A/N: Hi, guys! Sorry this update took a bit longer than the previous ones. To be honest, I kind of found it difficult to write this chapter. The important scenes/parts, I knew what I wanted to write. But connecting those parts—the parts between them—well, that proved tricky for me.

Sorry if the chapter’s a bit of a mess. I hope you guys still like it, though. T_T

Book 4: Blast from the Past

Chapter 4: Confrontation

‘Is this real?’

That was the only thought that Kyuhyun could think of in that moment.

He was in Beijing. In his Chinese hyung’s apartment. There were a lot of SM Town idols surrounding him, staring at him as though they had seen a ghost. As though Kyuhyun was a ghost. His Super Junior hyungs were included among these idols. And Kyuhyun was now suddenly facing his past life and the people in it after quite a few years.

Talk about surreal!

And, for someone in hiding like Kyuhyun, kind of nightmarish, to be honest.

Despite being unable to believe the reality of the situation, though, Kyuhyun had something more important to do other than contemplating if what he’s seeing is real or just an illusion.

And that more important thing is murdering his Chinese hyung.

How can Kyuhyun even bother with contemplating the reality of the situation when there was no good, traitorous, betraying hyung in front of him that was definitely asking to be killed with that look on his face that only confirmed his guilt!

Kyuhyun growled. “Hankyung hyung, I swear I will—” the evil maknae began to threaten dangerously as he started to move toward the now panicked Hankyung.

Kyuhyun only managed a few steps, though, before Leeteuk squealed, “Oh my God! Kyuhyun! It’s really you! My baby!”

And the leader ran toward the maknae, and the next thing that Kyuhyun knew, he was in the rib-cracking hug of Leeteuk, the older man crying his eyes out and drenching Kyuhyun’s shirt since Leeteuk had his face buried into Kyuhyun’s shoulder.

“My baby Kyu! You’re alive! You’re alright! I’ve been so worried!” Leeteuk’s muffled sobs came out as he clutched onto his maknae ever so tightly, as though loosening his grip even just a tad bit would already cause Kyuhyun to disappear on them again. Kyuhyun wasn’t the only one that couldn’t really believe the reality of the situation; the Super Junior leader’s mind also still couldn’t quite process that he was finally seeing his maknae after so long!

Then, the rib-cracking hug became a hug of total suffocation for Kyuhyun as the rest of Super Junior joined in. One moment, the Super Junior members were just standing there with their mouths often, totally shocked at the sudden appearance of their long lost maknae and watching their leader hug the life out of the said maknae. The next moment, there was a huge movement, and all Super Junior members moved at the same time to join in on “declaring-missing-Kyuhyun-but-actually-trying-to-kill-him-through-suffocation,” or so Kyuhyun would like to call the group hug that he was now in the middle of and unable to escape.

“Hyungs,” Kyuhyun gasped out. “Can’t. Breathe.”

Of course, no one paid any attention to him, and it felt to Kyuhyun like the group hug just got even damned tighter.

Heechul did manage growl of “You stupid brat! Where the hell have you been?! We’ve spent the last few years worrying about you!” through his tears, and he even extracted his arm from the tangle of Super Junior limbs to smack Kyuhyun on the head.

Kyuhyun didn’t like being called “stupid”—what genius would, really?—and he also didn’t appreciate the smack. Still, he didn’t couldn’t bring himself to be truly annoyed. Weird as it may seem, he did miss his diva hyung.

He missed all of his Super Juniors hyungs.

Even if he would never, ever admit out loud, and even if they were trying to suffocate him right now.

Kyuhyun was surrounded by a crowd of crying, emotion, even blubbering hyungs, and there was nothing that he could do to escape the group hug. And honestly… even if he felt like he was dying due to lack of air… and even if he was wriggling his best and trying to get loose… deep down… well, Kyuhyun didn’t really mind the suffocating group hug.

Sure, he hadn’t expected to see his hyungs again, and he totally didn’t like that he had now been found… But still! Even if the stubborn, evil maknae refused to admit it out loud… he really and truly missed these hyungs.

They may be annoying, idiotic, weird, crazy, overprotective, nagging, silly, and all that. But still. They were his hyungs.

