Missing Halves
Title: Missing Halves
Pairing: KyuSung (Kyuhyun x Yesung)
Rating: PG
Genre: Romance (& a little angst?)
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters (apart from one of them, who is entirely fictional)
Summary: The story of one boy's struggles to find his other half.
10 Settings Challenge: #10 - Emergency Room
This love story begins as most love stories do: with a boy and a girl.
This love story begins on the lawn on a house in Cheonan, where two children would always play. They were the children of two neighbors, who were also best friends, and would spend a lot of time with each other. Their parents had secretly hoped that one day the boy and girl would fall in love later in life and marry each other.
This love story begins with the girl holding the boy’s hand, but this is not the love story about the boy and the girl.
But it all begins with a purely innocent gesture. The girl held the boy’s hand. A very simple action. They were friends after all…there was nothing wrong with holding hands. But with this innocent action, the boy suddenly understood that he is a half of a whole. He was only eight, but when girl had let go he became more aware of a hollow space inside him.
The boy was incomplete. He knew that something was missing.
Although holding the girl’s hand was nice, he knew that she didn’t complete him.
It was a simple gesture, but it had started the boy’s quest to find his other half.
“Ha-eun noona, is this a story about you and Jongwoonie hyung?”
“Of course not. I already said it isn’t the story about the girl and the boy. Kyuhyun, be patient. Every story has a beginning, middle and ending. It’s not fun to skip around. And all similarities with people in real life are purely coincidental.”
“But noona…”
“Do you want to listen to the story or not?”
“I do.”
“Then be quiet.”
Soon, the boy and the girl had begun to grow up and become adolescents. They went to the same schools and became the best of friends. There were always rumors that the two were dating and would one day marry, but both the boy and the girl dismissed it and made a joke of idle gossip. The boy was still searching for his other half, and the girl knew about his need to find the one.
They were part of each other, they were inseparable, but the girl wasn’t the missing piece of the puzzle in the boy’s life. They loved each other, a pure platonic and unconditional love for each other, and it hurt the girl to see the boy unsuccessful in love time and time again. The boy had dated several people, but none of them had been able to fill the void that made the boy incomplete.
The boy had a phenomenal voice. (“I knew it was about Jongwoonie hyung!”) He wasn’t planning on becoming a professional singer, but his mother had secretly signed up for an audition for him, and both the girl and his mother had forced him to join. He had been accepted into a very famous entertainment company, and he finally decided to pursue a career in singing. He had to move away from Cheonan and go to Seoul. The girl was very worried about him and his quest for love. She was no longer able to be there for him, to give him a shoulder to lean on when he was unsuccessful in his pursuit of happiness.
“Maybe you shouldn’t be looking for love. Maybe you should just live life day by day and it will come to you.” She suggested to him one day, hoping to cheer him up.
“But there’s so many people in the world. What if I miss that one person?”
“You just need to trust that fate will bring you together.”
The boy and the girl both shed tears as they parted. They called each other every night, but soon that privilege was gone as the entertainment company took his phone away. They would go for months without seeing each other, and when the boy would visit home, she would run to his house. Every time, he would tell her about a new person, one he thinks might be the one to cure him of his loneliness. When his phone was returned, there would be calls where the boy would sob uncontrollably because another had broken his heart, or he had realized that the relationship had been empty, full of promises that would never be fulfilled. The boy had always thought he was closer to love, but it turns out that he had never been further.
Soon the boy had debuted as an idol. All his hard work had paid off, and he had finally made it through all the tough training. He was in a group with 11 other people.
“Let me guess, Super Junior 05? No other group has more than 10 people.”
“Such a smart-ass, aren’t you Kyuhyun? It’s late, you need to get some more rest to recover.”
“But I want to know what happens! Does Jongwoonie hyung find love?”
“I’ll be back tomorrow and tell you. Don’t tell Jongwoon about this story. It’s our secret.”
“Noona do you have to go?”
“Yes, you need rest or Jongwoon will kill me for keeping you up.”
---
“Haeun noona! You’re back!”
“I told you I would be. Jongwoon oppa, leave Kyuhyun with me. I’ll take care of him.”
“I’ll be okay. Bye hyung!”
“Okay he’s out of earshot now.”
“Can we continue with our story now?”
“Where did I finish last night?”
“The boy debuted as a 12 member idol group.”
