Ask any of the fifteen who was the most efficient member, and they would point to Sungmin without a second thought.

“I’m telling you, pink streamers will be a hit at the graduation party,” argued Sungmin, his ear pressed against the cordless telephone as he measured a cup of flour. “So what if the guys hate it? They’ll be too busy looking at the girls, who will love the decorations.”

Donghae sat on the kitchen counter top, his legs dangling in the air. He had a pencil stuck behind his ear and a book in his hands. The studious image, however, was ruined by his cookie-dough covered fingers. He stuck a hand into the bowl for a second helping, and wooden spoon smacked across his knuckles.

Sungmin did not even look up as Donghae pouted. “I’m the chairman of the graduation party. I say pink streamers, you buy pink streamers. Got that?” He paused and listened to the upset voice on the other end. “If the other councillor is giving you a hard time, tell him I’ll cancel his order of strawberry crepes.”

There was a loud exclamation from a third party. Sungmin smirked, taking it as the councillors gave in to his wishes. He hung up and put the phone back onto the table.

“I still don’t get how Hyukkie became a councillor,” Donghae said conversationally, watching Sungmin beat the eggs into the bowl.

Sungmin considered the question, pouring generous amounts of sugar without thought. “He’s perfectly capable,” he said, “when he acts responsible, and considers other people’s needs.”

“Liar.” Kyuhyun wandered into the kitchen, his nose in the air. “Sungmin-hyung lost a card game to Eunhyuk, and the stakes was to do the impossible. Are you making cookies?”

“And a cake,” added Sungmin. “It’s our one-year family anniversary tomorrow.”

Donghae’s face lit up. “I forgot!”

“Is that even a proper celebration?” Kyuhyun asked critically. Sungmin stuck out his tongue and haughtily continued his work.

“How did you get home this afternoon?” Donghae asked, glancing back down at his homework. “Sungmin-hyung, do you want to help me do this question? I’ll be your food-taster for free. Just in case, you know, it’s poisoned or something.”

“My cooking skills are perfect, thank you.”

“But it was Kyuhyun who went shopping the last time, supervised by Yesung-hyung.” The whisk suddenly paused in mid-air. Yesung was liable to get distracted by the pet’s section in the department store, and Kyuhyun could never be trusted with food.

“Fair point,” mused Sungmin. “I’ll do that question.”

Kyuhyun was already pouring over the assessment book. “I know the answer,” he pointed out. “It’s A.”

“Ehh? Why?”

“He’s distracting you from your question, Donghae,” Sungmin noticed. Kyuhyun glowered in Sungmin’s direction.

Donghae looked up in surprise. Sungmin laughed; a light, distinctive sound. “Do you really think Kyu would help people so voluntarily otherwise?”

“Yes, he would,” Kyuhyun interrupted. He stalked to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle. He left the kitchen.

“Hey wait! How did you know the answer was A?” called Donghae, his pencil poised over his book.

Sungmin leaned over. “He used this method,” he answered, scribbling down the formula. “How do you think he came home, Donghae? Whose turn was it today?”

Donghae shrugged, his mind focused on the question. “It’s hard to remember. Leeteuk-hyung was a bit vague about Kyu-duties after yesterday’s drama.”

“That’s why we should celebrate this one-year anniversary,” Sungmin said determinedly.

“Is it really that important to you, hyung?” Donghae asked curiously. “I don’t even think anyone else remembers the date.”

“Me? What are you talking about?” Sungmin wiped his hands on his floral apron. “It was Kyuhyun who reminded me this morning.”

The phone rang in the evening. The cordless phone had somehow made its own journey from the kitchen to the second landing bathroom.

There was a shriek. “Hyung!” Henry shouted at the top of his voice. “Why is the phone beside the toothbrushes?”

“Answer it!” Ryeowook hollered back from the bedroom. “It could be Yesung-hyung!” The university Yesung was studying at was outside the town, so he stayed at the dormitories on weekdays. It was Friday and sometimes he would come back, announced or otherwise.

