Prompt: Denial
Additional Character: Leeteuk
Word Count: 6,819

“I don’t know if living in this world
is just about always looking for another person.
As I came to this street, filled with the aroma of coffee
that was when I finally smiled

It was the first time that someone made me that nervous
you were the only one.
You were more lovable than anyone else
but why did you leave me?”

Leeteuk smiled as he listened to the song playing on his iPod while he sat in the van on the way to his next schedule. He was proud of his the success that Kyuhyun had received with his first mini solo album. And to be honest, he couldn’t stop listening to all the songs, especially the hit At Gwanghwamun and Flying, Deep In The Night.

But as he kept listening to all the songs, he couldn’t help but feel like they reminded him of someone. The whole album was a secret from them for the longest time as Kyuhyun worked on the songs; he wondered who was the inspiration behind most of the songs. Maybe he wrote them about his past girlfriends, Kyuhyun had a few that came and went, mostly kept secret from everyone so the fans wouldn’t flip out, but the more he listened to the songs, it seemed like the Kyuhyun singing was longing for someone.

He shrugged it off once he arrived to his scheduled event and turned off the music, thinking nothing else of it for the rest of the day.

Then the next day, he caught some of the lyrics from Flying, Deep In The Night.

“But even if we can’t fly and just cry
Love is like a beautiful dream
I can hold your pretty hands
Fly in the night sky toward the castle

Because I only love you, I dream a foolish dream
Getting lost and wandering in the land of my dreams that can’t come true.”

He glanced over at where Kyuhyun was seated in the dressing room, playing some game on his laptop as they waited to go out on stage. Why did the lyrics start to stand out so much to him now? And the thing is, they all felt so familiar, like they were about someone, someone that Leeteuk knew, but couldn’t put his finger on. But with that set of lyrics, it was the part about the pretty hands that caught Leeteuk’s attention.

Leeteuk only remembered hearing countless times that Kyuhyun liked girls with pretty foreheads, but he recalls him making some remarks about someone’s hands, but that was just Yesung’s. And of course, they all teased the man about his tiny hands, so he brushed that off and continued to wonder.

“So your hands were very warm
I finally feel your body warmth though I held you before
So your eyes were very pretty
I can only think of you, who always smiled, who looked at me.”

 

Kyuhyun’s phone buzzed and rang with part one of his new songs. Leeteuk looked around the dorm for the maknae to tell him that his phone was ringing but couldn’t find the brown haired man. He turned back to the phone in his hand, clicked the unlock button and his eyes widened when he saw the picture of Yesung and Kyuhyun as the background.

It was taken by a fan, apparently, since Kyuhyun was facing the camera while Yesung’s back was turned as his tiny hands looked like they were cradling Kyuhyun’s face. Leeteuk wondered what the picture meant but shrugged it off once he glanced up and saw Kyuhyun walking into the room. He grinned at the boy as he handed the phone to the maknae.

“I didn’t know you were so conceited to have your own song as your ringtone, Kyuhyunnie,” Leeteuk teased with a chuckle.

A slight redness tinted Kyuhyun’s cheeks as he brushed it off, “Yeah, well, I really liked the song, hyung.”

Leeteuk shook his head, walking towards his room, “Yeah, yeah.” He still wondered about the picture he saw on Kyuhyun’s phone, he was going to see what the conversation was about once Kyuhyun answered his phone but once the boy muttered ‘manager-hyung’ Leeteuk knew it was just something about a schedule.

“Did you know that Kyuhyun had a picture of himself and Yesung on his phone? It’s set as his background,” Leeteuk informed one of his dongsaengs, one that stuck close with both Kyuhyun and Yesung. Donghae.

“Yeah, hyung, Kyuhyun misses Yesung a lot. So do I and Eunhyuk and Ryeowook and… well, just about everyone,” Donghae replied, shrugging off the question.

“So you don’t think there’s something more to it?”

“What more could there be? Yesung was the only one that Kyuhyun could get away with teasing so much.”

Leeteuk nodded in understanding with that. Yesung was the only one that was more tolerant to Kyuhyun’s merciless pranks and teasing. And while it did seem like the only logical reason at the time, Leeteuk still wondered if there was something more to the situation between the two.

“They’ve been ing.”

Leeteuk spat out all of his soda that he’d just taken a drink of, much to Sungmin’s displeasure as he was sitting beside the man and had gotten sprayed with the germ-filled soda.

