Chapter 4 (1/2)

KYUHYUN POVKyuhyun arrived at his dorm with a quiet click of the door, taking his shoes off and switching to slippers silently. He padded across the rug with a stealth that would’ve made Heechul-hyung proud, he figured. He opened the door, eying both Sungmin and Donghae’s empty bed. He was pretty sure Donghae was filming Running Man, so he would be out all night. It was only 10:00 though, so Sungmin could be anywhere doing promotions.

With a sigh he sank down into the carpet, already reaching for his computer. A small smile tugged on his lips as he went through the familiar motions, mindlessly opening StarCraft and joining melee automatically, warming up. He went through the motions, killing and ignoring any messages sent his way (usually he’d be up for joining a team, but tonight was different). Before he knew it, a couple of hours had passed and the door was opening, a half awake Sungmin stumbling through, lacking his usual grace without the cameras there to catch it.

Kyuhyun faintly heard and felt Sungmin smack his shoulder lightly, grumbling about the maknae getting off work early. He continued to play, ignoring Sungmin eying him from the bed as he changed meticulously.

“You...is something wrong then?” Sungmin asked curiously, head tilted to the side. Kyuhyun heard him distantly, several minutes passing before he offered a reply, never glancing away from the screen. Sungmin waited impatiently.

“Why do you ask?”

Sungmin shrugged, a motion Kyu caught from the corner of his eye. “You’ve got the look of someone who wants to bury something.” He said, folding his work clothes and placing them in the closet in a neat pile.

“And what does that mean?”

Sungmin offered him a mischievous smile. “It means you have something worth burying.” Kyuhyun continued killing.

“Not bury...” He said softly. Sungmin perked from where he had been dozing. “Buo?” Kyuhyun repeated himself, and his sunbae blinked, recalling what he had said.

“Then what?” Kyuhyun turned off the computer, causing Sungmin to blink at him in surprise. They both knew Kyuhyun, at this intensity, could play into the morning. He never just shut off the game like that.

“Wondering if there’s something worth digging up.” He gave a slight smile, heading for his own clothes. Sungmin gave him a puzzled glance, before yawning widely.

“Aish, whatever. Good night. Sleep well.”

“Sleep well.” Kyu replied absently, flicking through his phone contacts. He eyed the contact number, next to a plain Kim Na-young~. He sent her a quick “good night” message, turning his phone off and sliding it into his coat pocket. He headed for his own bed, grinning at his softly snoring hyung.

“De, de.” Nayoung-ssi smiled at him, trying to compose herself before bursting into laughter. She made no effort to stifle her giggles, instead waving at him as if telling him off. He took a moment to admire her lack of self-restraint, remembering girls who acted as if laughing was unsightly. Instead Nayoung-ssi put her all into her laugh. They managed not to get any weird stares either, as Kyuhyun had acquired a private room in the restaurant (he happened to be good friends with the hyung that owned this restaurant, it was a good hiding place sometimes). Now they were sitting down, enjoying some high-class ramen in a nice place. 

“m style="font-family:'lucida sans unicode', 'lucida grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;">What, it’s the truth.” He insisted. He continued the story, pausing only to slurp back some noodles. “Hee-...My hyung really did it.” Nayoung-ssi grinned at him.“A whole tub though? A glass, I can understand, but a tub?” She asked, slightly skeptical. Kyu shrugged in response. 

“When hyung goes big, hyung goes big. My other hyung though, he looked like a wet dog. He sat in the puddle on the couch all dazed, like,” He reenacted Shindong’s look of bewilderment to Nayoung-ssi, who laughed again. 

“But my hyung, the one who threw the water, laughed so hard he sounded like a hyena.” Kyuhyun threw his head back and started screeching in a faux imitation and Nayoung-ssi choked on her water, curling up into herself as she laughed.

“My friend and I play pranks on people too. One day we put whipped cream on one of my friend’s hands, and tickled his face with a feather. He smashed the cream all over his face.” She reenacted the scene and Kyuhyun laughed as she mimicked licking the cream off her mouth. 

“We started calling him sunbae-sundae.” They both grinned, and Nayoung-ssi reached for more hot sauce, mixing it into her ramen. 

“You seem to have a lot of hyungs.” She said casually, but Kyuhyun choked a little on his food.

“Ah? Ye..I, work with a lot of friendly people.” She blinked at him.