Henry spat out the water he was gargling and answered the phone. “Hello?” he greeted.

There was a garble of words in reply that he could not follow. “HYUNG! I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT HE’S SAYING!”

“Write it down then!”

Henry stumbled out of the bathroom, his toothbrush still in one hand. He the phone to Ryeowook, shaking his head.

“You should practice your conversational Korean,” Ryeowook advised, but accepted the phone. He listened to the person on the other end, playing with his toy giraffe on his table. Gradually, his hand stopped moving and his face grew pale.

“Wait! Who are you?” Ryeowook suddenly cried out, his voice panicked. Henry looked at him quizzically. The caller seemed to hang up.

“Who is it?”

“Quick, call Sungmin-hyung.”

Sungmin was the oldest in the house, with everyone else either in school or at work. He listened to Ryeowook’s terrified account, which Henry testified to by nodding along furiously at every other sentence.

Donghae had abandoned his books a long time ago. He sat by the kitchen table, open-mouthed.

Kyuhyun appeared supremely uninterested. “Prank call,” he declared, after Ryeowook ended.

“It didn’t sound like one,” Henry interjected.

“No offence meant, Henry, but you and Ryeowook have the highest voices,” Kyuhyun shrugged. “They’d think you’re young, naïve, and would fall for their joke hook, line and sinker.”

“Threats are a far cry from pretending to be ordering pizza,” Sungmin countered. There was a ding from the oven. He held up his hand to excuse himself, and took out the freshly-baked cookies. He served them to the maknaes with glasses of milk. “Thanks for the recipe, Henry. This is really interesting to make.”

“This isn’t how we respond to death threats in Canada,” noted Henry, blowing on a cookie. “We usually call the police and run around trying to solve the problem ourselves in a state of controlled panic.”

“It wasn’t a death threat,” pointed out Donghae, his hand on his chin. He looked at the glass of milk, puzzled, and snuck a look at Henry. Following suit, he proceeded to drown a cookie in it.

“Nobody’s panicking,” Kyuhyun answered crossly. “Some jerk probably remembered I was missing from school for a week and heard rumours about a kidnapping. He called, pretended to threaten to kidnap yet another someone, and got satisfaction from hearing Ryeowookie-hyung worry. End of story.”

“Do you know this person?” Sungmin asked, raising his eyebrows.

“NO.”

A familiar, irritable expression descended upon Kyuhyun’s face. He pushed himself from the table and left.

“I’m actually inclined to believe Kyuhyun,” confessed Sungmin, watching him bound up the staircase. “It makes sense.”

“Kibummie says he has awful classmates,” seconded Donghae.

“But it was real,” insisted Ryeowook, though his voice wavered slightly.

“Did he say why he was threatening someone here?” Sungmin asked.

Ryeowook glanced at Henry.”He didn’t tell me, but he could have mentioned it to Henry.”

Henry winced. “Sorry. I really couldn’t understand a thing.”

Sungmin sat down quietly as the other three slowly overcame the initial shock of the phone call with the new food. He had made it after Siwon mentioned Henry’s homesickness, so that the familiar food may offer some comfort, even if it was very little. His cooking experiment seemed to have succeeded. Prank call or not, it was disturbing to have the tranquillity in the house being continuously disturbed since Kyuhyun’s incident.

“I’ll tell Teukie-hyung,” Sungmin decided finally. “All of you just be more careful. If only our phone has caller ID…”

What Kyuhyun wanted to do was to play a particularly vicious game with anyone and win. He opted for taking Changmin up on his offer to peruse the new video game shop down the road. Maybe he could play on the demo. Changmin agreed easily, and noted the tense way Kyuhyun held his shoulders when he arrived at the shop front.

“Don’t you think our classmates are jerks?” Kyuhyun suddenly said, instead of a proper greeting.