“Yah! Hyung, was that really necessary?” Sungmin whined as he looked up at Heechul, wiping at his face.

The black haired man shrugged, “Necessary, no, hilarious, yes.” Then he turned back to Leeteuk, smirking, “Isn’t that what you wanted to hear? The mystery behind Kyuhyun and Yesung?”

Leeteuk coughed, his eyes widening, “You’re not serious. They can’t—they aren’t—!”

“Yeah, you’re right, they aren’t, and I’m not serious,” Heechul replied, earning a glare from the leader, “But that’s what Kyuhyun wishes they could’ve been doing. The boy is head-over-heels for Jongwoon, but sadly, the rabid dog doesn’t see it.”

That caught Leeteuk’s attention, “What? Really?” Then he glared, “You’d better not be joking again, Heechul.”

“It’s the truth, hyung,” Sungmin spoke up, “Even I’ve seen the way that Kyuhyun looks at Jongwoon-hyung. And since he went into the army, Kyuhyun has been moping around a lot more.”

Leeteuk thought about the maknae’s behavior after Jongwoon’s enlistment and he had noticed the downtimes that the boy had. Of course, Kyuhyun still had fun and played around with the other members, but it was obvious that something was missing from Kyuhyun’s life.

“Of course, why else would he try to do anything and everything to keep Jongwoon around with us? The Gray Paper performance he wanted included, the little hands waving that he was doing for the longest time, and the rare pictures that we see sometimes of the two together. Do you not notice the smile that Kyuhyun has in those pictures? That boy has gone off the deep end for Jongwoon,” Heechul added.

Now that he thought about it, Leeteuk did notice all those things, and then the little bits of songs from Kyuhyun’s album; they seemed to all make sense now. The album was probably written and the songs were selected with Jongwoon in mind. Leeteuk shook his head, he wasn’t sure whether to be amused at the lengths that Kyuhyun had went to or sadden by the fact that Jongwoon hadn’t realized it and Kyuhyun was walking around helpless to do anything about his feelings. Other than through small acts of love.

“No one’s talked to Jongwoon about it?”

Heechul scoffed, “Yeah, try getting anything through that big head of his. He’d deny it anyway even if I flat out told him that he loves him.”

Leeteuk shrugged in understanding, the turtle loving member did have some self-esteem issues, so yeah, it’d be hard trying to convince the man that someone was in love with him. He was about to reply when another voice cut him off.

“Who loves who?” The voice belonged to the very person they were talking about. Kyuhyun.

Sungmin and Heechul glanced at Leeteuk for a moment, wondering if they should confess what they know to Kyuhyun, but the leader looked tongue-tied. Sungmin backed out, lowering his head, while Heechul rolled his eyes at his dongsaeng and hyung’s behavior.

“You love Jongwoon.”

Heechul said it so flatly, so calmly, while Leeteuk and Sungmin watched to see some kind of reaction come from the maknae. But none came. Not even a scared expression.

Instead Kyuhyun remained calm, collected, as he simply said, “Everyone loves Jongwoon, why wouldn’t I?”

Just as Kyuhyun turned to go back towards the hallway to his room, Heechul scoffed and took off after him, this only led to Kyuhyun running towards his room now. Only… he made it halfway before being tackled to the floor by a determined hyung that was going to get the answer he wanted out of the boy one way or another.

“L-Let go of me, Heechul!” Kyuhyun shouted, trying to get out of Heechul’s grasp while the older just held on.

“I’m not letting you go until you admit that you’re in love with Jongwoon! There’s no sense in living in denial with it! Everyone in the group knows you are!”

“Well actually I didn’t know it,” Leeteuk muttered quietly to Sungmin as they tried to get the two away from each other.

“Just stop denying it!” Heechul scowled once Sungmin had gotten the older male off the younger.

Kyuhyun glared back, “What’s the point in confessing to it now anyway?! It could hurt the group and Jongwoon could never want to see me again. It would turn into a horrible situation, hyung!”

Heechul stopped struggling then, catching the sight of tears starting to fill the brim of Kyuhyun’s eyes. He could understand the fear that Kyuhyun would have after coming to the realization that he loved someone. Especially when they were of the same and even in the same group as you, along with knowing how the older male reacted when it came to men being together.

