±0.001% (rounded off to three decimal places) [16/?] - 1/2
kyumin | pg13 | ~5,000w | sungmin is a greeting card writer. he's good only at sympathy cards and rude only to dr. cho
beta → grisclair, donghae = mad scientist, sorry
a/n → powered by pixar
Chapter 16: 小宇宙 | Little Universe -[1/2]
. . . . .
“I’m-“ Kyuhyun managed to say before he interrupted himself again with a humongous yawn. His billionth one, since they’d rolled themselves out of the door this morning. On the other hand, Ryeowook had been absolutely dandy and even gotten up early to make them breakfast that no one had had the appetite for.
“Stop it, you’re making me-“ But Sungmin was incapable of finishing his sentence as well. A small yawn escaped from him and a fat tear slipped from his right eye in response. He reached under the heavy weight of his goggles and glasses, and wiped it away grumpily.
“Why don’t you stop firs-“ Another yawn.
“I can’t if you alksdjalsjdaoooohh.“ Not wanting to give up, Sungmin attempted to talk through his yawn.
Yawns were so contagious.
They reached home only at approximately 4am that morning. Sungmin was robbed of his sleep and feeling appropriately homicidal. While Kyuhyun was more accustomed to sleepless nights, even he was feeling like an empty shell. Which totally explained why they were having a yawning match in the lab.
Kyuhyun watched a tear ran a wet path down Sungmin’s check. Sungmin ignored it this time because he was simply too grouchy to move. A grouchy fat chick. Kyuhyun’s chuckle broke into a yawn.
“Can you two please-“ Donghae sounded like a groaning hinge when he yawned. “I wasn’t feeling sleepy until I came here!” he protested, making his way into the cell lab.
In reply, Kyuhyun yawned and collapsed on the lab bench. Sungmin yawned. Donghae yawned. The white mice yawned.
“I came to borrow Sungmin,” Donghae said, finally breaking out of the vicious cycle.
“No.” Kyuhyun said, suddenly alert. “We are going to start a new experiment today and I need his help.”
Donghae and Sungmin looked at each other. “For?” Donghae asked. No one needed the non-scientist person around for any form of assistance in the lab, unless he was looking for a servant (since he was so good at remembering to feed the mice. And cleaning. Yes cleaning. And a lot of other things Kyuhyun and Donghae didn’t want to do).
Kyuhyun himself appeared to be a little nonplussed at this question. “For moral support,” he eventually said. “Yeah, that’s right! Experiments are hard. I need all the encouragement I can get. Isn’t it obvious?”
Deciding to ignore Kyuhyun, Donghae turned to Sungmin. “Can you help me with those rat skins again?”
“Sure,” Sungmin chimed.
“If my experiments fail, it’s going to be your fault!” Kyuhyun called out to their retreating backs but no one looked back. He tried his hardest to sulk but ended up yawning instead.
. . . . .
“This is rat skin.” They were in Donghae’s lab and he was introducing the materials for his next experiment to Sungmin. There were several strips of things lying on the table on a large piece of plastic. Sungmin picked one up with his gloved hand. “I know, Donghae, we’ve done this before.”
“Who and what are you, amazing person who can touch rat skins!” Donghae yelled dramatically.
“Just Sungmin.”
“Non-scientist person without a PhD,” corrected Donghae.
“Goodbye.” The rat skin was thrown on to the table with disdain. It flopped as all dead things did.
“Love me, feed me, never leave me.” Donghae rushed forward to cling onto Sungmin’s lab coat before he could stride out of his life.
Straightening his glasses that had been knocked askew by Dongae, Sungmin said, “I’m not going to feed you. Or love you, for that matter.”
“I know, that was just for the sake of completeness of the quote. Let’s just focus on the ‘never leave me’ bit.” Donghae tore himself off Sungmin. “Come on,” he said, “or these rat skins are gonna get ratty,” There was inexcusable blitheness in his tone.
Sungmin blinked. Something excruciatingly painful must have happened during Donghae’s and Kyuhyun’s pursuit of academic achievement. Something that ultimately destroyed any ability to hold sane and logical conversations with other Homo sapiens and effectively rendered their sense of humor only interpretable to creatures from another dimension and galaxy (read: not! this! one!). Because really. That was so incredibly unfunny.
On the other hand, Sungmin was capable of making perfect sense. Too much. It brimmed over the edge of ‘Honesty’ and flooded right into the area marked ‘How Dare You’ in fiery red shiny letters.
“Let’s get started.” Donghae slapped on some gloves and Sungmin shrugged to himself.
. . . . .
When Sungmin returned to the lab, he found Kyuhyun not to be at the hood, engaged in his cell experiments. Rather, he was slumped over the lab table with his head to the side, lying on top of his folded arms. Walking over, Sungmin realized Kyuhyun wasn’t just resting, he was already fast asleep.
He sniggered to himself. Revenge time. Sungmin had already lifted his hand and was about to slap him awake when Kyuhyun suddenly made a small sound of discontent in his sleep. Slowly, he lowered his hand. He glanced at the dark circles beneath Kyuhyun’s eyes and recalled that he hadn’t been sleeping well even prior to last night.
Kyuhyun was sleeping so serenely. His long lashes laid quietly against skin as eyes sealed shut and Sungmin couldn’t quite find it in him to break this moment of tranquility. Without making a sound, he settled into the seat beside Kyuhyun and finding himself quite free, watched him sleep.
His slumber was becoming fitful, if the knot forming in the middle of his brows was any indication. This wasn’t a look Sungmin was used to, Kyuhyun usually smiled a lot. Very carefully, he brought his thumb to Kyuhyun’s frown and tried to ease it away. He rubbed gently at the crease and smoothed it over his brows until he flattened it out. There, better. This was more like the Kyuhyun he knew. Sungmin smiled to himself. His gaze moved to the table top and he saw Kyuhyun’s notepad, the one in which he scribbled all his experiment observations.
Surely it wouldn’t hurt to take a look.
He flipped to a random page.
Ahhh. So that was the cause of Donghae’s aversion to rat skins. Sungmin flicked a glance at the sleeping Kyuhyun and stabbed his cheek with a finger. After he was satisfied that Kyuhyun had been properly punished (three more stabs to the cheek earned Sungmin a sleepy protest from Kyuhyun), he returned to the notepad.
“Oh my god,” Sungmin said in a horrified whisper to Kyuhyun, who was still dead to the world, “you’re so childish.”
