are you okay? Ryeowook emails him later, and Kyuhyun responds, you like Hyungsik's voice better now, don't you? Sungmin must have told on him, no surprise there.

Kyuhyun remembers a time when Kyuhyun was Ryeowook's only world and Ryeowook was his, when Ryeowook still wrote songs for him like he never imagined doing anything else.

"I fell in love with your words," Kyuhyun had told him once, with all the earnestness he could muster at fifteen, "but I never knew what you were thinking, not even once."

He remembers how serious Ryeowook had looked, then. "Don't joke around with me, Kyuhyun," he'd said, and they were still in high school being young and dumb and filled with unrequited longing (even until now). Kyuhyun didn't know what to say, then, and he doubts there would have been a right or wrong answer, just a lot of dumb ones.

He spends the afternoon staring at his phone dejectedly, detached from the usual chaos in the dressing room of the studio, but Ryeowook makes his heart flutter and clench when he replies, you know i love your voice the best.