Super Junior AU; Hanchul; The Best Days of Our Lives
Title: The Best Days of Our Lives
Chapter: 18/25
Fandom: Super Junior AU (High School)
Pairing: Hankyung/crossdressing!Heechul (main), Kangin/Eeteuk, Kibum/Donghae, Yehsung/Ryeowook, Kyuhyun/Sungmin, bestfriends!Eunhae.
Word count: 4,436
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 a very long chapter O_o I couldn't split it into two, because there wasn't enough for two, and I didn't want to add any thing else in, because I wanted it to be purely a Kyumin chapter. But writing this killed me. Sungmin, what you do to me ;___;
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9 / Chapter 10 / Chapter 11 / Chapter 12 / Chapter 13 / Chapter 14 / Chapter 15 / Chapter 16 / Chapter 17 / Chapter 18 / Chapter 19
“I did it last night,” said Sungmin with a casual shrug, as the rest of the group (minus Kyuhyun, who hadn’t come in to school that day) held him hostage until he told them what he thought he was doing. “I just didn’t think it was fair to keep stringing him along.”
“What do you mean, stringing him along?” Eeteuk asked cautiously, as Hankyung kept a restraining hand on Heechul’s shoulder (he seemed to think that beating Sungmin would get the answer out of him), and Yehsung did the same to Ryeowook, who was firmly on the side of Kyuhyun without even knowing the story.
“I guess I just don’t like him anymore,” said Sungmin, and folded his arms. He sounded completely bored. “Lately, it’s been like every time he touched me, it was like a snake sliding all over me.”
“You’re a good liar, I’ll give you that,” said Siwon quietly.
“I’m not lying,” said Sungmin, annoyed. “I really, really don’t want to be in a relationship with him any more.”
“But you love Kyuhyun,” said Donghae in a confused voice. “You’ve loved Kyuhyun for years.”
“Not any more,” said Sungmin, and looked resolutely out of the window.
“What did Kyuhyun say?” Ryeowook asked, a disgusted expression on his face.
“He didn’t say anything,” said Sungmin. “He hung up on me.”
“You did it over the phone?” Even Shindong looked sickened by that. “That’s really low, Sungmin.”
“Yeah,” said Kangin. “I mean, you’d been going out for two years, you could have at least done it face to face.”
“I don’t have explain myself to you,” said Sungmin angrily, and he stood up. “I can do whatever I want.” He stormed out and slammed the door hard behind him. Those left behind exchanged glances.
“He’s lying,” said Shindong, flatly.
“Of course he’s lying,” snapped Heechul. “He’s been gushing over Kyuhyun for years, and all of a sudden he’s like a ‘snake’. It makes no sense whatsoever.”
“Why would he lie about it, though?” Kangin looked thoughtful, and even Donghae looked serious.
“His father,” said Eunhyuk suddenly. “Remember? That day we walked home together. Kyuhyun said that he thought his father was going to use Sungmin to hurt Kyuhyun.”
“We never did find out what happened at that meeting,” said Yehsung quietly.
“Sungmin told me that he didn’t want to talk about it,” said Shindong, “and Kyuhyun looked so angry that I didn’t dare ask him about it.”
“Sungmin’s always known that Kyuhyun’s family didn’t like him,” said Ryeowook. “Why would it suddenly be a problem now?”
“So all we know,” said Eeteuk, with a sigh, “is that Sungmin’s dumped Kyuhyun, won’t tell us why, and he’s lying about it, but we also don’t know why that is.”
“The real question is,” said Hankyung softly, “does Kyuhyun know that Sungmin’s lying?”
Kyuhyun, it turned out, hadn’t realised that Sungmin was lying, and didn’t quite believe them when they told him that he was. The telephone conversation that Sungmin had mentioned had been, according to Kyuhyun, a lot longer than Sungmin had implied.
“I only hung up,” he said, when he came into school the next day, “after around ten minutes of him listing every single one of my faults.”
“What did he say?” Eeteuk asked kindly, as Heechul looked over the top of the glasses he’d managed to find somewhere. He was clutching a notepad, and had seemed to decide to treat the whole thing like a conspiracy. He claimed the notepad was for actual notes. From where Hankyung was sitting, all he could see was the beginning of a fairy story and a scribbled caricature of Siwon.
“That I was crap in bed,” said Kyuhyun, and began marking off on his fingers. “That I can’t kiss right; that touching me was like touching a stone statue, I’m so cold and frigid; that I make him shudder whenever I get near to him; that he can’t believe that I come from the family that I do, because I haven’t got a backbone to speak of; that he’s sick of having to protect me.” He stopped, gripped his knees with his hands, leant forward slightly and shrugged. “Things like that.”
Eeteuk placed a hand on Kyuhyun’s back, and Kyuhyun’s shoulders began to shake, though his eyes were dry when he glanced up at Eeteuk. “I’m not bothered about that stuff,” he said, and his voice shook only a little. “It’s just that he despises me and I don’t know why.”
“He doesn’t despise you,” said Heechul, with a throw-away gesture of the hand.
“Yes, he does,” said Kyuhyun forcefully. “You didn’t hear him. Everything he said - it was full of hatred. He really, really hated me at that moment, and I have no idea why. I want to talk to him about it, just to see what I did that was wrong, but he won’t answer my calls.”
“He’s lying, Kyuhyun,” said Ryeowook. “He’s lying through his back teeth.”
Kyuhyun looked at him, confused. “What do you mean?”
“That boy is so in love with you that it’s sickening,” said Heechul. “I refuse to believe that all of a sudden he hates you.”
“We think your father might have something to do with this,” said Eeteuk. “You never told us what happened at the associates meeting a couple of weeks ago.”
“We had an argument,” said Kyuhyun quietly, flexing his fingers. “I caught some guy trying to grope him in the corridor, and I punched him. It didn’t do much damage, but it succeeded in pissing Sungmin off. He said that he’d been handling the situation; it didn’t look like it to me. To me, it looked like he’d been putting up with it, but when I said this, he said something weird about thinking about my own position more. And then my father lay into me about it, with Sungmin in the room, and I think that scared him a little bit.”
