Super Junior AU; Hanchul; The Best Days of Our Lives
Title: The Best Days of Our Lives
Chapter: 4/25
Fandom: Super Junior AU (High School)
Pairing: Hankyung/crossdressing!Heechul (main), Kangin/Eeteuk, Kibum/Donghae, Yehsung/Ryeowook, Kyuhyun/Sungmin, bestfriends!Eunhae.
Word count: 2,876
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Coming into a strange new world can be strange enough. Unfortunately, someone’s forgotten to tell Hankyung something Very Important.
A/N: This is going to be long. Because I'm up to chapter 7, nowhere near half way through, and it's hit 20,000 words. This isn't going to stop with Hankyung finding out - it's going to take their relationship much further past that, until the end of the school year.
Also, just to clarify, everyone in the school knows that Heechul is a boy, hence the bullying. It is sheer good luck that Hankyung doesn't overhear someone calling him a boy, if you ask me.
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5
“Do you fancy explaining what that was about?” Hankyung asked Heechul as they were walking down the stairs. Heechul sighed and tried to avoid his eyes.
“I don’t know,” she muttered. “The interrogation was nothing new, but that’s the first time they’ve suggested anything like that.” She waved at Donghae, who bounded over to them with Eunhyuk. “I guess it’s just their newest method in their attempt at ‘breaking’ me.”
“What is?” Donghae asked, his brow crinkling in confusion.
“The girls in our class implied that the only reason you’re friends with Heechul is because you’re sleeping with her.” Hankyung explained, although Heechul pinched him the side, as if to say that he wasn’t supposed to say anything.
“More than implied,” she muttered under her breath.
Eunhyuk groaned and frowned. “The girls in my class were saying something similar last week,” he said. “They thought I couldn’t hear them, of course. I didn’t say anything because I thought it would just blow over.”
“It’s fine,” said Heechul, waving it away with a hand. “It’s fine, I’m used to it. I can deal with it. It’ll blow over soon anyway.”
“Are you sure?” Donghae asked, concern written all over his face.
“Yeah,” said Heechul, and then pointed at him. “Don’t tell Siwon,” she said sternly. “You too, Hankyung. If he finds out, he’s likely to do something stupid like confront them and then he’ll end up involved in it.”
For Hankyung, the uncharacteristic silence of Heechul in the classroom suddenly seemed to make sense. When she’s silent, he thought, she doesn’t stand out, and when she doesn’t stand out, they don’t notice her. And when they don’t notice her, they don’t say anything. And in a roundabout way, it means that the rest of the group don’t get involved. And she can protect them.
“Anyway,” she went on. “Are we still able to sit in on your dance practice? You never know, it might put their noses even more out of joint.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Shindong from behind them, “but it sounds fun.”
It did sound fun, though Hankyung, and it was fun, as Heechul swanned into the dance studio like she was made to be there, as Donghae and Eunhyuk explained that it was off-limits to anyone who wasn’t in the club. This appeared to be everyone besides Donghae, Eunhyuk and Shindong, and was pointed out by more than one of the girls.
“Why’s she there then?” One of them spat. “She’s not part of the group.” It was perhaps telling that they didn’t mention Hankyung. Maybe they thought he was part of the club, he thought with a wry grin.
“Heechul is an exception,” said Donghae. “She’s our friend.”
“You shouldn’t play favourites,” shouted one girl.
“And you shouldn’t spread rumours,” said Heechul pleasantly, popping her head around the door and smiling nicely. “But people don’t stop doing it, do they?” Hankyung noticed then that Fan Club Leader was in the midst of the crowd, and the pointed comment had obviously hit home, judging by the ugly scowl on her face. “Are we going to do this?” Heechul asked with a sigh. “I can’t be bothered with the fan girls today.”
“Right,” said Eunhyuk, and ushered Hankyung quickly through into the room and shut the door. The studio appeared to be sound proofed, because he could no longer hear anything coming from outside, and could only see mouths moving through the windows. It made for a rather disturbing picture. Shindong drew the blinds, helped by Heechul, who seemed to be taking great pleasure in doing it - perhaps she saw it as a form of revenge for earlier.