“I knew it. You were very late,” Sungmin deadpanned at Kyuhyun who only mumbled in his sleep. Then his eyes turned gentle. Kyuhyun might be a heartless scumbag at times but deep inside, Sungmin knew him to be kind. “What a good boy you are,” he warbled, patting Kyuhyun on the head and smoothing his hair over. “’A life is a life, regardless of its form’,” he recited it softly once, before moving on to the rest of the entry.
It was a good thing Kyuhyun was so deep in his sleep. Because Sungmin had already changed his opinion of him and was drawing on his face with a marker. Whiskers appeared, followed by a beard, then Sungmin got bored and resorted to inking dots on to Kyuhyun’s face. After he was done, he nodded in satisfaction and carried on reading. He was just browsing through when he noticed something scrawled in the last page. It detailed no experiments or anything related to Kyuhyun’s work at all.
Sungmin shut the notepad in a hurry, sure that he had stumbled on something private. He quickly looked at Kyuhyun. But it was just his guilty conscience at work, Kyuhyun was still dozing. The notepad was placed back where it was picked up. Extra efforts were made to ensure that it was placed exactly how it had been found. Then Sungmin twiddled his thumbs and tried very hard to forget what he’d just read.
The lab was quiet except for the monotonous humming of machines. It invoked the drowsiness in Sungmin again and aided him in trying to achieve memory loss. He was so sleepy, so so sleepy. Kyuhyun looked so comfortable lying there, maybe Sungmin should also…
That afternoon, when Donghae went over to Kyuhyun’s lab again to borrow some flasks (since he had broken a couple of his and busted his lab’s budget by over-purchasing what the research company called ‘dangerous chemicals’), he saw Kyuhyun and Sungmin asleep with their heads pressed together on the table, complete with small identical dreamy smiles on their faces and overlapping misplaced fingers.
This was so revolting that Donghae decided to steal all of Kyuhyun’s test tubes.
(Even if Kyuhyun was looking particularly ugly at the moment.)
. . . . .
Sungmin woke up first. Or so he thought. Kyuhyun had been feigning sleep for the past 17 minutes, just lying there, savoring the closeness of Sungmin and the faint smell of rosehip swirling in the air around him. There was a shift of Sungmin’s head and Kyuhyun nestled closer, trying to capture the lingering warmth before it dissipated. But then Sungmin woke, head buried in Kyuhyun’s neck for a moment during his struggle to get up, hair brushing and tickling him on the neck. Kyuhyun figured this was good enough.
He waited until the warmth disappeared before pushing himself up. “Had a great nap,” Kyuhyun said, massaging his stiff neck. He beamed at Sungmin who proceeded to laugh so spectacularly mid-stretch that specks of saliva landed on Kyuhyun’s face.
This sort of intimate contact was extremely undesirable, even if the other party was Sungmin, Kyuhyun discovered. “What?” he cried in chagrin, swiping his face with the sleeve of his coat. It wiped off more than oral fluid. There was now a streak of black on the white cotton. Well, well, this wasn’t making any sense at all, which was why Kyuhyun froze and stared at his sleeve.
“My face. Why.” These three words maxed out his remaining ability to be coherent.
Sungmin kind of screamed.
. . . . .
“You are lucky! That Donghae still have some ethanol in his lab or I’d!” Kyuhyun paused in his threat. Or else he would what? He dabbed at his face with ethanol-soaked cotton and rubbed vigorously in morbid deliberation.
“Else what?” Sungmin laughed cheekily. Sleep had managed to resolve his unhappiness with Kyuhyun, bad television, uncute puppies and in general, the entire world. The sound improved Kyuhyun’s spirits, even if the ink was being terribly stubborn.
“Or else I’d implant plastic into your heart.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Oh? Why not? You think I’m a horrible person.”
“Not that horrible,” retorted Sungmin, throwing fluffs of cotton at Kyuhyun. “You find me too cute anyway.” The last sentence was whispered under his breath.
“Stop throwing cotton around or you’ll have to clean up the lab,” Kyuhyun warned. Then his ears pricked up. “Wait, I hear my phone.” Kyuhyun went out to pick up the call and was back in a minute. “Ryeowook won’t be returning tonight. Said he has to deal with some urgent work.”
“He’s rather busy lately, isn’t he?”
“Think so. Say, what about dinner?” asked Kyuhyun, picking up a fresh piece of cotton and dipping it into the beaker of ethanol.
“What about dinner?” parroted Sungmin. “I’m sure Dinner is fine.”
Kyuhyun hit him with cotton and Sungmin went down like a G6 that had been hammered by missiles. The chick was playing along, this was rare. Adequate sleep did marvelous things.
“Fine, I can fry us some greens but Ryeowook is your meat supplier and he’s not around today.”
“Sounds just about right. We’re running out of vegetables though, might have to make a trip to the supermarket again.”
Sungmin sighed. “OK. But don’t you need to start on your experiment? You napped all day.”
“We napped all day. I’m still a bit early for the next round of experiment actually, I can start tomorrow… Shall we sneak out now? We didn’t even have lunch yet.”
“After napping?” Sungmin yelped self-righteously. “Where’s your work ethic?”
“Ate it with toast a few years ago.”
. . . . .
“What do you want?” Sungmin asked as he pushed the trolley to the fresh food section. It didn’t take very long for Kyuhyun to persuade Sungmin to play truant because the latter was also aware that either they took off earlier or they were simply going to continue napping. The supermarket was sparsely filled with people in the late afternoon; there was still 45 minutes prior to rush hour.
“Anything goes,” replied Kyuhyun, who was picking the stems off cherries for fun.
“What do you think of ratatouille?”
“Come again?”
“Rat-te-tuii-weeee,” Sungmin drew out the pronunciation.
“Isn’t that a Pixar rat who knows how to cook?”
“It’s vegetable stew,” Sungmin clarified, “and the rat’s name is Remy”. He picked up an eggplant and scrutinized it really hard. “How does this look to you?” The eggplant was placed right under Kyuhyun’s nose. Dutifully, he took a serious sniff and even pressed it down with a careful finger. The skin was springy and bounced right back up.
“Absolutely delectable.”
Nodding, Sungmin put the eggplant into the trolley. They repeated the same steps for the tomatoes and bell peppers. But Kyuhyun shook his head solemnly at the carrot.
“No?” Sungmin imitated his head shaking.
