Zhou Mi sat at the edge of his bed clutching the quivering sobbing mess that was Kyuhyun ever since he had arrived with the others days ago. Kyuhyun, however, wasn’t the only one that was acting strange. Han Geng was a zombie that refused to talk even to his father. Zhou Mi shook his head remembering that painful accident but his thoughts were then drawn to Ryeowook, though normally quiet he was happy or the cry baby at least he tried but he was silent all the time never smiling. Mi was really starting to miss the younger’s infectious grin. Even Henry’s chipper mood was starting to dampen from all the blueness of the bunch. Kyuhyun’s body shook with a particularly hard sob and Mi had to hold on to make sure the blubbering boy didn’t tumble to the floor. With warm hands Mi rubbed comforting circles on the shaking back hoping to finally calm him down.

“Do you want to talk about it now?” He asked when it seemed like the younger had finally calmed down silencing his sobs. Kyuhyun pulled back from Zhou Mi’s hold wiping away the tears still streaming down his flushed raw cheeks with shaking hands. His bleary tear filled gaze met his friend and he nodded weakly. When he didn’t speak Mi prompted him, “So what happened?”

“I don’t know, I really don’t know!” Kyuhyun cried tears eking out of his closed eyes.

“Well, why don’t you tell me what happened before you guys got here. Clearly something did.”

“Where should I start?” Kyuhyun laughed wryly before choking on a latent sob.

“Geng?” Mi asked carefully, despite how desperately he wanted to know why one of his brothers refused to even speak. He also has the sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with why Kyuhyun was sobbing so uncontrollably, a man that dislikes showing any type of weakness.

“No one really knows,” Kyuhyun began after a few shaky breaths. “Heechul kicked Geng out of their room.”

“What!?”  His jaw dropped shock coating his voice. A little niggle of guilt burnt in his chest, was that his fault?

“Since then Hyung’s been like that.”

“You have no idea what caused it?”

“No, only Heechul does.” Kyuhyun sighed breath stuttering as the after effects of his crying fit still linger. “I guess he let his emotions get the better of him, like me -” Kyuhyun cut off a fresh wave of tears burning down his red cheeks. Mi reached out drawing him back in to his arms to cry it out.

“You’re lucky this isn’t silk or you’d be dead.” Mi teased as Kyuhyun calmed down receiving a weak chuckle and a light fist to the arm. Kyuhyun rubbed at his eyes tears smearing all over his hands and sleeve looking down at his knees. The gentle long hand on his shoulder made him look up to meet the worried eyes of the china man. “Quixian, what happened?”

“I – I let my emotions get the best of me, I – I’m a terrible person.”

“What? Why on earth do you thing that. You aren’t terrible for having emotions.” His other hand rose to grip both of Kyuhyun’s shoulders looking at the younger with serious and worried eyes.

“You can say that. Doesn’t make it true. They made Sungmin hyung mad at me.”

“What happened?” Mi asked carefully as realization dawned on him. Before the SJM press tour when the two of them had been talking Kyuhyun was on the verge of a break through, all he talked about was Sungmin hyung.

“I yelled, I yelled at Min, I yelled at him. I shouldn’t have yelled.” Kyuhyun said, repeated over and over like a mantra of self-blame.

“Stop it. It’s not your fault.” Zhou Mi shook the crying boy’s shoulders, the red rimmed eyes looked up doubt and disbelief clear in his face. “It’s not your fault so stop this blubbering nonsense. This isn’t the Quixian I know. Plus, it takes two people to fight so clearly Sungmin is part of this too. “

“But –”

“No! Now stop crying, it’s not attractive on you.” Zhou Mi grinned cheekily as he got pushed as Kyuhyun stood disappearing into the bathroom to splash cold water on his face soothing the irritated skin.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Sungmin sat cross legged in the middle of his bed staring down at the phone in his hands and the contact highlighted on the screen. Kyuhyun. Dropping the device onto the pink pillow in his lap he ran his fingers through his hair. ‘If you forgive him I’m sure that he’ll forgive you.’ Maybe Jay hyung is right. I should just call and apologize but what if- Sungmin groaned and knotted his fingers around the pillow. He’d grabbed it hoping his favorite color would calm him down so he didn’t stutter.

“I should just call.” His voice sounded matter of fact but with the phone back in his hands Kyuhyun’s smiling face staring up at him he couldn’t press the call button.  What if he won’t forgive me? God, he probably hates me now. Sungmin started to tear up lips trembling as Kyuhyun’s happy face mocked him.

No. I have to call him. Sungmin pressed his face into the pillow. And for god’s sake Sungmin don’t stutter. Sungmin stared down at the phone again for the longest time. “Just call him already!” He burst to the empty room, the oh-so empty room, painfully empty. Pressing the button he put the device to his ear. It rang and rang and rang and rang till it seemed like it was going to go to voicemail, then it was answered.

“h-h-he-l-llo” Sungmin stuttered. Oh god damn it. He slapped a hand to his mouth.

“Hi, Sungmin Hyung.” The voice that spoke was not the voice he was expecting. It was a voice that caused pain, so much pain. Sungmin squeaked dropping the phone and fumbling for the ‘end call’ button missing the words that awful voice spoke “if you just hang on Kyuhyun-ah will be back.”

“I should have known. He’d go to him, of course.” Sungmin spoke the words to the air, speaking them aloud made them feel more real. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Sungmin curled into a little ball around the pink pillow as the tears over took him.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Kyuhyun walked out of the bathroom eyes still quite red and raw. Some water still running down his face, hair spiked and disheveled. He looked a bit better if wet. His eyes widened as he saw his phone in Zhou Mi’s hand.

“Mi hyung?” He asked walking over his footsteps soft on the carpeted floor. The other man looked up from the object in his hand to the person who owned it.

“When you were in the bathroom your phone rang so I found it.” Zhou Mi paused to take a breath knowing the gravity of what he was about to reveal. “It was Sungmin hyung. I only answered it to tell him to wait for you to get back but he just hung up.”

“WHAT?! NO!!!!!!” Kyuhyun yelled in abject horror, if going by the look on his face. He lunged forward awkwardly jerking the phone out of Mi’s hand. He nearly dropped the phone twice before his shaking hands managed to dial back.

“What’s going on?” A frantic voice panted from the doorway. Zhou Mi looked to see Siwon and Donghae clutching the frame looking worried. Both looked a little out of sorts like they’d been running.

Kyuhyun cried out again as his knees gave out from under him. He dropped like a bag of potatoes falling to the floor as it his marionette strings were cut.  The phone inches from his hand tumbling free from the fall the voice mail message could be faintly heard. His face was wet again with tears. Donghae crouched next to the lost boy rubbing his back as he cried mindless to the world lost in his self-inflicted misery. Donghae looked back to Siwon who still stood in the doorway, Siwon turned his penetrating gaze to the Chinaman on the bed. A gaze that the other would not meet.

“Mi, we need to talk. Now.”

A/N: Okay Hi everyone, yes I’m back, for now. Please do check out my blog for an explanation of where I’ve been and all that, if you care. You all probably hate me because it has been quite a while since I’ve posted. I already have the next chapter in the works, so I should be on a fairly normal posting schedule. I would like to apologize for the years long hiatus on this, I hope you can forgive me. Please tell me what you think. I’ve been working on this for so long I hope you liked it. Oh and thank you for sticking with me even after this long.

~Tye