Hand in Hand

            It was well after midnight when there was a knock at the door.  Heechul gave Donghae a questioning look from the other side of the couch.  “You invite someone over?”

            Donghae shook his head.

            “Go see who it is?”

            Donghae jumped to his feet and jogged to the door.  He looked through the peephole and smiled at seeing the eternal maknae standing on the other side and quickly unlocked the door.  “Wookie!  Come in!  What brings you here?”

            Ryeowook shrugged his shoulders and walked into the upper dorm.  “I just thought I’d stop by for a visit since I was still wide awake.”

            Heechul glanced at the clock on the wall and turned in his seat, looking the maknae up and down.  “Just stopping by for a visit?” he asked, smiling sweetly.

            “Yes,” Ryeowook insisted, slipping off is shoes.  “And, I thought maybe you’d be hungry and would like me to cook you something.”

            Donghae’s face light up at the thought of home cooked food, but the keen Heechul narrowed his eyes.  “Is that so?”

            “Mmm-hmm,” Ryeowook said, heading into the living room where the two had been watching television.  “What are you guys watching?”

            Donghae began to answer Ryeowook, enthusiastic now that he was about to be fed.  “Well, we were just flipping through channels until Gunhee got here.  We’re going to—”

            “You’re not, by chance, avoiding your husband, are you?” Heechul asked, cutting right to the chase.

            Ryeowook stood there, standing beside the couch, and suddenly turned a little pale.  He swallowed hard and turned to face his hyung, who was staring him down.  “Why…why do you think I’d be avoiding Kyu?”

            “Oh, I don’t know…perhaps the whole deal with getting kissed by a guy today on your live radio show and then going out on a date with your writer afterwards and posting photos of it on Twitter.  Care to explain that one?” Heechul asked.

            Ryeowook sighed and slumped into the couch cushions between his hyungs.  “I got a phone call today from Jonghoon and I got reamed for the whole Taiwan weekend.  Then I got a call from the public relations rep.  Then the president emailed me and asked me to come meet with him later this week and I’m pretty sure that I know what that’s about, too.”

            Donghae gave Ryeowook a sympathetic look and pat his knee. 

            “You’re a ing coward!”

            Ryeowook’s eyes went wide and he turned to look at Heechul, his mouth falling open with confusion, not knowing what to say.  “Hyung?”

            “You heard me!  You asked Kyu to be more outgoing and to show how he felt about you and as soon as you receive the slightest bit of criticism for it, you turn tail and run away like a coward.  You may be one of the youngest members, but you just turned twenty-eight and you need to start acting like a man for ’s sake!”

            Ryeowook was so stunned, he could not respond.  Even Donghae did not know what to say.  Thankfully Kangin walked into the room, chatting on the phone, and noticed the feel of hostility in the room and looked around in confusion.  “What’s going on?”

            “Ryeowook is hiding from Kyuhyun and I’m about to kick his out,” Heechul informed Kangin.

            “Why?” Kangin asked.

            “You know why,” Heechul only told him.

            “Here, there’s someone on the phone who wants to talk to him first,” he told Heechul.  Then he spoke to the caller on the line.  “I’m going to put you on with Wookie for a minute.” 

            Kangin walked across the room and handed his cellphone to Ryeowook, who looked up and gave him a questioning look.  “Who is it?”

            “Just talk,” Kangin said, walking off and motioning for Heechul to follow him.  The two headed to the kitchen to chat and Donghae bit his lip, giving Ryeowook a concerned look. 

            “Hello?” Ryeowook said, talking into the phone.

            “Wookie!  How are you?” asked a familiar voice.

            “Teukie hyung!” Ryeowook cried out, nearly ready to cry at hearing their leader’s voice.  Ryeowook stood up and walked across the room to have some privacy.  “Ah, I’ve had a rough day!  The higher-ups are giving me a hard time about all the displays of affections between Kyu and I in Taiwan, so I made the decision to make it look like I went out on a date tonight with my coworker from the radio station…and now I’m afraid to go home and Heechul is mad at me for being a coward.  I think I made the wrong decision, but I was just trying to make the company happy so that they wouldn’t give Kyu and me a hard time.  You know how they can be.”