“Not good.” The carrot was placed back into the rack after Kyuhyun’s condemning verdict.
“This one?” Sungmin tried again with a different carrot.
“Rotten to the core.”
To be honest, Kyuhyun had no idea how to select vegetables at all but he did rather enjoy Sungmin’s dependence on him. After all, who had ever died from the consumption of stale vegetables? No one. Yup.
Another carrot was waved in his face. “I’ve never seen a more perfect carrot.” That carrot, which was actually in a worse state than the previous one, went sailing into the trolley.
Suddenly, Sungmin’s phone rang and he fumbled to pick it up. “Hi, oh, Eunhyuk. Oh. Oh no. Eunhyuk. I’m sorry!” he gasped, finally recalling that he had stood Eunhyuk up last night.
“I’m accepting no excuses unless a truck ran over you last night which it obviously didn’t, so this is the end of our friendship,” said Eunhyuk in a flat voice over the phone. He gave the threat some time to sink in. “I need a new wallet.”
“I’ll get you one!” Sungmin exclaimed.
“OK!” Eunhyuk chorused, his usual liveliness resurrected. “Hey where are you at? I’m free tonight, want to come over?”
“I can’t, I have something important on,” replied Sungmin apologetically. “Sorry, your wallet will be extra nice, I promise.”
“What could be more important than me?” Eunhyuk demanded.
“I, I,” Sungmin frowned. Because ‘I need to pick up vegetables from the supermarket and cook dinner for my flatmate’ really didn’t seem more important than meeting a friend he hadn’t met for months/had just stood up. But he didn’t want to abandon his dinner plans with Kyuhyun either. “I, well, I.” Why was this so hard to explain. Sungmin fretted.
“That wallet better comes with cash.”
Sungmin’s breathing eased. “All the won, rupiah and yen you need.”
“I love you~” Eunhyuk put on his creepy phone voice. Silence reigned for a few seconds before he asked, “What about euros?”
Laughing, Sungmin cut off the line. “Who’s that?” Kyuhyun asked.
Sungmin hummed and moved on to the zucchinis. “Someone who needs scurvy advice.” He picked one up and narrowed his eyes at Kyuhyun. In turn, Kyuhyun’s eyes turned to slits too; they were focused intensely on the squash. The two of them glared very hard at the zucchini.
“My inner self says yes to this,” Kyuhyun advised, as if he were a fortune teller.
“Are you absolutely sure?”
“It’s zucchinis we’re talking about, much too serious for me not to.” A giggle burst out from Sungmin and they laughed together. Who knew selecting vegetables would be so fun?
“I don’t quite get it, actually. You never seem to take meat at home but you’re a carnivore when we’re eating out.” An orange was tossed into the air; Kyuhyun caught it before it could fall into the basket of limes, hoping that his casualness wasn’t too deliberate.
“I can’t cook meat.”
Taken aback more by the fact that Sungmin answered, rather than the answer itself, Kyuhyun scampered to walk beside Sungmin down the aisle that stocked instant noodles. “Why not?” he asked, taking advantage of the opportunity.
They strolled in silence. The wheels of the trolley were squeaking rhythmically. Somehow, Sungmin had sounded quite uninhibited today. Was it the effect of last night’s photoshoot? The memory of it gave Kyuhyun pleasant jolts up the spine.
“It’s hard to tell if the meat has been cooked well. I can’t observe the color changes, just like chemistry. It’s tricky business. Two more minutes and it’d get burnt, one minute lesser and the center ends up raw. I’m afraid there’s only so much my stomach can take. Vegetables are easier, they just turn soft. I’m not as adverse to eating semi-raw vegetables too.”
There he went again. Kyuhyun sailed down from his high. He also wanted to slap himself. But he didn’t want to apologize again. Didn’t want to apologize forever. There was so much he still didn’t know about Sungmin and these were the mistakes he was just going to make again and again. Might as well take it in stride.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” asked Kyuhyun. “We can help.”
“It’s nothing,” said Sungmin. He wasn’t ignoring Kyuhyun’s questions again but something in his voice was cautioning Kyuhyun that he wasn’t about to say more. No one changes overnight.
“Well, I’m here. I can be the judge of your meat,” Kyuhyun offered most valiantly.
Sungmin was smiling. He never smiled when they talked about his condition previously. “That sounds way too wrong on way too many levels. But thank you.”
Something melted in Kyuhyun’s heart and carved a hollow in it. He should feel gratified. After all these stones that have been casted, there was finally a ripple. But he wasn’t. Somehow Sungmin’s acceptance seemed ominous. It was as if the fight had gone out of him. This was strange and Kyuhyun didn’t know how to deal with it. So when Sungmin turned around and said, hey come on, what’s wrong, he only smiled doubtfully in reply.
“Anything you want to get before we checkout? Snacks? Ice cream? Calorie-laden food?” They were already heading to the cashier when Sungmin recalled Kyuhyun’s necessities.
“Nope. They are not good for health.”
Sungmin quirked a chicky eyebrow at him. “Have you lost your desire for high blood pressure?”
“Someone said I shouldn’t eat so much of those things.”
“Chey,” Sungmin uttered something intelligent that somehow spoke volumes about the contempt he had for Kyuhyun’s statement and made a beeline for the cashier.
. . . . .
“Can I help?”
They were already back at the apartment. Sungmin was in the kitchen washing the vegetables when Kyuhyun slithered up to him. Given his past offences, Sungmin should have refused him. But they were getting along so well today that Sungmin found himself nodding. “You can help to slice the peppers,” he instructed, gesturing to the bowl of bell peppers he had just washed. “Remember, slice peppers, not fingers.”
“Yes Sir, I’ll try my best to preserve my mortality.” Sungmin twirled around to nail him with a sharp look. “And yours. Of course.”
The knife was picked up with reverence; Kyuhyun, knife, MFEO. Belatedly, Sungmin wondered if this was wise. Kyuhyun sliced the first pepper. He succeeded. “Wow. This is fun.” No one was supposed to look that impressed with themselves for slicing peppers.
“Right. I’ve changed my mind, get out.”
“Don’t be silly,” Kyuhyun sang, “I’m a good slicer. Look at me with the zucchini!” A few deft flicks of the knife and the squash became a mangled mess. “I’ve always liked my vegetables to look like roadkill,” he defended himself.
“Sure thing. Very appetizing,” Sungmin said dryly. “Stop slicing, go oil the pan.”