“Hankyung, come sit down!” Heechul called, and patted the plastic chair next to her. Hankyung took it, a little apprehensive. Something like you’ve never seen before she had promised, but he’d seen things he’d never seen before over the past week and some of those things he hadn’t want to see anyway.
“Right,” said Eunhyuk. “Let’s do this.” Donghae switched the music on.
Hankyung had never really seen dancing before. The few snatches of shows that he’d seen on television before his dad had changed the channel, the routines from music videos or live performances of songs in the charts: they hadn’t been clear, not enough to truly see what dancing could be. Still, it had fascinated him. The flexing; the twisting and bending; the sheer amount of movement; the impeccable timing: how long did it take to get it like that? he’d wondered when he’d seen the Chinese dancers which had come with the circus. He had had to be dragged away. It was beautiful and unique and wonderful, and this was no different. He sat enthralled, and didn’t even notice Heechul watching him.
“Okay!” Eunhyuk called after half an hour of non-stop motion - the CD would merely move onto the next track and the three dancers would jump straight into another routine. He switched the music off, and Donghae and Shindong collapsed onto the floor, mock-gasping for breath. Heechul laughed as she handed them bottles of water, and motioned for Hankyung to get them towels.
“It’s like you’re their manager,” he said with a grin as he did so. She just flashed him a mysterious smile.
“That was good,” she said to Eunhyuk as she gave him a bottle. He’d sat down on one of the chairs and practically ripped the top off the bottle in his attempt at opening it. “Was that last one the new routine?”
“Yeah,” said Eunhyuk with a grin. “All those weeks of talking about it and you finally get to see it. What did you think?”
“I liked it,” she said vaguely. Hankyung thought that it was lukewarm praise for something that he thought had been brilliant, but Eunhyuk beamed as though it was word from God, and Hankyung realised that it must have been High Praise Indeed coming from Heechul.
“The hip thrusts were my idea,” said Donghae cheerfully. Heechul laughed.
“Makes sense,” she said. “I should have guessed, they had Donghae written all over them.”
“What did you think?” Shindong asked Hankyung, who thought for a second before he answered.
“I thought it was fantastic,” he said simply, because he couldn’t think of anything to sum up how he felt about it. “That last one looked really complicated, though.”
Eunhyuk shook his head. “Nah,” he said with a sly grin. “Heechul could probably do it.” Heechul hit him quite hard on the shoulder. “Okay, you could probably do it,” he told Hankyung, rubbing the sore spot.
Hankyung stood up slowly. “Was it something like this?” And he tried his best impression of what he could remember of the dance to the chorus, fluffing up the hand movements leading up to the hip thrust, but managing that bit quite well without blushing too much. Everyone stared at him, Heechul in particular. He felt himself turning very red. “Sorry,” he said, “I can’t really dance.” He sat down quickly.
“Here,” said Eunhyuk slowly, and motioned for him to get up. “Follow everything that I do.” He launched into a slow version of the last routine, pumping his hands down before bringing them up to his chest and doing a funny movement with them that Hankyung tried to follow. This continued for a while, until Hankyung knew the movements up until the singing started and he found that he was enjoying himself. He went through it once with the music and finished laughing.
“Wow,” said Heechul quietly.
“You’re really good, you know.” Donghae told him, still rubbing the towel across his face. Hankyung looked at him incredulously.
“Don’t lie,” he said quietly, with a faint hint of humour in his voice as if he accepted the joke. Donghae widened his eyes at him.
“Donghae doesn’t lie,” said Heechul, touching him lightly on the shoulder.
“Ah!” Donghae yelled. “So it was that you were saying I had a wooden head when you called me Pinocchio!”
“I thought we’d already established that,” said a voice, and they turned to see that Kibum was standing in the doorway, grinning at them.
“Kibummie!” Donghae yelled, and bounded up to the boy and wrapped his arms around him enthusiastically. Hankyung blinked, in that certain way that he seemed to be doing a lot recently. Kibum screwed his nose up.
“Get off me,” he said, and pushed Donghae away. “You stink of sweat.”
