The atmosphere of the restaurant quieted down as if a bucket of cold water had been dumped on us. I saw Leeteuk shift in his seat uncomfortably as did I; I almost felt my hips tingling.

We just stared at him for a long time with shocked faces while Minhyun bowed. "Hi, it's nice to be here. Please take good care of me," he said with a smile.

I turned my head to look at Ryeowook again, and mouthed, "What is this?"

Ryeowook shook his head.

"So same thing as when Kyuhyun joined, guys," said the representative. "We won't reveal his joining the group until a few days before the comeback. He'll move into the dorm tomorrow night."

I looked at Minhyun again, who was smiling. I suddenly felt a surge of anger, remembering how hard he had made it for me when I was a trainee, and how hard he made trainee life hard for everyone in general.

"Well, please go back to eating. Minhyun - if you just take any seat," said the representative.

I faced front and looked at the meat on the grill again as several buzzes of conversation started, then realized that the barbecue was burning.

"Ryeowook!" I said urgently. Ryeowook snapped out of his state and looked at the grill, then hastily started turning them over with the tongs.

"God, I haven't burned anything in the kitchen, ever," said Ryeowook, shaking his head. "It's because of you. You somehow - "

I raised my eyebrows. "Careful what you say if you care about your health," I said.

"Uh - influence other people," said Ryeowook timidly.

I chuckled a bit, but I couldn't get my thoughts off of Minhyun. I never, ever would have thought that he would be on the same team as me, so I never even imagined what it would be like. As I was drowned in my thoughts, I saw Leeteuk whisper something to Kangin, who nodded. He then waited for a few seconds before passing the message on to Eunhyuk, who was sitting next to him. I saw Eunhyuk respond the same way and pass it on. The message eventually reached Ryeowook, who lent his ear to Siwon for a second. Then Ryeowook turned to me.

"Don't go to bed tonight before everyone is at the dorm," muttered Ryeowook.

I nodded and took another glance at Minhyun, who had sat down with the managers and was introducing himself. I sighed and looked back at the food, suddenly not feeling hungry anymore.

I ended up eating almost nothing during dinner. I could go to the dorm right away after dinner since I had no schedules, but a few of the hyungs had schedules until well into the morning. I had kept myself awake by starting on my schoolwork, but when 3am hit, my body, which had just adjusted to a regular sleeping schedule, wasn't willing to cooperate. I walked out of my room to ask Ryeowook to wake me up when the other hyungs were here when I saw all of them who were gone stepped inside tiredly.

"Hey," said Kangin as I bowed. To my surprise, he then tousled my hair.

"You're back, hyung," I said with a small smile.

"Yeah. Finally," he said with a yawn.

I nodded. "So - why weren't we allowed to go to bed?" I asked uncertainly, but the reply wasn't required.

"Everyone in the living room," said Leeteuk loudly.

He then sat down on the couch, and all of the members gathered to the living room. Soon, all of us had found a place to sit in. I was sitting on the floor against the wall next to Ryeowook and was shifting my weight into a more comfortable position when Leeteuk spoke.

"I trained with a different cohort when I was a trainee. Does anyone know him well?" he asked.

"Minhyun?" clarified Sungmin. When Leeteuk nodded, Sungmin shrugged. "I don't know if I know him that well, but we were friends as trainees."

"I can't handle another young one," said Leeteuk, shaking his head. I felt my face flush.

"But I honestly don't understand how this is supposed to work. Kyuhyun still doesn't even have a bed yet. How is he supposed to live here?" said Eunhyuk.

"That's not why it doesn't make sense," said Kangin. "I mean, I kind of understand why Kyuhyun joined. We weren't very popular when he joined and Kyuhyun could have been a marketing strategy, but we just did really well with our singles, and I just don't understand why he gets to join now, after we've done well. It's just not fair," he complained heatedly.

Leeteuk sighed. "Does anyone else know him besides Sungmin?"

I looked around, but it seemed that no one really knew him. I didn't say anything since I was just thankful that I was allowed to even listen in on this meeting, but Sungmin looked at me.

"Kyuhyun, you have a bit of a relationship with him," said Sungmin. I looked up in surprise.

"Huh?" I said, my face flushing. I looked at Leeteuk's expression, but he didn't have that angry expression that he always had on when he was looking at me this time.

"How do you know him?" asked Leeteuk.

"Um... He used to beat me for not taking care of my juniors," I said, embarrassed.

"If I'm not mistaken, it's more like, they really hate each other," said Sungmin.

I saw Leeteuk contemplate for a second, then he looked at me. "Kyuhyun, let's talk. Everyone else can go to bed if you want."

Everyone got to his feet. I stood up too, but only to get closer to Leeteuk. Soon, we were left alone in the living room and I was sitting next to Leeteuk on the couch with my head down. Leeteuk stared at me for a few seconds, then he spoke.

"Kyuhyun, do you remember what I told you when we went to the river a while ago?"

I nodded.

"I can't do it. Not another young one. This group won't work."

I stayed silent.

"And can I assume that you're not to happy with him being here either?"

I bit my lip. "I - I don't know if I'm quite in the position to say - "

"Just be honest so that we can have this talk," said Leeteuk impatiently.

"Yes," I admitted.