“He flinches whenever your father is brought up,” said Shindong. “It’s got to be something about him that’s making him like this.”
“Maybe he just doesn’t like me anymore,” said Kyuhyun and stood up and stretched. “Maybe it’s just like he said. Maybe we just aren’t right for each other.”
“I’m going to slap you in a minute,” said Heechul.
“I love him,” said Kyuhyun, and sat back down. “I love him. I really, really do, and I don’t understand anything anymore.”
“Don’t worry,” said Ryeowook, putting a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll sort this out.”
The door to the dance studio slid open, and Sungmin took a step into the room, before he stopped, realising who was already in there. “Oh,” he said, and ignored everyone except Eeteuk. “I was looking for Eunhyuk,” he said. “Do you know where he is?”
“No,” said Eeteuk evenly.
“Sungmin,” said Kyuhyun, and stood up and reached out and took hold of Sungmin’s arm. “Sungmin, can I talk to you for a minute?”
“Let go of me,” said Sungmin, without looking at him and Hankyung was shocked at how cold his voice was. Kyuhyun flinched.
“Please,” he said.
Sungmin glared at him. “Let go of me,” he repeated. “I don’t want to talk to you.”
Kyuhyun let go; a haunted expression took over his face and he slipped back into his seat. “Hey,” said Ryeowook sharply, “there’s not need to talk to him like that.”
Sungmin shrugged. “I can do what I want,” he said, and he was so calm and detached that Hankyung had a hard time believing that this was actually Sungmin. “He disgusts me anyway.”
Kyuhyun jerked back as if Sungmin had physically hit him. The shock on his face was visible, as was it on everyone else’s. This was certainly not the Sungmin that they knew - he was cold, distant; he seemed to have built a wall around him, and as he walked back out of the room, Heechul stood up and announced that he had a younger brother to go beat up, and also left before anyone else could stop him.
“Hankyung, go after Heechul,” said Eeteuk, in a despairing tone, looking as though he didn’t think he needed to be dealing with this sort of stuff this early on a Wednesday morning. “Make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.”
“That’s easier said than done,” said Hankyung, but followed the order anyway.
Heechul had pulled Sungmin into a spare classroom; Hankyung followed the sound of angry raised voices to find them. Sungmin was yelling when Hankyung walked in, and Heechul was stood in the center of the room, hands on his hips.
“I don’t have to explain myself,” Sungmin was saying. “What I do is my own business!”
“It’s not your own business when it affects the entire group,” said Heechul heatedly. “What, you think Kyuhyun and Ryeowook are just going to take this lying down?”
“They have to,” said Sungmin. “I’ve made my decision.”
“Why are you lying?” Heechul yelled, and slammed his hands onto the table in front of him. “Why are you telling us that you don’t love Kyuhyun anymore?”
“Because I don’t,” said Sungmin, but he avoided their eyes and instead starting fiddling with his hands, threading his fingers together and twisting them. “I don’t,” he whispered, and Hankyung realised that he was trying to convince himself of this. “I can’t love him,” said Sungmin, louder now, and glared at Heechul.
“You don’t understand,” he said in an angry tone of voice. “I have to do this. It’s for Kyuhyun’s own good.”
“Well, that just doesn’t make any sense,” said Heechul. “Breaking his heart is for his own good?”
“Yes,” said Sungmin, and he slumped down into the nearest seat and covered his face with his eyes. “I have to - you don’t understand.”
“No,” said Heechul, “I don’t understand,” and he left the room, pulling Hankyung behind him.
*
By Saturday, the situation had not been resolved. There had been an explosive incident in the middle of the corridor, according to eye-witnesses (none of the second or third years had been there), and Ryeowook had yelled and screamed at a passive Sungmin, while Kyuhyun stood quietly in the background. The break-up sent shockwaves throughout the school, as no one could quite believe it and a few people were denying quite fervently that it was true and that it was just an elaborate ruse by Sungmin. Sungmin stopped eating with them; Kyuhyun stopped eating. “I need him,” he’d told Eeteuk, and Hankyung saw that he did; he needed Sungmin there just to do anything. Sungmin, on the other hand, seemed to be getting on fine. He flirted with the girls - he flirted with the boys in his class, and seemed to completely ignore Kyuhyun’s existence.
By Saturday, Heechul was already sick of it.
“Come on,” he said, when Hankyung met him at the bus stop in the town center for what had supposed to be a date. He handed him another ticket. “We’re going to talk some sense into Sungmin.”
“We are?” This wasn’t exactly how Hankyung had thought he was going to spend his Saturday, but if Heechul said they were going to do it, then they were probably going to do it.
Sungmin’s house was about the same size as Hankyung’s own. It was neither large nor small, but a middle size, with a fairly large garden in the front, and probably one in the back, though Hankyung never found out. A pink bike with stabilizers stood in front of the garage, probably Jaymin’s. Heechul opened the gate and walked up to the front door, painted blue, and knocked confidently, while Hankyung hovered nervously in the background.
“Oh, hello, Heechul,” said Sungmin’s mother, a short woman who looked remarkably like Sungmin. She smoothed down her hands, which were coated quite liberally with flour, on the front of the apron she was wearing, and smiled at them. “Are you here to see Sungmin?”
“Yes,” said Heechul politely, as Hankyung nodded behind him. “Is he in?”
“He’s in his room,” said Sungmin’s mother, and motioned for them to come in. She rolled her eyes. “I think he’s sulking about something.”
“I think I know what it might be,” said Heechul.
“Oh good,” said Sungmin’s mother, and winked at them. “I’ve got enough on my hands with Jaymin without having to put up with Sungmin acting like a child.”