Clapping his hands once (as if to declare his determination), Kyuhyun said, “Sure, yes.” Then, “How?”
“Why are you useless?” Sungmin planted impatient fists on to his hips.
“I would like to remind you that I have a PhD in-“
“Dumb?”
“Yes, that too, but mostly just things retrieved from dead animals.” Kyuhyun grinned, Sungmin dry-gagged.
“Don’t talk about stuff like that before mealtime! Look, this is a pan.” A pan was shoved into Kyuhyun’s arms. “And here’s oil.” A bottle of oil joined the pan. “I know this might be a little tough for you but please pour oil into the pan and set it on the stove,” Sungmin made a pouring motion. “And please,” he begged again, “don’t blow up the kitchen. I still have unfulfilled dreams.”
“Oooh, what are your dreams?”
“Oil the pan or I’ll stuff the grinder down your throat.”
Kyuhyun oiled the pan and enjoyed it. With tact for Sungmin, he set the pan carefully on the stove and waited for all the slicing to get done. But got bored.
“Ouch!” he howled, clutching his hand to the chest.
“What’s wrong?” Sungmin asked, still bent over the tomatoes. He didn’t even look over.
“The oil scalded me.” Kyuhyun wobbled about in the space between the sink and the stove. Sungmin watched that show for about a minute before he sighed and pulled Kyuhyun over to the sink. The tap was turned on and Kyuhyun’s right hand placed under the cold running water. After scrutinizing the back of Kyuhyun’s hand, Sungmin flipped it over and examined his palm. “Where did you scald your hand?” He looked up at Kyuhyun and the latter had to quickly change his expression from a smiling one to that of throes of pain.
“It’s right over here,” Kyuhyun insisted, finger running over a certain patch of skin on the back of his hand. But it really didn’t look very different from neighboring skin, to be very honest.
“Here?” Fingers skimmed across Kyuhyun’s skin and he had to stop himself from snatching his hand out of Sungmin’s gentle grasp.
“Yeah,” he said self-justifiably. Even though he had already forgotten where he’d first identified his scald.
“Hmmm,” Sungmin frowned because he couldn’t identity Kyuhyun’s scald but made a sound of acknowledgement anyway. “You need ointment.”
Kyuhyun nodded his agreement. “I sure do.”
Before he paddled off to the first aid box, Sungmin seated Kyuhyun at the kitchen table. Then he returned with a tube and pulled a chair next to Kyuhyun. When he sat, their knees were so close together that Kyuhyun stared. Squeezing out a small dollop of the ointment, he cautiously took Kyuhyun’s hand in his. His touch was still gentle, but Kyuhyun jumped a little in his seat when Sungmin’s knee nudged his.
“Don’t be silly,” chastised Sungmin who had clearly misunderstood the cause of Kyuhyun’s fright. “This will make your scald better. Where is it again?” he asked with a frown.
Oh, anywhere you want it to be. But Kyuhyun calmed down and replied, “Here.” He pointed to a spot somewhere between his middle and ring fingers.
“I thought it was here.” Sungmin prodded the area under his thumb and tilted his head.
“Nay, it was definitely here.” So Sungmin dabbed ointment on the spot while Kyuhyun made exaggerated hissing sounds that escaped from clenched teeth. He stopped when Sungmin started to blow on his wound. The cool air flitted across hot skin and soothed Kyuhyun.
“Better?” asked Sungmin. He looked up only to see Kyuhyun smiling at him. “Why are you smiling at me?”
“I’m not smiling at you,” rebutted Kyuhyun, but a contradictory grin was evident on his face.
“Yes, you are. You’re doing it right now.” Never had an accusation been filled with so much disgruntlement. Sungmin clucked his tongue reproachfully.
“I’m not.” The grin spread. Tormenting Sungmin had always been Kyuhyun’s favorite pastime.
“Then what’s this?” Sungmin poked a fierce finger into the corner of Kyuhyun’s lips, which was lifted all the way up. Kyuhyun puffed his face up at where Sungmin’s finger was, so that it now moved against his cheek. But Sungmin’s finger was insistent on poking him like the pufferfish he was. Eventually, Kyuhyun had to grab Sungmin’s hand because as fun as the pufferfish game was, his nail was digging into his skin. But his grin was persistent. Scowling, Sungmin pulled his hand out of Kyuhyun’s warm grasp.
Sungmin had to concede that Kyuhyun had a great smile. When he smiled, his eyes bent into slivers of crescent and the ends crinkled in a way that transformed him into a boy. Kyuhyun was good looking, Sungmin was well aware of the fact. He turned heads when they were out on the streets, in restaurants, anywhere there were girls (sometimes, boys too); even if he wasn’t aware of it. But when he smiled, he took the lights right out of the room and into his eyes. That wasn’t what was so pleasing about Kyuhyun’s smile, however. It was the genuineness, the prospect of happiness and naivety that appealed so much to him.
Because Sungmin didn’t think he could ever smile like that again.
“Do you smile at everyone like this?”
“Of course.”
Sungmin scowled. “You shouldn’t.”
“Why not?”
Tap, tap, tap, went Sungmin’s fingers on the wood of the chair. “Because, you make people…”
stop and stare.
Sungmin was hard pressed to admit this to Kyuhyun. Must stay a secret. “… It’s distracting.” That was the truth, even though it was just part of it. “I have to cook.” With that, Sungmin got up and meandered to the stove. That was when he noticed that it hadn’t even been lighted yet. He whipped around and glared at Kyuhyun but the scientist was admiring his ointment-smeared hand against the kitchen’s light as if he were examining a diamond.
Stupid Cho Kyuhyun and his pranks.
tbc
p.s.: a/n is long, so i'll make it tiny because i rly want to torture your eyes
p.p.s.: some of my favorite song writers have recurring themes; wings, light, rainbow, hope. so i took them, merged it into a single theme and wrote it into chapter 15. rl hasn't been good lately, but i went to a concert recently and the singer said, anytime you face difficulties and need a rainbow, just turn the water hose on the world and you'll get one! i hope this message goes out not only to fic kyumin but also to everyone who's reading it. idw to sound like a know-it-all but i sincerely hope there's a rainbow in your pocket no matter where you go. i carry one in my ipod :D
p.p.p.s.: jfc i yawned so much writing the yawning bit
p.p.p.p.s.: there's more rl here than in my blog ._.
p.p.p.p.p.s.: long time no talk :)
p.p.p.p.p.p.s.: 致周覓
beta → grisclair, donghae = mad scientist, sorry
a/n → powered by pixar
Chapter 16: 小宇宙 | Little Universe -[1/2]
. . . . .
