Kyuhyun tried very hard to erase the picture of those big eyes looking at him with sulking offence, when he was finally on his way back home. He had to do it, didn’t he. The boy needed help! Help that Kyuhyun would not be able to provide for the life of his, even if he really wanted to.

That was the right thing to do, he nodded to himself.

And there was no psychiatrist better than Hangeng, who happened to be an old friend of his as well and was just thrilled to be able to help yet another person.

“They all have some kind of hidden problems,” he tended to say whenever someone asked him. “That no one cares enough to listen to. That’s why I do what I do. To provide them with someone willing to listen and if they are ready for it, I’m never the one to deny my help.”

When Kyuhyun explained Sungmin’s situation to his hyung, Hangeng seemed thoroughly touched and, after some bugging from Kyuhyun’s side (“I’m under the medical secrecy, Kyu! I can’t just go around talking about my patients!”), he promised to keep the younger updated on his newest patient’s condition. He was his angel after all.

Knowing that he had left Sungmin in good hands, Kyuhyun continued to enjoy his normal weekend consisting on gaming, eating and ignoring the calls from his friends. Except, on his average normal weekend, he wouldn’t pause every now and then to wonder what his madman was doing at the moment and whether he had found a common language with the psychiatrist or had he closed to the outside world, which in Hangeng’s opinion would have been completely understandable. He had a feeling though, that it was just not Sungmin’s style.

He kept imagining the other smiling over a glass of milk while torturing the Chinese with his undying cheerfulness and curiosity of the world. He also hoped that Hangeng had enough milk supplies in his house and won’t bankrupt before the end of the weekend.

Kyuhyun chuckled at the thought.

“Wow, who are you and what did you do to our grumpy princess, mister?”

Donghae? What was he doing here?

“What are you doing here?”

Donghae laughed at the shock apparent in his friend’s voice. “You’ve been ignoring our calls longer than usual so we thought we’d pay you a visit.”

‘We’?

“Yeah hyung, what’s up? You didn’t say a word to me since yesterday’s lunch! Don’t you love me anymore?” Minho pouted and Kyuhyun immediately thought of another pout he had seen in exactly the same room not that long ago.

“Never did, Minho-ah.”

“Ouch! That hurt hyung!”

Donghae burst out laughing at the youngest expression and even Kyuhyun grinned when Minho’s hand grabbed the side of his chest where his heart was supposed to be. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, he missed those guys and the normalcy they tagged along with them.

Has it really been only a day since he last saw his freaky friends? Seemed much longer actually. Must have been the impact of the whole angel-matter.

“So what’s up with all those girly giggles, Kyu baby?” Donghae wriggled his eyebrows.

“Yup hyung, admit it, you were thinking about me, right?”

“Choi Minho, I need to tell you a secret.” Kyuhyun motioned to the younger to get closer, which Minho did (and very enthusiastically so). “You should know this about me,” he whispered seductively – though honestly, in his case ‘creepily’ would be a better term to use – into his dongsaeng’s ear. “I am not into kids with the size of their feet bigger than their IQ.”

Minho rolled his eyes, trying not to make his flush obvious. “My feet are not THAT big, hyung. And I did almost manage to skip one year in school, so your point is very much invalid.”

“And for your information, hyung,” Kyuhyun turned to his second guest. “I don’t giggle. I smirk and chuckle. And laugh evilly, you should remember that.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. Did you eat your dinner?”

“As a matter of fact, I did,” grinned Kyuhyun proudly.

Donghae looked at him, suspicion apparent in his eyes. “You did? Well then, I suppose you don’t want the dessert my mom made earlier as well. Oh, don’t worry, I can share with Minho here.”

“Hey, that’s not fair!” Kyuhyun watched with longing as the elder took out the beautiful cheesecake at the mere sight of which Kyuhyun felt his mouth watering, and divided it in half.

Donghae laughed and tapped his chin, pretending to be deep in thought. Then he darted a quick but meaningful glance at the open laptop.

“So maybe… We should play a round to decide?”