Kyuhyun’s Super Junior hyungs.

After about a quarter of an hour of tears, hugging, and, of course, suffocating Kyuhyun, the tears started to subside, and the group hug gradually loosened (Kyuhyun’s lungs gratefully started to take in air again!). The Super Junior members still stood close together, though. Close to their precious maknae.

The questions and inquiries now started.

“Where have you been, Kyuhyun?!”

“Are you alright? What happened? Why did you leave?”

“How have you been? Are you healthy? Are you okay?”

“We missed you! Did you miss us?”

“Did you miss my turtles?”

“Yesung!”

“Jeez, Yesung hyung!”

“What??”

“Alright, enough!” Leeteuk interrupted the chaos that happened when all the Super Junior members started talking at once. The leader now took charge. He looked at the maknae anxiously but seriously. “Where have you been, Kyuhyun? Have you been here in China all this time? Why did you leave?”

Kyuhyun gulped.

Oh, Merlin. The big questions.

He unstuck his throat and forced himself to speak. “I—I—it’s—nothing.”

“Nothing?!” Heechul snapped, his eyes still red and teary (like all the eyes of the idols in the room). “You made us worry for over four years with your disappearance! You owe as a damn good explanation, maknae!”

Siwon didn’t even bother to reprimand Heechul this time for swearing. The religious man was also wanting clear answers from Kyuhyun.

Kyuhyun sighed. Much as he loathed to admit it, he knew that Heechul was right. Even back then, even when he knew he had no other choice, he never completely felt right about just disappearing on his hyungs. He knew that it was for the best, of course, but that didn’t mean that he liked doing it. And now that he was forced to face his Super Junior hyungs again, he knew that he had a hell lot of explaining to do.

And he wasn’t even sure if he could give proper explanations.

“I—I had to go away. I couldn’t stay there… I had to leave—to hide. So, I went to China and contacted Hankyung here.” Kyuhyun shot a nasty glare at the Chinese man now, still mad that Hankyung betrayed him. Then, he continued on with his quite vague explanation. “He helped me hide. And yeah, I’ve been living incognito here in China ever since.”

“But why did you have to hide?” Sungmin asked with a frown.

All the Super Junior members were of course wondering about Kyuhyun having to hide, not just Sungmin. But Sungmin was the only one that voiced out the question since most of the other members were only able to process one thing from Kyuhyun’s explanation (that didn’t quite explain much, really): Hankyung.

The Chinese man suddenly found himself the center of most of the attention in the room.

Particularly the attention of the Super Junior members.

Glaring, accusatory eyes were now focused on Hankyung.

“Hyung, you had Kyuhyun with you all this time?! And you didn’t even tell us?!” Siwon asked disbelievingly, hurt being the dominant emotion in his tone. Their Chinese ex-member knew where the missing maknae had been all along? But Hankyung didn’t even tell them? Sure, they hadn’t had contact in years, but the Chinese man must have known how much trouble and worry Super Junior went through when Kyuhyun disappeared! Why didn’t Hankyung tell them where the maknae was?

“First, you desert Super Junior and me—now, you hide the maknae from us?!” Heechul shouted at Hankyung furiously.

The Super Junior diva was incensed. Heechul’s temper had never been the best, and all the shocks and discoveries and plot twists that had been happening today (all in just one day!) wasn’t helping with his short temper. He had already been angry and emotional about seeing his ex-boyfriend. And now, he finds out that the said ex-boyfriend had been harboring their missing maknae all this time? Well, of course the diva’s temper was going to explode!

The other Super Juniors also weren’t looking happy about Hankyung anymore. Especially the leader.

All Leeteuk’s feeling of happiness and warm at seeing Hankyung again for so long disappeared in an instant. Right now, he just wanted to strangle Hankyung!

Leeteuk had gone absolutely crazy when Kyuhyun just disappeared on them! And now he hears that Hankyung knew where Kyuhyun was and could have stopped Leeteuk from losing his mind, but didn’t?!

The angel without wings was suddenly ready to commit murder.

“You knew all along where my baby was, and you didn’t even bother to tell me?!” Leeteuk growled at Hankyung as he stalked toward the man, about to—sure enough—try to indeed strangle Hankyung.