            “Ah…I know,” said Leeteuk, exhaling a long breath.  “It’s impossible to make everyone happy, you know.”

            “So, the hard part is, if I don’t make them happy, then they’ll just harass us.  But now everyone seems to be mad at me,” Ryeowook said, his voice cracking with pent up emotion coming to the surface.  “Who am I supposed to make happy?”

            “Well, I’d rather see you happy, personally,” Leeteuk said.

            “Me?” Ryeowook asked, honestly surprised by his answer.

            “What you did wasn’t that bad.  It really was just fanservice and no one will really think it’s that excessive if you didn’t do anything else again for a little while,” Leeteuk pointed out. 

            Ryeowook banged his forehead against the wall in frustration.  “I never know the right thing to do!  I can’t wait until you come back!”

            “What will that change?” Leeteuk asked, laughing.  “Are you going to ask my opinion every time you’re not sure what to do?”

            “Yes!  You always come up with better answers than I do,” he complained.  “I know Kyu’s going to be pissed at me when I get home.  He’s probably so mad that he’s not going to talk to me.  The last time I did something to make him jealous, he locked me out of the bedroom!”

            “He can be really childish sometimes, but at some point, I think he’ll grow up and start handling these things like an adult.  Kyu loves you and although I’m sure he hates it when you do stuff like this, it doesn’t change the way he feels about you, just remember that.  And you do have to go home and face him instead of ignoring him,” Leeteuk told him.  “That’s part of being married.  You need to face your problems together.”

            Ryeowook shook his head, although he knew that their leader could not see him.  “I’m more afraid of disappointing him than of making him angry, hyung.”

            “You have to face that, too.  And if you think you’ve done something you shouldn’t have, you need to apologize to him,” Leeteuk told him.

            “You’re right,” Ryeowook said.  “Thank you.”

            “You’re welcome,” Leeteuk said.  “I can’t wait to see you two again.  Be sure to tell him that I miss him and I said hi.  Now, can you put me back on the phone with Kangin?”

            “Yes.  I love you.”

            “I love you, too.  Bye.”

            “Bye.”

            Ryeowook carried the phone back over to Kangin and handed him the phone.  “Thank you, hyung.”

            “You’re welcome,” Kangin said, ruffling Ryeowook’s hair before walking back to his room, talking on the phone.

            Ryeowook turned to Donghae and Heechul—who was standing there with his arms crossed over his chest staring at him—and gave them a slight bow.  “I’m sorry that I can’t make food for you, after all.  I’m heading back to the apartment.”

            Heechul nodded and smiled at his dongsaeng.  “Goodnight.”

            “Goodnight, hyungs.”

            “Good luck,” muttered Donghae.       

            Heechul smacked Donghae hard in the back of the head and Ryeowook put his shoes back on and headed out the door and walked to the elevator.  It was a long walk, or rather, it felt long.  He hit the down button which seemed to take forever, so he finally just took the stairs and ran down to their floor.  By the time he reached the apartment door, he was breathing a little hard, and took a few deep breaths before unlocking the door.  Finally, he pushed the door open and walked in, looking around.  Most of the lights were off except for one lamp in the living room which Kyuhyun often kept on for Ryeowook, so he wouldn’t trip in the dark coming home late.  Ryeowook locked the door and slipped off his shoes.  He dug into the side table and pulled out his wedding ring and slipped it on. 

            Curious to see how mad his husband was, just to know what he was dealing with, he headed straight down the hall to the bedroom.  The door was shut, but there was a faint light coming in from under the door.  Ryeowook tried the knob and it turned and opened.  He cautiously opened it, being qu