“That’s because we’ve been dancing,” said Donghae happily, and hung himself off the back of Kibum’s shoulders.
“Hello,” said Heechul. “English lesson finished?”
“Yes,” said Kibum in a tone of voice which suggested that he thought the answer should have been obvious. “It’s after five, you know.”
“Really?” Eunhyuk checked his watch, and his eyebrows shot up in shock. “Wow, I guess we really lost track of time.”
Hankyung couldn’t help but notice that Donghae was being incredibly friendly with Kibum, who was putting up with it all with a smile, of all things. Donghae’s hands kept playing with the hair at the base of Kibum’s neck, or his arms were linking with Kibum’s, or sometimes his hand slipped down and tangled with Kibum’s; all the while, he chattered away to the group, and no one else seemed to notice anything.
He coughed lightly when Donghae leant his head close to Kibum’s and whispered something that made the younger boy laugh. Luckily, Heechul was the only one who heard him, because she was walking along beside him, and she caught what his gaze was occupied with.
“You’d be surprised,” she said with a low laugh, “at what’s hidden behind the surface. There are things we could never show at school.”
“Sungmin manages well enough.”
“Sungmin’s an exception. He likes the attention, and it helps to boost his popularity. Kibum’s private, and Donghae’s loud but he’s not stupid, not really. We all have things to hide.”
“Are we the only straight people in this group?” Hankyung asked her in exasperation. She just smiled at him sadly.
*
It had been bugging Hankyung since the moment he had met Kyuhyun. The boy seemed perfectly normal, beyond his relationship with Sungmin; he dressed normally, had normal taste in music (unlike Yehsung and Heechul, who seemed to like rock music which was more screaming than music), he even had normal taste in food. The only thing slightly odd about him was the pin that he had right in the center of his tie. It appeared to be a logo or something, though it certainly wasn’t the school one. It was a gold unicorn, it’s front legs pulled back as if to run, it’s hooves on fire. It was weird and beautiful and Hankyung had no idea what it was.
“Can I ask a question?” He put down his chopsticks and noodles, and pointed to the badge. “What is that?”
Kyuhyun looked down at himself, and then back at Hankyung. “What?” He asked, perplexed.
“The badge pinned to your tie,” said Hankyung. “It’s been bothering me all week. What is it?”
“That’s Kyuhyun’s family’s symbol,” said Sungmin, and leant over and stole a chip from Shindong’s plate.
Hankyung raised his eyebrows. “Your family symbol?”
“Um,” said Kyuhyun. “Yes?”
“What?” Hankyung asked.
“Kyuhyun’s family is the mafia,” said Sungmin, and patted Kyuhyun on the back as he choked on his own spit and spluttered.
“No, we aren’t,” gasped Kyuhyun. “Don’t lie, Sungmin.”
“Okay,” said Sungmin in a placating tone. “Kyuhyun’s family is the closest you can get without actually being the mafia.” Kyuhyun still didn’t look happy with this - he put his head on the table and groaned.
“The mafia,” repeated Hankyung.
“Yeah,” said Sungmin.
“No!” Kyuhyun said. He didn’t look like he liked where the conversation was going. “We aren’t the mafia. We just own a few big businesses in the center of town. My dad is influential. We aren’t the mafia or anything.”
“Now who’s lying?” Shindong asked with a grin.
“I’m not lying!” Kyuhyun said desperately. “We aren’t the mafia.”
“But you have a family symbol,” pointed out Siwon.
“Yes,” said Kyuhyun. “We’re an old family, and we own businesses, and we have a family symbol and we may possibly have connections with the mafia, but we aren’t actually the mafia.”
“Right,” said Hankyung.
“Possibly?” Heechul asked with a smirk. “What, don’t you know?”
“Kyuhyun’s rich,” said Sungmin.
“Sometimes,” said Kyuhyun with a glare in Sungmin’s direction, “I think you’re just using me for money.”
“I have to admit, it does help.” Sungmin turned to Hankyung and grinned. “Kyuhyun’s family doesn’t like me.” Hankyung rather felt that he looked a bit too happy about that information.
“Um,” said Hankyung. “Okay.”
