Intoxication (1/1)

Kyuhyun noticed immediately when Ryeowook seemed to disappear after serving dinner.  He figured that he wasn’t going to eat with them after their earlier discussion but when he never poked his face in the dining room again, he wondered if he’d just gone upstairs to get ready or if he’d already snuck out.  But he didn’t want to be obvious about checking, so he waited until nearly everyone was done with dinner and hung around the main floor, heading for the kitchen only when he began to hear the water running.  He stopped short as he entered the kitchen only to find Yesung and Sungmin kissing by the sink.            Kkoming ran over to Kyuhyun and began to bark excitedly, running in circles around him.  “Why has my kitchen suddenly become the biggest make-out spot in town?” he complained, already irritated at not finding Ryeowook there.            Sungmin pulled away from his boyfriend and smirked.  “It’s the naughtiness factor of doing it someplace where you might be walked in on.  Makes it so much hotter!  You should try it yourself sometime.”            Kyuhyun glared at him.  The nerve of some ex-boyfriends!  He wouldn’t tolerate him coming in at all if it wasn’t for Yesung and Eunhyuk.  “Where the hell is my cook?  Is he ditching out on his duties?”            “Minnie and I offered to clean up for him so he could go on his date.  He works so many extra hours anyway, he deserves to get out and have some fun,” Yesung answered.            “It isn’t a date, they’re just friends,” Kyuhyun grumbled.                              “She sure did look cute, didn’t she, Sungie?”            Yesung nodded as he began washing dishes.             “They looked adorable together,” Sungmin said as he began to put away the extra food.            Kyuhyun walked over to the back hall and grabbed his jacket off the hook.            “Are you going somewhere?” Yesung asked.            “I’m heading out for a while.  I can’t stay in this house any longer today or I might murder someone,” he said, digging around in his pocket to check for his keys.  “Where the hell did that little shit put my car keys?”            “Hey!”            Kyuhyun looked up at hearing Sungmin and almost didn’t put his hand up in time to catch the keys that were thrown at him.  He had to remind himself not to lash out in anger at his ex or his most dependable employee would suddenly turn on him.  Yesung ran the household single-handedly and Kyuhyun wasn’t foolish enough to get on his bad side.  He headed out the door immediately without saying another word to them.            Jealousy.  Kyuhyun wasn’t in denial about what was going on anymore.  It drove him batty when anyone else tried to monopolize his newest employee and that was becoming a common occurrence lately.  He also understood that if he was jealous, it also meant he was attracted to Ryeowook.  From the very first time Kyuhyun spoke to him, he’d been intrigued by him and wanted to know him better.  And then when he started wearing nice clothes and cut his hair, he was rather smitten although he didn’t want to admit it.  The kinky dreams he started having about his new cook should have clued him in a bit more but Kyuhyun chalked it up to the stress around the house.  But sometime in the last couple days, the hook had been set.  He was now completely caught up in his new friend and wanted a bit more than chatting with him over breakfast or playing video games with him.  Even holding or touching him wasn’t cutting it anymore.             What exactly did he want?  Kyuhyun didn’t know that either.  He hadn’t felt this way for a very long time and had sworn off dating anyone years ago, feeling how shallow most of his relationships were or how mismatched some of them had been, such as the case with Sungmin.  He should really just ignore such feelings but they overwhelmed him.  And at the moment, just thinking about Ryeowook out with some cute girl made his blood boil.  If he didn’t get his emotions under control, he was going to blow up at someone that didn’t deserve it or he was going to expose his feelings to everyone else in the house.  And that was the last thing he needed.              “So then he took a turn himself and won it the very first time.  He really is an expert at games, I’d hate to admit it, I dare not play him in cards or make bets against him,” Ryeowook said, taking another bite of his pasta.            “You have a crush on him, don’t you,” Dalma asked, smiling knowingly.            “What?” Ryeowook asked, looking across the table suddenly, startled.            “Oh, my dear, don’t try to deny it!  You haven’t stopped talking about him since I picked you up.  Next thing you know, you’ll be telling me how good looking he is,” she said, sipping her glass of wine.            Ryeowook smiled to himself as he pictured Kyuhyun singing the other day.  “He’s tall and has a really, really nice ass.  And a very sexy voice.”            “You should have introduced me to him when I picked you up.”            “I think that he would have had a nervous breakdown if anyone else showed up at the house today,” he admitted, continuing to eat.  “The house is full of his relatives at the moment and although I do like them all, the house is chaotic right now.  I’m really happy to be out tonight.”            “Gee…and here I thought you wanted to see me.  