“Mama,” said Jaymin, coming into the hall, wearing a miniature version of her mother’s apron, flour on her face and in her hair and just about everywhere else apart from on the apron. “Mama, the oven is making a funny noise.”
“Oh no,” said Sungmin’s mother, and rushed off into the kitchen. Jaymin smiled at them widely, and hugged them both around the legs.
“Unni,” she said, pulling on the hem of Heechul’s skirt. “Unni, why is Oppa crying in his room?”
Hankyung and Heechul exchanged looks. “I don’t know,” said Heechul, crouching down. “When was he crying?”
“When I went to the toilet before,” said Jaymin matter-of-factly. “I peeped in to see if he wanted any of the cookies we’re making, and he was lying on his bed and crying. I thought he might have hurt himself, because I cry when I fall over, because I cut my knee or scrape my hands, but he yelled at me.” Her bottom lip wobbled. “I don’t like it when Oppa yells at me,” she said in an upset tone.
“Don’t worry,” said Heechul, patting her on the head. “Unni will go yell at Oppa for you and see how he likes it.” Jaymin giggled behind her hand, in that way that Sungmin did when he knew that he wasn’t really supposed to be laughing, and nodded her head, sending flour everywhere.
“I can forgive him anything,” said Heechul, as they climbed the stairs, Jaymin returned to her mother with a star shaped cookie cutter, “but taking it out on Jaymin. She’s only five; she doesn’t understand that it’s not her that he’s angry at.”
“He must be really upset to yell at Jaymin,” noted Hankyung, who felt that he would have to have been told his entire family had been killed and his house destroyed in a fire caused by Heechul before he was angry enough to say a cross word to Jaymin.
Sungmin did make for a pathetic sight, Hankyung had to admit, as he lay on his back on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He jumped as Heechul opened the door.
“What are you doing here?” He asked sharply, rubbing at his red eyes. “Who let you in?”
“Your mother did,” said Heechul. “She also gave me permission to do this,” and he walked straight up to Sungmin and slapped him hard.
“Ow!” Sungmin yelped, holding his now red cheek. “What did you do that for?”
“Get the fuck over yourself,” said Heechul, and Hankyung discreetly shut the door. “All this talk of how we don’t understand and how it’s for Kyuhyun’s benefit, but you don’t actually tell us how or explain anything at all to Kyuhyun. I don’t think you know yourself. I think you’re just running from something, and I’m going to find out what it is.”
“Leave it alone,” said Sungmin loudly. “Just forget about it!”
“I can’t forget about it,” said Heechul, just as loudly. “Not when Kyuhyun’s walking around looked like someone just simultaneously punched him in the stomach and told him that his first born child was dead. It’s pitiful.”
“Leave me alone,” said Sungmin.
“I want you to explain to me why exactly you’re doing this,” said Heechul, and he stood in front of the bed and folded his arms and glared at Sungmin. Hankyung knew that this probably wasn’t the right time to be thinking this, but Heechul could be really hot when he was being forceful. He vaguely recalled Kyuhyun saying the same thing about Sungmin, and wondered if this really was a disease. “After that I’m going to decide what happens next.”
Sungmin told them the entire story, from start to finish, his voice catching at various points, and after a while Heechul sat down on the bed with him and wrapped his arm around Sungmin’s shoulder and prompted him to go on. Hankyung leant against the wall, offering his thoughts if he felt they were needed, but mostly he was silent, and let Sungmin talk and talk until he couldn’t any longer; he talked until everything was out and when he finished Heechul nodded and stood up.
“Come on then,” he said, and made a motion with his hands.
“Where are we going?” Sungmin asked, as Heechul pulled a coat from his wardrobe, and then a pair of trainers.
“We’re going to see Kyuhyun,” said Heechul, holding out the coat for Sungmin to put on, “and you’re going to tell him exactly what you told me.”
“No I’m not!” Sungmin looked terrified at the very thought. “I’ve said some horrible things to him, I can’t just tell him all that and expect him to just forgive me.”
“This isn’t about forgiveness,” said Heechul, and forced him to put the coat on. “This is about giving Kyuhyun a reason for why you said it.”
Kyuhyun’s house turned out to be just as big as Eunhyuk had made it out to be; it had high gates around the entire estate, and that just proved to Hankyung that Kyuhyun really did live in a different world to himself. Hankyung didn’t even have a foot high wall around his garden. There was an intercom system that they had to get past, and Hankyung was slightly worried about that, because no one inside the house was going to know who they are and if they can’t even manage to get into the house, there’s no way they’re going to be able to carry out whatever plan Heechul came up with during the bus journey.
Sungmin solved the problem by stepping confidently up to the machine and pressing a button. A crackling voice demanded to know who they were, official-sounding and rather scary for Hankyung, who was intimidated by the sheer size of the house anyway - there wasn’t anything like that in the country, that was for sure.
“It’s Sungmin,” said Sungmin. “I’m here to see Kyuhyun,” and his voice only shook a little.
“Sungmin-shi!” For all Sungmin claimed that Kyuhyun’s family didn’t like him, the guy on the other end of the intercom certainly sounded pleased to see him. “Of course, come in.”
The gates opened with a grinding noise, and an older man came out of the door and rushed down to meet them, and judging by the way he greeted Sungmin, he knew exactly who he was and that wasn’t a bad thing.
“It’s so good to see you again, Sungmin-shi,” he said. “Master Cho will be happy for the surprise visit, he’s in his rooms.” He led them up to the front door and into a huge grand entrance, with a chandelier hanging from the four storey ceiling, and a marble staircase winding its way up to the first floor. Hankyung stopped for a second; Heechul gasped slightly; Sungmin looked unimpressed, which probably made sense considering he’d seen it all before, and instead followed the man up the staircase and along a corridor. “I do hope you can cheer him up,” continued the man. “He’s been so upset lately, and he won’t tell anyone why.”