“I’m learning karate though.” Sungmin added. “To prove that I’m not a girly wimp who couldn’t even fight my way out of a plastic bag.”
“I do wish you hadn’t overheard him say that,” said Kyuhyun miserably.
“I’m glad I did,” said Sungmin. “Otherwise I’d still be relying on you to protect me, and he also insinuated that that was never going to happen.” Kyuhyun groaned again.
“Kyuhyun’s dad is a cunning, sly, manipulative bastard,” said Heechul on the way home that day, and ignored the half-hearted protests that Siwon made. “Yes he is,” she told him. “You know he is. He treats Kyuhyun like shit, just because he’s not as strong as his older brother.”
“Kyuhyun’s got an older brother?” Hankyung asked in surprise, unsure what to make of all these discoveries. Siwon looked at him in despair.
“Shouldn’t you be more bothered about the ‘treat like shit’ part?” He asked, and clamped a hand over Heechul’s mouth before she could start again. “Kyuhyun was a sickly child, he was always too ill to train with his brother or father. They call him useless now, but he’s certainly got a lot more brains that most people in the family, if you ask me. I mean, his brother - OW!”
Siwon pulled his hand away - Heechul had bitten him very hard, revenge for him making her shut up. He glared at her balefully, and she ignored him again. “Of course Kyuhyun’s cleverer than anyone else in the family,” she said. “That’s because everyone else are Neanderthals.”
“His father’s quite clever,” said Siwon, ever the voice of reason.
“Yeah, his father’s quite clever,” said Heechul. “Clever at being a cunning, sly, manipulative bastard.”
“So you don’t like him then,” asked Hankyung dryly.
“I don’t like a lot of people,” said Heechul. “There’s a difference - I hate Kyuhyun’s father.”
“Oh,” said Hankyung.
“That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?” Siwon looked worried, as if Kyuhyun’s father was actually following them home. Hankyung found himself glancing around, just in case.
“Harsh?” Heechul laughed loudly. “Remember what he said about Sungmin?”
“Oh,” said Siwon with a grimace. “I see your point.”
“What did he say?”
“What Sungmin related today was the nice parts watered down.” Heechul told him. “He also said that he didn’t mind Kyuhyun having a pet, but he could at least have picked a good looking one, and that Sungmin didn’t even look like he was a decent fuck. And did I mention that Sungmin was in the room at this point in time?”
“Ow,” said Hankyung, and winced. “He sounds like a nice man, I should like to meet him one day.”
“You’re becoming as sarcastic as me,” said Heechul. “Stop it, I don’t like it.”
“But you forgot what happened next,” pointed Siwon.
“That’s because it makes me feel sick,” said Heechul.
“Kyuhyun told his father to leave Sungmin alone, that he loved Sungmin and that he couldn’t do anything about it, and that he wasn’t just using him for sex like he’d used his mother. And apparently he’d then stormed out of the room, pulling Sungmin with him, and spent the rest of the week at Sungmin’s house before he could work up the courage to return home without apologising.”
“And Sungmin came in the next day and told us all with hearts in his eyes,” said Heechul. “And I may possibly have thrown up.”
“Rella doesn’t like romance,” said Siwon.
“But you like Disney!” Hankyung protested. “Cinderella is the most romantic love story in the world, and you named yourself after her!”
“Yes, but that’s not real,” said Heechul. “Romance is all well and good in fairy tales and stuff like that, but it doesn’t work in real life. It’s kind of creepy, actually. How does Kyuhyun know that Sungmin isn’t just using him for money? And how does Sungmin know that Kyuhyun doesn’t say the exact same thing with every pretty boy he brings home?”
“You’re incredibly cynical, you know that?” Hankyung said.
“Oh, Princess!” Siwon burst out, and opened his arms to Heechul in a melodramatic manner. “Why won’t thou accept this heart of mine? Oh love! I burn, I pine, I perish!”
Heechul turned her nose up. “T’is because,” she said, “you, dear Prince, have a face like the wrong end of a raccoon.” And she ran off yelling as Siwon dropped his school bag and started chasing her. Hankyung picked it up and followed, laughing harder than he had in a long time. Sometimes, he thought it was almost acceptable to be part of this group.