“I’m-“ Kyuhyun managed to say before he interrupted himself again with a humongous yawn. His billionth one, since they’d rolled themselves out of the door this morning. On the other hand, Ryeowook had been absolutely dandy and even gotten up early to make them breakfast that no one had had the appetite for.
“Stop it, you’re making me-“ But Sungmin was incapable of finishing his sentence as well. A small yawn escaped from him and a fat tear slipped from his right eye in response. He reached under the heavy weight of his goggles and glasses, and wiped it away grumpily.
“Why don’t you stop firs-“ Another yawn.
“I can’t if you alksdjalsjdaoooohh.“ Not wanting to give up, Sungmin attempted to talk through his yawn.
Yawns were so contagious.
They reached home only at approximately 4am that morning. Sungmin was robbed of his sleep and feeling appropriately homicidal. While Kyuhyun was more accustomed to sleepless nights, even he was feeling like an empty shell. Which totally explained why they were having a yawning match in the lab.
Kyuhyun watched a tear ran a wet path down Sungmin’s check. Sungmin ignored it this time because he was simply too grouchy to move. A grouchy fat chick. Kyuhyun’s chuckle broke into a yawn.
“Can you two please-“ Donghae sounded like a groaning hinge when he yawned. “I wasn’t feeling sleepy until I came here!” he protested, making his way into the cell lab.
In reply, Kyuhyun yawned and collapsed on the lab bench. Sungmin yawned. Donghae yawned. The white mice yawned.
“I came to borrow Sungmin,” Donghae said, finally breaking out of the vicious cycle.
“No.” Kyuhyun said, suddenly alert. “We are going to start a new experiment today and I need his help.”
Donghae and Sungmin looked at each other. “For?” Donghae asked. No one needed the non-scientist person around for any form of assistance in the lab, unless he was looking for a servant (since he was so good at remembering to feed the mice. And cleaning. Yes cleaning. And a lot of other things Kyuhyun and Donghae didn’t want to do).
Kyuhyun himself appeared to be a little nonplussed at this question. “For moral support,” he eventually said. “Yeah, that’s right! Experiments are hard. I need all the encouragement I can get. Isn’t it obvious?”
Deciding to ignore Kyuhyun, Donghae turned to Sungmin. “Can you help me with those rat skins again?”
“Sure,” Sungmin chimed.
“If my experiments fail, it’s going to be your fault!” Kyuhyun called out to their retreating backs but no one looked back. He tried his hardest to sulk but ended up yawning instead.
. . . . .
“This is rat skin.” They were in Donghae’s lab and he was introducing the materials for his next experiment to Sungmin. There were several strips of things lying on the table on a large piece of plastic. Sungmin picked one up with his gloved hand. “I know, Donghae, we’ve done this before.”
“Who and what are you, amazing person who can touch rat skins!” Donghae yelled dramatically.
“Just Sungmin.”
“Non-scientist person without a PhD,” corrected Donghae.
“Goodbye.” The rat skin was thrown on to the table with disdain. It flopped as all dead things did.
“Love me, feed me, never leave me.” Donghae rushed forward to cling onto Sungmin’s lab coat before he could stride out of his life.
Straightening his glasses that had been knocked askew by Dongae, Sungmin said, “I’m not going to feed you. Or love you, for that matter.”
“I know, that was just for the sake of completeness of the quote. Let’s just focus on the ‘never leave me’ bit.” Donghae tore himself off Sungmin. “Come on,” he said, “or these rat skins are gonna get ratty,” There was inexcusable blitheness in his tone.
Sungmin blinked. Something excruciatingly painful must have happened during Donghae’s and Kyuhyun’s pursuit of academic achievement. Something that ultimately destroyed any ability to hold sane and logical conversations with other Homo sapiens and effectively rendered their sense of humor only interpretable to creatures from another dimension and galaxy (read: not! this! one!). Because really. That was so incredibly unfunny.
On the other hand, Sungmin was capable of making perfect sense. Too much. It brimmed over the edge of ‘Honesty’ and flooded right into the area marked ‘How Dare You’ in fiery red shiny letters.
“Let’s get started.” Donghae slapped on some gloves and Sungmin shrugged to himself.
. . . . .
When Sungmin returned to the lab, he found Kyuhyun not to be at the hood, engaged in his cell experiments. Rather, he was slumped over the lab table with his head to the side, lying on top of his folded arms. Walking over, Sungmin realized Kyuhyun wasn’t just resting, he was already fast asleep.
He sniggered to himself. Revenge time. Sungmin had already lifted his hand and was about to slap him awake when Kyuhyun suddenly made a small sound of discontent in his sleep. Slowly, he lowered his hand. He glanced at the dark circles beneath Kyuhyun’s eyes and recalled that he hadn’t been sleeping well even prior to last night.
Kyuhyun was sleeping so serenely. His long lashes laid quietly against skin as eyes sealed shut and Sungmin couldn’t quite find it in him to break this moment of tranquility. Without making a sound, he settled into the seat beside Kyuhyun and finding himself quite free, watched him sleep.
His slumber was becoming fitful, if the knot forming in the middle of his brows was any indication. This wasn’t a look Sungmin was used to, Kyuhyun usually smiled a lot. Very carefully, he brought his thumb to Kyuhyun’s frown and tried to ease it away. He rubbed gently at the crease and smoothed it over his brows until he flattened it out. There, better. This was more like the Kyuhyun he knew. Sungmin smiled to himself. His gaze moved to the table top and he saw Kyuhyun’s notepad, the one in which he scribbled all his experiment observations.
Surely it wouldn’t hurt to take a look.
He flipped to a random page.
Ahhh. So that was the cause of Donghae’s aversion to rat skins. Sungmin flicked a glance at the sleeping Kyuhyun and stabbed his cheek with a finger. After he was satisfied that Kyuhyun had been properly punished (three more stabs to the cheek earned Sungmin a sleepy protest from Kyuhyun), he returned to the notepad.
“Oh my god,” Sungmin said in a horrified whisper to Kyuhyun, who was still dead to the world, “you’re so childish.”
