Kyuhyun had invited Sungmin over to play some video games, hang out, and help set up for a party Kyuhyun was going to have later that night. They were in the middle of a suspenseful online game of Star craft when Sungmin's phone started to go off. Sungmin set down the controller to answer it.

 

Kyuhyun frowned in disappointment as he said, "Can't it wait? It's just a text."

 

Sungmin shot a small glare over to Kyuhyun as he checked his phone to see who the text was from.

 

"Who was it?" Kyuhyun asked in curiousity.

 

"It's Ryeowook, he wants me to go shopping with him before the party," Sungmin said with a sigh.

 

Kyuhyun rolled his eyes, "Can't you go some other time? You two shop all the time."

 

"No we don't, we only go, like, once every two months. Besides, I haven't really got to spend too much time with him lately because your always pulling me away from the others to hang out and play video games or something."

 

"Well sorry for being your best friend."

 

Sungmin rolled his eyes and sighed, "Sorry but I'm going shopping with him, it's not like we don't play Star craft 50 million times a week anyway."

 

"Alright, fine," Kyuhyun said in defeat, " so I guess I'll just see you at the party?"

 

Sungmin nodded, "You should invite Leeteuk or Shindong to help you set everything up since I'll be with Wookie."

 

"Okay," Kyuhyun replied as Sungmin got up and started walking to the front door of the big apartment.

 

Kyuhyun got up and followed Sungmin to the door. Sungmin put on his shoes and opened the door.

 

"I'll be back in about 2 hours," Sungmin said as he stepped out the door.

 

Kyuhyun folded his arms and said, "Alright, just as long as you come back so I can beat you at Star Craft again."

 

Sungmin just rolled his eyes and walked out. The door closed and Kyuhyun was left alone once again. He sighed then turned to go back to the living room. As he sat on the couch he took his phone from his pocket to check if he had gotten any new messages.

 

"Hmm, its just one from Donghae. Wonder what he wants," Kyuhyun said like he was tired of talking to him.

 

Hey, just wanted to know what time I should be at the party. I don't have anything else to do so if you weren't already done setting it up, I wanted to know if I could help. Nothing better for me to do.

 

Kyuhyun took a minute to think about what to say back. Then finally replied with:

 

The party is at 5:00pm. I haven't started setting anything up yet, if you want, you can come over at 4 to help get everything ready for the party.

 

Kyuhyun knew that if Donghae was coming over early then Eunhyuk would most likely be with him even though he didn't say so in the text.

 

He the TV and about 2 minutes later he got a text back from Donghae.

 

ok i'll be over at 4. hope you don't mind if Eunhyuk tags along too.

 

And there it was, Kyuhyun didn't really care who Donghae would have brought over just as long as he didn't have to set up everything himself. Though, setting up shouldn't be too hard, they would only have to set out snacks, drinks, and maybe a few streamers. It's not like the party was that important, just a get together for the group to play cards and drink for a bit. Nothing too big.

 

Kyuhyun read the text again and replied:

 

Yeah that's fine. See you at 4

 

Kyuhyun put his phone back in his pocket and walked to his room and grabbed a different outfit.

 

"Might as well take a shower since I have another hour till people start to show up."

 

He walked into the bathroom and the water. He set his new clothes down by the sink and started to his shirt. Then he remembered that his phone was in his pocket so he put it in the kitchen on the charger. As he walked back to the bathroom he continued to his shirt while looking at all the photos hanging up on the hallway walls.

 

"Heh, I remember that," He takes down a picture of him, Yesung, and Donghae each in sunglasses sitting on the beach making funny faces.

 

"That was a day worthy of a good prank, too bad Yesung didn't cooperate and ruined it," he lets out a small sigh and a laugh, puts the picture back, then continues to the bathroom.

 

After his shower, he gets dressed and messes around with his hair, trying to pick a style best for a small party. Nothing too fancy or too lazy. He finally decides to just brush it out and put in a bit of gel. He goes back to the living room and when he was just about to sit down to watch a bit of TV, the doorbell rings.

 

"Of course," He said holding out the 'o' in 'of' showing his annoyance. He gets up and goes to answer the door and to no surprise, when it opens, Donghae and Eunhyuk are standing outside the apartment door.

 

Donghae smiles and brings up a hand to wave, "What's up Kyuhyun?" Donghae says being as friendly as usual.

 

"You know not much goes on at my place," Kyuhyun says jokingly.

 

Eunhyuk and Donghae enter and Kyuhyun starts to get out the decorations.

 

"So what all do you have planned for tonight's party?" Eunhyuk said with curiosity.

 

"Oh not much, just a small get together amongst friends. Maybe play some cards and just hang out," Kyuhyun said as he was still making up his mind about the party activities.

 

It only takes 45 minutes for everything to be set up. Cups on the kitchen table sitting by the variety of different sodas and pops, chips and other snack foods set out beside the napkins, your usual simple party menu. Donghae had gotten out a couple streamers from an old box in the closet and Eunhyuk thought it would be funny to put out plastic silver wear even though all the snacks are just finger food.