Chapter: 4/25
Fandom: Super Junior AU (High School)
Pairing: Hankyung/crossdressing!Heechul (main), Kangin/Eeteuk, Kibum/Donghae, Yehsung/Ryeowook, Kyuhyun/Sungmin, bestfriends!Eunhae.
Word count: 2,876
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Coming into a strange new world can be strange enough. Unfortunately, someone’s forgotten to tell Hankyung something Very Important.
A/N: This is going to be long. Because I'm up to chapter 7, nowhere near half way through, and it's hit 20,000 words. This isn't going to stop with Hankyung finding out - it's going to take their relationship much further past that, until the end of the school year.
Also, just to clarify, everyone in the school knows that Heechul is a boy, hence the bullying. It is sheer good luck that Hankyung doesn't overhear someone calling him a boy, if you ask me.
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5
“Do you fancy explaining what that was about?” Hankyung asked Heechul as they were walking down the stairs. Heechul sighed and tried to avoid his eyes.
“I don’t know,” she muttered. “The interrogation was nothing new, but that’s the first time they’ve suggested anything like that.” She waved at Donghae, who bounded over to them with Eunhyuk. “I guess it’s just their newest method in their attempt at ‘breaking’ me.”
“What is?” Donghae asked, his brow crinkling in confusion.
“The girls in our class implied that the only reason you’re friends with Heechul is because you’re sleeping with her.” Hankyung explained, although Heechul pinched him the side, as if to say that he wasn’t supposed to say anything.
“More than implied,” she muttered under her breath.
Eunhyuk groaned and frowned. “The girls in my class were saying something similar last week,” he said. “They thought I couldn’t hear them, of course. I didn’t say anything because I thought it would just blow over.”
“It’s fine,” said Heechul, waving it away with a hand. “It’s fine, I’m used to it. I can deal with it. It’ll blow over soon anyway.”
“Are you sure?” Donghae asked, concern written all over his face.
“Yeah,” said Heechul, and then pointed at him. “Don’t tell Siwon,” she said sternly. “You too, Hankyung. If he finds out, he’s likely to do something stupid like confront them and then he’ll end up involved in it.”
For Hankyung, the uncharacteristic silence of Heechul in the classroom suddenly seemed to make sense. When she’s silent, he thought, she doesn’t stand out, and when she doesn’t stand out, they don’t notice her. And when they don’t notice her, they don’t say anything. And in a roundabout way, it means that the rest of the group don’t get involved. And she can protect them.
“Anyway,” she went on. “Are we still able to sit in on your dance practice? You never know, it might put their noses even more out of joint.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Shindong from behind them, “but it sounds fun.”
It did sound fun, though Hankyung, and it was fun, as Heechul swanned into the dance studio like she was made to be there, as Donghae and Eunhyuk explained that it was off-limits to anyone who wasn’t in the club. This appeared to be everyone besides Donghae, Eunhyuk and Shindong, and was pointed out by more than one of the girls.
“Why’s she there then?” One of them spat. “She’s not part of the group.” It was perhaps telling that they didn’t mention Hankyung. Maybe they thought he was part of the club, he thought with a wry grin.
“Heechul is an exception,” said Donghae. “She’s our friend.”
“You shouldn’t play favourites,” shouted one girl.
“And you shouldn’t spread rumours,” said Heechul pleasantly, popping her head around the door and smiling nicely. “But people don’t stop doing it, do they?” Hankyung noticed then that Fan Club Leader was in the midst of the crowd, and the pointed comment had obviously hit home, judging by the ugly scowl on her face. “Are we going to do this?” Heechul asked with a sigh. “I can’t be bothered with the fan girls today.”
“Right,” said Eunhyuk, and ushered Hankyung quickly through into the room and shut the door. The studio appeared to be sound proofed, because he could no longer hear anything coming from outside, and could only see mouths moving through the windows. It made for a rather disturbing picture. Shindong drew the blinds, helped by Heechul, who seemed to be taking great pleasure in doing it - perhaps she saw it as a form of revenge for earlier.
