Sharing a room with Sungmin was awkward.

No, awkward didn’t even begin to cover how Kyuhyun felt about having Sungmin sitting in the bed next to him. There was this thick tension hanging between them like sticky goo. Kyuhyun felt like he finally understood how a fish in a fishbowl felt.

Between them, there was a silent rule, though. Even if the raging war was still in full swing, they at least had the decency to keep their murderous intent to themselves during sleeping or relaxing time. They did, after all, have to at least try to get along at some points during the day, otherwise they would become very miserable and tetchy.

They especially had to act all buddy, buddy on stage so the Kyumin fans didn’t freak out and think they had a couple fight.

Because they weren’t a couple.

No way.

Not even close.

Kyuhyun glanced at Sungmin out of the corner of his eye. The older male was sitting peacefully on his bed, tapping his feet to the rhythm of his headphones, book in hand, ‘Mandarin for Dummies’.

Kyuhyun tried not to laugh, but ended up guffawing. He smacked himself on the forehead and checked to see if Sungmin had noticed anything unusual – which he hadn’t. Kyuhyun breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back a bit, still observing, waiting for the right time to pounce and make his move.

In the end, he didn’t even have to.

Sungmin made his first.

 “I saw you with SNSD in the closet,” he said, trying to keep his voice airy and casual, because he totally didn’t even care. Like, not at all. He was just curious.

“Yeah, so?”  

Sungmin side eyed him and pulled out his ear plugs. Kyuhyun cringed when he realised Sungmin must’ve heard him make that inhuman laughing noise.

“No reason,” he said, still facing forward but his eyes were trained on the other. “I guess I was just wondering why they all pulled you in there out of the blue. Do you have something going on with one of them or something?”

Kyuhyun took a moment to realise what he was insinuating. “No! Of course I don’t have anything to do with them. That’s just silly. Why would I – I mean, no there’s absolutely no way I would have anything to do with any of them because I totally just don’t see them that way. Got it?”

Kyuhyun wasn’t sure why he felt the need to defend himself, or get annoyed when Sungmin insinuated he was dating one of the members. All he knew is that he felt bad about it and didn’t want Sungmin to think that way about him.

“Is that so?” Sungmin said, his voice taking on a high, mocking pitch.

“Yes, it is,” Kyuhyun said, emphasising his words.

The previous tense atmosphere rocketed up to astronomical levels. Kyuhyun decided that he just couldn’t take this anymore. It was driving him insane, and he needed to just get this over and done with right now so he could have his friend back. Because damn it, even if he wouldn’t admit it out loud, he missed Sungmin like crazy.

He missed the way they pulled stupid pranks together, not on each other. He missed the way they sat together in the car, how they stayed behind together at dance because Kyuhyun and Sungmin was patient, and he missed the meals they used to eat together – just with the two of them.

Rolling on his side and facing Sungmin, head propped on his hand, Kyuhyun decided enough was enough and he was going to sort this out once and for all. He was going to make peace with Sungmin, and join him in some kind of diabolical plan to make the other members suffer for their amusement.

“So, um, hyung?” Kyuhyun waited until Sungmin’s eyes were trained on his. “So, uh, I know that you’re a little mad at me and all, but don’t you think we should just, you know, make peace?”

Sungmin glared.

Kyuhyun flustered. “Because uh, we’re like friends and all, best friends, and friends just don’t put flour in friend’s hair dryers.”

Evidently this was the wrong thing to say, because Sungmin glared at him with ice in his eyes.

“And friends don’t trick other friends, right?” There was a cold bite in his words.

Kyuhyun winced, now feeling a bit bad about the whole pranking thing, even if it was fun. “Yeah, but it was all for fun. You know, I didn’t do it because I wanted people to hate you or get the wrong idea or anything... And it was pretty funny when everyone was freaking out just after that episode of Strong Heart and getting pissed off at you because –“

That was definitely the wrong thing to say, Kyuhyun realised, as Sungmin crawled atop of him and started wringing the life out of him with his hands around Kyuhyun’s neck.

“This is just the beginning,” he cackled, still atop Kyuhyun.

He released his fingers from Kyuhyun’s neck, leaving painful red marks. He grabbed a stuffed toy and continued laughing while ripping the arm off of a teddy bear as he left the room,

Kyuhyun stared in horror.

Oh god, he thought, I broke him.