“I knew it. You were very late,” Sungmin deadpanned at Kyuhyun who only mumbled in his sleep. Then his eyes turned gentle. Kyuhyun might be a heartless scumbag at times but deep inside, Sungmin knew him to be kind. “What a good boy you are,” he warbled, patting Kyuhyun on the head and smoothing his hair over. “’A life is a life, regardless of its form’,” he recited it softly once, before moving on to the rest of the entry.
It was a good thing Kyuhyun was so deep in his sleep. Because Sungmin had already changed his opinion of him and was drawing on his face with a marker. Whiskers appeared, followed by a beard, then Sungmin got bored and resorted to inking dots on to Kyuhyun’s face. After he was done, he nodded in satisfaction and carried on reading. He was just browsing through when he noticed something scrawled in the last page. It detailed no experiments or anything related to Kyuhyun’s work at all.
Sungmin shut the notepad in a hurry, sure that he had stumbled on something private. He quickly looked at Kyuhyun. But it was just his guilty conscience at work, Kyuhyun was still dozing. The notepad was placed back where it was picked up. Extra efforts were made to ensure that it was placed exactly how it had been found. Then Sungmin twiddled his thumbs and tried very hard to forget what he’d just read.
The lab was quiet except for the monotonous humming of machines. It invoked the drowsiness in Sungmin again and aided him in trying to achieve memory loss. He was so sleepy, so so sleepy. Kyuhyun looked so comfortable lying there, maybe Sungmin should also…
That afternoon, when Donghae went over to Kyuhyun’s lab again to borrow some flasks (since he had broken a couple of his and busted his lab’s budget by over-purchasing what the research company called ‘dangerous chemicals’), he saw Kyuhyun and Sungmin asleep with their heads pressed together on the table, complete with small identical dreamy smiles on their faces and overlapping misplaced fingers.
This was so revolting that Donghae decided to steal all of Kyuhyun’s test tubes.
(Even if Kyuhyun was looking particularly ugly at the moment.)
. . . . .
Sungmin woke up first. Or so he thought. Kyuhyun had been feigning sleep for the past 17 minutes, just lying there, savoring the closeness of Sungmin and the faint smell of rosehip swirling in the air around him. There was a shift of Sungmin’s head and Kyuhyun nestled closer, trying to capture the lingering warmth before it dissipated. But then Sungmin woke, head buried in Kyuhyun’s neck for a moment during his struggle to get up, hair brushing and tickling him on the neck. Kyuhyun figured this was good enough.
He waited until the warmth disappeared before pushing himself up. “Had a great nap,” Kyuhyun said, massaging his stiff neck. He beamed at Sungmin who proceeded to laugh so spectacularly mid-stretch that specks of saliva landed on Kyuhyun’s face.
This sort of intimate contact was extremely undesirable, even if the other party was Sungmin, Kyuhyun discovered. “What?” he cried in chagrin, swiping his face with the sleeve of his coat. It wiped off more than oral fluid. There was now a streak of black on the white cotton. Well, well, this wasn’t making any sense at all, which was why Kyuhyun froze and stared at his sleeve.
“My face. Why.” These three words maxed out his remaining ability to be coherent.
Sungmin kind of screamed.
. . . . .
“You are lucky! That Donghae still have some ethanol in his lab or I’d!” Kyuhyun paused in his threat. Or else he would what? He dabbed at his face with ethanol-soaked cotton and rubbed vigorously in morbid deliberation.
“Else what?” Sungmin laughed cheekily. Sleep had managed to resolve his unhappiness with Kyuhyun, bad television, uncute puppies and in general, the entire world. The sound improved Kyuhyun’s spirits, even if the ink was being terribly stubborn.
“Or else I’d implant plastic into your heart.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Oh? Why not? You think I’m a horrible person.”
“Not that horrible,” retorted Sungmin, throwing fluffs of cotton at Kyuhyun. “You find me too cute anyway.” The last sentence was whispered under his breath.
“Stop throwing cotton around or you’ll have to clean up the lab,” Kyuhyun warned. Then his ears pricked up. “Wait, I hear my phone.” Kyuhyun went out to pick up the call and was back in a minute. “Ryeowook won’t be returning tonight. Said he has to deal with some urgent work.”
“He’s rather busy lately, isn’t he?”
“Think so. Say, what about dinner?” asked Kyuhyun, picking up a fresh piece of cotton and dipping it into the beaker of ethanol.
“What about dinner?” parroted Sungmin. “I’m sure Dinner is fine.”
Kyuhyun hit him with cotton and Sungmin went down like a G6 that had been hammered by missiles. The chick was playing along, this was rare. Adequate sleep did marvelous things.
“Fine, I can fry us some greens but Ryeowook is your meat supplier and he’s not around today.”
“Sounds just about right. We’re running out of vegetables though, might have to make a trip to the supermarket again.”
Sungmin sighed. “OK. But don’t you need to start on your experiment? You napped all day.”
“We napped all day. I’m still a bit early for the next round of experiment actually, I can start tomorrow… Shall we sneak out now? We didn’t even have lunch yet.”
“After napping?” Sungmin yelped self-righteously. “Where’s your work ethic?”
“Ate it with toast a few years ago.”
. . . . .
“What do you want?” Sungmin asked as he pushed the trolley to the fresh food section. It didn’t take very long for Kyuhyun to persuade Sungmin to play truant because the latter was also aware that either they took off earlier or they were simply going to continue napping. The supermarket was sparsely filled with people in the late afternoon; there was still 45 minutes prior to rush hour.
“Anything goes,” replied Kyuhyun, who was picking the stems off cherries for fun.
“What do you think of ratatouille?”
“Come again?”
“Rat-te-tuii-weeee,” Sungmin drew out the pronunciation.
“Isn’t that a Pixar rat who knows how to cook?”
“It’s vegetable stew,” Sungmin clarified, “and the rat’s name is Remy”. He picked up an eggplant and scrutinized it really hard. “How does this look to you?” The eggplant was placed right under Kyuhyun’s nose. Dutifully, he took a serious sniff and even pressed it down with a careful finger. The skin was springy and bounced right back up.
“Absolutely delectable.”
Nodding, Sungmin put the eggplant into the trolley. They repeated the same steps for the tomatoes and bell peppers. But Kyuhyun shook his head solemnly at the carrot.
“No?” Sungmin imitated his head shaking.
“Not good.” The carrot was placed back into the rack after Kyuhyun’s condemning verdict.