“I hope I can,” said Sungmin. “Would you mind if I make my own way there? I don’t think I’ll get lost.” The man nodded, seemed to melt away into the walls, and the three walked in silence for a couple of minutes, through winding corridors and past what seemed like hundreds of doors.
“I’m glad you know where you’re going,” said Heechul after a while. “I’m completely lost.”
“I partly just wanted to get rid of Soo-young,” admitted Sungmin. “I do know where I’m going, but he was just so happy to see me that I couldn’t handle it.”
“This is really affecting you, isn’t it?” Heechul looked at Sungmin coolly, and Hankyung thought that maybe Heechul was trying to keep that feeling of guilt in Sungmin, just so he would confess when he needed to.
“Of course it is,” said Sungmin, in a tone of anguish. “Did you hear him? Kyuhyun hasn’t even told anyone about it. He’s just sitting there, in pain, and I’ve done that. That’s my fault.”
He stopped suddenly, and Hankyung ran into the back of Heechul, who glared at him. The door in front of them was brown and plain, apart from a sign proclaiming it to be Kyuhyun’s room. It would have looked like the door to any other teenage bedroom in the world, apart from the bell on the outside. Sungmin raised a hand to ring it, his fingers trembling, but he couldn’t actually bring himself to do it, and he lowered his hand and looked at them desperately.
“Make it right,” said Heechul, and rang the bell for him.
There was pause, and then they heard Kyuhyun shout, “Go away! I don’t want to talk to anyone.”
“It’s me,” said Sungmin, and although his voice wasn’t particularly strong, he made up for it by stepping close the door. “It’s me, Kyuhyun.”
There was another pause, and then the door opened slowly, to reveal Kyuhyun, dark rings around his eyes, dressed in an old pair of jeans, judging by the rips at the knees, and a rumpled white t-shirt. He did not appear to have brushed his hair, and it looked as though he hadn’t slept either, tossing and turning all night. “Oh,” he said, and while his voice sounded disinterested, his eyes seemed to have something akin to hope in them. “You can come in, if you want.”
Sungmin hesitated - Heechul shoved him on the back and forced him inside the room. “I’m coming in too,” he said, and stepped inside, pulling Hankyung in by the hand. “I have to make sure that he tells the truth.”
There was an awkward silence as they sat in the main part of Kyuhyun’s rooms - a room about the size of Hankyung’s main room at home, with a series of soft chairs and a large television screen on the wall. Heechul pulled Hankyung down onto a sofa with him; Sungmin sat on the edge of a seat, nervously and clutching at his knees. Kyuhyun sat on the arm of a chair, rubbing one of his bare feet over the other and fiddling with his fingers. “Come on,” said Heechul, and reached over and prodded Sungmin in the arm. “Get on with it.”
“I don’t know where to start,” said Sungmin desperately.
“Sungmin wants to tell you that he lied,” said Hankyung, feeling that he should help them to get a firm place to start on.
“What?” Kyuhyun frowned at them confusedly.
“I lied,” said Sungmin, and he seemed to shrink back into the chair. “I lied about everything; I don’t want to break up with you.”
Kyuhyun raised his eyebrows at him. He seemed determined to not show any sort of weakness in front of Sungmin, and he seemed almost as cold as Sungmin had been over the past few days. “Why did you then?” He asked, in a calm voice, and Sungmin closed his eyes for a second and when he opened them again they seemed to reflect the light in a way which suggested unshed tears.
“It was your father,” he said. “He said so many things - he told me so many things until my head was spinning and I couldn’t think straight any more, and then you were there and you were telling things too, different things, and I couldn’t take it anymore. He told me so many lies, and told me that they weren’t lies, until everything blurred. I couldn’t tell what truth was anymore.”
“I told you not to believe anything my father said,” said Kyuhyun, and looked at his hands.
“You don’t understand,” said Sungmin. “He was telling me things about arranged marriages and play things and blind dates, and it all sounded so matter-of-fact and true that I couldn’t handle it. You wouldn’t know what it’s like to be told that the one you love is going to have an arranged marriage.”
“I’m not having an arranged marriage,” said Kyuhyun, looking at Sungmin like he was absolutely mad.
“That’s what I said,” said Heechul.
“He told me you were,” said Sungmin, and flexed his fingers. “I wanted the ball to be in my court. Finish it before you were forced to and I was the one left heart broken.”
“I’m not having an arranged marriage,” said Kyuhyun. “Anyway, he can’t force me to, my inheritance is my mother’s and he can’t affect that.”
“You would,” said Sungmin, and Hankyung thought that he maybe started to cry but he couldn’t really tell. “You would. You’d do anything to please your father.”
“I respect my father,” said Kyuhyun carefully. “I would do anything to please him, but ‘anything’ doesn’t include giving you up just because he tells me to. He’s told me to before. It’s like I said, he can’t actually do anything to me. I’m legally bound to stay in this house by my mother’s will, and her money comes to me automatically when I’m eighteen and I can leave. I was never going to break up with you just to please him.”
“I know that,” said Sungmin, and he was sobbing now, covering his face with his hands. “I know that, and I’ve ruined everything just because I was so scared. I couldn’t handle that.”
“You’re an idiot,” said Kyuhyun, and some of the old fondness had come back into his voice.
“I know,” sobbed Sungmin. “I know, I am.”
Kyuhyun stood up and walked over to Sungmin, and placed a cautious hand on his shoulder, as if he was testing the water. Sungmin launched himself forward and wrapped his arms around Kyuhyun’s middle and started to cry into his stomach. “I’m sorry,” he sobbed, his voice muffled at the material. “I’m so sorry.”
“That’s okay,” said Kyuhyun, and it really seemed to be, as he sat down next to Sungmin and held him.
“It’s okay,” said Heechul, when he breezed up to the table on Monday, when everyone else was having lunch. “There’s no need to thank me for getting them back together.”
“No one was going to,” said Shindong with a grin.
“I’m going to kill you for it,” said Yehsung in a haunted tone. “Sungmin’s calling him Honey-buns.”
