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“Kyuhyun, you’re going to make us late. Hurry up before dad gets angry.” Ahra shouted through the door to Kyuhyun’s bedroom.
“I’ll be out in a moment. There’s still eight minutes until dad said we were leaving. It won’t take me that long.”
There was a just barely audible huff before Ahra continued speaking. “You know that leaving on time is leaving late to him.”
Kyuhyun didn’t bother with a response especially when he heard the noticeable creaking of the floorboards signaling her departure. Instead he tucked a necklace under the collar of his dress shirt before fumbling with his tie. Even though he is required to wear one every day for work and often to classes, he has yet to get used to tying one properly, at least on the first attempt. Once he had created a successful windsor and took one last look in the mirror, grabbed his suit coat and headed down to meet the rest of his family.
“Kyuhyun.” His father greeted. “You were cutting your time quite closely. Only two more minutes and we would have just barely been considered on time.”
“Apologies, I lost track of my time in the library this afternoon whilst working on my essays.”
“They are coming well, I expect. You are no longer an undergraduate, in addition to the fact that you have begun working for me, you cannot afford to be frivolous with your work.”
“Yes father.”
“Wow, did you do something to upset him recently?” Ahra whispered to Kyuhyun once their father had started walking away.
“I don’t think so. I haven’t done anything that hasn’t been work or school related and my grades are still as high as they have always been. I’ve barely talked to anyone outside of work, class, or home either. And no, there have been no video games either.So, I have no idea what frivolities, as he puts it, he’s talking about.”
“He didn’t find out your gay, did he?”
“I hope not. Keep quiet so you’re not the one to give it away.”
Their father eyed them suspiciously as they got into the car but as they remained quiet afterwards, he said nothing about their whispering.
As soon as they entered the symphony hall, their father was greeted by many others, some business partners, other respected businessmen, and various nondescript parties who felt inclined to inclined to great them. Kyuhyun’s role for years has been to silently stand behind with his sister and not draw attention to themselves while their parents spoke with all who approached them. Now though, with taking a position at his father’s company, Kyuhyun was being introduced to anyone his father felt it important enough. Some he had already met during company meetings, others he just knew the names and businesses of. No matter his role, it made him hate events like the symphony. Being able to actually listen to the performance only made it slightly better than the dinner events.
Once seated, Kyuhyun relaxed slightly, but knew the post-performance gathering would be worse than the greeting had been. Ahra gave him a quick squeeze to the hand in silent support when the audience lights dimmed and the curtains raised. The introduction of the first chair violin and first three songs went by without anything out of the ordinary. However, the fourth song contained a piano solo, which on its own is not unusual, but as Kyuhyun’s gaze shifts to focus on the pianist, he is thrown off guard by the site. Performing the solo was the same man Kyuhyun performed with in the train station some time ago. He let out what he hoped was a relatively inaudible gasp upon recognition, though Ahra nudged him and gave him a questionable look. For the rest of the performance, Kyuhyun could not keep his eyes away from the pianist and tried to find some way to prove that he was mistaken in their identity.
After the performance, Kyuhyun was forced into more socializing, though it was difficult to keep his mind off the pianist. Ahra was consistently nudging him when he failed to respond to his father’s introductions. It was easy for others to see how angry their father was becoming, but Kyuhyun could not focus on anything else.
“Kyuhyun.” Their father practically growled once they were in the car. “I was attempting to do you a favor by introducing you to major business partners in a more relaxed environment than the office, and instead you decide to embarrass me by being aloof? What was more important to keep your mind on than the people around you, especially the ones who can decide your career fate?”
“I saw someone who looked familiar and was trying to place them. I did not realize just how far that minor detail was causing my mind to wander.” It wasn’t an outright lie, but it was better than telling the exact truth.
“And just hours after we finished speaking of frivolities. You need to have more focus. Do not let this happen again, or next time there will be severe consequences.”
“I understand.”
The remainder of the drive home was done in complete silence, and Kyuhyun wasted no time in running up to his room the moment they parked. Ahra was quick to follow and found her brother immediately tearing through his drawers and making a total mess looking for something.
“Dude, what are you doing?”
“I know I put it in one of them, but I can’t find it.”
“Find what?”
“His number.”