“This one?” Sungmin tried again with a different carrot.
“Rotten to the core.”
To be honest, Kyuhyun had no idea how to select vegetables at all but he did rather enjoy Sungmin’s dependence on him. After all, who had ever died from the consumption of stale vegetables? No one. Yup.
Another carrot was waved in his face. “I’ve never seen a more perfect carrot.” That carrot, which was actually in a worse state than the previous one, went sailing into the trolley.
Suddenly, Sungmin’s phone rang and he fumbled to pick it up. “Hi, oh, Eunhyuk. Oh. Oh no. Eunhyuk. I’m sorry!” he gasped, finally recalling that he had stood Eunhyuk up last night.
“I’m accepting no excuses unless a truck ran over you last night which it obviously didn’t, so this is the end of our friendship,” said Eunhyuk in a flat voice over the phone. He gave the threat some time to sink in. “I need a new wallet.”
“I’ll get you one!” Sungmin exclaimed.
“OK!” Eunhyuk chorused, his usual liveliness resurrected. “Hey where are you at? I’m free tonight, want to come over?”
“I can’t, I have something important on,” replied Sungmin apologetically. “Sorry, your wallet will be extra nice, I promise.”
“What could be more important than me?” Eunhyuk demanded.
“I, I,” Sungmin frowned. Because ‘I need to pick up vegetables from the supermarket and cook dinner for my flatmate’ really didn’t seem more important than meeting a friend he hadn’t met for months/had just stood up. But he didn’t want to abandon his dinner plans with Kyuhyun either. “I, well, I.” Why was this so hard to explain. Sungmin fretted.
“That wallet better comes with cash.”
Sungmin’s breathing eased. “All the won, rupiah and yen you need.”
“I love you~” Eunhyuk put on his creepy phone voice. Silence reigned for a few seconds before he asked, “What about euros?”
Laughing, Sungmin cut off the line. “Who’s that?” Kyuhyun asked.
Sungmin hummed and moved on to the zucchinis. “Someone who needs scurvy advice.” He picked one up and narrowed his eyes at Kyuhyun. In turn, Kyuhyun’s eyes turned to slits too; they were focused intensely on the squash. The two of them glared very hard at the zucchini.
“My inner self says yes to this,” Kyuhyun advised, as if he were a fortune teller.
“Are you absolutely sure?”
“It’s zucchinis we’re talking about, much too serious for me not to.” A giggle burst out from Sungmin and they laughed together. Who knew selecting vegetables would be so fun?
“I don’t quite get it, actually. You never seem to take meat at home but you’re a carnivore when we’re eating out.” An orange was tossed into the air; Kyuhyun caught it before it could fall into the basket of limes, hoping that his casualness wasn’t too deliberate.
“I can’t cook meat.”
Taken aback more by the fact that Sungmin answered, rather than the answer itself, Kyuhyun scampered to walk beside Sungmin down the aisle that stocked instant noodles. “Why not?” he asked, taking advantage of the opportunity.
They strolled in silence. The wheels of the trolley were squeaking rhythmically. Somehow, Sungmin had sounded quite uninhibited today. Was it the effect of last night’s photoshoot? The memory of it gave Kyuhyun pleasant jolts up the spine.
“It’s hard to tell if the meat has been cooked well. I can’t observe the color changes, just like chemistry. It’s tricky business. Two more minutes and it’d get burnt, one minute lesser and the center ends up raw. I’m afraid there’s only so much my stomach can take. Vegetables are easier, they just turn soft. I’m not as adverse to eating semi-raw vegetables too.”
There he went again. Kyuhyun sailed down from his high. He also wanted to slap himself. But he didn’t want to apologize again. Didn’t want to apologize forever. There was so much he still didn’t know about Sungmin and these were the mistakes he was just going to make again and again. Might as well take it in stride.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” asked Kyuhyun. “We can help.”
“It’s nothing,” said Sungmin. He wasn’t ignoring Kyuhyun’s questions again but something in his voice was cautioning Kyuhyun that he wasn’t about to say more. No one changes overnight.
“Well, I’m here. I can be the judge of your meat,” Kyuhyun offered most valiantly.
Sungmin was smiling. He never smiled when they talked about his condition previously. “That sounds way too wrong on way too many levels. But thank you.”
Something melted in Kyuhyun’s heart and carved a hollow in it. He should feel gratified. After all these stones that have been casted, there was finally a ripple. But he wasn’t. Somehow Sungmin’s acceptance seemed ominous. It was as if the fight had gone out of him. This was strange and Kyuhyun didn’t know how to deal with it. So when Sungmin turned around and said, hey come on, what’s wrong, he only smiled doubtfully in reply.
“Anything you want to get before we checkout? Snacks? Ice cream? Calorie-laden food?” They were already heading to the cashier when Sungmin recalled Kyuhyun’s necessities.
“Nope. They are not good for health.”
Sungmin quirked a chicky eyebrow at him. “Have you lost your desire for high blood pressure?”
“Someone said I shouldn’t eat so much of those things.”
“Chey,” Sungmin uttered something intelligent that somehow spoke volumes about the contempt he had for Kyuhyun’s statement and made a beeline for the cashier.
. . . . .
“Can I help?”
They were already back at the apartment. Sungmin was in the kitchen washing the vegetables when Kyuhyun slithered up to him. Given his past offences, Sungmin should have refused him. But they were getting along so well today that Sungmin found himself nodding. “You can help to slice the peppers,” he instructed, gesturing to the bowl of bell peppers he had just washed. “Remember, slice peppers, not fingers.”
“Yes Sir, I’ll try my best to preserve my mortality.” Sungmin twirled around to nail him with a sharp look. “And yours. Of course.”
The knife was picked up with reverence; Kyuhyun, knife, MFEO. Belatedly, Sungmin wondered if this was wise. Kyuhyun sliced the first pepper. He succeeded. “Wow. This is fun.” No one was supposed to look that impressed with themselves for slicing peppers.
“Right. I’ve changed my mind, get out.”
“Don’t be silly,” Kyuhyun sang, “I’m a good slicer. Look at me with the zucchini!” A few deft flicks of the knife and the squash became a mangled mess. “I’ve always liked my vegetables to look like roadkill,” he defended himself.
“Sure thing. Very appetizing,” Sungmin said dryly. “Stop slicing, go oil the pan.”
Clapping his hands once (as if to declare his determination), Kyuhyun said, “Sure, yes.” Then, “How?”