Chapter: 18/25
Fandom: Super Junior AU (High School)
Pairing: Hankyung/crossdressing!Heechul (main), Kangin/Eeteuk, Kibum/Donghae, Yehsung/Ryeowook, Kyuhyun/Sungmin, bestfriends!Eunhae.
Word count: 4,436
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 a very long chapter O_o I couldn't split it into two, because there wasn't enough for two, and I didn't want to add any thing else in, because I wanted it to be purely a Kyumin chapter. But writing this killed me. Sungmin, what you do to me ;___;
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9 / Chapter 10 / Chapter 11 / Chapter 12 / Chapter 13 / Chapter 14 / Chapter 15 / Chapter 16 / Chapter 17 / Chapter 18 / Chapter 19
“I did it last night,” said Sungmin with a casual shrug, as the rest of the group (minus Kyuhyun, who hadn’t come in to school that day) held him hostage until he told them what he thought he was doing. “I just didn’t think it was fair to keep stringing him along.”
“What do you mean, stringing him along?” Eeteuk asked cautiously, as Hankyung kept a restraining hand on Heechul’s shoulder (he seemed to think that beating Sungmin would get the answer out of him), and Yehsung did the same to Ryeowook, who was firmly on the side of Kyuhyun without even knowing the story.
“I guess I just don’t like him anymore,” said Sungmin, and folded his arms. He sounded completely bored. “Lately, it’s been like every time he touched me, it was like a snake sliding all over me.”
“You’re a good liar, I’ll give you that,” said Siwon quietly.
“I’m not lying,” said Sungmin, annoyed. “I really, really don’t want to be in a relationship with him any more.”
“But you love Kyuhyun,” said Donghae in a confused voice. “You’ve loved Kyuhyun for years.”
“Not any more,” said Sungmin, and looked resolutely out of the window.
“What did Kyuhyun say?” Ryeowook asked, a disgusted expression on his face.
“He didn’t say anything,” said Sungmin. “He hung up on me.”
“You did it over the phone?” Even Shindong looked sickened by that. “That’s really low, Sungmin.”
“Yeah,” said Kangin. “I mean, you’d been going out for two years, you could have at least done it face to face.”
“I don’t have explain myself to you,” said Sungmin angrily, and he stood up. “I can do whatever I want.” He stormed out and slammed the door hard behind him. Those left behind exchanged glances.
“He’s lying,” said Shindong, flatly.
“Of course he’s lying,” snapped Heechul. “He’s been gushing over Kyuhyun for years, and all of a sudden he’s like a ‘snake’. It makes no sense whatsoever.”
“Why would he lie about it, though?” Kangin looked thoughtful, and even Donghae looked serious.
“His father,” said Eunhyuk suddenly. “Remember? That day we walked home together. Kyuhyun said that he thought his father was going to use Sungmin to hurt Kyuhyun.”
“We never did find out what happened at that meeting,” said Yehsung quietly.
“Sungmin told me that he didn’t want to talk about it,” said Shindong, “and Kyuhyun looked so angry that I didn’t dare ask him about it.”
“Sungmin’s always known that Kyuhyun’s family didn’t like him,” said Ryeowook. “Why would it suddenly be a problem now?”
“So all we know,” said Eeteuk, with a sigh, “is that Sungmin’s dumped Kyuhyun, won’t tell us why, and he’s lying about it, but we also don’t know why that is.”
“The real question is,” said Hankyung softly, “does Kyuhyun know that Sungmin’s lying?”
Kyuhyun, it turned out, hadn’t realised that Sungmin was lying, and didn’t quite believe them when they told him that he was. The telephone conversation that Sungmin had mentioned had been, according to Kyuhyun, a lot longer than Sungmin had implied.
“I only hung up,” he said, when he came into school the next day, “after around ten minutes of him listing every single one of my faults.”
“What did he say?” Eeteuk asked kindly, as Heechul looked over the top of the glasses he’d managed to find somewhere. He was clutching a notepad, and had seemed to decide to treat the whole thing like a conspiracy. He claimed the notepad was for actual notes. From where Hankyung was sitting, all he could see was the beginning of a fairy story and a scribbled caricature of Siwon.
“That I was crap in bed,” said Kyuhyun, and began marking off on his fingers. “That I can’t kiss right; that touching me was like touching a stone statue, I’m so cold and frigid; that I make him shudder whenever I get near to him; that he can’t believe that I come from the family that I do, because I haven’t got a backbone to speak of; that he’s sick of having to protect me.” He stopped, gripped his knees with his hands, leant forward slightly and shrugged. “Things like that.”
Eeteuk placed a hand on Kyuhyun’s back, and Kyuhyun’s shoulders began to shake, though his eyes were dry when he glanced up at Eeteuk. “I’m not bothered about that stuff,” he said, and his voice shook only a little. “It’s just that he despises me and I don’t know why.”
“He doesn’t despise you,” said Heechul, with a throw-away gesture of the hand.
“Yes, he does,” said Kyuhyun forcefully. “You didn’t hear him. Everything he said - it was full of hatred. He really, really hated me at that moment, and I have no idea why. I want to talk to him about it, just to see what I did that was wrong, but he won’t answer my calls.”
“He’s lying, Kyuhyun,” said Ryeowook. “He’s lying through his back teeth.”
Kyuhyun looked at him, confused. “What do you mean?”
“That boy is so in love with you that it’s sickening,” said Heechul. “I refuse to believe that all of a sudden he hates you.”
“We think your father might have something to do with this,” said Eeteuk. “You never told us what happened at the associates meeting a couple of weeks ago.”
“We had an argument,” said Kyuhyun quietly, flexing his fingers. “I caught some guy trying to grope him in the corridor, and I punched him. It didn’t do much damage, but it succeeded in pissing Sungmin off. He said that he’d been handling the situation; it didn’t look like it to me. To me, it looked like he’d been putting up with it, but when I said this, he said something weird about thinking about my own position more. And then my father lay into me about it, with Sungmin in the room, and I think that scared him a little bit.”