“Hankyung, come sit down!” Heechul called, and patted the plastic chair next to her. Hankyung took it, a little apprehensive. Something like you’ve never seen before she had promised, but he’d seen things he’d never seen before over the past week and some of those things he hadn’t want to see anyway.
“Right,” said Eunhyuk. “Let’s do this.” Donghae switched the music on.
Hankyung had never really seen dancing before. The few snatches of shows that he’d seen on television before his dad had changed the channel, the routines from music videos or live performances of songs in the charts: they hadn’t been clear, not enough to truly see what dancing could be. Still, it had fascinated him. The flexing; the twisting and bending; the sheer amount of movement; the impeccable timing: how long did it take to get it like that? he’d wondered when he’d seen the Chinese dancers which had come with the circus. He had had to be dragged away. It was beautiful and unique and wonderful, and this was no different. He sat enthralled, and didn’t even notice Heechul watching him.
“Okay!” Eunhyuk called after half an hour of non-stop motion - the CD would merely move onto the next track and the three dancers would jump straight into another routine. He switched the music off, and Donghae and Shindong collapsed onto the floor, mock-gasping for breath. Heechul laughed as she handed them bottles of water, and motioned for Hankyung to get them towels.
“It’s like you’re their manager,” he said with a grin as he did so. She just flashed him a mysterious smile.
“That was good,” she said to Eunhyuk as she gave him a bottle. He’d sat down on one of the chairs and practically ripped the top off the bottle in his attempt at opening it. “Was that last one the new routine?”
“Yeah,” said Eunhyuk with a grin. “All those weeks of talking about it and you finally get to see it. What did you think?”
“I liked it,” she said vaguely. Hankyung thought that it was lukewarm praise for something that he thought had been brilliant, but Eunhyuk beamed as though it was word from God, and Hankyung realised that it must have been High Praise Indeed coming from Heechul.
“The hip thrusts were my idea,” said Donghae cheerfully. Heechul laughed.
“Makes sense,” she said. “I should have guessed, they had Donghae written all over them.”
“What did you think?” Shindong asked Hankyung, who thought for a second before he answered.
“I thought it was fantastic,” he said simply, because he couldn’t think of anything to sum up how he felt about it. “That last one looked really complicated, though.”
Eunhyuk shook his head. “Nah,” he said with a sly grin. “Heechul could probably do it.” Heechul hit him quite hard on the shoulder. “Okay, you could probably do it,” he told Hankyung, rubbing the sore spot.
Hankyung stood up slowly. “Was it something like this?” And he tried his best impression of what he could remember of the dance to the chorus, fluffing up the hand movements leading up to the hip thrust, but managing that bit quite well without blushing too much. Everyone stared at him, Heechul in particular. He felt himself turning very red. “Sorry,” he said, “I can’t really dance.” He sat down quickly.
“Here,” said Eunhyuk slowly, and motioned for him to get up. “Follow everything that I do.” He launched into a slow version of the last routine, pumping his hands down before bringing them up to his chest and doing a funny movement with them that Hankyung tried to follow. This continued for a while, until Hankyung knew the movements up until the singing started and he found that he was enjoying himself. He went through it once with the music and finished laughing.
“Wow,” said Heechul quietly.
“You’re really good, you know.” Donghae told him, still rubbing the towel across his face. Hankyung looked at him incredulously.
“Don’t lie,” he said quietly, with a faint hint of humour in his voice as if he accepted the joke. Donghae widened his eyes at him.
“Donghae doesn’t lie,” said Heechul, touching him lightly on the shoulder.
“Ah!” Donghae yelled. “So it was that you were saying I had a wooden head when you called me Pinocchio!”
“I thought we’d already established that,” said a voice, and they turned to see that Kibum was standing in the doorway, grinning at them.
“Kibummie!” Donghae yelled, and bounded up to the boy and wrapped his arms around him enthusiastically. Hankyung blinked, in that certain way that he seemed to be doing a lot recently. Kibum screwed his nose up.
“Get off me,” he said, and pushed Donghae away. “You stink of sweat.”
“That’s because we’ve been dancing,” said Donghae happily, and hung himself off the back of Kibum’s shoulders.