“Who’s?” Ahra asked becoming increasingly annoyed at her brother’s short answers.
“That dude I told you about from the train station, Jongwoon, his number.”
“Why are you looking for his number now? Didn’t you decide you were never going to call him? Especially since he didn’t know you got it from his brother.”
“Well I had, until I saw him tonight. He was the pianist, I’m certain of it.”
“Is that why you looked shocked during the performance? And why you weren’t paying attention to dad? So, what will you do when you find his number?”
“Text him, of course.”
“And say what exactly? It’s been close to six months already.”
“Ahra, if you are not going to help me search, the stop berating me and go back to your own room or something.” Kyuhyun paused in his mess making to stare his sister down, hoping she would choose the second option. He knew if she did stay, she would want to know all the details of his texts as well as try to tell him what to say or just question his every move. He would tell her of course, but not right away.
Once Ahra had left, leaving Kyuhyun alone again, he zeroed in on the final drawer where he could have put the slip of paper a few months ago. With nowhere else for it to be, he found it under a couple of notebooks in the drawer. Before he could psych himself out, Kyuhyun had entered the number into his phone and was texting it.
“You’re a pianist for the symphony?”
“Um, yes?” Came the replay a few minutes later quickly followed by another. “Who is this?”
“Sorry, you may not remember, but my name is Kyuhyun. We met a few months back at the train station. Your brother, (Heechul?) he gave me your number.” When the reply didn’t come immediately, Kyuhyun started pacing his room haphazardly putting away what he threw earlier. The moment his phone lit up indicating a new text message, he practically dove to his phone on the bed.
“Ah, Kyuhyun. I remember you. It has been a long time since we met. Were you at today’s performance?”
Kyuhyun stared at the response, unsure of what to do. Although it’s been nearly six months, Jongwoon is as casual as if it was only a few days ago. For all his nerves of texting him in the first place, he’s not sure how to handle the casualness of it. A handful of minutes had passed by the time Kyuhyun moved to reply again.
“Yes. We were at the performance tonight.”
“I went into the lobby afterwards to meet up with my brothers, you could have said hi. I probably would have remembered your face faster than your name. Who is ‘we’?”
“My family, parents and older sister. I didn’t see you or your brothers (you have more than one?) in the lobby. I saw you on stage during your solo. I wouldn’t have been able to say hello anyways. Probably not at least.”
“Why not? Yeah, Heechul’s my older brother, I have a younger one too, Jongjin. We also have an older sister. Jongjin was in town, so he decided to watch.”
“Family stuff. My dad had a lot of business partners there, so we have appearances to keep. So wandering off to talk to others isn’t really permitted in that situation. Your brother lives out of town?”
“Well that seems strict and uncomfortable. Technically it’s Heechul and I who live out of town. He still lives with our parents in our hometown. Anyways, it’s late and I have work in the morning. Text me later. Goodnight.”
“Uh, yeah, goodnight.” Kyuhyun waited a few minutes for a response that never came. While not surprising, was still a disappointment.
“Headed to class?” Kyuhyun’s mother asked the following morning as he prepared to leave.
“Yeah, and I’ll be spending more time in the library afterwards. I’ll be home late tonight.”
“Make sure your father is aware. He is still displeased with your aloofness last night.” She explained passing a plate of food to him. “Are you feeling better today?”
“Yes. Thanks.” Kyuhyun took the plate, picking at some of the food. “There is a meeting at work during my break between classes. I’ll let him know then.”
“Good. Now actually eat some of that instead of picking at it. You’re losing too much weight with your current schedule. Find some time to eat in between papers and the work your father has you doing.”
“I’ll try.” Kyuhyun ate a few bites then pushed the plate aside just grabbing the piece of toast off it. “I need to go though. See you later mom.”
“Kyuhyun!” She called after him, but it was too late as he had already slipped out the door.
~
“So, you ready to spill who you were texting last night Jongwoon?” Heechul asked the moment Jongwoon walked in the door.
“Nope.”
“What? Why not? Come on, I thought we were close. Is this because I gave away your number to a guy who never called or texted?”
“You keep out of his love life and he wouldn’t have to get mad at you.” Jongjin joined in once the older two made it back to the living room.