I guess I was just an excuse for you to leave,” she said, pretending to feel hurt.            “Stop that!  You know I missed you,” he said, reaching across the tablet to pat her hand.  “Now tell me all about our old neighbors and what they’ve been up to.”            Dalma told him all the stories about their hometown and entertained him for the next couple hours.  He told her his long history of moving around towns in the area and his poor luck in keeping a job.  One place caught fire and burnt down, one went under financially, a few treated him poorly or didn’t pay him the wages he’d earned, and another had to lay him off in the slow season.  It had been rough and he was thankful to find a job he wanted to stay at for a long time.             As they were getting ready to leave, a customer from the noodle shop that he’d befriended, who happened to bar tend in the restaurant they were dining at, sought him out.  “Wookie!” Henry called out as they were getting on their jackets.  “Wait!”            “What is it, Henry?”            “You work at the singer’s house, right?  Cho Kyuhyun,” he questioned.            Ryeowook nodded.            “Your boss is at the bar just down the road, drunker than a skunk, and the staff there is having a hard time getting him to stop drinking and call for a ride home.  They’re afraid that he’s going to sneak out when they’re not looking and drive home or walk out into the woods and pass out,” Henry warned.            Ryeowook panicked and turned to his friend.  “Is it all right if we part here?  I should go check on him and I don’t think bringing you along is going to make matters any better.”            “Of course,” she said, opening her arms for a hug.  As Ryeowook embraced her, she whispered into his ear.  “Good luck!  Keep me posted!”            Ryeowook’s face turned pink but he was out the door in an instant and headed down the street, worried that Kyuhyun had managed to leave since Henry heard the news.  When he opened the door to the bar and rushed inside, he exhaled a breath he didn’t know he was holding and his muscles relaxed as he spotted Kyuhyun practically passed out on a bar stool, his head resting on his arms on the counter.  Ryeowook walked over and touched his back, running his hand up and down.            “Kyuhyun.”            No response.            Ryeowook leaned closer, bringing his face down to Kyuhyun’s.  “Kyuhyun, wake up.  It’s time for us to go home.”            Kyuhyun’s eyes blinked open and he stared at Ryeowook, his eyes squinting as he tried to focus on him.  “Wookie?”            Ryeowook nodded.            “What are you doing here?” he asked in an accusing tone.            “I heard that you were here and came to get you.  We ought to go home.”            “Make me,” Kyuhyun grumbled, closing his eyes again.            So, he wasn’t one of those happy drunks, Ryeowook realized.  This wasn’t going to be as easy as he’d hoped it would.  “You’re bed is more comfortable than this counter,” he reasoned.            “How do you know?  You’ve never been in it,” he said without bothering to open his eyes.            Ryeowook sighed and played with the hair at Kyuhyun’s nape, running his fingers through Kyuhyun’s short strands.  “You have a whole cellar full of wine at home.  How about we go there and I’ll even have a glass with you.”            “Or you can have a glass here.  I’ll buy.”            “Kyuhyun, please be reasonable.  There’s no reason to stay here.  Let’s just head back to the house,” he said, finally resorting to pleading.            “Why don’t you just leave and go back to your girlfriend?”            “I told you already, she’s not my girlfriend.  And she’s already left and headed back home.  I don’t have a ride back to the house unless you let me drive us both back.  Are you going to make me walk?”            Kyuhyun didn’t respond.            “Fine,” he said, backing away from his boss.  “Since you don’t care if I make it home safe, I’ll just start walking and hopefully I won’t freeze to death or trip in the dark.”            Ryeowook headed towards the door, hoping to God that Kyuhyun still felt this need to protect his employee even when he was drunk and not acting rationally.  If he didn’t take the bait and fall for his bluff, he wasn’t sure what to do next.  Perhaps he should call the house and ask for Leeteuk or Yesung.  But it was already nearly midnight and Yesung was probably at Sungmin’s house again.  And as he didn’t own a cell phone, he knew no one else’s number.  This had to work or he would have to try to physically remove Kyuhyun and he had a hunch that wouldn’t work very well.              Kyuhyun opened his eyes and turned in his seat enough to watch Ryeowook head for the door.  “So you’re going to abandon me then?  You don’t care if I get into an accident and die on the way home?”            Ryeowook stopped and pivoted in place, folding his arms over his chest.  “Are you really stupid enough to risk driving drunk when you’ve clearly had a brush with death before?  Are you planning on tempting fate to see if you’ll survive a second time?”            So he knew more than Kyuhyun originally thought he did.  There were so many people that could have told him at this point, he didn’t even know who to blame.  Kyuhyun dug out his wallet and paid his tab, leaving a generous tip.  Now that Ryeowook