Sungmin woke up to a nasty headache and a very sore throat. He rolled himself around and snuggled deeper into the warmth of his bed. He didn’t want to wake up yet but he knew he had to as the company was shipping them off to yet another concert after they barely touched down the day before from SMTown in Beijing.
 

His bones and muscles were protesting at the effort he made as he sat up. Every fibre of his being was shouting at him to rest more, that he deserved it after the gruelling and hectic schedule that was thrown at him for the past few weeks. After giving himself the mental encouragement that doesn’t seem to work anymore, he heaved his drug-induced drowsy body from his bed and walked towards the bedroom door. Not a few steps into walking when he felt his head spinning and he hastily grabbed hold of the edge of the dresser to steady himself.

Why wasn’t the medicine working? It was suppose to make him feel better already. He was frustrated at the overall weakness that he felt. He hated being weak, be it mentally or physically, whether it’s from illness or the inability to achieve the high standard that he set for himself.

After feeling somewhat better, he took a deep breath and started walking towards the door again. Judging from the commotion on the other side of his door, he deduced that most of his band mates should be up already. He had better hurry, he thought. He didn’t want to be the last one to be ready. They have Kyuhyun for that. As he stepped out of the doorway, he doubled over in a coughing fit. Ryeowook immediately rushed over to support Sungmin and tried to soothe him by rubbing circles on his hyung's back with the palm of his hand. Eunhyuk came over to them with a glass of warm water and assisted Sungmin to take sips of it. The warm liquid had a calming effect and Sungmin felt better after drinking it.

Sungmin smiled weakly and mouthed his gratitude to the younger ones. Eunhyuk lightly patted Sungmin’s head in understanding and went on to resume his packing. Ryeowook stayed by Sungmin's side in case he needed help.

“Bathroom?” Ryeowook asked and Sungmin nodded weakly. “Can you manage on your own?“ Ryeowook asked with concern and Sungmin nodded again, gently patting Ryeowook’s hand that was holding onto his upper arm to assure the latter that he would be fine. “Be careful. Call me if you need help okay?” Ryeowook reminded after helping Sungmin to the bathroom.

Sungmin smiled feebly and he thanked Ryeowook again before shutting the door. After a quick gratifying bath, he felt refreshed and slightly better. He gingerly made his way back into his room to pack his luggage. An idling Donghae walked into Sungmin's room on the pretext of assisting him pack after dumping his own packing to Eunhyuk. Sungmin had to smile at that. Donghae was sly and manipulative while Eunhyuk was willing and more willing.

A while later, Heechul strode into Sungmin’s room and handed him a steamed sweet pumpkin pudding. “Eat, Sungminnie, you need strength.” Sungmin croaked a thanks and Heechul ruffled Sungmin’s hair playfully. Sungmin chuckled huskily and both Donghae and Heechul winced at the sound of his laughter.

“You look bad and sound worse.” Heechul said as he shook his head. Sungmin pouted. “Eat.” With that command, he left the room.

Sungmin basked in the warmth and concern he received from his fellow members and ate the pudding happily. It still hurt to swallow due to his sore throat. Enduring the pain, he swallowed some painkillers for his headache. Donghae wasn’t much help and he finished packing his small luggage on his own.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Manager-hyung gathered everyone in the living room and handed them their passports and boarding passes. After double checking that they had everything, the group headed out to their respective vehicles waiting by the main entrance to their apartment building. As usual, there were many fans crowding near the entrance on the ground floor armed with mobile phones, cameras, posters and bags of gifts. Crowd control was handled by two other hyung-nims.

Sungmin pulled up the hood of his hoodie over his head and shielded his face with a face mask. After popping a lozenge into his mouth, he headed out together with the others. He kept his head lowered and walked briskly towards one of the parked vehicle when he heard a commotion behind him. He turned and saw Heechul-hyung talking to a fangirl.

It happened that while Heechul was walking past the crowd of fans, he overheard one fangirl talking to another in a not too soft voice about how disgusted she felt with the way Sungmin pretended to be sick, pulling pained facial expressions and acting all pathetic to get attention. Heechul stopped dead in his track and turned slowly towards that girl. The girl noticed her idol looking at her and she squealed in hysterical delight.

“Heechul-oppa! I love you!” She screamed and waved her Super Junior poster she had in her hand.

“What did you just say?” Heechul asked in a controlled voice.

“Er..Heechul-oppa, I love you?” She replied in puzzlement.

“No, earlier.” Heechul waited as she churned her stupid brain to recall.

“I didn’t say anything to you before that...” She answered when she couldn’t come up with anything.

“About Sungmin.” Heechul hinted and he witnessed realisation dawned on her.

“Ah, that." She said as realisation dawned on her. "It's true, isn't it? He is totally faking his sickness and I absolutely hate it.” She admitted loudly and scowled with blatant contempt.