Changmin jammed his hands into his jeans pockets. “I don’t know. I call them dickheads on a daily basis and got suspended once for fighting with them. I may have a biased opinion.”

Kyuhyun cracked a grin and shoved his friend off the pavement playfully. “Whatever.”

“WHERE ISHE?”

Henry fled to his music whenever he felt threatened. His hyungs were pacing downstairs, arguing with each other about who should have taken more notice; whether to involve the police; shouting down anyone who merely suggested that the missing family member was hurt in any way.

Henry played the violin like how Eunhyuk danced to a melody or Yesung sung a tune. It was skilful, powerful and full of passion. Donghae once picked up the violin and the screeched tone that came out made them all appreciate the technique Henry had mastered. Sometimes, Henry would play and unconsciously gather an audience.

Donghae liked to listen to Henry the most. He followed Henry to his bedroom, pretending to offer comfort when in actual fact, he was trying to seek comfort from the reassurance Henry always projected with his violin. There was probably going to be hell to pay for later that night, when the boy came home. When, not if, Donghae told himself.

Henry’s music was nostalgic, and Donghae found his mind wandering back to the past.

At the orphanage, it was no secret that Heechul was its longest resident eventhough he ran away many times. The second longest resident, however, was not Leeteuk but Kyuhyun. When Donghae came in, Kyuhyun was a very small child then. Kyuhyun would not remember; but he had run up to Donghae and traced the lacerations on the older child’s legs with his fingers.

“Hello,” Kyuhyun piped up. “Are you here to stay too? What happened to your leg?”

One of the staff quickly ushered Kyuhyun away before Donghae could reply. That night, Kyuhyun crept into the overcrowded room where the older boys slept. It was dinner time, but Donghae refused to come down.

He was curled up on his bed, crying. The blankets were too thin to keep out the cold. Then, there was a sudden dip in the mattress. “They told me to tell you that if you don’t want to eat, you better come down for breakfast tomorrow,” Kyuhyun reported. There was a choked sob in response. “Don’t cry.”

“It’s not nice here,” Donghae wept. “I want to go home.”

Kyuhyun looked unsure how to react. “Sometimes you get to go to another home when you’re here,” was Kyuhyun’s best reply.

“I want my home.”

It took several minutes for Donghae to stop crying enough to properly look at Kyuhyun. The latter was staring at him in bemusement. “How old are you?” Donghae asked, seeing that Kyuhyun’s legs could not even reach the floor.

“Nine,” Kyuhyun said proudly.

Donghae blinked. “I’m twelve. Are there any other twelve-year-old kids here?” he asked hopefully.

“A few. What happened to your leg?”

Kyuhyun’s attention span was short, but Donghae was easily distracted. He glanced back down at his legs. He was wearing shorts still, because the long cut was still red and sore. “I got hurt,” Donghae answered, “at a swimming pool.”

“Liar,” Kyuhyun said immediately. There was movement at the doorway, but neither of the boys noticed. He immediately recited, “You’re from Mokpo, and had an older brother. You won dance competitions. Then there was a car accident nearly a week –”

Donghae looked like he was slapped. Tears formed at his eyes again.

“KYUHYUN!” roared one of the staff.

The next time Donghae saw Kyuhyun, the smaller boy had a bruise on his cheek. It was time for morning exercises, but Donghae was exempted from it.

“I’m sorry,” Kyuhyun apologised stiffly. Donghae saw the white uniform skirt of the staff behind the pillar. “I’ll never mention anything again.”

The person moved, and the skirt disappeared from view.

“They hit people?” Donghae asked in a hushed voice. Kyuhyun was still the only other child he had spoken to, and Donghae was a forgiving person by nature. He put Kyuhyun’s rudeness away at the back of his mind. Kyuhyun looked up at Donghae hopefully, amazement that he was still talking to him evident.

