They didn’t call it the junk room for nothing.

Scrap was everywhere. Heaped in the corners and lined by the windows; everything from thumbtacks to broken vacuums covered the hardwood floor. Not that you could see it.

“Well… let’s get to it.”

Kyuhyun felt a trash bag pushed into his hands and his husband began making his way into the mess. Kyuhyun could only stare in dismay.

“Ryeong, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Nope,” Ryeowook turned to look at him. “We are clearing out this room and we are doing it by today. Now get in here and start organizing.”

Sighing in defeat, Kyuhyun cautiously stepped into the room.

It really was a disaster area. Cardboard boxes overflowing with old letters and textbooks sat stacked nearly as tall as him. Racks he didn’t even remember buying lined the wall. Old trophies and memorabilia sat covered in dust, reminding him why he couldn’t just take a shredder and trash bag to every object in the room. Kyuhyun could feel his brain frying just trying to figure out where to start.

Warily, he glanced to where his husband was working. The petite man was taking advantage of his slim build by digging out piles of paper stuffed within a deep cabinet. Kyuhyun took the hint and started pulling down the boxes perched on top a high book shelf. Ironically, it held no books.

Kyuhyun could hardly believe half the stuff was theirs. Old birthday cards, unused water bottles, a half-used box of tissues, for whatever reason, had all been deemed too useless to use yet too valuable to trash.

As Ryeowook finished emptying the cabinet, Kyuhyun began filling his trash bag. Despite the smaller’s instructions, he barely looked at most of the papers before relegating them to the garbage.

“Good god,” he said, “I know we’re a little messy but how on earth did we get this much crap?”

Ryeowook scoffed behind him, “Four years of just tossing everything into the back room can really add up, Kyu.”

“I’m aware of that. But why did we even keep half this stuff? I mean, seriously,” he emptied a box onto the floor, “Old credit cards. Charity receipts. My first grade transcript? Why is this even here?” He pulled it out, bewildered.

Ryeowook sighed, “The cards are for our financial safety, the receipts are for our taxes, and the report card is part of the collection you mom dropped off. You’ll find the other eleven in one of these boxes.”

“Yeah, well it’s all going in the shredder now,” he said, tossing the papers into the bag.

“Don’t do that,” Ryeowook snapped. Dropping whatever he was sorting, he reached over and pulled the transcript back out of the trash. “These are memories, Kyuhyun. You can’t just throw them away.”

“Sure I can. Watch,” Nimbly, he plucked the paper out of the smaller’s hands then with an exaggerated flick, dropped it in the trash.

Ryeowook was unamused.

“Oh come on,” Kyuhyun returned to stuffing things into the bag, “We don’t have time to reminisce about every piece of junk in this room. We’d be here for months!”

With a frown, his husband reluctantly agreed. Ryeowook returned to cleaning out the cabinet papers while Kyuhyun continued to throw away every object in his path. As far as Kyuhyun was concerned, if something was worth saving it wouldn’t be in the junk room. That’s why the most he did was check to make sure it wasn’t money.

Unlike his husband, Kyuhyun did not find his sentimental side clashing with spring cleaning madness. A terrible mix if you were to ask him. Spring cleaning with Ryeowook was the worst. Not only did they have to scrub down every inch of the apartment, but when it came to clearing stuff out, the latter would get so nostalgic, they basically did nothing but reorganize their trash.

And sure enough, not ten minutes later Ryeowook was chirping excitedly, “Oh, Kyuhyun! Look at this! Do you remember this?”

Kyuhyun had to resist rolling his eyes.

“What is that?” He asked, frowning at a bright blue packet.

“Look at it,” Ryeowook held it out to him so he could read the bold print lettering. Realizing what it was, Kyuhyun scowled.

“Oh! That!” he exclaimed, edging away, “What makes you think I would want to look at that? I hated that!”

“Really?” Ryeowook idly flipped through the pages, “I thought you liked it. Didn't you like it?”

“It’s a bit of a blur considering I only got three hours of sleep each night.”

Ryeowook rolled his eyes, “It was fun. You admitted it was fun.”

“I was delirious from lack of sleep.”

“Oh please, you enjoyed it. Come here,” Ryeowook eagerly patted the space next to him.

Kyuhyun sighed, not sure if he wanted to comply. If he gave in now, like he did every year, the room would remain a mess and they would spend the weekend looking at old photo albums. But then Ryeowook started pouting and he could only obey, just like his husband knew he would. They had been together for years. 

“If I start to hear that thing in my sleep again, I’m blaming you,” he informed the smaller as he settled beside him.

“Just consider it practice for when we finally get that call,” Ryeowook piped, happily flipping to the first page.