When Heechul realized that he felt something for the former Chinese member of Super Junior, it was both scary and exciting. But Heechul wasn’t as scared as Kyuhyun about confessing either. And the Chinese man had already made it clear that he felt the attraction as well.

“I didn’t say you had to confess it to Jongwoon… yet.”

Leeteuk spoke up, now holding the maknae to comfort instead of holding him back from trying to run away, “Just don’t keep us in the dark about this, Kyuhyun, we want to help.”

Kyuhyun wiped at his tears, “H-How are you going to help? I don’t want Jongwoon to know anyway. If he hasn’t noticed by now then I’m fine with it.”

Heechul scoffed, “So you’re fine with just writing an entire album, hinting at the guy you’re in love with, getting mad and being in a horrible mood for the whole day after seeing his latest picture that’s with someone that isn’t you? And seriously, you’re waiting for that boy to pick up a sign that you like him? Have you not met Jongwoon at all?! The guy couldn’t find his way out of a paper bag if you didn’t point it out to him!”

Kyuhyun glared at the male, “Don’t talk about him like that! And so what if I have an entire album about him or get pissed when I see pictures of him with some guys?”

“That’s not healthy, Kyuhyun,” Leeteuk replied, leading them back into the living, well, pulling the maknae along with him.

“It’s all I have, Leeteuk,” Kyuhyun spat, crossing his arms as he was sat down beside Leeteuk on the couch. Heechul was across from him, sitting in the recliner, while Sungmin took a seat on the floor. “And I’m fine with that!”

“So are you telling me that you’d rather pine after him like some hopeless lovesick boy instead of manning up and confessing to him? And then if things play out in your favor, you’d get to hug, kiss, and the man?” Heechul asked, causing Leeteuk and Sungmin’s heads to snap up with wide eyes.

“H-Heechul!”

“’If things play out in my favor.’ They won’t, hyung—”

“You won’t know until you try. If anything, me or Leeteuk could talk to him about it.”

Kyuhyun jumped up, “No! Don’t tell Jongwoon anything about this! I don’t want to risk him never speaking to me again or hurting the group because of my stupid feelings for him!”

Heechul shook his head, grabbing Kyuhyun’s arm before he could storm out of the room, “Kyuhyun… just—”

“No, hyung, I’m not going to confess to him,” Kyuhyun replied, pulling his arm from Heechul’s grasp and running back towards his room.

Leeteuk winced when he heard the door to Kyuhyun’s room slam; he glanced over at Heechul, “So what do we do now?”

“Well we aren’t going to let this settle until those two are keeping us up at night from doing more than just vocal practice, that’s for sure,” Heechul stated, “Leeteuk, why don’t you go have a talk with Jongwoon? Don’t say anything about Kyuhyun, but just get his opinion on what he would do if someone in the group were to confess to him.”

Leeteuk started to nod but stopped, “What do I tell him though once he asks who it is?”

“Just tell him that it’s me. I’m in love with him, I want him, only him!” Heechul snickered, while the leader glared at him. “No, I’m serious, tell him that it’s me if he asks, or don’t say anything at all. Let him come to conclusions himself, we’re protecting Kyuhyunnie’s feelings here. If Jongwoon doesn’t welcome them, well, we’re not going to let them get trampled on.”

“Okay…”

And that’s how Leeteuk found himself walking into Mouse Rabbit around the time that he knew that Jongwoon would be arriving to help with his family after his public service was over for that day. He was rather nervous to be sitting there, waiting to tell the man, and hoping that he wouldn’t slip up about who really liked Jongwoon, more than a dongsaeng should like a hyung. Leeteuk was seated at one of the secluded tables, away from the other customers as he drank his, now lukewarm, coffee.

“Leeteuk-hyung! What are you doing here?” Jongwoon’s voice filled his ears as the man looked up to see the person that he needed but dreaded to see.

Leeteuk rose and embraced the man in a hug, “I just decided to pay you a little visit, see how you’ve been doing.”

Jongwoon pulled away, taking a seat at the table, “I’m doing good. I miss you guys though, I miss the whole Idol life, to be honest, even with the few misfortunes that come with the life.”

“We miss you too,” Leeteuk replied with a chuckle, thinking that one particular member missed him more than the others.

“I need to visit you guys some time soon, I would’ve been by sooner but I didn’t want any fans sneaking any pictures,” Jongwoon replied. “But Umma told you that you needed to talk with me?”