“There’s no fun in minding my own business. Besides it’s not like he goes out and meets people. Most of his friends are in the symphony or are my friends.”
“I’m still standing here you two.” Jongwoon announced as his brothers ignored him.
“Maybe we wouldn’t talk about him if he stopped keeping interesting secrets. Cause if it was one of our friends, he wouldn’t care about saying who.” Heechul told Jongjin.
“Coworker? He did have a meeting this morning.”
“No. He would’ve said something, even if it was just something vague like ‘work stuff’. It’s the complete refusal to say that makes it curious.”
“So, who has his number that he wouldn’t want to tell us about?” Jongjin questioned. The two sat and pondered the question, ignoring the fact that Jongwoon had left the room already. After a few minutes, Heechul suddenly sat up straighter repeatedly patting Jongjin’s knee. “What?”
“I think I know who it is. Come on.” Heechul rushed out of the room, Jongjin following at a slower pace to Jongwoon’s room. “It’s him, isn’t it?”
“Him who?” Jongwoon questioned with the sudden intrusion into his room.
“That guy from the train station, Kyuhyun or whatever his name is. He finally texted you, didn’t he?”
“And if he did?”
“Oh my god, it is him. What made him finally text you? Does he live in the city? Are you guys going to meet up? Am I the best brother in the world?” Heechul rattled off rapid fire.
“He was at the performance last night. That’s all I’m saying.” Jongwoon pushed the other two back into the hallway and closed the door making sure to lock it this time.
“What are you going to do now? I don’t think he’s going to give you any more information.”
“You forget, I’m the master of meddling. I’ll give him a little bit of time, make sure they get along and all that stuff. Then if they don’t make a move on their own, I’ll step in.”
“He may kill you.”
“Or thank me.” Heechul countered.
“Probably kill.” Jongjin muttered after his eldest brother had left.
~
“You said text you later, is this an alright time?” Kyuhyun texted Jongwoon, double checking that his phone was on silent and any potential response didn’t disrupt his class.
“Now is fine. Today is my day off and I woke up from a nap not too long ago.” Was the reply he received moments later.
“Good, cause I’m going stir crazy in this class.”
“Class? Just how young are you?”
“24. I’m in my masters of business program. Current class is business management and we’re still reviewing everything we learned in the last five years.”
“That does seem boring. When you said class I instantly worried that you were only like 18 or worse, still in high school.”
“Nope, already have one degree, now I’m onto my masters. I also work for my dad.”
“I stopped after the one, but I guess you have a little more of a ‘continue the family business’ situation going on.”
“Figured that out already, did you? Yeah, a master’s degree will look more impressive in an already established company that I’ll one day run, according to my father.”
“Not looking forward to it?”
“It’s not that, I’m fine with the business stuff. I’m even okay with the idea that I’ll eventually take over his company. I just don’t like the pressure he puts on me. My life is literally just school, work, and formal functions we have to attend.”
“Not going to lie, that sounds pretty boring. Though Heechul would probably yell at me that I’m in a similar spot with my two jobs.” Kyuhyun was shocked by the idea of Jongwoon having two jobs, assuming the symphony took all his time. Luckily the shock alerted him to the fact that his class was ending already. He took a few minutes to reply as he packed up his belongings and began his trek to the library.
“Two jobs. What do you do besides the symphony?”
“I’m a night stocker at a department store. Four days a week from nine in the evening to two in the morning. I tend to sleep in pretty late cause of it. And when we have a performance coming up I tend to go from one to the other and back to bed only.”
“Sounds a lot like my days. If I’m not in class or work, I’m in the library, like I just got to and will spend the rest of the evening at.” Kyuhyun was used to a couple minutes in between replies from Jongwoon, however this time was taking even longer. He was beginning to wonder if mentioning he was at the library made it seem like he wanted to stop talking. After collecting all the books he has been using for his research papers and returning to his usual table, he noticed he finally had another text.
“The university library or the one outside the university? You’re at Seoul National University, right?”
“I’m on campus and yes, SNU. Why?”
“You allowing yourself a dinner break? My brothers wanted to check out a restaurant that’s in walking distance of the university if you want to join us for a bit. In like two hours?”
“Uh, yeah, I should be able to do that.”