“Hello,” said Heechul. “English lesson finished?”
“Yes,” said Kibum in a tone of voice which suggested that he thought the answer should have been obvious. “It’s after five, you know.”
“Really?” Eunhyuk checked his watch, and his eyebrows shot up in shock. “Wow, I guess we really lost track of time.”
Hankyung couldn’t help but notice that Donghae was being incredibly friendly with Kibum, who was putting up with it all with a smile, of all things. Donghae’s hands kept playing with the hair at the base of Kibum’s neck, or his arms were linking with Kibum’s, or sometimes his hand slipped down and tangled with Kibum’s; all the while, he chattered away to the group, and no one else seemed to notice anything.
He coughed lightly when Donghae leant his head close to Kibum’s and whispered something that made the younger boy laugh. Luckily, Heechul was the only one who heard him, because she was walking along beside him, and she caught what his gaze was occupied with.
“You’d be surprised,” she said with a low laugh, “at what’s hidden behind the surface. There are things we could never show at school.”
“Sungmin manages well enough.”
“Sungmin’s an exception. He likes the attention, and it helps to boost his popularity. Kibum’s private, and Donghae’s loud but he’s not stupid, not really. We all have things to hide.”
“Are we the only straight people in this group?” Hankyung asked her in exasperation. She just smiled at him sadly.
*
It had been bugging Hankyung since the moment he had met Kyuhyun. The boy seemed perfectly normal, beyond his relationship with Sungmin; he dressed normally, had normal taste in music (unlike Yehsung and Heechul, who seemed to like rock music which was more screaming than music), he even had normal taste in food. The only thing slightly odd about him was the pin that he had right in the center of his tie. It appeared to be a logo or something, though it certainly wasn’t the school one. It was a gold unicorn, it’s front legs pulled back as if to run, it’s hooves on fire. It was weird and beautiful and Hankyung had no idea what it was.
“Can I ask a question?” He put down his chopsticks and noodles, and pointed to the badge. “What is that?”
Kyuhyun looked down at himself, and then back at Hankyung. “What?” He asked, perplexed.
“The badge pinned to your tie,” said Hankyung. “It’s been bothering me all week. What is it?”
“That’s Kyuhyun’s family’s symbol,” said Sungmin, and leant over and stole a chip from Shindong’s plate.
Hankyung raised his eyebrows. “Your family symbol?”
“Um,” said Kyuhyun. “Yes?”
“What?” Hankyung asked.
“Kyuhyun’s family is the mafia,” said Sungmin, and patted Kyuhyun on the back as he choked on his own spit and spluttered.
“No, we aren’t,” gasped Kyuhyun. “Don’t lie, Sungmin.”
“Okay,” said Sungmin in a placating tone. “Kyuhyun’s family is the closest you can get without actually being the mafia.” Kyuhyun still didn’t look happy with this - he put his head on the table and groaned.
“The mafia,” repeated Hankyung.
“Yeah,” said Sungmin.
“No!” Kyuhyun said. He didn’t look like he liked where the conversation was going. “We aren’t the mafia. We just own a few big businesses in the center of town. My dad is influential. We aren’t the mafia or anything.”
“Now who’s lying?” Shindong asked with a grin.
“I’m not lying!” Kyuhyun said desperately. “We aren’t the mafia.”
“But you have a family symbol,” pointed out Siwon.
“Yes,” said Kyuhyun. “We’re an old family, and we own businesses, and we have a family symbol and we may possibly have connections with the mafia, but we aren’t actually the mafia.”
“Right,” said Hankyung.
“Possibly?” Heechul asked with a smirk. “What, don’t you know?”
“Kyuhyun’s rich,” said Sungmin.
“Sometimes,” said Kyuhyun with a glare in Sungmin’s direction, “I think you’re just using me for money.”
“I have to admit, it does help.” Sungmin turned to Hankyung and grinned. “Kyuhyun’s family doesn’t like me.” Hankyung rather felt that he looked a bit too happy about that information.
“Um,” said Hankyung. “Okay.”
“I’m learning karate though.” Sungmin added. “To prove that I’m not a girly wimp who couldn’t even fight my way out of a plastic bag.”