Kyuhyun’s eyes glistened.

“You’re so in!”

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“Shthssuoupp…”

Beep. Beep beep beep beep.

“Uh, I said… shuuut uuuppp,” mumbled Kyuhyun sleepily as he searched blindly for the annoying device making those obnoxious sounds at the ungodly hour of something about 6:48 AM.

Beep beep beep beep beep beep beeeeeeeep!!!

“Okay, okay, I’m coming!” he finally opened his eyes and looked around for his cellphone. Who could have predicted that he would someday regret buying this thing.

Trying to suppress the yawn (and failing), Kyuhyun took the phone and discovered with a bit of semi-conscious surprise that someone had been actually calling him.

“Halo?” he called back without much enthusiasm. “You were calling me—“ he furrowed his brows and checked who was he talking with in the first place. The dark eyes widened when he saw the ID on his phone screen; the next second his mind jumped awake. “Did something happen, Hangeng-ge?”

Kyuhyun tilted his head while listening to the other, confusion written all over his face. “Gege. Hyung. Slow down a little, what milk, what bed, what window?”

‘Kyuhyun-ah…’ the strained voice did slow down and Hangeng seemed to put effort into every single word to sound as clearly as possible. Kyuhyun listened and nodded from time to time.

Then he froze.

“He WHAT?!”

Hangeng heard some hurried shuffling and the line went dead. The Chinese looked worriedly at his phone then at the open room on his left and sighed. This was not going to end well.

“What do you mean he disappeared?” Whined Kyuhyun helplessly while pacing back and forth in the irritatingly empty room that just wasn’t supposed to be empty. It couldn’t.

It couldn’t because the fact left him worried and he shouldn’t even bother enough to be worried! The boy, Sungmin, was a stranger to him, they had no connection what-so-ever, they probably weren’t even from the same city. Sungmin had most likely gone home and was having a good time with his friends or something. Yeah, nothing to worry about.

“I mean exactly what I said, Kyuhyun-ah. He just… vanished. There’s no other option.”

Kyuhyun groaned. Because no matter how hard he tried to convince himself otherwise, he was worried sick. Not because he grew attached to the boy, even though he did feel at ease in his presence, but because he had a gnawing feeling that Sungmin didn’t quite have a home to go back to. Home or friends… Even his clothes were the ones Kyuhyun gave him.

And another fact that shouldn’t be left forgotten – the boy turned up in front of his house, claiming to be his angel. Therefore Kyuhyun felt like he should at least know the place he was staying at, wherever it was.

Which he didn’t and it was so frustrating!

“Hyung. He’s a human, no matter how much he tries to talk us into believing something else. And humans can’t just vanish without a trace.” Kyuhyun made an effort to think rationally. “Are you completely positive that you closed the doors yesterday?”

Hangeng looked slightly offended, but answered his friend’s question nonetheless. “Yes. Right after he ate his cereal, I showed him where he’s staying. I purposely chose a room upstairs so he won’t get the idea of escaping through the window. New patients tend to do that a lot you know, so it’s a routine for me by now. They don’t realize they need my—“

“Ekhm,” Kyuhyun looked at the Chinese meaningfully. “To the point, please.”

“Right. My point is, the room is impossible to go out of without breaking the door. So unless he’s angelic enough to be able to fly away, he couldn’t have escaped.”

“But he did.” The younger of the two murmured and an undefinable twitch skimmed through Hangeng’s features which didn’t go unnoticed by the boy. “Oh no, ge! That’s not your fault or anything, I just… I’m thinking aloud. We’re going to find him anyway, right?”

Hangeng nodded, looking unconvinced.

“Where should we start?”

“I… I’m not really sure. We haven’t spent that much time together... I know!” Kyuhyun clasped his hands together suddenly. “The ice-cream place!”

“Eh?”

“I’ll tell you on the way, come on!”

