It was then, as Heechul sat alone on the lounge after the encounter with Kyuhyun and Sungmin, that he realised he really hadn’t been exaggerating when he said they used whips. It was also then that Heechul realised his story didn’t sound nearly as cool as he thought it did. It was fact, and facts were boring. There was always room for some extra exaggeration.

“W-wait, so they write their own fanfics and read them while ing?” Donghae asked with wide eyes. 

Donghae, Heechul, Ryeowook, Leeteuk and Eunhyuk were all lazing on the couch and watching some drama on the T.V, peeling mandarins--par Heechul, because he said it made his fingernails dirty. 

Heechul nodded, one hand on his chin and the other wrapped around his chest. “Exactly.”

Leeteuk rolled his eyes in exasperation. “Donghae, don’t listen to him, he’s just-“

“No,” Eunhyuk interrupted, his eyes narrowing slightly in thought. “Don’t doubt Heechul. He has eyes for these kinds of things. He’s been right about everything so far.”

Ryeowook muttered incoherently under his breath.

“What was that?” Heechul asked, staring at Ryeowook, daring him to contradict his awesomely flawless story.

“Who would write fanficton of themselves? I mean… isn’t that a little… weird?”

Leeteuk suddenly looked guilty.

There was an awkward silence hanging in the room as the occupants eyed Leeteuk who was sinking back into his chair. Heechul took it upon himself to break it, as the kind citizen he was. “… And they make tapes.”

Leeteuk choked on air. “T-t-t-t-tapes?” He spluttered, looking absolutely horrified. “B-but what if they got out to the public and then it’ll get sent to the reports and WE’RE ALL DOOM-“

“HAH!” Heechul interrupted. “Don’t underestimate them. They came to thy awesome self for help in hiding them, and I can assure you they’re under lock and key. No one will ever see them,” Heechul said arrogantly, silently thinking no one would ever see them since they didn’t exist but… whatever.

This did nothing to calm Leeteuk, and instead made him all the more terrified. If Heechul was under the possession of tapes… Leeteuk decided he didn’t even want to think about it.

“But,” Ryeowook asked quietly from the corner, looking like he wished he never entered this conversation in the first place. “Why are you telling us all of this? Isn’t it kind of their business, not ours?”

Heechul chortled and looked to Ryeowook as if he were an idiot. “How long have we been together, my dear Ryeowook?”

“Umm, seven years.”

“Seven whole years, and they haven’t said a thing. Doesn’t that make you… sad?”

Truthfully, Heechul had absolutely no clue where he was going with this, but it was all good. It’d work out somehow in the end.  

Leeteuk blinked a few times, as if just realising that they’d never spoken a word of their relationship to anyone. He stared at the ground and furrowed his eyebrows.

“You’re right,” he said dejectedly.  

He was supposed to be the leader! People were supposed to come to him for these things, but then hadn’t even tried. Leeteuk sniffled and stood abruptly, a determined expression plastered on his face.

“That’s it, I’m going to make sure they don’t have to hide anymore! Imagine the hardships those poor souls went through, and I saw none of it. What kind of leader am I?”

Leeteuk ran from the room and Heechul just watched, shrugging, interested to see how this would turn out.   

Kyuhyun was sitting on his bed playing Starcraft when he heard a soft knock on the door.

“Come in,” he grunted, still focused on his game.

Leeteuk entered quietly, taking slow and deliberate steps around the room. He thought it made him look poetic and melancholic, but in reality it just kind of made him look stupid. Kyuhyun broke the eye contact between him and his screen and glanced up at the leader who was still aimlessly wandering around the room and picking up objects at random, looking contemplative.

 “What?” Kyuhyun snapped. He was busy with his game and wanted to get this conversation over and done with as soon as possible.

Leeteuk took a deep breath in and approached Kyuhyun, sitting beside him on the bed. Kyuhyun gasped in horror as Leeteuk closed the lid of his laptop, and the urge to strangle his leader fired up. Kyuhyun spluttered incoherently for a moment, still recovering from the shock of his game being shut down.

“Kyuhyun-ah…” Leeteuk mumbled, looking at him right in the eyes like a puppy does when it wants food. “You know we’ll always support you, right?”

Kyuhyun immediately cringed back, suspicious. Why was his leader getting all mushy with him all of a sudden? “Um,” Kyuhyun said, “Sure?”

This made Leeteuk let out a long, deep breath, and Kyuhyun just became more confused.

“If you want to tell us something, just don’t be afraid to. We’ll always be by your side, no matter what.”

Kyuhyun stared blankly.

Leeteuk stared down at his hands, feeling like a failure of a leader. “I know about you and Sungmin. It must’ve been hard for you two, right?”

Kyuhyun scratched the back of his head. “Um, sorry, but what are you-“

“We know you’re together!” Leeteuk suddenly blurted out.

Kyuhyun stared.

Leeteuk stared.

Oh, Kyuhyun thought. Oh now it all made sense. The awkward glances in the dorm and during practice, the way the members kept staring at him when he was with Sungmin, and the very unsubtle whispers that he was sure were about him.

 So all the members thought they were… together? Kyuhyun wasn’t sure how this development came about, but he was sure that this had the potential to be ridiculously entertaining. Kyuhyun had to bite his lip to stop himself from cackling evilly out loud.

This will be fun, he thought.