“Awesome, I’ll text you the location and let you get some work done. See you in a couple hours.” Kyuhyun waited until Jongwoon sent him the restaurant location before responding with a final text. While usually getting anxious prevents him from focusing, today it only created motivation. Even though he was nervous of meeting Jongwoon again, he wanted to be able to spend as much time as he could, which meant he needed to have more work done beforehand.
~
“Everything looks so good, I don’t know what to get.” Jongjin complained looking through the restaurant’s menu. The brothers had arrived only a few minutes earlier, Jongwoon making sure to seat himself facing the door.
“I thought you had something you saw that made you want to come in the first place?” Jongwoon questioned, suddenly confused since the last two days Jongjin had been talking about one specific dish.
“Yes, but I also only saw what Heechul showed me. Remember he wanted to come here first.”
“Just choose something, I’m sure you can’t go wrong. We should probably pick for Jongwoon too since we didn’t show him anything ahead of time.”
“I can pick my own meals.”
“I’ve seen what strange combinations you make after work and dare to call food, I don’t trust your judgement.” Heechul told him, taking away his menu at the same time. He turned to Jongjin to start going through the menu and deciding what Jongwoon would like best. With attention away from him, Jongwoon glanced back over to the door, just in time to see Kyuhyun walk in. He excused himself from the table to meet Kyuhyun at the entrance.
“Hey, you made it.”
“Yeah, thanks for inviting me. Knowing I was taking a break really got me working on my papers, I hope I’m not late.”
“Not at all, we just got here a few minutes ago ourselves, haven’t even decided what to order. Oh, and before I forget, I didn’t tell them you were joining us.”
“Why not?” Kyuhyun was confused and slightly anxious that the other two would think he was intruding.
“Because they are my brothers and they like to meddle. They will also behave more if they think it was coincidence rather than planned, I hope.”
“Sounds like my sister.” Kyuhyun laughed a little but could understand Jongwoon’s exasperation towards their behavior if they were truly anything like his sister when it came to meddling.
“Heechul, look who just walked in.” Jongwoon spoke up as they headed towards the table. The two stopped looking at the menu and turned around, Heechul was shocked while Jongjin looked lost.
“Hey, it’s you. Kyuhyun, right?”
“Yeah, good to see you again Heechul.”
“You guys mind if he sits with us?” Jongwoon asked the brothers, taking his seat again. Both agreed and gestured for him to take the seat next to Jongwoon.
“Right, Kyuhyun, this is our younger brother Jongjin. Jongjin, this is Kyuhyun, the guy we met at the train station a few months ago.” Jongwoon introduced the two to finally get the lost look off Jongjin’s face.
“Nice to meet you. What brings you here?”
“I’m taking a dinner break from working on my papers. I’m in my master’s program at SNU just a couple blocks away.”
“What are you studying?” Heechul jumped in.
“Business. Actually, when I met you guys I was on my way home from a business trip to one of the schools my dad owns. I work for him as well as go to school.”
“Your dad owns schools? How many?” Jongjin asked. Jongwoon sighed quietly already seeing this becoming a back and forth game of twenty questions.
“Three, two here in Korea and he recently opened one in Thailand.”
“Do you like it?”
“Like what, Jongjin?”
“Working in that kind of business?”
“Yeah, there is a lot of accounting and statistics to work with, which have always been my strong suit. Writing reports on the other hand not so much. I tend to spend most of my free time in the library to get myself to focus on both school papers and work reports.”
“So how about in the rest of your free time, what do you do?” Heechul asked.
“On the rare occasion that I have free time, I play computer games like StarCraft, I also used to play the piano though outside of that performance, if that’s what you want to call it, at the train station, I haven’t played in years.” Kyuhyun looked down and blushed at little remembering the performance, mostly in embarrassment. He was glad when they were forced to divert from the conversation as it was time to order their meals. Kyuhyun suddenly realized that he had not looked at a menu. Heechul shrugged it off when he brought it up and ordered the same thing for both Kyuhyun and Jongwoon.
“If you play StarCraft you should give me your gamer tag, I play from time to time myself. Maybe the next time you get on, we could team up. Though fair warning, I tend to play at weird hours.”
“When do you play?”