They rushed together through the lazy streets. The world didn’t match Kyuhyun’s anxiety at all, it was too calm, too peaceful. Which shouldn’t really surprise him much, seeing as it was a Sunday morning and most people were taking the opportunity to finally sleep through the sunrise. The only thing keeping Kyuhyun from letting himself be irrationally annoyed at the innocent world, was his hope to find the familiar figure, happily his milky ice-creams.

But Sungmin wasn’t there. In fact, there was no trace of the ice-cream stall at all. The lady seemed to change her place and Kyuhyun’s disappointment couldn’t be bigger.

He then decided to check the shop that Sungmin had told him about before, the one he had his clothes from. Maybe he had decided to pay the salesgirl so she won’t be feeling ‘sad’ anymore.

Sungmin wasn’t there as well. Nor was he at the nearby park, in any other shop they visited, in the two hotels near Kyuhyun’s house. Nowhere. As if he had really vanished and Kyuhyun would have come close to thinking he had just imagined the boy, had Hangeng not seen and remember him as well.

“This is hopeless,” said the nineteen-years-old dejectedly the same evening, after they had searched through almost half of the city. And it meant a lot with Seoul, that had millions of streets and billions of small alleys.

Hangeng patted his shoulder, trying to look at least a little less pessimistic. “Go to sleep Kyuhyun-ah. We’ll try again tomorrow. And if we don’t find him, then who knows, maybe he really had decided to go home after all.”

Kyuhyun was entirely convinced he wouldn’t sleep this night, he had way too many worries in his head to do so. He kept torturing himself with the images of Sungmin freezing to death outside (well, it wasn’t that cold anymore, since it was already springtime, but… you know), of him sleeping in some cardboard-box or being robbed and so on.

He texted Donghae and Minho with a half-hearted ‘goin to sleep, dont interrupt’ only because he knew if he hadn’t done that, it was more than probable for at least one of them to barge into his apartment (or in Minho’s case – into his bed) with the excuse of checking up on him. He’d rather not have any of that tonight, thank you very much.

Falling asleep right the moment his head touched the pillow was what Kyuhyun did not expect. He couldn’t explain the sudden feeling of calmness he got as his muscles immediately started to relax and his mind was slowly but inexorably slipping into unconsciousness.

Minho’s message laid forgotten next to Kyuhyun’s hand two minutes later (‘Goodnight Kyu Hyung! Dream of me~ <3’) when the first soft snores escaped the exhausted boy’s mouth.

“I’m not going to school today.”

Donghae’s voice sounded suspicious. “Why?”

“Doesn’t matter, I just can’t.” Kyuhyun sighed into the phone. It was Monday morning and he was more than determined to find Sungmin today. There was this one matter to settle beforehand though. He hated skipping school but he wouldn’t be able to focus anyway, so… “Make sure to attend the classes for once in your life, okay hyung?”

There was a moment of hesitation on the other side.

“Kyu baby, it’s not that I don’t want to help you. I’d love to, honestly.” Kyuhyun snorted. “But you seem to have forgotten that we’re having this huge Biology test today. And if you don’t show up, then no matter how much the teachers love you, you’re going to be in big trouble, Kyu-ah.”

The boy groaned with irritation.

“What’s so important, anyway? Is Ahra-noona coming back?”

He shivered at the mere thought. God, no. He loved his sister, she was all he had left of his family after all, but she was so… overprotective. Even more so than Donghae for God’s sake.

“Uh, whatever. Okay, I’ll be there. It’s only a first period so I can always sneak out after.”

“Come and get you?”

“Nah, you don’t have to, I’ll just go by my—“

“Too late!” Donghae’s voice rang way too close to Kyuhyun’s ear as he felt his very precious ribs being attacked with tickles.

“Missed me, hyung?”

“Keep dreaming, Minho-ah,” Kyuhyun managed to gasp between his laughs while trying to get rid of his other friend’s palms from his body.

“You know you love me,” Minho grinned, undeterred. “Are we going or what?”

Donghae looked around. “Do you have everything Kyuhyun-ah? Lunchbox? Books? Notes? Should I lend you mine?”