“Okay. So…”
So the boy debuted in a 12 member group. They had gone through tedious training and rough schedules together, and he formed some solid friendships. They went through the horrors of not knowing whether or not they would be able to continue performing and doing what they love best. They had unconditional love from their fans, and finally the entertainment company caved to the demands of the fans and decided to keep the group permanently. The boy and his fellow members worked hard and slaved away to keep the love of their fans, and it all paid off. They aimed to cover the world in sapphire blue, and after so many years they starting to do just that. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The entertainment company suddenly had a bright idea. They had another boy, one who was also incredibly talented (“That’s me!”). They decided to add him into the 12 member group, transforming 12 into 13. Although some of the members had resented the addition of another talented member who would also compete for camera time and vocal parts in a song, they also couldn’t help but love this new maknae, despite the fact that he sucked at cooking ramen.
“Did Jongwoonie hyung tell you this? It’s not like his ramen is any better!”
“Shush.”
“Sorry. Continue?”
The boy continued to try and find love, but it just never seemed to work out. Girl after girl, guy after guy. None of them were the right one. The girl’s heart continued to ache for him, but she didn’t know how to help him. But as their daily phone calls started again, she started to develop a suspicion that the boy had found love, true love, and hasn’t realized it yet. Their phone conversations had always seemed to revolve around a particular member. But the boy needed to realize it himself. One day, she picked up the phone and the boy was ecstatic. He told the girl that he had finally found the one. The one he had needed was by his side the whole time. The girl had thought that he finally had it right, but it turns out that the boy was more of a blockhead than she thought. It was the night of their concert, and all members had held hands. When the boy had grasped the hands of two of the members, he had felt sudden warmth and he realized that the feeling that something was missing no longer plagued him. For someone who can be incredibly smart and talented, the boy jumped to conclusions and thought that the one he was supposed to be with was on his right instead of left. The boy "fell in love" with the wrong guy. He started asking the girl what he was supposed to do in order to win the love of his life over. He was, apparently, great at acting, handsome and all sorts of perfect, and would never fall for a clumsy, average person like the boy. The girl sighed, but continued to try and help the boy. She only had her assumptions, but perhaps she was wrong and the boy was right. Perhaps.
“Is this Kibum or Siwon?”
“That’s for me to know. I told you before…characteristics that seem to be similar are purely coincidental.”
“But noona…”
“Do you want me to go on or not?”
“Yes please. I’m sorry. I won’t interrupt anymore.”
The boy was clumsy in his attempts to show affection for his new love interest, the one who was supposedly the love of his life. Luckily for the boy, his love interest never realized that the boy was in love with him. It was unlucky for him at the time. But he got another chance to hold his love interest’s hand, and he realized that he didn’t feel that same warmth anymore. He wasn’t whole with him. Initially he was confused. The boy called the girl and voiced out how it didn’t make sense. How could he be whole with him during that one moment, and not be whole the next? The girl wanted the boy to figure it out himself though. She couldn’t tell him that it was the other hand he was holding onto that was the key. She had hinted to the owner of the other hand time and time again, but the boy never seemed to realize what the girl was suggesting.
But the girl didn’t realize was that fate had planned a different way for the boy to find out who his loved one was. If she had known, she would’ve told him earlier so that he was happy when he found out. Instead, when the boy finally realized who the owner of that other hand was, the boy was devastated and nearly drove himself mad with grief.
“Look at the time, I need to go now.”
“Noona! How could you stop at such a crucial point?”
“I’ll continue tomorrow.”
“But noona!”
“Goodnight Kyuhyun. Rest well.”
“…Bye Ha-eun noona.”
---
“Noona! Come, sit. What happened next?”
“Oh my, look at you. So eager.”
“Of course. You left me at a cliff-hanger.”
“Okay, I’ll put you out of your misery. So the boy…”
So the boy was still wondering about the mystery of how he hadn’t felt anything the second time he held the hand of his fellow member when he received the news about the traffic accident. Four of the members had been hurt, but there was one that had been hurt badly. The maknae. The boy’s blood had frozen when he heard that the maknae, the thirteenth member, had been sent into the emergency room. He raced to the hospital, and waited for the news. He couldn’t sit still, and his pacing around had set the other members on edge too. They fought and it nearly became physical. Luckily their manager still managed to keep a cool head and separated the boys before anything severe happened. But the boy was slowly breaking with each second that the maknae was in the emergency room. The white of the hospital became almost too much to bear, and the rushing nurses and doctors made it hard for the boy to breathe.
The boy kept trying to convince himself that the maknae was going to be okay, that he would be able to survive, that he was in the hands of good doctors. When the doctor came out after an hour of surgery and told the members that the maknae was still in a critical condition, the boy broke down. His heart felt as if it was being torn into two, and it finally dawned on him that somehow in the middle of his desperate search for love, he had fallen for the snarky, mischievous maknae. It didn’t matter if he didn’t feel whole with him, but he knew that he would never feel complete without him. The boy realized this the moment he realized he was on the verge of losing the thirteenth member. Tears flowed down his face, and he reached for his phone and called the girl. His voice was completely broken, and the girl knew that he would never be the same if the thirteenth member suffered badly during the accident. She left for Seoul immediately to be with the boy.
