“Tell me what happened in New York.”

  Kyuhyun glanced over at Siwon.  They were in his kitchen—a giant monstrosity that seemed to swallow them both.  His cook—he had a personal chef!—had made them breakfast, and he’d never tasted pancakes so perfectly fluffy in his life.  Sure, at Kyuhyun's peak in New York, he’d been able to afford some of the finer things, but he was sure realizing that Siwon had flown way out of his league.
The boy Kyuhyun remembered was long gone.  He wasn’t sure if he knew the man before him at all.
“Kyu…”   Kyuhyun gulped some more orange juice.  In the bright light of day, he could almost pretend that the nightmare from last night hadn’t actually happened.  Almost.  The ache in Kyuhyun's head confirmed that it had been a very scary reality.
“I was in an accident,” Kyuhyun said carefully.  The chef had bustled into the other room.  “My car went off the road.  I was— I was trapped.” Rain. Fear. Pain.
“For twelve hours.”
Those words had Kyuhyun's gaze jerking to Siwon's.  “Y-yes.  I was pinned in the car for twelve hours.”  The story had been splashed all over the news.  The Broadway star who’d lost everything in a tragic accident.
Only it hadn’t been an accident.  Kyuhyun was sure of that.
Siwon's jaw clenched.  “There’s more you aren’t telling me.  More than what was in the papers.  He hadn’t pushed Kyuhyun last night.  He’d held his fragile Kyuhyun in his arms, talked softly to him, and made absolutely certain that he stayed awake.
Now Siwon was back to grilling him.
“You think the man was stalking you in New York…” Siwon began, frowning.
“I-I believed he was, yes.  Someone was getting into my dressing room.”  Tell him.  Tell him.  “And I thought… the night of my accident, I thought I was being followed.”
Very slowly, Siwon put down his knife.  His jet black eyes glittered at Kyuhyun.  “You’re just telling me this…now?”
“Back in New York, I told the cops.  The doctors.  No one believed me.”
“I believe you.”
Kyuhyun pushed away his food.  “I don’t remember everything about that night.  I was driving away from the city.  I was—” Thinking about our past.  Kyuhyun cleared his throat.  “I’d just left a gas station.  There was a car…it seemed to follow my every turn…” The fear was easy enough to recall.  “The other car’s headlights were in my mirror.  Flashing on and off, low beams, then high.”  Blinding him.
Siwon's hands gripped the edge of the table.
“I think the other car hit me.” This was the part he couldn’t remember, not for certain.  “The headlights had lit up my whole car.  I screamed—and my vehicle flew through the air.”  Kyuhyun could only recall bits and pieces after that.  Fast images.  Pain.  More screams.  Kyuhyun shook his head.  “But the cops said there was no sign that any other vehicle was involved.  They thought I must have just lost control on the wet roads.”
Kyuhyun's appetite was gone.  Even the fluffy pancakes couldn’t tempt him then.
“You should have called me.”
Anger stirred within Kyuhyun at his words.  “The story made the papers, Siwon.  I might not be part of the mega wealthy set…” Kyuhyun gestured around the kitchen,  “like you.  But I was a pretty well-known star.”  He made headliner status by the time he was twenty-two.  Performing live had been his life.  “Maybe… maybe you should have called.”  How many times had Kyuhyun lain in that bed, wishing that he would hear from him?  Kyuhyun rose and eased away from the table.  Away from Siwon.  “I have to get back to the studio.  It’s opening in two days, and I’ll need to get it cleaned up.”  Kyuhyun couldn’t have his new students stepping on broken glass.
“It’s already done.”
Kyuhyun looked back at him.  Siwon risen.  “The mirror was replaced,” he said,  “the glass cleaned away, and you will not be having any more circuit breaker trouble.”
“You didn’t have to—”
“I wasn’t family, so they wouldn’t ing let me in that hospital.”  Kyuhyun body freezes, an immediate denial because Siwon couldn’t be saying— “But I found a way to you.” Siwon's voice was grim and hard.  “I had to make sure you were going to be all right.”
Siwon was lying.  He had to be.  “You weren’t there.  You weren’t in New York.”
Siwon's gaze held his, and Kyuhyun couldn’t look away as he said,  “They had you in ICU.  Your doctor was a guy named Jung Yunho.”
Like it would be hard for anyone to figure out his doctor’s name.  It would be especially easy for Siwon and his limitless resources.
“The window near your bed looked out over the hospital courtyard.  The sun came through that window, rising up fast and hard, and it would hit on your face every morning.  I made sure the nurses kept your blinds down because I didn’t want the light to hurt you.”
Kyuhyun's throat had dried up.  A fist seemed to squeeze his heart.  “When I opened my eyes, you weren’t there.”
Siwon's thick eyelashes flickered.  “I didn’t think you’d want me to be.”
Kyuhyun's hands were fists.  His nails sank into his palms.  “I don’t understand you, Siwon.”
Siwon smiled then, a cold, hard grin.  “I know.”
“What do you want from me?”
“Everything.”
Kyuhyun backed away.  “I-I have to get to the studio.” He hadn’t counted on this.  On Siwon.  It was all too fast.  Too much.
“I’ll take you there.”
“Fine…just…I need to go, now.”