“Sometimes between four and six in the morning. I sleep during the day when I have an all-nighter because of work and then end up staying up until past dawn again.” Heechul explained.
“What kind of job do you have?”
“I’m a make-up artist. Pretty talented one at that. I’ve worked with a handful of bands for their music videos or photoshoots.”
“That’s impressive. And you, Jongjin?”
“Nothing special like these two, I just work at a local store in our hometown. But I’m a homebody, and never had any big city dreams like they did.”
“Well Heechul had the big city dream, I just wanted to play music and there was a better chance for it here.” Jongwoon added on. “Heechul came up here on a whim, I at least had an audition set up.”
“I had a plan.” Heechul defended himself. “I saved up money, bought an apartment here, then looked for a job to keep myself here. If you didn’t notice, everything worked out just fine.”
“That sounds like a lame plan with a lot of room for errors. And if that was the case how did you end up a make-up artist?”
“I got a job a clothing store at the mall that also had make-up counters. Thanks to our older sister and years of playing with her make-up when she started buying some, even though I wasn’t working at the counter, I was talking with a customer there, we ended up discussing her make-up. Unknown to me at the time, my manager was watching, few days later and I’m switching departments. Then after about a year working there, I ran into my current boss who liked my style and offered me an interview. Not the most conventional way, but it worked.”
Before anyone could speak up again, their food arrived, keeping them quiet for a minute or two as they each tried their meals. Conversations after that, stayed focused around the meal for the next while and then onto more generic topics. The four stayed talking for another half hour after they had finished their meals, only stopping when Kyuhyun realized the time.
“Sorry, but it’s time for me to get back to work. I still have some things to finish before I go home.”
“You sure? It is getting rather late, it might be better to just head home now. We should probably head home ourselves. I have rehearsal in the morning as well.”
“I got a lot done before but I still have things that I need to finish for tomorrow so I need to spend what time I can in the library to get it done. I have work tomorrow as well as class which will interrupt my time to work on other assignments. I’ll text you later and I’ll make sure to give you my gamer tag to pass to Heechul. It was nice meeting you Jongjin. See you.” Kyuhyun set out some money for his portion of the meal and rushed out of the restaurant and back towards the library. The three brothers agreed afterwards that it was time to leave, so after paying their bill, they headed towards home.
“He likes you.” Heechul stated about halfway back.
“We’ve met twice and only talked for a day. So far, yes, we get along, but that doesn’t mean what you want it to.”
“Fine, have it your way, becomes friends first.”
~
“You’re home late.” Ahra accused poking her head out of the kitchen when she heard the front door.
“Had to stay late at the library since a classmate asked to study for next week’s test.” Kyuhyun lied trying to quickly get back up to his room and avoid further questions.
“You know I’m not mom or dad, right? You can tell me if you ran out to hang with friends for one night instead.”
“I didn’t go out with my friends. I really was at the library until close.” It was the truth and he hoped Ahra would know it and not push for other information, but no such luck.
“So, what did you really do that made you need to stay so late? I’ll backup your classmate story if they try to badger me for information but tell me the real story.”
“Later Ahra. I’ll tell you when there is something to really tell, but there isn’t right now.” Kyuhyun promised her, hoping it would keep her placated for a while.
~
Jongwoon and Kyuhyun kept to only text messages for a couple weeks following their second meeting. Between their two schedules, it was difficult to even imagine a time to get together in addition to the fact that Kyuhyun was trying to make sure his father wouldn’t notice his distraction.
During a study session with a couple classmates, Kyuhyun finally had an option to see Jongwoon again. His two classmates were also from wealthy families and in their masters of business program, so their families had similar expectations for them. Kyuhyun often found one or the other spending long hours in the library and occasionally sat with them, or they teamed up to study for exams.
Ryeowook, who he has known since he was younger as they shared a private instructor for piano with back to back lessons, brought up the symphony performances that were scheduled for the following week. The performance Kyuhyun went to with his family had been a one-off performance and the actual concert series started a couple weeks afterwards. Ryeowook had missed the previous concert and was trying to figure out a way to go that his family would accept so he proposed the idea of a study session followed by the concert to de-stress.
Siwon, their other classmate, who was a couple years older but had taken time in between his undergrad and master’s programs to work internships both in America and China, had immediately agreed to the idea. Siwon also suggested inviting another friend who knew someone in the symphony through a coworker and would enjoy the excuse to attend.
