AN1 – I am relenting…just a little.

AN2 – For those who questioned why members aren’t saying sorry…its coz I like torturing you guys. For those who ask why Kyuhyun isn’t apologizing…he did…very blatantly…in chapter 8.

AN3 – Not proofread. Sorry..and  maybe its a little boring?

“Hyung!” Minho called as he sighted the short man walking down the corridor, looking forlorn and down. His aura emanated deep sadness and Minho was almost suffocating in it. This was definitely not how he knew him to be but Minho was also aware of what was going on. Kyuhyun had filled them in…completely…though unknowingly perhaps.

It had been last weekend when they, as in, Changmin, him and Kyuhyun had met up on Kyuhyun’s request. He seemed to have been greatly agitated and a little lost on the phone when they had talked and so they had quickly organized a little get together, something to de-stress and unwind to.

As usual, they met up at Kyuhyun’s house with bottles of wine and snacks and had locked themselves in Kyuhyun’s room. His parents had apparently also sensed there was something wrong with their son and had stayed clear of the boys, thinking that they maybe would be able help solve whatever it was that their son was going through.

To say that Changmin and Minho were blown away would be an understatement. It wasn’t the drunken confession of Hyukjae’s unheard of withdrawn form (Minho didn’t really believe it because Hyukjae hyung was funny and lively and just couldn’t sit still five minutes without cracking a joke or being witty), but it was that one teary confession that Kyuhyun made while clutching the monkey soft toy in his room that they had always assumed he had gotten from a fan, the confession that shocked Minho and Changmin to the core.

The stress that their friend was feeling had apparently let the alcohol seep into his bloodstream faster, clouding his judgment, and most definitely loosening his tongue because Kyuhyun had told them perhaps his deepest darkest secret.

He loved Hyukjae. He was in love with Hyukjae. As in the kind of love that one would expect between a girl and a boy, a man and a woman, a male and a female.

Definitely not one where both were of the same gender and definitely not in South Korea where being gay was a social suicide. Especially to them who were celebrities, faces known to almost every second person walking down the streets of Seoul, putting it mildly so. And being celebrities of their caliber…if this news came out, it would spread like wildfire, engulfing everyone involved…directly or indirectly.

But then this was Kyuhyun, not just a celebrity. He was their friend…a comrade…a brother. They had to help him. Either to get him to stop this madness or help him to at least hide his feelings enough and to not let his hard work and name gets tarnished with his forbidden love.

A love that was well before the times Korea permitted. Tainting and infecting. It could ruin and decay.

But love was love. It knows no rules, it sees no boundaries…it just loves and because it was love, Minho and Changmin decided that they had to support Kyuhyun and his love.

They had to. If Kyuhyun wanted to stay next to Hyukjae…they had to…he had to

Changmin had stayed up that night talking to Minho about this. He wasn’t as close to Hyukjae as Minho had become in the past years and didn’t really feel much concerning the ‘ugly’ business and had concentrated more on the ‘gay’ part but Minho, who had a deep bond with the small man, felt horrible. He didn’t know why but he did. He himself had never had to be subjected to treatment like that where his looks were questioned to the point of being call