“He flinches whenever your father is brought up,” said Shindong. “It’s got to be something about him that’s making him like this.”
“Maybe he just doesn’t like me anymore,” said Kyuhyun and stood up and stretched. “Maybe it’s just like he said. Maybe we just aren’t right for each other.”
“I’m going to slap you in a minute,” said Heechul.
“I love him,” said Kyuhyun, and sat back down. “I love him. I really, really do, and I don’t understand anything anymore.”
“Don’t worry,” said Ryeowook, putting a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll sort this out.”
The door to the dance studio slid open, and Sungmin took a step into the room, before he stopped, realising who was already in there. “Oh,” he said, and ignored everyone except Eeteuk. “I was looking for Eunhyuk,” he said. “Do you know where he is?”
“No,” said Eeteuk evenly.
“Sungmin,” said Kyuhyun, and stood up and reached out and took hold of Sungmin’s arm. “Sungmin, can I talk to you for a minute?”
“Let go of me,” said Sungmin, without looking at him and Hankyung was shocked at how cold his voice was. Kyuhyun flinched.
“Please,” he said.
Sungmin glared at him. “Let go of me,” he repeated. “I don’t want to talk to you.”
Kyuhyun let go; a haunted expression took over his face and he slipped back into his seat. “Hey,” said Ryeowook sharply, “there’s not need to talk to him like that.”
Sungmin shrugged. “I can do what I want,” he said, and he was so calm and detached that Hankyung had a hard time believing that this was actually Sungmin. “He disgusts me anyway.”
Kyuhyun jerked back as if Sungmin had physically hit him. The shock on his face was visible, as was it on everyone else’s. This was certainly not the Sungmin that they knew - he was cold, distant; he seemed to have built a wall around him, and as he walked back out of the room, Heechul stood up and announced that he had a younger brother to go beat up, and also left before anyone else could stop him.
“Hankyung, go after Heechul,” said Eeteuk, in a despairing tone, looking as though he didn’t think he needed to be dealing with this sort of stuff this early on a Wednesday morning. “Make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.”
“That’s easier said than done,” said Hankyung, but followed the order anyway.
Heechul had pulled Sungmin into a spare classroom; Hankyung followed the sound of angry raised voices to find them. Sungmin was yelling when Hankyung walked in, and Heechul was stood in the center of the room, hands on his hips.
“I don’t have to explain myself,” Sungmin was saying. “What I do is my own business!”
“It’s not your own business when it affects the entire group,” said Heechul heatedly. “What, you think Kyuhyun and Ryeowook are just going to take this lying down?”
“They have to,” said Sungmin. “I’ve made my decision.”
“Why are you lying?” Heechul yelled, and slammed his hands onto the table in front of him. “Why are you telling us that you don’t love Kyuhyun anymore?”
“Because I don’t,” said Sungmin, but he avoided their eyes and instead starting fiddling with his hands, threading his fingers together and twisting them. “I don’t,” he whispered, and Hankyung realised that he was trying to convince himself of this. “I can’t love him,” said Sungmin, louder now, and glared at Heechul.
“You don’t understand,” he said in an angry tone of voice. “I have to do this. It’s for Kyuhyun’s own good.”
“Well, that just doesn’t make any sense,” said Heechul. “Breaking his heart is for his own good?”
“Yes,” said Sungmin, and he slumped down into the nearest seat and covered his face with his eyes. “I have to - you don’t understand.”
“No,” said Heechul, “I don’t understand,” and he left the room, pulling Hankyung behind him.
*
By Saturday, the situation had not been resolved. There had been an explosive incident in the middle of the corridor, according to eye-witnesses (none of the second or third years had been there), and Ryeowook had yelled and screamed at a passive Sungmin, while Kyuhyun stood quietly in the background. The break-up sent shockwaves throughout the school, as no one could quite believe it and a few people were denying quite fervently that it was true and that it was just an elaborate ruse by Sungmin. Sungmin stopped eating with them; Kyuhyun stopped eating. “I need him,” he’d told Eeteuk, and Hankyung saw that he did; he needed Sungmin there just to do anything. Sungmin, on the other hand, seemed to be getting on fine. He flirted with the girls - he flirted with the boys in his class, and seemed to completely ignore Kyuhyun’s existence.
By Saturday, Heechul was already sick of it.
“Come on,” he said, when Hankyung met him at the bus stop in the town center for what had supposed to be a date. He handed him another ticket. “We’re going to talk some sense into Sungmin.”
“We are?” This wasn’t exactly how Hankyung had thought he was going to spend his Saturday, but if Heechul said they were going to do it, then they were probably going to do it.
Sungmin’s house was about the same size as Hankyung’s own. It was neither large nor small, but a middle size, with a fairly large garden in the front, and probably one in the back, though Hankyung never found out. A pink bike with stabilizers stood in front of the garage, probably Jaymin’s. Heechul opened the gate and walked up to the front door, painted blue, and knocked confidently, while Hankyung hovered nervously in the background.
“Oh, hello, Heechul,” said Sungmin’s mother, a short woman who looked remarkably like Sungmin. She smoothed down her hands, which were coated quite liberally with flour, on the front of the apron she was wearing, and smiled at them. “Are you here to see Sungmin?”
“Yes,” said Heechul politely, as Hankyung nodded behind him. “Is he in?”
“He’s in his room,” said Sungmin’s mother, and motioned for them to come in. She rolled her eyes. “I think he’s sulking about something.”
“I think I know what it might be,” said Heechul.
“Oh good,” said Sungmin’s mother, and winked at them. “I’ve got enough on my hands with Jaymin without having to put up with Sungmin acting like a child.”
