a one man show, so while he was giving Desu orders the rest of them had nothing to do.
“I’m getting tired of standing, are there any chairs in here?” asked Kangin.
“There may be a couple,” And Sungmin went off in search of the chairs that may or may-not be there.
Kangin found himself staring at Eeteuk, he didn’t know why but he couldn’t look away. It was strange. He’d never had this problem before…
“Yah! Where’s Minnie?” an exclamation came from the doorway.
“Kyuhyun, he-,” Yesung deadpanned.
“I knew there were chairs somewhere in here!” squealed a disembodied voice from the closet in the corner of the room.
He then proceeded to drag out, one by one, three large overstuffed armchairs. “There’s only three so we’ll have to share,” He trailed off when he spotted Kyuhyun.
“Kyuhyun!” He then exclaimed and proceeded to tackle/hug him.
Kyuhyun only heard a loud exclamation, before the pink bundle of happy energy tackle/hugged him. The force behind said hug was enough to knock him down to the ground and force the breath to leave his body in one huge exhale.
A snigger came from one of the plump armchairs. Yesung was biting his lip in an effort to stifle his laughter. Ryeowook shook his head, looking down at his hyung from his position on his lap, and covered the older singer’s mouth with his hand. “Kyu needs to breath, Minnie.” He added lightly.
Sungmin stuck his tongue out at Yesung and smiled at Ryeowook, before leading Kyuhyun to one of the chairs. After pushing Kyuhyun into the chair he proceeded to make himself comfortable on his lap. Kyuhyun looked surprised for a second, before mentally shrugging and wrapping his arms around the elder’s waist and resting his head on his back.
Sungmin relaxed into the embrace, glad that Kyuhyun hadn’t objected to the seating arrangements.
Kangin looked at the two almost-couples and sighed feeling very alone. He couldn’t understand his newfound feeling toward Eeteuk. He’d never felt like this around anyone and it confused him greatly. Since he roomed with Teukie he probably knew more about him than most. He knew that he liked to sleep curled into a ball on his left side with the covers bunched around him in a cocoon. He knew that he never made his bed, because if he was particularly happy that day he’d come in and jump on it a few times. He never put his toothbrush in the cup but left it on the side of the sink. In the mornings he had to sit up in bed for ten to fifteen minutes before he was awake enough to walk without tripping over things. He knew that he loved to sleep in, because sometimes he had troubles sleeping at night.
“EETEUK!” Desu yelled. “Go sit on Kangin’s lap instead of bossing me around. Go do handstands. Go run around the building screaming like a mad man. Do something, but leave me out of it! I need a break, and I don’t care what you think about it. So go do something that doesn’t involve me.”
Eeteuk pouted and plopped down into Kangin’s lap, bringing said boy’s attention back to where he was.
“Teukie!” He exclaimed, more than slightly surprised at how his lap and arms were suddenly filled with a pouting hyung. “What are you doing here?” Well that was a stupid question…besides, its not like he minded or anything.
“Do…do you want me to move?” He asked in and almost tentative voice. Kangin looked up to his face and saw that while his face might have been teasing, his eyes had a fearful edge to the light that was dancing in them.
“Nope, I’m good,” As his arms wrapped themselves around the older boy’s waist.
Then Eeteuk smiled in a way that made it hard to believe he had seen the fearful light in his eyes just a second ago, and snuggled deeper into his lap.
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Everyone had their ‘gifts’ from the leader and no one knew that it wasn’t really jewelry nor was it from Eeteuk; but Desu, Sungmin, and of course Eeteuk knew.
It was dinner time and everyone was at the table waiting for the food to be brought out. Everyone but Desu, Sungmin noticed. He peered around the room, searching for his roommate and friend. His eyes lingered on Kangin whispering something into Eeteuk’s ear causing the elder signer to giggle, and Yesung with his arm around a blushing Ryeowook, then continued on his visual search for the only female living here.
“Whatcha looking for Min-ah?” A husky voice whispered into his ear, causing a set of shivers to run down his spine.
“Desu… I can’t find her and it’s almost time to eat.” He was embarrassed to find that his voice shook at first.
“She might have gone out to eat since its Heechul’s night to cook and knowing how he feels about her he might have poisoned her food or something.” He commented as he enveloped the elder in his arms.
Sungmin made a sound that might have been agreement, though in the back of his mind he knew that 1) No matter how much Heechul disliked her he wouldn’t do that, 2) Desu would have known that and definitely wouldn’t let it bother her even if she hadn’t, and 3) Desu wouldn’t have gone anywhere without telling him and offering to let him come with her.
He was also more than a little concerned that she might have left… She’d been enforcing that she wasn’t a permanent part of their group more and more lately… every time she did he could feel the tears prick the backs of his eyes, because she was like the other part of him that he never knew was missing. She looked after him, she cared for him, and she just wanted him to be happy. He loved her, but not in a romantic way.
He turned to the table to eat with the others but occasionally stared at the Christmas decorations around the room in concern while he wondered where his missing friend was.
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“So they think that one little girl can interfere with our plans? Well, they’ll soon learn differently. Be ready for my signal, because we start the plan soon.”