Kyuhyun had immediately agreed to the idea as well especially since it meant getting to see Jongwoon perform again. However, with his father becoming increasingly stricter, he was unsure if he would be allowed to attend. He just hoped that the extra work he was putting in at work and staying ahead of his classwork would be seen as deserving of a couple hours of relaxation.
~
“And who would you be attending this performance with?” Kyuhyun’s father asked once Kyuhyun brought up the idea at dinner the following night.
“Choi Siwon and Kim Ryeowook. We were also going to spend the time before the performance to go over the work for our test. I have also adjusted my assignment schedule to make up the missing hours without being set behind.”
“You know I have spoken to you about being too frivolous with your time.”
“Darling, I must ask what makes this frivolous? This takes no more time out of his work time than it did when we went a couple weeks ago. Is it because he won’t be meeting with all your business partners? He is working hard, he should be able to enjoy some time away with friends. If you force him to only work or do things that are only beneficial for work you will burn him out.” Kyuhyun’s mother argued on his behalf. His father snarled but conceded and gave his permission with a wave of his hand.
Once it was decided, Kyuhyun informed Ryeowook and Siwon as well as Jongwoon. Jongwoon’s only response was to laugh and tell him to pay attention to the whole concert this time around since Kyuhyun had admitted that he was distracted after seeing him that he stopped listening to the music.
~
“Sungmin!” Siwon shouted as he walked into the concert hall’s lobby with Kyuhyun and Ryeowook and spotted his friend.
“Hey Siwon. These your classmates?”
“Yeah, Sungmin meet Kyuhyun and Ryeowook.” Siwon introduced gesturing to each. “You guys meet Sungmin. He and I basically grew up together having lived in the same neighborhood and going to school together.” Sungmin shook hands with both and exchanges pleasantries. The four chatted for a few minutes before Siwon remembered Sungmin’s coworker. “Did you meet up with your coworker yet?”
“Former coworker. He and I haven’t worked the same job for over two years. But yes, I did find him earlier and he went to go claim his spot. He did say he would save us some seats if we wished to sit with him.”
“Sorry, I keep forgetting he left your store. It’s his brother he comes to watch, right?”
“Yup his brother is the pianist. Cool guy, sometimes a little weird though, but I’m friends with him too.” Sungmin explained.
“Wait! You’re not talking about Heechul and Jongwoon are you?” Kyuhyun asked suddenly.
“You know them?” Sungmin questioned while both Ryeowook and Siwon were obviously wondering the same thing.
“Ah yeah, we met a few months ago, but only started talking about three weeks ago.” Sungmin initially nodded off the explanation but perked up again a moment later.
“Are you train station guy?”
“Train station guy? Kyu, what haven’t you told us?” Ryeowook questioned this time watching Kyuhyun blush at the accusation.
“Is that what Heechul was calling me? But yeah, that would be me.” Kyuhyun admitted before going into more detail. “I met Jongwoon and Heechul while returning home from that trip a few months ago. I was playing on a piano in the station and Jongwoon jumped in. Heechul gave me his number afterwards but I didn’t do anything with it until three weeks ago when I saw Jongwoon performing.”
“And?” Ryeowook pressed.
“That’s it. We’ve been texting and met one other time with both his brothers.”
“So tonight is the third time you’ll be meeting?” Kyuhyun nodded. “Do you like him?”
“Uh, I mean we’ve only met a couple time but we get along and texting him is nice and…” Kyuhyun stammered his answer before Ryeowook stopped him.
“Alright, I have my answer lets go find our seats.” Ryeowook gestured Sungmin to lead them into the hall.
“What answer? Somehow I think he got a different answer than I was trying to say.” Kyuhyun looked to Siwon for advice but Siwon just shrugged it off and followed the other two in.
Sungmin and Ryeowook were already talking with Heechul when Kyuhyun and Siwon caught up to them. The moment Heechul spotted Kyuhyun, he put on a huge grin that frightened Kyuhyun slightly.
“Come to watch Jongwoon again?”
“He totally did.” Ryeowook answered before Kyuhyun could say anything.
