On the day the doctor cleared him of cancer, Kyuhyun did not go for a celebration. Instead, he keyed in the address that Changmin’d sent him a few weeks ago into Naver Map and, with his han!dphone in one hand, studiously followed the generated directions. In his opinion, it counted as celebration, even though it was the only kind of celebration that could make him this nervous.

Two bus rides and a few hundred metres of walking distance later, he arrived in a sleepy neighbourhood with neat rows of identical terraces. It was already late afternoon and his surroundings was draped with long shadows. He consulted the direction board that marked the entrance to the neighbourhood and turned left. He noted the house numbers as he went deeper in.

Sixty-two, sixty-three, sixty-four.

Sixty-five.

He stopped and looked up at the double-storey house in front of him. A solid metal fence surrounded the house. Even when he stood on his toes, he couldn’t see the first level of the house, much less determine if anybody was at home.

This is it, he thought, staring at the doorbell.

A small tremor ran through his hands, and he closed his eyes. Minutes ticked by as he waited for the hammering of his heart to stop. It didn’t. On the ledge of the house next door, a graceful cat sat erectly, its yellow eyes fixed on him with what seemed like suspicion. 

In the end, he threw caution to the winds and raised a finger to the doorbell. However, before he could buzz it, the metal gate clanged open and he found himself face-to-face with Ryeowook’s mother. He recognised her from the few times they’d seen each other, though none of their previous interactions had been pleasant.

He greeted her with a dip of his chin. She recovered from her stunned silence. Unexpectedly, her face didn’t contort in agitation or scorn. She merely looked confused.

“I’m here to look for Ryeowook,” he explained. “Is he around?”

She shook her head. “He’s not living at home now.”

“Where is he living then?

“Jeju. He’s been studying in Jeju for two years now. Why are you looking for him?” Though she was still polite, an edge of motherly protectiveness had crept into her voice.

“I…” He canvassed his mind for words that wouldn’t offend her but could still represent his purpose of being here. There were none, and so he said, “I love him and I want to be with him.”

The confusion on her face deepened. “That’s different from what Ryeowook said.”

His heart tripped. “What did Ryeowook say?”

“He said that you had moved on, and that he was going to do the same, too.”

It was his turn to be confused, and she seemed to sense it. 

“I don’t really know what happened. He didn’t want to talk about it,” she confessed. “I only know that he did recover his memory of you before he went to Jeju.”

Before he came here, Kyuhyun had fantasised about seeing Ryeowook again. He had also made up and considered various scenarios, from the best to the worst. The worst-case scenario was that Ryeowook had remembered, and he’d misconstrued Kyuhyun’s reluctance to acknowledge him as a sign that Kyuhyun’d stopped loving him. 

The worst-case scenario was precisely what’d happened. Icy fingers of dread spread in Kyuhyun’s chest. A headache was starting to build behind his temples.

Ryeowook’s mother pursed her lips ruefully. “I also know that whatever you did broke his heart.”

She was wrong.

He didn’t just break Ryeowook’s heart. He shattered it.

TBC

::::::::::

A/N: The rest of the story will be updated really soon. Like Wednesday, Thursday or Friday within-this-week kind of soon. And it's going to be massive.