“How do you know he is faking it?” Heechul asked with a menacing tone of voice. Manager-hyung came over and tried to handle the situation by pulling Heechul away but the diva shrugged out of his hold and told him that he needed to handle it personally.

“I just do. It was so obvious.” She said with confidence but the crowd including the other girl whom she had spoken to, shook their heads vigorously to murmurs of no. However, she was not intimidated. Heechul put out his hands to shush the group at the same time get their attention. That unusual gesture surprised the other members as well. They all stood rooted to the ground and watched on with slightly gaping mouths.

“Now you listen up, young lady.” Heechul planted himself before her, crossed his arms over his chest and kept his scarily emotionless gaze on her. “Do you know how genuinely sick he is right now? Do you know how many times he threw up the past few nights? Do you know that he hardly eats lately? Do you know that he almost fainted on two occasions? Do you know that he continued to practice with us despite his current condition? Do you know that the doctor had ordered a few days of complete bed rest for him but he resisted? Do you know? Obviously not.” Heechul paused, now glaring at the girl. She was speechless at the information.

“He was running a fever while performing in Beijing and yet he did not chicken out. Even after he threw up, he insisted that he cleaned up after himself because he didn’t want anyone doing the dirty chore. He ate little because his throat hurt so bad when swallowing the food. On top of that, the cold frigid air in the Chinese capital is making his condition worse. He pushed himself so hard to accommodate the other members because he didn’t want to slow us down. Were you there to see that? No! And how did I know? Because I was there.” Heechul allowed the information to sink into her head.

“Despite his condition, you still see him singing and dancing like his normal self because he knew he had to. Did he let you all down with a shabby performance?” A collective and resounding No was heard from the crowd. “Is it a sin to show pain on your face when you are really feeling it? Do you not do that yourself?” Heechul directed the question at her and she lowered her head in shame.

“When you are sick, I bet you hole yourself up in your cozy little room, snuggle up in your warm little bed, wanting to do absolutely nothing but rest and sleep. Does Sungmin have the luxury of that? No!” Heechul said more forcefully. “He has to shuttle from one country to another, put up show after show, endure the pain time and again because he can’t recover without proper rest. Do you have any idea of the discomfort and misery he has to put up with just so to entertain hundreds of thousands of people including youself? Do you know how many more hours of work he has to undergo before he can even have a proper rest? DO YOU? And yet he doesn't complain because he was adamant not to disappoint his fans." Heechul hissed.

“We love our fans, we honestly do. But please, try to understand. We are human beings with emotions and feelings too. We succumb to illnesses, we occasionally have bad moods and we sometimes mess things up by saying the wrong thing. We try our best to keep our emotions in check and hold back snarky replies because we are idols and idols are viewed by the general public as machines churned out by the entertainment industry with the sole purpose of providing gaiety and merriment to all. All you have to do is to switch on your television set, watch us perform and criticise when you think we are not doing our best. Is it fair to us?” Heechul said and sighed. He placed his hands on her shaking shoulders as she quietly sobbed, two lines of tears decorated her cheeks.

“We all take our work seriously and we deeply treasure the fan's support for us. Please don’t be too quick to judge. With the amount of effort Sungmin puts into everything he does, he deserves double your support. Don’t forget that.” Heechul added. With that, she nodded vehemently. “Who is your bias?” He asked her.

“You.” She answered without hesitation.

“Good. Keep it that way because I am awesome and will always be.” He winked at her and then pulled her into a hug. She squealed and the whole crowd squealed along. “I love you fangirl….and you all too.” He added, addressing all the other supporters there. “Say something nice to Sungmin okay?” Heechul requested. Fangirl nodded and wiped at her tears. Heechul gestured for Sungmin to step forward and he complied.

“Sungmin-oppa, I am sorry for judging you negatively. I have been very stupid. I will support you from now on and will box anyone’s face if they should ever speak bad about you. Please accept my apologies.” She said meekly, sincere in her apologies.

“It is okay, I understand. Thank you so much but please don’t resort to violence.”Sungmin croaked out. She gasped at hearing his y voice and she started tearing up again. She leaned in to hug Sungmin tightly, apologising profusely again. Sungmin smiled and hugged her back tightly. The crowd around them cheered.

“Come on guys, we have to get to the airport now or else the plane will leave without us.” Manager-hyung said, hurrying them along.

“Bye.” Sungmin said and released his hold on her and ruffled her hair playfully. She giggled.

“Take care Sungmin-oppa, I love you.” She said shyly. Sungmin smiled and nodded.

“But Heechul-oppa, I love you the most!” She screamed after Heechul’s retreating back.

“I know. I know.” Heechul replied smugly and raised his arm in a wave without looking backwards.

Sungmin hurried back to the members and spotted Heechul smiling at him beside a waiting vehicle. Sungmin walked straight up to Heechul and hugged the life out of him. “Thank you, hyung.” Sungmin murmured into his ear.

“Hey, I am Kim Heechul. What I said gets heard!” Heechul smirked his signature smirk.


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ THE END ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~