 

"Really Hyuk?" Kyuhyun said with a voice that sounded like a father telling his son 'I thought I taught you better than that' type of tone.

 

"What," Eunhyuk said like he thought his 'prank' was hilarious. "I think it'll confuse at least Siwon being the classy guy he is." Donghae just rolls his eyes acting like he isn't paying attention to the conversation going on at the other side of the room.

 

Kyuhyun just shakes his head in disappointment and goes over to the living room. He sits on the couch and reaches for the remote to turn on the TV. Donghae and Eunhyuk sit on both sides of him in silence, waiting for Kyuhyun to find something good on TV. After a couple minutes of flipping through uninteresting channels, Kyuhyun finally decides to just put it on the local news.

 

Everyone was still silent as they watched the news. Just the usual news headers like laws broken, car crashes, and daily traffic jams. But then Kyuhyun's eyes widened when it got to a live robbery at the city mall.

 

"That's the mall that Sungmin and Ryeowook go to for shopping! What if they are trapped there!" Kyuhyun shouted in worry.

 

Eunhyuk jumped at Kyuhyun's sudden yell and Donghae grabbed Kyuhyun's arm trying to calm him down.

 

"How do you know if they even went there today? Did they tell you?" Donghae said trying to keep Kyuhyun from exploding from the worry.

 

"Why don't you text one of them and see if they are ok if they are there," Eunhyuk said curious to see if Kyuhyun would take his advice.

 

Kyuhyun jerked his arm out of Donghae's tight grip and went to the kitchen to get his phone. When he picked it up, he saw several messages from both Sungmin and Ryeowook saying things like:

 

we r ok

 

don't worry we will be fine

 

and

 

after the cops get us out we will head right to the apartment

 

The thing that really scared Kyuhyun is that he thinks they don't know the robber has a gun and could shoot at any time.

 

"Kyuhyun get back in here! Hurry!" Kyuhyun heard Donghae yell and he rushed back to the living room. He stared at the TV and saw Sungmin and Ryeowook in a crowd of other hostages. The robber was seen standing in front of all the hostages pointing his gun at some girl in the front yelling and demanding money.

 

"This can't be happening," Kyuhyun mumbled tears about to pour from his eyes. 

 

Kyuhyun rushes to the front door, grabs his car keys out of his jacket and hurries out the door.

 

"Kyu! Where are you going?!" Donghae shouts down the hall.

 

"To save my friends!" Kyuhyun says running down the hall to the elevator.

 

Eunhyuk shakes his head from side to side just hoping Kyuhyun doesn't do anything too stupid and idiotic.

 

When Kyuhyun reaches the parking lot, he sees Leeteuk get out of the car parked beside his.

 

"Hey Kyu, where are you going in such a hurry? You got a party to be at," Leeteuk must have not heard about what was going on at the mall.

 

"Donghae and Eunhyuk will explain when you get up to the apartment. But for now I have to go," Kyuhyun rushed into his car and out of the parking lot. Millions of thoughts that frightened him ran through his head. He shook his head trying to clear his mind of what might happen to his best friends and speeded down the road. He checked his phone, hoping to get another calming text from Sungmin or Ryeowook, but there was no new messages.

 

He pulled in to the parking lot by the mall and the area was already surrounded by cops and ambulances. The sight of them all only made Kyuhyun shudder in fear and hope for the best. He went up to one of the officers trying to ask questions but the man just told Kyuhyun to leave and that everything was under control. All Kyuhyun thought was 'If you have everything under control then why are there innocent lives being threatened in there?!'

 

After a few minutes of trying to get around the mob of police and other people surveying the drama happening inside the mall, he decided to go around back where less commotion was happening. After looking around for unlocked doors that led inside the mall, he found a small open window he could fit through to get in. He tried remembering what store he saw Sungmin and Ryeowook in but he couldn't remember anything but the frightened look on their faces as the robber pointed a gun at them and told them to get down.

 

After listening for a few seconds, he could hear the voice of the robber coming from a nearby clothing store. He walked along the walls of the mall trying to stay as hidden as possible. When he got to the right store, he looked into the display window and saw that the robber was faced away from the entrance, and that Sungmin and Ryeowook were still crouched on the ground by the wall in a big crowd of other shoppers. There was about 25-40 people in the medium sized store all crouched or on their knees closely packed together trying to keep from being shot at.

 

Kyuhyun couldn't decide what he should do next. He couldn't even believe he made it this far. He was just relieved to see no one, especially Sungmin and Ryeowook, were harmed. He wanted to get Sungmin's attention but didn't want to catch the eye of the robber. He looked around at the other stores seeing if there was anything he could get from them to defend himself with if he was caught. But then he decided it would be best if he didn't take anything. If he took something out of one of the stores it would be sure to set off an alarm if he didn't pay for it first, and all the cashiers have fled from the mall to keep from being a hostage.

 

"Aish!" Kyuhyun said in a whisper, "Why did they have to go shopping today of all days?"