“I came with friends. Ryeowook, this was your idea and you didn’t even know that I knew someone here.”
“So, you’re saying you didn’t come to watch him?” Heechul asked. “He’ll be quite sad when he hears that.”
“I didn’t say that. Jongwoon knows I was coming with friends because they suggested it.”
“Oh so you told him ahead of time that it had nothing to do with him. That’s kind of rude. You’re not very good at this whole crush thing, are you?” Sungmin added in.
“What crush thing?”
“Is he usually this dense?” Heechul asked Ryeowook who nodded in response. “Your crush on Jongwoon.”
Before Kyuhyun could protest, the lights dimmed and a hush fell over the crowd for the start of the concert.
~
After the concert was finished, Heechul lead the group out to the lobby where he usually waits for Jongwoon. The group stood around talking for about twenty minutes before Jongwoon could sneak over. Without anyone noticing Jongwoon had walked up behind them and rested an arm around Kyuhyun’s shoulders.
“How’d you guys like the concert?” He asked watching everyone jump a little at his sudden intrusion.
“Great as always, Woonie.” Heechul said quickly followed by agreement from the rest.
“Did you pay attention to the whole concert this time. Or did I distract you again?”
“Hey if he was distracted by your face again, I’m taking it as a compliment considering I’m the one who fixed your face and hair.”
“I did my own hair thank you.”
“And I fixed it.”
“I was only distracted last time because I didn’t expect to see you. I watched the whole concert and it was great.” Kyuhyun defended himself ignoring the brother’s argument.
“Good. That’s all I ask for.” Jongwoon flashed him a bright smile that caused Kyuhyun to turn away as he blushed, but never pushed Jongwoon off. The others noticed the blush and snickered quietly to themselves. “Okay so is anyone else hungry, cause I am. We could all go out somewhere.”
“I’m game to eat.” Sungmin announced.
“Same here.” Siwon piped in.
“There’s a noodle place around the corner from here that’s really good and open late.” Jongwoon suggested.
“Sounds good to me. Let’s go then.” Ryeowook decided for everyone.
Once it was decided, Jongwoon removed his arm from Kyuhyun’s shoulder’s and began walking towards the door with Sungmin and Siwon following closely behind. Kyuhyun stayed still for a moment feeling the loss of Jongwoon on him. Ryeowook and Heechul watched for a moment only following when Kyuhyun started walking.
“Your brother is a little dense too, isn’t he?”
“Definitely. Denies that Kyuhyun has a crush on him and that he just wants to be friends first. Though I think it’s partially because Kyuhyun didn’t text him for months. I told him I gave Kyuhyun his number a week later and I think it got his hopes up.”
“Lame. They’re already this close on their third meeting, it’s too late for that just friends business.” Ryeowook grabbed out a scrap piece of paper and wrote his number down. “Here, you may need this. Text me if you need help with Kyuhyun’s end.”
“Will do. Though I have to wait a little longer, I’ve got to make it look like I’m letting them become friends first like he wants.”
“We give them, what, like another month? Wait, it may need to be two, we have midterms next month.”
“Alright, two months and then we’re getting them a date, whether they know it or not.” Heechul agreed, adding Ryeowook’s number to his phone and immediately texting it so Ryeowook had his.
~
“Okay Kyuhyun, it’s time to give me the story.” Ahra asked one day after Kyuhyun got home from his midterm exam.
“Now?”
“Yes now. No one else is home and you’ve been pushing it off for over a month. I know you texted him after the first concert but what else happened?”
“Ugh, fine I’ll tell you.” Kyuhyun gave in, and told her everything to do with Jongwoon since he saw him at the concert.
“That’s it? You’ve gotten together three times and always with other people and just text? You guys seriously need to go on a date by yourselves.”
“Why would we go on a date? We’re just friends and have only known each other for a couple months.”
“Really? You are crushing hard. You blushed for half of the retelling and are already attached to him with how much to try to text him. Just admit you like him.”
“I do like him but that doesn’t mean I’m crushing on him.” Kyuhyun argued unable to hide the blush on his cheeks.
“Kyu, you’re in denial. But at least you aren’t just lying to me.” Ahra stated on her way out of the room announcing that she had to get ready for work as well.
“Kyu is in denial? About what?” Their mother asked walking in just as Ahra had left.