“Why are you useless?” Sungmin planted impatient fists on to his hips.
“I would like to remind you that I have a PhD in-“
“Dumb?”
“Yes, that too, but mostly just things retrieved from dead animals.” Kyuhyun grinned, Sungmin dry-gagged.
“Don’t talk about stuff like that before mealtime! Look, this is a pan.” A pan was shoved into Kyuhyun’s arms. “And here’s oil.” A bottle of oil joined the pan. “I know this might be a little tough for you but please pour oil into the pan and set it on the stove,” Sungmin made a pouring motion. “And please,” he begged again, “don’t blow up the kitchen. I still have unfulfilled dreams.”
“Oooh, what are your dreams?”
“Oil the pan or I’ll stuff the grinder down your throat.”
Kyuhyun oiled the pan and enjoyed it. With tact for Sungmin, he set the pan carefully on the stove and waited for all the slicing to get done. But got bored.
“Ouch!” he howled, clutching his hand to the chest.
“What’s wrong?” Sungmin asked, still bent over the tomatoes. He didn’t even look over.
“The oil scalded me.” Kyuhyun wobbled about in the space between the sink and the stove. Sungmin watched that show for about a minute before he sighed and pulled Kyuhyun over to the sink. The tap was turned on and Kyuhyun’s right hand placed under the cold running water. After scrutinizing the back of Kyuhyun’s hand, Sungmin flipped it over and examined his palm. “Where did you scald your hand?” He looked up at Kyuhyun and the latter had to quickly change his expression from a smiling one to that of throes of pain.
“It’s right over here,” Kyuhyun insisted, finger running over a certain patch of skin on the back of his hand. But it really didn’t look very different from neighboring skin, to be very honest.
“Here?” Fingers skimmed across Kyuhyun’s skin and he had to stop himself from snatching his hand out of Sungmin’s gentle grasp.
“Yeah,” he said self-justifiably. Even though he had already forgotten where he’d first identified his scald.
“Hmmm,” Sungmin frowned because he couldn’t identity Kyuhyun’s scald but made a sound of acknowledgement anyway. “You need ointment.”
Kyuhyun nodded his agreement. “I sure do.”
Before he paddled off to the first aid box, Sungmin seated Kyuhyun at the kitchen table. Then he returned with a tube and pulled a chair next to Kyuhyun. When he sat, their knees were so close together that Kyuhyun stared. Squeezing out a small dollop of the ointment, he cautiously took Kyuhyun’s hand in his. His touch was still gentle, but Kyuhyun jumped a little in his seat when Sungmin’s knee nudged his.
“Don’t be silly,” chastised Sungmin who had clearly misunderstood the cause of Kyuhyun’s fright. “This will make your scald better. Where is it again?” he asked with a frown.
Oh, anywhere you want it to be. But Kyuhyun calmed down and replied, “Here.” He pointed to a spot somewhere between his middle and ring fingers.
“I thought it was here.” Sungmin prodded the area under his thumb and tilted his head.
“Nay, it was definitely here.” So Sungmin dabbed ointment on the spot while Kyuhyun made exaggerated hissing sounds that escaped from clenched teeth. He stopped when Sungmin started to blow on his wound. The cool air flitted across hot skin and soothed Kyuhyun.
“Better?” asked Sungmin. He looked up only to see Kyuhyun smiling at him. “Why are you smiling at me?”
“I’m not smiling at you,” rebutted Kyuhyun, but a contradictory grin was evident on his face.
“Yes, you are. You’re doing it right now.” Never had an accusation been filled with so much disgruntlement. Sungmin clucked his tongue reproachfully.
“I’m not.” The grin spread. Tormenting Sungmin had always been Kyuhyun’s favorite pastime.
“Then what’s this?” Sungmin poked a fierce finger into the corner of Kyuhyun’s lips, which was lifted all the way up. Kyuhyun puffed his face up at where Sungmin’s finger was, so that it now moved against his cheek. But Sungmin’s finger was insistent on poking him like the pufferfish he was. Eventually, Kyuhyun had to grab Sungmin’s hand because as fun as the pufferfish game was, his nail was digging into his skin. But his grin was persistent. Scowling, Sungmin pulled his hand out of Kyuhyun’s warm grasp.
Sungmin had to concede that Kyuhyun had a great smile. When he smiled, his eyes bent into slivers of crescent and the ends crinkled in a way that transformed him into a boy. Kyuhyun was good looking, Sungmin was well aware of the fact. He turned heads when they were out on the streets, in restaurants, anywhere there were girls (sometimes, boys too); even if he wasn’t aware of it. But when he smiled, he took the lights right out of the room and into his eyes. That wasn’t what was so pleasing about Kyuhyun’s smile, however. It was the genuineness, the prospect of happiness and naivety that appealed so much to him.
Because Sungmin didn’t think he could ever smile like that again.
“Do you smile at everyone like this?”
“Of course.”
Sungmin scowled. “You shouldn’t.”
“Why not?”
Tap, tap, tap, went Sungmin’s fingers on the wood of the chair. “Because, you make people…”
stop and stare.
Sungmin was hard pressed to admit this to Kyuhyun. Must stay a secret. “… It’s distracting.” That was the truth, even though it was just part of it. “I have to cook.” With that, Sungmin got up and meandered to the stove. That was when he noticed that it hadn’t even been lighted yet. He whipped around and glared at Kyuhyun but the scientist was admiring his ointment-smeared hand against the kitchen’s light as if he were examining a diamond.
Stupid Cho Kyuhyun and his pranks.
tbc
p.s.: a/n is long, so i'll make it tiny because i rly want to torture your eyes
p.p.s.: some of my favorite song writers have recurring themes; wings, light, rainbow, hope. so i took them, merged it into a single theme and wrote it into chapter 15. rl hasn't been good lately, but i went to a concert recently and the singer said, anytime you face difficulties and need a rainbow, just turn the water hose on the world and you'll get one! i hope this message goes out not only to fic kyumin but also to everyone who's reading it. idw to sound like a know-it-all but i sincerely hope there's a rainbow in your pocket no matter where you go. i carry one in my ipod :D
p.p.p.s.: jfc i yawned so much writing the yawning bit
p.p.p.p.s.: there's more rl here than in my blog ._.
p.p.p.p.p.s.: long time no talk :)
p.p.p.p.p.p.s.: 致周覓