“Y-Yeah,” Leeteuk stuttered, glancing down at his coffee for a moment, before looking up and meeting Jongwoon’s gaze. He stared at those eyes for a moment, wondering what it was that Kyuhyun saw in them that the rest of the group didn’t. He had to admit that Jongwoon was good looking, as much as they poked fun at the man’s features, he was still good looking, in his own Jongwoon-way.

“Leeteuk? Is it something bad? Did something happen?”

Leeteuk snapped out of his thoughts, “Huh? Oh, no, nothing bad happened. I just… I wanted to get your opinion on something.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Okay… so, I have this friend… and he’s in love with his hyung,” Leeteuk didn’t miss the way Jongwoon’s eyes widened, not in disgust though, it looked like shock or surprise, “And he’s scared to admit it to his hyung because he doesn’t want his hyung to reject him or be disgusted with him. You see, his hyung doesn’t care for male and male relationships, and he’s worried that his hyung will be mad at him and never want to speak with him again.”

“So you want to know if he should just confess to him or not?” Jongwoon asked, interested in the story, he secretly wondered who Leeteuk was talking about but didn’t ask.

“Yeah, because he has it really bad for his hyung. I just don’t know… if it would be a good idea for him to confess it or if he should just keep it to himself. He’s really hopelessly in love with the man but his hyung just can’t see it, or he doesn’t want to see it,” Leeteuk stated, he wondered if Jongwoon did know about Kyuhyun’s feelings and just decided to ignore them? But then he thought about it, Jongwoon wouldn’t do that, he wasn’t that kind of person. “What… what would you do in that situation, what if you were the hyung and one of your dongsaengs felt more for you than a dongsaeng should?”

Jongwoon was quiet for a moment, before shrugging, “I’m not sure, it’d be quite a shock, for sure, but… I would want to know. Out of all my dongsaengs, although there’s some that I adore more than the others, even though I try to treat them all the same… I… I would still accept them; I wouldn’t be disgusted with them.”

The leader’s eyes widened, a small smile was wanting to spread across his face, but he bit it back, although Jongwoon said he would still accept them as his dongsaeng, would that mean that he would accept the dongsaeng’s confession too? “So, would you be willing to be with that dongsaeng then? In more than just a dongsaeng-hyung relationship?”

Jongwoon laughed, a slight blush tinting his cheeks as he scratched at the back of his head nervously, he glanced around at the other tables, grateful that they were all empty, “I don’t know, it depends on who the dongsaeng is. Ryeowook and Donghae, I couldn’t see myself with either of them, they’re like my children… Sungmin and Shindong… no, Kangin, definite no, Siwon, well, he’s handsome but too clingy—”

Leeteuk finally stopped the man and asked about the person that was already in love with the man, “What about Kyuhyun?”

Jongwoon shrugged, “He’s a brat—”

“Yes, he’s a brat… but…” Leeteuk knew he shouldn’t have blurted out the next sentence but he couldn’t stop himself. He was dying to know how Jongwoon would accept Kyuhyun’s feelings because their maknae was hurting right now. Hurting for Jongwoon. “But he’s in love with you, Jongwoon.”

Jongwoon’s eyes widened, a chuckle was about to escape at the silliness of Leeteuk’s statement but seeing the look in Leeteuk’s eyes, he didn’t breathe a laugh. The Super Junior maknae was not in love with Jongwoon. There was no way. It wasn’t possible.

When Jongwoon didn’t say anything, Leeteuk sighed, “I’m serious, Jongwoon, he’s in love with you. Didn’t you notice it? The fact that he tried to cheer you up the whole time while you were getting ready to enlist? The stage that he set up of Gray Paper just for you? The little texts that I know he’s sent you every now and then, thinking of you wherever we go? The way he looks at you, when you talk of marriage, when you talk of anything to do with your future, he’s always looking at you, and I bet he wonders if he’s part of that future of yours. I didn’t notice it at first until Heechul showed me countless videos with our interviews, pointing out Kyuhyun’s reactions to you talking, the way he looks at you during some of the shows we’ve done.

“Hell, he’s even got songs on his mini-album about you!” Leeteuk didn’t mean to raise his voice but the silence coming from Jongwoon was deafening. It was scary, because what if after Leeteuk spilling everything, what if Jongwoon does reject Kyuhyun? What if he doesn’t want anything to do with the boy? What if Leeteuk made the mistake of telling the man and it turns out bad for Kyuhyun?