“Mama,” said Jaymin, coming into the hall, wearing a miniature version of her mother’s apron, flour on her face and in her hair and just about everywhere else apart from on the apron. “Mama, the oven is making a funny noise.”
“Oh no,” said Sungmin’s mother, and rushed off into the kitchen. Jaymin smiled at them widely, and hugged them both around the legs.
“Unni,” she said, pulling on the hem of Heechul’s skirt. “Unni, why is Oppa crying in his room?”
Hankyung and Heechul exchanged looks. “I don’t know,” said Heechul, crouching down. “When was he crying?”
“When I went to the toilet before,” said Jaymin matter-of-factly. “I peeped in to see if he wanted any of the cookies we’re making, and he was lying on his bed and crying. I thought he might have hurt himself, because I cry when I fall over, because I cut my knee or scrape my hands, but he yelled at me.” Her bottom lip wobbled. “I don’t like it when Oppa yells at me,” she said in an upset tone.
“Don’t worry,” said Heechul, patting her on the head. “Unni will go yell at Oppa for you and see how he likes it.” Jaymin giggled behind her hand, in that way that Sungmin did when he knew that he wasn’t really supposed to be laughing, and nodded her head, sending flour everywhere.
“I can forgive him anything,” said Heechul, as they climbed the stairs, Jaymin returned to her mother with a star shaped cookie cutter, “but taking it out on Jaymin. She’s only five; she doesn’t understand that it’s not her that he’s angry at.”
“He must be really upset to yell at Jaymin,” noted Hankyung, who felt that he would have to have been told his entire family had been killed and his house destroyed in a fire caused by Heechul before he was angry enough to say a cross word to Jaymin.
Sungmin did make for a pathetic sight, Hankyung had to admit, as he lay on his back on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He jumped as Heechul opened the door.
“What are you doing here?” He asked sharply, rubbing at his red eyes. “Who let you in?”
“Your mother did,” said Heechul. “She also gave me permission to do this,” and he walked straight up to Sungmin and slapped him hard.
“Ow!” Sungmin yelped, holding his now red cheek. “What did you do that for?”
“Get the fuck over yourself,” said Heechul, and Hankyung discreetly shut the door. “All this talk of how we don’t understand and how it’s for Kyuhyun’s benefit, but you don’t actually tell us how or explain anything at all to Kyuhyun. I don’t think you know yourself. I think you’re just running from something, and I’m going to find out what it is.”
“Leave it alone,” said Sungmin loudly. “Just forget about it!”
“I can’t forget about it,” said Heechul, just as loudly. “Not when Kyuhyun’s walking around looked like someone just simultaneously punched him in the stomach and told him that his first born child was dead. It’s pitiful.”
“Leave me alone,” said Sungmin.
“I want you to explain to me why exactly you’re doing this,” said Heechul, and he stood in front of the bed and folded his arms and glared at Sungmin. Hankyung knew that this probably wasn’t the right time to be thinking this, but Heechul could be really hot when he was being forceful. He vaguely recalled Kyuhyun saying the same thing about Sungmin, and wondered if this really was a disease. “After that I’m going to decide what happens next.”
Sungmin told them the entire story, from start to finish, his voice catching at various points, and after a while Heechul sat down on the bed with him and wrapped his arm around Sungmin’s shoulder and prompted him to go on. Hankyung leant against the wall, offering his thoughts if he felt they were needed, but mostly he was silent, and let Sungmin talk and talk until he couldn’t any longer; he talked until everything was out and when he finished Heechul nodded and stood up.
“Come on then,” he said, and made a motion with his hands.
“Where are we going?” Sungmin asked, as Heechul pulled a coat from his wardrobe, and then a pair of trainers.
“We’re going to see Kyuhyun,” said Heechul, holding out the coat for Sungmin to put on, “and you’re going to tell him exactly what you told me.”
“No I’m not!” Sungmin looked terrified at the very thought. “I’ve said some horrible things to him, I can’t just tell him all that and expect him to just forgive me.”
“This isn’t about forgiveness,” said Heechul, and forced him to put the coat on. “This is about giving Kyuhyun a reason for why you said it.”
Kyuhyun’s house turned out to be just as big as Eunhyuk had made it out to be; it had high gates around the entire estate, and that just proved to Hankyung that Kyuhyun really did live in a different world to himself. Hankyung didn’t even have a foot high wall around his garden. There was an intercom system that they had to get past, and Hankyung was slightly worried about that, because no one inside the house was going to know who they are and if they can’t even manage to get into the house, there’s no way they’re going to be able to carry out whatever plan Heechul came up with during the bus journey.
Sungmin solved the problem by stepping confidently up to the machine and pressing a button. A crackling voice demanded to know who they were, official-sounding and rather scary for Hankyung, who was intimidated by the sheer size of the house anyway - there wasn’t anything like that in the country, that was for sure.
“It’s Sungmin,” said Sungmin. “I’m here to see Kyuhyun,” and his voice only shook a little.
“Sungmin-shi!” For all Sungmin claimed that Kyuhyun’s family didn’t like him, the guy on the other end of the intercom certainly sounded pleased to see him. “Of course, come in.”
The gates opened with a grinding noise, and an older man came out of the door and rushed down to meet them, and judging by the way he greeted Sungmin, he knew exactly who he was and that wasn’t a bad thing.
“It’s so good to see you again, Sungmin-shi,” he said. “Master Cho will be happy for the surprise visit, he’s in his rooms.” He led them up to the front door and into a huge grand entrance, with a chandelier hanging from the four storey ceiling, and a marble staircase winding its way up to the first floor. Hankyung stopped for a second; Heechul gasped slightly; Sungmin looked unimpressed, which probably made sense considering he’d seen it all before, and instead followed the man up the staircase and along a corridor. “I do hope you can cheer him up,” continued the man. “He’s been so upset lately, and he won’t tell anyone why.”
“I hope I can,” said Sungmin. “Would you mind if I make my own way there? I don’t think I’ll get lost.” The man nodded, seemed to melt away into the walls, and the three walked in silence for a couple of minutes, through winding corridors and past what seemed like hundreds of doors.