“She thinks I’m crushing on a guy, which I’m not.” Kyuhyun attempted to clarify.
“You know you can like a guy, right? I won’t care and your father will get over it.”
“While I don’t believe that about dad especially since he wants me to get with his one business partner’s daughter, I’m still not crushing on him.”
“It’s not like it’s an arranged marriage, while he would enjoy it, he won’t force you to, we want you to be happy, both of us. Besides, I’ve known you’re gay for a few years now.”
“What? How? Does dad know?”
“For one, you and Ahra are not as quiet as you sometimes think you are when your father isn’t around. I’ve also watched your lack of interest in girls since you were a teenager. As for your father, I haven’t said anything so I can’t say for certain whether he does or not. But you can thank me for him not pushing more colleagues’ daughters on you.”
“Oh, um thanks then. But I’m still not crushing on him.”
“Well I don’t know any details about what is going on so I can’t say anything for or against that. But Ahra sounded rather serious, so maybe I would think on it some from her perspective.” She gave him a quick run through his hair followed by a kiss on his head, before she grabbed the bags she set down walking in and headed to put them away.
~
A couple weeks later, all their midterms were finished and school work had settled back down to a normal pace. There was still a month and a half to go before finals, and Kyuhyun was back on track with both school and work reports. He and Ryeowook had spent a lot of time together, often with Siwon joining in, preparing for the midterms, that now his days in the library seemed extra quiet.
With most of his work done, Kyuhyun decided to call it a day early and head home. It had been so long since he played any of his games, that it felt like the right distraction at the time. Logging in, Kyuhyun noticed Heechul’s gamer tag as online and sent a request to join him in his game.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Heechul messaged right afterwards.
“Not much, just needed a distraction is all.”
“From what?”
“Midterms made everything so crazy that now that they’re over it feels too quiet and calm and it all came about suddenly. The build up to the hectic exam schedule was gradual, but the calm down wasn’t.”
“Hard to adjust to a sudden switch like that. Is there at least a sense of relief, that it’s done?”
“No. We’ll turn around a build up for finals in a few weeks and there is still so much to do that there isn’t relief yet.”
“Did you at least do well on your exams?”
“Yes.”
“Then you should get the chance to feel some relief that you finished the first half of the class well and just need to make it through the second. Get your friends and we can all go celebrate the first half ending well. Maybe that’ll help. I’m sure my brother has time off soon.” Heechul suggested, already having ideas forming in his head to get Jongwoon and Kyuhyun together.
“I think it might be a little late for that.”
“Then maybe not celebrate, maybe just a day out to shake off the lingering stress and be able to refocus.”
“Maybe. I’ll text Ryeowook later and see what he thinks. As well as look at when we have free time.”
“I’ll get Jongwoon’s schedule and match our days together and have him text you the possible days.”
“Okay, but first we should probably focus on this game a little bit more.”
~
It was only a couple days later that the four figured out that they all had time available the following week and set up a get together at the mall to see a movie. Kyuhyun was the first to arrive waiting in the food court for the others to arrive. Jongwoon arrived next, noticeable missing Heechul.
“Where’s Heechul?” Kyuhyun asked once Jongwoon had sat down.
“Work. He got called in at the last minute. Heard anything from Ryeowook yet? I figured you guys would have come together.”
“No, to get to here we would be coming in different directions. He should have been here by now though. It’s not like him to run late. I sent him a text a little bit ago but haven’t gotten a response.”
“Weird. You don’t think they were planning anything, do you?”
“Well I wasn’t until you just said something. Ryeowook hasn’t been much of a meddler but he also hasn’t had much to meddle in.”
“Heechul is. And they seemed to get along well last time. Heechul is good at persuading people to work with him on crazy plans.” Kyuhyun nodded along, but was distracted by an incoming text on his phone.
“Well I’ll say they planned something. Wookie just texted me saying something came up and he won’t be able to make it. Convenient that they both had something stopping them.”
“I’ll say. Well we may as well make the most of it. So, what do you say? Want to go see a movie with me?” Jongwoon stood up and held out a hand for Kyuhyun.
“Sure.” Kyuhyun blushed slightly but accepted the hand and the two made their way towards the theater.