Siwon came toward him.  Always so sure of himself.  So certain.  “You don’t need to be afraid of me.  I’m the one who’ll keep you safe.”
Kyuhyun didn’t know what Siwon was.  “When I went to your office the other day, I thought you might just blow me off.”
Siwon's eyes narrowed at that, and Kyuhyun saw the spark of anger lighten his gaze.  “You underestimate yourself…and your value to me.”
“I don’t understand you,” Kyuhyun whispered once more.   Siwon bent his head.  His lips feathered over Kyuhyun's in the briefest of caresses.  “You will.”
***  
Two guards went into the dance studio with Kyuhyun.  Siwon insisted on that surveillance.  He wanted to get inside, he wanted to get his place ready, then he could do just that.  But Kyuhyun would have his men with his every moment.
Siwon sat in the back of his car, his gaze on the building.  Maybe he shouldn’t have told Kyuhyun about his trips to the hospital in New York.
But the truth would have come out, soon enough.  Especially since he planned to take him to New York within just a few hours.  “The plane’s ready?” Siwon asked Kangin.  He’d opted to leave the Jag at home and have Kangin do the driving today.  He had plans that he needed to make, and he could multi-task better with Kangin at the wheel.
“Yes, sir.  The pilot’s on stand-by.”
“Good.”  He’d wait until Kyuhyun finished his work, then they’d leave.
No one else might have believed Kyuhyun's story, but he wasn’t like the others.  If Kyuhyun said that he’d been forced off that road…
I want to find out what happened in New York.
And Siwon couldn’t go to the city on his own.  Kyuhyun was too uncertain of him now.  Siwon asked for his trust, and Kyuhyun hesitated.  No, he had to keep Kyuhyun close.  But he also had to be very, very careful.  In New York, it would be easy for him to stumble.  For Kyuhyun to discover more about his life.   About the last ten years.  There were some things that Kyuhyun truly be better off not knowing.   ***
“I need a list of your lovers,” Siwon told Kyuhyun when he returned to his car that evening.  He’d just pulled up, seemingly at the perfect time, but Kyuhyun knew one of his agents must have contacted him and told Siwon that he was calling it a night.   Exhaustion pulled at Kyuhyun, but Siwon growled demand…
I need a list of your lovers.
“This isn’t show and tell,” Kyuhyun mumbled as he felt his own cheeks flush.  “I’m not asking for—”
“The detective—Kim—was right.  The man after you could be an ex.  Someone who had you once, and doesn’t want to let go.”
Kyuhyun glanced out of the window.  The city passed him in a blur.  “It could be an ex, or it could just be some nut-job who saw me on the street.  Maybe someone who even saw me perform. Sometimes, people get actors confused with the characters we play.”  he’d been plenty of people, over the years.  A charming huntsman.  A runaway con artist.  A heartbroken soul.  A—
“The list of your lovers will be the starting point for us.  You’ll find that my resources are much stronger than the detective’s.  I can find these people, clear them—or—”
“They aren’t guilty.”
The car eased to a stop.  Then turned right.  Kangin was up in the front.  Kyuhyun inched forward.  This wasn’t the way back to Siwon's penthouse.  Not unless Kangin was taking a different route home.
“Tell me their names.”
Kyuhyun glanced over at Siwon.  “They’re not even in the city, okay?”
There was only one ex-lover for Kyuhyun, and he was sitting far too close and taking up far too much room in the vehicle.
One thick, dark brow rose.  “It’s not hard to hop a flight or a train here.”
No, it wasn’t.
Rain began to fall, splattering against the window.  Kyuhyun's shoulders stiffened.  Fine, if he wanted the list, he’d give it to him.  In all its short and sweet beauty.  “Lee Donghae.  He was…he was a choreographer that I met years ago.” Brilliant.  Handsome.  Determined.  Way too exacting.
“Who else.”
The impatience in his tone grated.  It wasn’t like Kyuhyun had a four page list.  I bet he does. “Jay Park, he’s a singer.”  One who’d made it pretty big recently.  “But he’s in China now so I don’t see how he could possibly—”
“Keep going, Kyu.”  His voice was clipped.
There wasn’t very far that Kyuhyun could go.  “Jung Yunho.”
The car’s interior got very, very quiet.
“Say the name again,”  Siwon growled.
“Why?  You heard me the first time.” Kyuhyun glanced out the window once more.  A frown pulled his brows low.  This definitely wasn’t the way to the penthouse.
“You slept with your doctor?”  Siwon demanded.  His voice was low and cold.  Sometimes, Siwon did that.  When he was angry, his voice would drop to that lethal softness.   “He wasn’t my doctor at the time.” Kyuhyun been so alone, and Yunho had been the only one there for him.  Always smiling.  Coming by with jokes, doughnuts and time for him.
One night, drinks had led to something…more.
“Why aren’t you with him now?”
“Because I couldn’t stay in New York.”  Kyuhyun lease had been up, and he hadn’t had the cash to renew it, not after all his medical bills.  Insurance had only stretched so far.
“The ing doctor…”
Kyuhyun head snapped toward him.  “Look, who I’ve been with shouldn’t matter—”
“It matters to me.” Gritted.  “It matters a great deal.”
Kyuhyun would never figure him out.  “You’ve been screwing your way through every model or actress you could find, so don’t act like some ex-lover I had does something to you.  We both kn