“I do wish you hadn’t overheard him say that,” said Kyuhyun miserably.
“I’m glad I did,” said Sungmin. “Otherwise I’d still be relying on you to protect me, and he also insinuated that that was never going to happen.” Kyuhyun groaned again.
“Kyuhyun’s dad is a cunning, sly, manipulative bastard,” said Heechul on the way home that day, and ignored the half-hearted protests that Siwon made. “Yes he is,” she told him. “You know he is. He treats Kyuhyun like shit, just because he’s not as strong as his older brother.”
“Kyuhyun’s got an older brother?” Hankyung asked in surprise, unsure what to make of all these discoveries. Siwon looked at him in despair.
“Shouldn’t you be more bothered about the ‘treat like shit’ part?” He asked, and clamped a hand over Heechul’s mouth before she could start again. “Kyuhyun was a sickly child, he was always too ill to train with his brother or father. They call him useless now, but he’s certainly got a lot more brains that most people in the family, if you ask me. I mean, his brother - OW!”
Siwon pulled his hand away - Heechul had bitten him very hard, revenge for him making her shut up. He glared at her balefully, and she ignored him again. “Of course Kyuhyun’s cleverer than anyone else in the family,” she said. “That’s because everyone else are Neanderthals.”
“His father’s quite clever,” said Siwon, ever the voice of reason.
“Yeah, his father’s quite clever,” said Heechul. “Clever at being a cunning, sly, manipulative bastard.”
“So you don’t like him then,” asked Hankyung dryly.
“I don’t like a lot of people,” said Heechul. “There’s a difference - I hate Kyuhyun’s father.”
“Oh,” said Hankyung.
“That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?” Siwon looked worried, as if Kyuhyun’s father was actually following them home. Hankyung found himself glancing around, just in case.
“Harsh?” Heechul laughed loudly. “Remember what he said about Sungmin?”
“Oh,” said Siwon with a grimace. “I see your point.”
“What did he say?”
“What Sungmin related today was the nice parts watered down.” Heechul told him. “He also said that he didn’t mind Kyuhyun having a pet, but he could at least have picked a good looking one, and that Sungmin didn’t even look like he was a decent fuck. And did I mention that Sungmin was in the room at this point in time?”
“Ow,” said Hankyung, and winced. “He sounds like a nice man, I should like to meet him one day.”
“You’re becoming as sarcastic as me,” said Heechul. “Stop it, I don’t like it.”
“But you forgot what happened next,” pointed Siwon.
“That’s because it makes me feel sick,” said Heechul.
“Kyuhyun told his father to leave Sungmin alone, that he loved Sungmin and that he couldn’t do anything about it, and that he wasn’t just using him for sex like he’d used his mother. And apparently he’d then stormed out of the room, pulling Sungmin with him, and spent the rest of the week at Sungmin’s house before he could work up the courage to return home without apologising.”
“And Sungmin came in the next day and told us all with hearts in his eyes,” said Heechul. “And I may possibly have thrown up.”
“Rella doesn’t like romance,” said Siwon.
“But you like Disney!” Hankyung protested. “Cinderella is the most romantic love story in the world, and you named yourself after her!”
“Yes, but that’s not real,” said Heechul. “Romance is all well and good in fairy tales and stuff like that, but it doesn’t work in real life. It’s kind of creepy, actually. How does Kyuhyun know that Sungmin isn’t just using him for money? And how does Sungmin know that Kyuhyun doesn’t say the exact same thing with every pretty boy he brings home?”
“You’re incredibly cynical, you know that?” Hankyung said.
“Oh, Princess!” Siwon burst out, and opened his arms to Heechul in a melodramatic manner. “Why won’t thou accept this heart of mine? Oh love! I burn, I pine, I perish!”
Heechul turned her nose up. “T’is because,” she said, “you, dear Prince, have a face like the wrong end of a raccoon.” And she ran off yelling as Siwon dropped his school bag and started chasing her. Hankyung picked it up and followed, laughing harder than he had in a long time. Sometimes, he thought it was almost acceptable to be part of this group.