Jongwoon still didn’t say anything, his gaze falling to his hands resting on the table, and Leeteuk was getting more and more frustrated with every second of silence that was passing them. He couldn’t read what the man was thinking from his expressions, he didn’t know what Jongwoon was going to do either.

“Jongwoon, please, say something,” Leeteuk almost begged, but Jongwoon’s mouth still didn’t open, “At least tell me that this won’t change things between you and Kyuhyun. He’s scared to death that if you find out that you’ll hate him and never want to see him again. Please, tell me that you won’t do that to him.”

The vocals of Super Junior looked up at him once Leeteuk said that, and Leeteuk still couldn’t read anything from the man’s expression, but just as Jongwoon’s mouth opened to talk, his phone went off. Quickly reaching down to retrieve his phone, Jongwoon read the text that was coming through, and with a quick reply back, he was already starting to stand up.

“It was nice seeing you again, Leeteuk, I have to go now,” Jongwoon bowed, and with a dazed look on his face, Jongwoon left Leeteuk sitting at that table, not knowing what the turtle loving man was going to do about Kyuhyun.

Should he take the silence about the situation as defeat? Did he ruin what Kyuhyun wanted to hold onto, even if it meant he’d have nothing but unrequited love from the older male? All he could do was offer a prayer that things would be okay between the two and return back to the dorms with his shoulders slumped.

Although Leeteuk was in for a surprise when he returned to the dorms. Apparently, Heechul had babbled about what Leeteuk’s intentions were earlier that day, because as soon as he stepped foot into the door, he heard Heechul and Kyuhyun yelling. Both arguing about the situation between Kyuhyun and Jongwoon.

As Leeteuk tried to quietly sneak his way towards his room, a spot in the floor creaked and caught the two’s attention, and it was all a matter of seconds before Leeteuk found himself on the floor with an angry maknae on top of him and a very loud Heechul that was demanding what happened with Jongwoon while trying to pull Kyuhyun off the man.

“I told you not to say anything, Leeteuk!” Kyuhyun shouted, slowing being pried off the leader.

“Shut up, Kyuhyun, I told him not to say anything about you!” Heechul shouted back, “Now shut up and let the man tell us what that idiot said!”

Leeteuk slowly picked himself up from the floor, glancing at both Kyuhyun and Heechul, to find that Kyuhyun had calmed down a tiny bit, he was still angry, but curiosity seemed to be weighing out the anger.

“Um…” Leeteuk hesitated, unsure of what to say, “I… well, I asked him about how he would react… and uh,” Kyuhyun and Heechul’s gazes were making Leeteuk that much more uncomfortable, “I just—I just spilled about everything, okay?! I’m sorry, Kyuhyun! I am, but—”

“You idiot, that’s why I said to say that I was in love with him if he asked!” Heechul shouted, starting towards the leader, while Kyuhyun was still waiting to hear about Jongwoon’s reaction. Leeteuk had a ‘but’ in there; it seemed bad to be following after an ‘I’m sorry’ but maybe Jongwoon’s reaction wasn’t bad? Kyuhyun could only hope.

Although that hope was shot down when he asked the man what the turtle loving member’s reaction was. “He didn’t say anything, Kyuhyun. Nothing. He didn’t even respond, it was like he just froze where he was sitting. I don’t know what that means, and I couldn’t tell what he was thinking either from his expressions. I just don’t know.”

Once Leeteuk said that, the two were both caught off guard by the maknae crumbling to the floor, his hands coming up to cover his face. Leeteuk quickly walked over to comfort the boy, while Heechul cursed when he saw a few droplets hit the floor.

“Kyuhyun, I’m sorry! I couldn’t stop myself, I wanted to believe that he would be accepting of it, when I asked about him being in a situation like that, he said he’d still accept his dongsaeng if they had feelings for him… if it helps at all, trust that he’ll keep his word. He might not love you like you want him to, but trust that he’ll still love you like a brother,” Leeteuk spoke softly, wrapping his arms around the maknae.

“Or if you want, I could beat some sense into that big dumb head of his,” Heechul added, “Well, actually, I’m pretty sure I could get Kangin to join me.”

Everything that Heechul and Leeteuk kept saying still wasn’t getting to Kyuhyun as tears still poured from his eyes. And all he could wonder was why he had to fall in love with someone like Jongwoon? Why did his heart have to skip a beat for that man? Why did it have to be like this?