“Only the dragon lady,” confided Kyuhyun. “She doesn’t like me because I like Heechul-hyung even if he is an .”

Donghae blinked again. “Okay.”

“Heechul-hyung has been here even longer than I have,” Kyuhyun continued, sitting down on the step next to Donghae. “He runs away a lot. Once I helped him by distracting the dragon lady by calling her something-I’m-not-supposed-to-say-again.” Kyuhyun winced a little at the memory of his punishment. “Heechul-hyung got into big, big trouble that time, so if I hadn’t helped Heechul-hyung escape, the police wouldn’t have come and snooped around.”

“What’s there to hide here?” Donghae asked. He was getting terrified, but Kyuhyun’s matter-of-fact voice was oddly comforting compared to the sugar-coated words he had been fed for the past week. There was nothing wrong with his legs (I can’t dance again); his family was in a better place (I’m alone); the orphanage would be a brief stint (Kyuhyun’s been here forever).

“Lots.” Kyuhyun bit his lip. “Donghae-hyung?”

It felt weird to hear the word ‘hyung’. “Yeah?”

“They say I was in a car accident too.” It was the first, and last time that Kyuhyun revealed this fact to anyone. “That’s why I asked.”

“Oh… did you lose anybody too?”

Kyuhyun shrugged. “Is that why you have that injury?”

“Yeah.” Donghae came clean. “There was a piece of metal that cut me.”

“Can you dance again?”

“… I don’t think so. The doctors said my leg might not heal properly.”

“Oh,” Kyuhyun said, glancing at the staff that was approaching their direction with an irritated look on her face. “At least you don’t have to do these stupid morning exercises.” He scrambled to his feet, and ran off in the opposite direction. 

The orphanage had many rules, and talking between dormitories was forbidden in case there was trouble. Kyuhyun broke as many of these rules as possible. More often than not, Donghae found him in his dormitory talking to a boy named Sungmin, as the other boy bandaged yet another cut or sighed at another bruise. It was Kyuhyun who found out that Eunhyuk, who came in a few months later, used to dance too. Kyuhyun had given Donghae a packet of strawberry milk one morning, and told him to look for a boy with a gummy smile, who was probably crying at the mediocre playground behind the orphanage. So it could be due to the computer hacker that the two were now best friends.

“Did you find him?”

Kyuhyun watched the pale faces of his hyungs, and wondered if those were their faces when he went missing.

“It’s been hours.”

“It’s after midnight.”

Ryeowook had broken down first, apologising over and over again for not getting the caller’s name. He crawled to Siwon’s outstretched arms.

At two in the morning, Sungmin messaged all his contacts again, appealing for them to remember when they had last seen him. Shindong confiscated his friend’s phone when it got flung to the ground in frustration when the nil replies and questions flooded in.

By three o’clock, almost everyone was asleep in the living room together. Kyuhyun was silent as Kangin murmured that he would go to the nearby police stations to make a police report. Donghae begged to follow, and Leeteuk allowed them to go reluctantly, trusting Kangin’s self-defence skills.

Nobody stirred at six in the morning, when a white van screeched to a halt outside the apartment building. It was a Saturday, and even if they were not all so exhausted from the tiring week, it was a typical sleep-in day. So no alarm clocks rang. The door was opened very slowly and painstakingly.

Donghae felt someone shaking him awake though. He squinted in the darkness. The door was ajar, bringing in the street light glow into the apartment.

“Donghae, it hurts,” came a very, very soft voice. Donghae’s eyes widened in recognition. 

“EUNHYUK! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?”

Then he took in the bruises and cuts and the pathetic manner the latter huddled into himself.

“What happened to you?”

A/N: I'll like to explain off Chapter 2. The main focus of this story is how Kyuhyun come to terms with Super Junior as his family... and each member of course has his own story to tell. I told Henry's, Ryeowook's, Kibum's and Siwon's story a bit... This chapter is more on Donghae's background.