“I’m glad you know where you’re going,” said Heechul after a while. “I’m completely lost.”
“I partly just wanted to get rid of Soo-young,” admitted Sungmin. “I do know where I’m going, but he was just so happy to see me that I couldn’t handle it.”
“This is really affecting you, isn’t it?” Heechul looked at Sungmin coolly, and Hankyung thought that maybe Heechul was trying to keep that feeling of guilt in Sungmin, just so he would confess when he needed to.
“Of course it is,” said Sungmin, in a tone of anguish. “Did you hear him? Kyuhyun hasn’t even told anyone about it. He’s just sitting there, in pain, and I’ve done that. That’s my fault.”
He stopped suddenly, and Hankyung ran into the back of Heechul, who glared at him. The door in front of them was brown and plain, apart from a sign proclaiming it to be Kyuhyun’s room. It would have looked like the door to any other teenage bedroom in the world, apart from the bell on the outside. Sungmin raised a hand to ring it, his fingers trembling, but he couldn’t actually bring himself to do it, and he lowered his hand and looked at them desperately.
“Make it right,” said Heechul, and rang the bell for him.
There was pause, and then they heard Kyuhyun shout, “Go away! I don’t want to talk to anyone.”
“It’s me,” said Sungmin, and although his voice wasn’t particularly strong, he made up for it by stepping close the door. “It’s me, Kyuhyun.”
There was another pause, and then the door opened slowly, to reveal Kyuhyun, dark rings around his eyes, dressed in an old pair of jeans, judging by the rips at the knees, and a rumpled white t-shirt. He did not appear to have brushed his hair, and it looked as though he hadn’t slept either, tossing and turning all night. “Oh,” he said, and while his voice sounded disinterested, his eyes seemed to have something akin to hope in them. “You can come in, if you want.”
Sungmin hesitated - Heechul shoved him on the back and forced him inside the room. “I’m coming in too,” he said, and stepped inside, pulling Hankyung in by the hand. “I have to make sure that he tells the truth.”
There was an awkward silence as they sat in the main part of Kyuhyun’s rooms - a room about the size of Hankyung’s main room at home, with a series of soft chairs and a large television screen on the wall. Heechul pulled Hankyung down onto a sofa with him; Sungmin sat on the edge of a seat, nervously and clutching at his knees. Kyuhyun sat on the arm of a chair, rubbing one of his bare feet over the other and fiddling with his fingers. “Come on,” said Heechul, and reached over and prodded Sungmin in the arm. “Get on with it.”
“I don’t know where to start,” said Sungmin desperately.
“Sungmin wants to tell you that he lied,” said Hankyung, feeling that he should help them to get a firm place to start on.
“What?” Kyuhyun frowned at them confusedly.
“I lied,” said Sungmin, and he seemed to shrink back into the chair. “I lied about everything; I don’t want to break up with you.”
Kyuhyun raised his eyebrows at him. He seemed determined to not show any sort of weakness in front of Sungmin, and he seemed almost as cold as Sungmin had been over the past few days. “Why did you then?” He asked, in a calm voice, and Sungmin closed his eyes for a second and when he opened them again they seemed to reflect the light in a way which suggested unshed tears.
“It was your father,” he said. “He said so many things - he told me so many things until my head was spinning and I couldn’t think straight any more, and then you were there and you were telling things too, different things, and I couldn’t take it anymore. He told me so many lies, and told me that they weren’t lies, until everything blurred. I couldn’t tell what truth was anymore.”
“I told you not to believe anything my father said,” said Kyuhyun, and looked at his hands.
“You don’t understand,” said Sungmin. “He was telling me things about arranged marriages and play things and blind dates, and it all sounded so matter-of-fact and true that I couldn’t handle it. You wouldn’t know what it’s like to be told that the one you love is going to have an arranged marriage.”
“I’m not having an arranged marriage,” said Kyuhyun, looking at Sungmin like he was absolutely mad.
“That’s what I said,” said Heechul.
“He told me you were,” said Sungmin, and flexed his fingers. “I wanted the ball to be in my court. Finish it before you were forced to and I was the one left heart broken.”
“I’m not having an arranged marriage,” said Kyuhyun. “Anyway, he can’t force me to, my inheritance is my mother’s and he can’t affect that.”
“You would,” said Sungmin, and Hankyung thought that he maybe started to cry but he couldn’t really tell. “You would. You’d do anything to please your father.”
“I respect my father,” said Kyuhyun carefully. “I would do anything to please him, but ‘anything’ doesn’t include giving you up just because he tells me to. He’s told me to before. It’s like I said, he can’t actually do anything to me. I’m legally bound to stay in this house by my mother’s will, and her money comes to me automatically when I’m eighteen and I can leave. I was never going to break up with you just to please him.”
“I know that,” said Sungmin, and he was sobbing now, covering his face with his hands. “I know that, and I’ve ruined everything just because I was so scared. I couldn’t handle that.”
“You’re an idiot,” said Kyuhyun, and some of the old fondness had come back into his voice.
“I know,” sobbed Sungmin. “I know, I am.”
Kyuhyun stood up and walked over to Sungmin, and placed a cautious hand on his shoulder, as if he was testing the water. Sungmin launched himself forward and wrapped his arms around Kyuhyun’s middle and started to cry into his stomach. “I’m sorry,” he sobbed, his voice muffled at the material. “I’m so sorry.”
“That’s okay,” said Kyuhyun, and it really seemed to be, as he sat down next to Sungmin and held him.
“It’s okay,” said Heechul, when he breezed up to the table on Monday, when everyone else was having lunch. “There’s no need to thank me for getting them back together.”
“No one was going to,” said Shindong with a grin.
“I’m going to kill you for it,” said Yehsung in a haunted tone. “Sungmin’s calling him Honey-buns.”