Music Bank.

It was a moment that took Kyuhyun’s mind off everything that he had left behind at the dorms. Donghae had followed along with him, waiting backstage for when Kyuhyun had breaks during the award show. And as he sang the self-titled song from his album, he poured everything into the lyrics, and his chest ached at how much they rang true.

Since that day that Leeteuk spilled what he did to Jongwoon, Kyuhyun hadn’t received a single text from the man. Even after Kyuhyun finally got up the courage to send a small text of just ‘I’m sorry’ to the man, Jongwoon didn’t reply to it either, and Kyuhyun knew that the man had to have seen it, as much as Jongwoon always stayed glued to his phone.

He hated that it was like this now, but as much as he wanted to hate Leeteuk for saying anything to the man about Kyuhyun’s feelings towards him, he couldn’t. As much as he was suffering from the unrequited love, maybe this was one step towards him moving on? Maybe once he convinces himself that Jongwoon would never see him in that way, he could move on and forget about those stupid feelings that were making his heart hurt so much?

He shook his head and continued with his song. He was glad that the producers wanted the song shortened, because he really didn’t want to include the first part of the second verse. It reminded him of Jongwoon; it was one of the reasons why he wanted that song. The street filled the aroma of coffee. Much like the street where Mouse Rabbit was.

“At that place, I get to know
How I’m slowly changing every day
In the far days ahead, just smile for me
I’m happy
Because today, this place is just as beautiful as back then

For no reason, like a fool, I’m standing at this spot
Getting wet in the rain
Waiting for you, who won’t come
I was happy
I look back once again at this road in Gwanghwamun
In case you are standing there.”

But it’s hopeless, because Jongwoon isn’t standing anywhere. Not for Kyuhyun. But with the last part of the song, he has hopes that maybe, with each day, his heart will change, grow to not skip a beat when he thinks of the man. Instead, he’ll just enjoy the memories and return to treating the man as just his hyung.

He concludes that as he tried to shake off his thoughts once the announcers and AOA rejoins him onstage as they wait to see who wins the award. It’s still surprising to Kyuhyun that he beats the group, he’s glad, grateful to all the fans for loving his mini-album so much, and then there’s Donghae that’s clinging to him as he tries to give his thanks to everyone that won him the award.

And then Donghae mumbled something in his ear that sounds like Yesung’s name, and causes Kyuhyun to pause for a moment, before he recovers and finishes his speech. Just as he finishes though, Donghae’s fingers find Kyuhyun’s mouth, reaching up to touch his philtrum, shocking the maknae but he brushes it off with a chuckle and hugs the man back. And then Kyuhyun hears Yesung’s name again falling from Donghae’s ears and he tries to not let the mention of the name damper his happiness over his award, but when he pulls back, as his song starts playing in the background, Donghae’s face shows a slight bit of worry.

Kyuhyun brushes it off and hands his microphone to Donghae for him to sing a little bit of his song before it gets cut off with the end of the show. As they make their way backstage, Kyuhyun taking out his earpieces and switching off his speaker box, Donghae finally says what he’d been trying to tell Kyuhyun since he ran out on the stage and hugged the maknae.

“Yesung’s here, I texted him and told him to surprise you,” Donghae said, catching Kyuhyun off guard, causing him to almost stumble at the announcement.

“I-I, I didn’t think he’d want to see me…”

“Hyung’s not like that, Kyuhyun,” Donghae replied, opening the door to Kyuhyun’s dressing room for Kyuhyun for the maknae to find Victoria and the person that he was scared to see again. Jongwoon. And Kyuhyun had to stop himself from staring at the man, Jongwoon always looked so beautiful.

“Congratulations on getting first!” Victoria rushed to hug the boy, and as Kyuhyun returned the hug along with thanking her, he couldn’t help but glance towards Jongwoon, only to find that the man was smiling at him.

“Congratulations, Kyuhyun, I knew your album would be gold,” Jongwoon said, stepping forward and as soon as Victoria let go of the boy, Jongwoon’s arms wrapped around the maknae, and Kyuhyun swore he forgot how to breathe for a moment.

Instead, he reveled in the man’s touch and embrace, it’d been awhile since he’d had a hug from Jongwoon, and those hugs were always the best. It was nothing half-hearted at all, Jongwoon’s embraces were always warm, gentle yet firm, and the man always smelled of coffee and mint. Two scents that Kyuhyun grew to love so much.