Kyuhyun looked back into the store and the robber had moved over to where Sungmin and Ryeowook were still crouched. Kyuhyun prayed to god that he wouldn't pull out the gun and trhreaten them but of course thats what happened. He could hear the man yell, " Give me all your money and no one gets shot!"

Kyuhyun was afraid and furious at the same time. Having someone threaten to hurt the ones he loved made him do something he will regret later but be happy he did. He quickly stood up and ran into the store behind the man. He hit the robber in the back and the man turned around only to punch Kyuhyun back in the face.

"You picked the wrong person to mess with kid," the robber shouted as Kyuhyun quickly put his had to his bleeding lip.

The robber pushed Kyuhyun down and pointed the gun at him. Sungmin jumped up and tears filled his eyes as he screamed, "No!!"

But Sungmin was too late as he heard the loud gunshot. He looked down at Kyuhyun and saw that the robber had shot him in the thigh. Blood was starting to flow from the wound and Sungmin ran to the robber and took the gun he shot Kyuhyun with and pointed it at the robber's head.

Police started rushing in and went straight to Sungmin and took the gun from his hands and put the robber in handcuffs. Sungmin scramble over to Kyuhyuns side followed by Ryeowook.

"Kyuhyun! Are you ok?! I can't beleive you did that your so stupid!!" Sungmin said as he took Kyuhyun into his arms.

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine after I get to the hospital," Kyuhyun smirked then winced at the pain shooting up from his thigh.

A few people from an ambulance carried Kyuhyun out on a stretcher after they wrapped up his thigh. Sungmin clinged to Kyuhyun's hand until they took him away. After Kyuhyun left Ryeowook and Sungmin went to Kyuhyun's apartment to tell everyone what happened and why Kyuhyun didn't return with them.

Sungmin had tears pouring from his eyes the whole time Ryeowook was explaining what had happened to Kyuhyun just moments before they arrived at the apartment.

"Lets go," Leeteuk said grabbing his car keys.

"Go where?" Shindong said.

"Where do you think?" Leeteuk replied," to the hospital. We have to make sure he's ok. He's our friend we've gotta be there for him."

"You think they would let us in so early?" Siwon said.

"Lets find out," Leeteuk replied as he opened the door and everyone followed him out to their cars and drove to the hospital.

When they all got there a nurse told them they would have to wait about 20 minutes until they could see Kyuhyun. Sungmin had finally stopped crying but he couldn't stop worrying. After about 25 minutes the nurse came out with a clipboard nd a frown. The doctor soon followed her out and stood infront of all the worried waiting friends afraid of the worst.

"I've got bad knews and good new," the doctor said with a frown.

"Good news first," Leeteuk said and everyone nodded in agreement.

"Ok then," The doctor put his hands behind his back and fixed his posture. "Well we successfully goot the bullet out of his leg."

Sungmin sighed in relief.

The Doctor continued,"But the bad news is that the bullet had been covered in poison and now your friend doesn't have much time till he's killed by the poison."

The small waiting room was silenced. No one said anything. Yesung looked at Sungmin with sadness in his eyes knowing how close he was to Kyuhyun. 

"There has to be something you can do!" Heechul stood up and shouted. Leeteuk then threw a glare his way telling him to calm down. Heechul then sat back down with an angry expression.

"I'm so sorry," The doctor said.

"Can we see him?" Sungmin finally spoke.

The doctor nodded and led everyone to the room Kyuhyun was in. When they walked in, Kyuhyun was hooked up to several machines and he had a smile.

Everyone rushed to the sides of the bed surrounding Kyuhyun.

"Kyuhyun are you feeling ok?" Eunhyuk and Donghae asked in unison.

Kyuhyun simply nodded and said,"I'm feeling a lot better seeing how everyone rushed here to see me."

"Well, why wouldn't we?" Ryeowook said.

"So do you guys know that I don't have much time left?" Kyuhyun said looking around at the 12 friends standing around the bed.

Everyone frowned an nodded quietly.

"Promise me something guys," Kyuhyun said softly.

Everyone payed close attention to the injured boy on the bed. 

"Please, don't morn too much after I go,"Kyuhyun said with a slight smile. "The last this I need is to be watching over is a big bunch of crybabies." He laughed and everyone smiled.

Everyone could feel that lump in the throats and tears begin to build in their eyes.

"Besides," Kyuhyun began,"It's not like its the end of the world. I promise....I will.....see you all again......"

Suddenly the small machine by the bed showed a straight line and the repetative beeping turned into a continuous high note. Everyone started crying as Kyuhyun smiled and closed his eyes.

A few days after Kyuhyuns funeral the sun was shining brightly through Sungmin's bedroom window. Sungmin slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes and looked out the blinds hanging on the window.

"Its so bright today...Seems so..." He paused and looked at the picture of him and Kyuhyun hanging on his wall surrounded by the many pictures of the others.

"Happy...." He smiles and stood up.

"Hi Kyu," He smiled looking up at the clear blue sunny sky,"You must have a good prank idea. You're making the sun shine so brightly today."