But during the time that the maknae was in the emergency room, the boy’s entire paradigm had shifted. The girl stayed by his side, soothing his sobbing, but it wasn’t until the doctor had come out and told everyone that the maknae was finally in a stable condition that his tears stopped flowing. Although the maknae was still comatose, and there was a possibility that he would never be able to sing again, the boy had gone from feeling despair to becoming hopeful. As long as the thirteenth member was alive, he would be able to love him. It didn’t matter in what shape or form, as long as he was still alive.
When the maknae had finally woken up, the boy was the first by his side. He grasped the maknae’s hand, planning on never letting go. But he was sure that the maknae only saw him as a hyung who cared for him. He believed that the maknae’s heart belonged to another, as a certain member who was nuts about pink and bunnies pecked the maknae on the cheek. But he decided that being a hyung was enough if it meant that the thirteenth member was alive and well. The boy was possessive over the maknae and made sure that he healed properly. He gave the maknae a present, a headphone necklace, which matched his own necklace. He bore the pain of being in love alone, but he was happy because the love of his life, the missing puzzle piece, was alive and well. He cried for the maknae when there was surgery or therapy that caused the maknae a lot of pain. He was happy when the maknae looked visibly well again. He was over the moon when the maknae finally uttered his first words, and started to use his vocal cords for the first time after the surgery. But he kept his secret to himself.
“Why…why wouldn’t he just tell him…?”
“Because he’s afraid.”
“But he’s never been passive about love.”
“When it’s real, it’s scary. He didn’t want to lose the maknae, not when he was so close to losing him before.”
“So what happens now?”
“I was hoping you could tell me the rest.”
“I will. Tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow sounds like a lovely day to finish the story.”
---
“Ha-eun noona! Is it okay if Jongwoonie hyung tells the rest of the story with me?”
“I guess it’s okay if the storyteller thinks it’s okay. I’m guessing there’s a happy ending then.”
“Yup! So, uhm, okay…here it goes.”
This love story ends as most love stories do: with two people that are very much in love.
But this isn’t really the end of the love story. It’s far from it. But the beginning of the end starts in Seoul National University Hospital. The boy finally realized that his other half had been right beside him all along when he had been admitted into the emergency room. It was a heart wrenching process, but the boy had finally recognized the love he had for the maknae. Thankfully the maknae had managed to pull through thanks to the boy’s care and support.
The boy had been too afraid to admit to his feelings - what if he was rejected? He didn’t want to go through the possibility of losing the maknae once again, not after he nearly lost him in the accident. Despite his best friend, a very wise girl, insisting that the maknae probably felt the same about him, he didn’t have faith in himself to be able to win the heart of the thirteenth member, not knowing that his heart has been with the boy for years. The girl, heartbroken at her best friend’s inability to confess to the maknae, decided to finally take matters in her own hands. She decided to do what she does best and tell the maknae a story. A story where all the characters and their similarities to people in real life were purely coincidental. But this story touched the thirteenth member deeply, and he realized that he no longer wanted to be just a half of a whole. He wanted to become complete too, just like the boy in the story. The girl left the tale unfinished, and told the thirteenth member complete the story.
But the thirteenth member had no idea how to go about it. He wasn’t experienced in love. What were people supposed to do about it anyhow? So when the boy visited the maknae in the hospital, he reached out and held the boy’s hand. He ignored the pounding of his heart, and realized that when he was linked with the boy, he felt whole and complete. It was like two pieces of a puzzle coming together and fitting together perfectly. They looked into each other’s eyes, and the maknae decided to just be himself and confess. Simply. Without the instrumental background, the cheesy ballad or extra fluff. He held the boy’s hand, and said three simple words. I love you. Time seemed to freeze. The boy asked if the maknae was sure, and the maknae nodded.
Tears of joy. A timid kiss on the lips.
Their hands never separated from each other.
The new couple is still getting used to this shift in their relationship, but neither of them have been happier. This is the end of the story about the boy’s search for his other half, but this is just the beginning of something else.
A/N: This wasn't actually what I had originally planned to write for the emergency room setting (I had started writing an AU one where there is Dr. Kim Jongwoon MD PhD, and Kyuhyun was his patient), but I didn't like it after writing like…half of it LOL. And then this idea came, and it stuck. But yeah, I tried something different with this. It might be a bit confusing - gimme a shout if you're a little lost ^^ The idea is that Ha-eun (purely fictional character) is a little like a fairy godmother best friend :P
On another note...just one more left for the settings challenge!
Comments appreciated! :)