I saw Leeteuk smile a little out of the corner of my eye. "Let's see what we can do with using you."

I looked up in surprise. "What do you mean?"

Leeteuk shrugged. "Let's just say... pampering you to make him... inferior? I know you're younger, but he's still a junior to you. And I mean those little things, like demanding honorifics, just having little privileges that you have that he won't have, that type of thing."

"But we already kind of worked out honorifics when I debuted," I said uncertainly. "He speaks to me in informal speech and I use honorifics."

Leeteuk shook his head. "You can use honorifics to each other if you're not comfortable dropping it, but he has to use honorifics to everyone on the team. I'll make sure of that."

When I nodded and didn't say anything, Leeteuk glanced at me. "Oh, and from now on, let's have you sleep on the couch in the living room, and he can sleep on the floor next to you."

My mouth dropped open. "But sunbaenim, I'm still - younger - and I'm not sure how I feel about having to sleep next to - "

"If he gives you a hard time, you just have to tell one of us hyungs about it. That's it."

I bit my lip.

"Just go with the flow," said Leeteuk. "And remember that you're the obvious senior in this position, and he does have to show you a certain amount of respect."

I shifted my weight uneasily for a bit, then looked at him. "Sunbaenim, sorry for asking, but did you have these meetings when I first joined six months ago?"

Leeteuk looked at me for a few seconds, then to my surprise, he smiled. "Get some sleep," he said, then he got up from the couch.

And so began my revenge on Minhyun. The next night, there was a knock at the door to the dorm while all of the members were sitting around the floor of the living room, eating dinner. No one seemed too keen to get up from their seats and I had finished eating anyway, so I got up.

"I'll get it," I said quickly, then I rushed to the door. I opened it to reveal Minhyun, obviously. "Hi, how are you?" I said with a small smile.

"Fine," said Minhyun informally with a small frown as if he were being bothered by a bug.

"Okay, come in," I said, opening the door all the way. I turned aroud to let Minhyun bring his own luggage inside and return to the living room when Minhyun called from behind me.

"Kyuhyun, help me with the luggage," he demanded.

"Okay," I said, then I turned around again to reach for his luggage when Leeteuk called me from the living room.

"Kyuhyun!" yelled Leeteuk.

"Yeah."

"Come here," he said.

I hesitated with Minhyun's luggage still in my hands, but I dropped his luggage by his feet. "Sorry, just a second," I said to Minhyun, then I rushed to the living room.

"You're being a push-over," whispered Leeteuk in a singsong voice.

"I'm still younger," I whispered back, torn.

"I'm older than Minhyun. Listen to me, not him," said Leeteuk. We then met each other's eyes and smiled.

"Okay, I understand," I said, then Leeteuk patted me on the back as I sat down on the floor next to him, not to return to the front door to help Minhyun with the luggage.

As soon as Minhyun stepped into the living room, it fell silent, just like that day when I first moved in. And for the first time, I thought I saw Minhyun shrink. "Hi," he said with several bows.

I turned my head to look at Leeteuk, and he had that typical frown that he had used so much to make me feel uncomfortable on. "I heard you ordering Kyuhyun around," he said in his c‌harismatically low, quiet voice. "Where are your respects to a sunbae? I heard you trained for a long time, is singing and dancing all that you learned?"

I glanced at Minhyun's expression to see that it had hardened, and Minhyun looked to be frozen into place.

"If I see you speaking to anyone on the team informally without asking them first - just wait and see," said Leeteuk with menace in his voice.

I saw Minhyun fluster and whisper "Sorry".

There was a silence at the table that even I found uncomfortable, so I got up.

"I'll get started on the dishes," I said, then I got to my feet. I tilted my waist backwards to compensate for the soreness that followed getting up every time, then Kangin looked at me. I had started gathering the dishes together when Kangin spoke with concern.

"Kyuhyun, what's wrong with your back?" he asked.

"It's just a bit sore," I said.

"Kyuhyun, sit back down," said Leeteuk. Flustered, I did as I was told as Leeteuk looked at Minhyun instead. "Hey, you do the dishes tonight."

I saw Minhyun's mouth drop open with the injustice at the situation. Then Sungmin looked at me from the other side of Leeteuk. "Kyuhyun, I've asked you before, but do you want a massage?"

Lying spread out in front of your seniors was something that I'd never even considered before, so I opened my mouth to refuse, glancing at Leeteuk. However, Leeteuk put his hand on my back. "Yeah, Kyuhyun, go for it."

I raised my eyebrows and looked at him, but Leeteuk was looking at Minhyun, still standing uncertainly at the door, looking like he didn't know what to do with himself. "What are you waiting for?" demanded Leeteuk.

Minhyun quickly dropped his luggage and started gathering the dishes from the table as Sungmin shuffled closer to me.

"Hey, lie down on your stomach," he said, taking me from behind me.

"I just ate," I said uncertainly.

"It's okay. I told you I learned how to do it right when I learned martial arts."

Still unsure whether it was proper for me to lie down in front of my seniors, I looked around at everyone, but everyone gave me encouraging looks. I stole a glance at Minhyun who gave me a fiery glare that I hadn't seen from him before. Seeing this, I gave him a small, satisfied smile, laid down, and let Sungmin give me the massage.

*Author's note: Don't forget to check out the alternate scenes here