Hankyung quickly backed away from Leeteuk.

“It’s not that I wanted to keep him hidden from you on purpose! Kyuhyun asked me to help him! The evil maknae asked me! What else was I supposed to do, hyung?!” the Chinese man yelped out, trying to save his life. Because based on the expression on Leeteuk’s face, Hankyung didn’t doubt that the man wanted to kill him.

Leeteuk just kept on snarling and stalking toward Hankyung. “What else were you supposed to do?! What else?! Tell us the truth, that’s what!!”

“Kyuhyun, help me out here!” Hankyung called out to Kyuhyun as he kept backing away from Leeteuk. Kyuhyun was the one who asked him to keep the evil maknae’s location a secret from everyone including Super Junior! Kyuhyun should really back him up now, in Hankyung’s opinion!

Kyuhyun just kept glaring at him and said nothing, though. The evil maknae was still too incensed with his hyung. Hankyung let SM Town into his apartment, and now they all knew that Kyuhyun was here! Kyuhyun really thought that Hankyung deserved to die! The evil maknae will let his leader kill Hankyung first; then, he will resurrect his hyung and then kill Hankyung again himself. Hmph.

Seeing as none of the other Super Junior members were about to stop their leader from committing member (they were all looking angrily at Hankyung, too), Kangta thought it wise to step in. The newspapers would go crazy if Leeteuk murdered his ex-member. Besides, Hankyung let them into his apartment and was technically playing host. And it’s not polite to murder the host, is it?

“Hold it there now, Teukie,” Kangta said quickly, reaching out and grabbing Leeteuk’s arm, holding the Super Junior leader back.

“Let go!” Leeteuk said, trying to shake his arm free. “I will kill that traitor!”

“Traitor?!” Hankyung said incredulously.

“We may be ex-members, but you still had a duty to tell us that you had the maknae with you! And not doing so counts as betrayal!”

Hankyung groaned exasperatedly. Seriously?! He looked at Kyuhyun again. “Kyuhyun, tell Leeteuk hyung that it wasn’t my fault!”

Kyuhyun couldn’t believe that Hankyung had the audacity to ask him for help! Why should Kyuhyun save him from the wrath of Leeteuk when the evil maknae himself was currently debating on how to kill Hankyung! (Will feeding him to sharks take too much time, or should he just rip Hankyung to pieces himself?)

“Are you kidding me?! You’re asking me for help?!” Kyuhyun said angrily. “You betrayed me, too! How could you bring them all here?! You were supposed to be keeping my location a secret, hyung!”

That was the last straw for Hankyung. His temper also exploded.

“Why the hell is everyone blaming me?!” Hankyung yelled. “I keep Kyuhyun hidden, people get mad at me! I end up accidentally letting people find out where Kyuhyun is, I’m also still at fault! You really just can’t please everyone, can you?!”

Seriously, Hankyung just can’t deal with this anymore. Super Junior was angry at him for keeping the maknae hidden for the past years! Kyuhyun was angry at him since he ended up causing the maknae to not be hidden anymore! Sure, he could understand why each side was angry with him, but come on! He had been trying to help! He didn’t like not easing his ex-members worries by telling them where the maknae was, and he didn’t purposely reveal Kyuhyun’s location to everyone now! He was trying to help, so you’d think people would cut him some slack! But no, lots of people wanted to murder him instead!

“Accidentally?” Kyuhyun repeated incredulously. He waved a hand at the scene in front of him. “You call this accidental, hyung?!”

“It really was an accident!” Hankyung insisted. “I didn’t mean for everyone to end up here!”

“Are you serious?! How else could they have entered your apartment without your consent? How is that accidental?!”

“Well, I didn’t mean for them to find out where you were, at least,” Hankyung said petulantly now.

The evil maknae looked hotly at all the idols gathered and cramped together in the room. Accidental, really?! He let out a derisive snort.

Kyuhyun then spotted Yunjae in each other’s arms a few feet away from him.

Wait… what?

Yunjae?!

Of course. If this was indeed SM Town, DBSK would also be here.

And if DBSK was here, that meant—!

Kyuhyun quickly scanned the room, for the first real