“You do not have notes, hyung.” Reminded him Minho.

“Valid point. Should I make Hyukkie lend you his?”

Kyuhyun closed his eyes and sighed overdramatically. “Let’s just go.”

“But...”

“Go!”

Kyuhyun’s plan of ditching the classes after Biology fizzled miserably as Lee Hyukjae caught him coming out of his classroom. Apparently Donghae really convinced the other to lend Kyuhyun the notes he wasn’t even in need of.

See, Hyukjae was Donghae’s current boyfriend and a great example of a love-struck puppy. He’d do literally everything for Donghae, so when Kyuhyun began explaining to him why he does not need the notes, he already knew it was a lost case.

“But Hae said I gotta give you them or else you’re going to skip classes and then he would have to actually appear on them…”

“Which wouldn’t do him bad,” Kyuhyun butted in.

“…and then he wouldn’t have time for me anymore. So you have to take them and sit down before Mr. Kim comes here. You know how he gets when someone’s late.”

Kyuhyun rolled his eyes at the older when he seated the boy on his chair.

“Good luck, Kyuhyun-ah!” He shouted, winked at the girls who giggled excitedly in their corner and left just in time for Mr. Kim to come in. The weird thing was, he was not alone.

...Sungmin?

“Good morning class! I hope everyone’s ready for today’s subject. But before we start, let me introduce to you our new student here. And you better treat him well.” Mr. Kim glared at the class threateningly.

The boy then looked up and went to the center, all smiling faces. Flowers, Unicorns and all that stuff.

“Hi everyone, my name is Lee Sungmin, I hope we’ll all get along. I’m nineteen and to tell you the truth…” Kyuhyun felt uneasy as a bad feeling crept up his spine. He was not going to say it, right? …Right? “To tell you the truth, I’m an angel—“

“—angelic beauty!”

Kyuhyun could swear he didn’t remember standing up and opening his mouth, so when everyone looked at him with wide eyes, he had quite honestly no freaking idea why.

“What are you staring at, you moron—” That was when he noticed his current position. So not very ‘Cho-Kyuhyun-sitting-on-chair-reading-his-book’ position that he had been known for since forever. He shifted his weight uncomfortably from one foot to another. “I-I mean… Uhh…”

He could feel his cheeks reddening with each passing second and actually started praying for kind Earth to swallow him up when he heard giggles beginning to appear here and there.

Kyuhyun glanced at Sungmin who was staring at him with tilted head, perfectly innocent, as if he wasn’t the very reason why Kyuhyun had to make an idiot of himself in front of his whole class.

“Mr. Cho?” The teacher stopped Kyuhyun from mentally murdering the guy. He couldn’t believe he had spent the whole Sunday worrying to death and trying to find him any way possible and the boy just came to his school like that!

“Sorry…” he murmured, sitting back.

But it was good the other looked all well and healthy, after all. Or at least not like someone who had slept on streets last night.

“Actually,” Mr. Kim caught his attention once more. “Since you appear to like our new student that much, I am sure you’ll be thrilled to show him around on the lunch break. No discussion.”

Kyuhyun didn’t even have the energy to get angry at the loud whispers arising in the classroom, such as ‘Poor Minho-gun, he’s going to be heartbroken!’ and ‘But Kyuhyun’s taken already!’ when he nodded to the teacher and finally took out his books. (And Hyukjae’s notes. He might not be able to do his by himself this time.)

Though they did have a point. Now he was not going to get away from Minho’s and Donghae’s investigative interrogation.

My Goodness.

*le gasp* Sungmin in Kyuhyun's school?! Who would have thought of that amazingly unexpected and unpredictable move from the author! ...Oh yeah. Everyone xP

Yup, sooo... that's about as many chapters as I had already written on my laptop ^^'' Can't promise you the next update exactly on Monday anymore... (though there's a big chance that I'll manage, because chapter 6 is more than halfway done, but shush! :p)

Tomorrow's my English exam - wish me luck! >.<

~love, puppysauruss ^-^v