“Thanks, hyung,” Kyuhyun mumbled, still unsure about where he stood with Jongwoon.

Jongwoon smiled as he pulled back from Kyuhyun and retrieved his phone from his coat pocket, “This calls for a selca moment,” he handed his phone over to the boy, “Get us all in the picture!”

And after they posed for the picture, Victoria and Donghae started talking to Kyuhyun about his album while Jongwoon quickly posted the picture onto his instagram. Once he finished that and after he saw a few comments already starting to pop up on the picture, he closed his phone, and glanced up at Kyuhyun. He was still talking to Victoria when Donghae noticed Jongwoon’s gaze watching them, that was when he interrupted Kyuhyun and started dragging Victoria out of the room.

“Sorry, Kyuhyun, we didn’t mean to get carried away but we really want to get AOA’s autographs before they leave. You know that Heechul wanted their autograph more than anything so he told me that he would pay me if I would,” Donghae explained, grinning as he winked at Kyuhyun before dragging Victoria out the door, but it seemed like Victoria knew what was up too since she gave a small wave with a knowing grin on her face before mouthing ‘fighting!’.

Once the door was closed, Kyuhyun’s nerves went haywire; he was now alone with Jongwoon, alone with the man that he was honestly scared to be around now. The man that still made his heart skip beats, and held Kyuhyun’s whole heart in his hands to do with as he wanted. Kyuhyun turned to face Jongwoon only to find the man had a small smile on his face as he stared at the maknae.

“Hyung—” as soon as Kyuhyun started to explain and apologize for what Leeteuk told him, Jongwoon held up his phone again, cutting off the maknae.

“Wait. One more picture of just the two us, Kyuhyun, I want to boast to the world about our maknae’s success,” Jongwoon stated, pulling the boy close to him before posing for the phone. “That one’s going on Twitter.”

Kyuhyun hesitated as he watched Jongwoon type up the caption for the picture before posting it, “Hyung, I’m sorry about what Leeteuk said—I just… he just… I’m not—”

Jongwoon raised his hand, stopping Kyuhyun from completing his sentence, his smile fading, his expression serious now, “Don’t. Don’t lie to me and say you’re not in love with me. The past few days since Leeteuk told me that, I questioned myself countless times on why you would feel that way towards me, Kyuhyun. Someone like me, someone beautiful like you, has feelings of love like that, towards me. Someone who outshines most, yet you love someone like me.

“I was in denial, Kyuhyun. I didn’t think Leeteuk was serious, even though I kept calling him after he told me and he kept confirming it. I was still scared to believe it. Then Leeteuk told me how you cried after he came home and told you my reaction, and I know I should’ve told you sooner than now, you were probably so worried about what I would do now that I know this about you… but I was scared, denying it, and then finally, I just gave up and accepted it.”

Kyuhyun was surprised by what Jongwoon said, but that last part kept running through his head. Jongwoon gave up and accepted it? “You accepted it? You mean… you don’t mind that I’m in love with you?”

Jongwoon shook his head with a small chuckle before pulling Kyuhyun closer to him, “No, I don’t mind that you’re in love with me… as long as you don’t mind me saying that I think I love you too. More than a hyung should love a dongsaeng… but then again, there’s always been a special place in my heart just for you, Kyuhyun. I just didn’t know it was this kind of love until after I sorted it all out and Leeteuk told me about your feelings.”

Trying to let all the man’s words sink in, Kyuhyun’s arms hesitantly wrapped around Jongwoon’s body, returning the small embrace and wanting to stay close to the man, “S-So where does that leave us?”

Chuckling softly, Jongwoon smiled, “Hopefully it leaves us in a position to do things like this,” he glanced at Kyuhyun’s lips before looking back into those dark brown eyes, seeing the uncertainty in those eyes, Jongwoon decided to give the boy peace of mind as he leaned forward and pressed his lips to Kyuhyun’s.

It was a small kiss. Sweet. Gentle. And everything that put Kyuhyun’s wildest dreams and thoughts about this moment to shame. Jongwoon’s lips were a lot sweeter than he imagined and this embrace was a lot warmer than he dreamt of.

Just as Jongwoon started to pull back, Kyuhyun grabbed the back of his head and brought their lips back together for a longer kiss. He wasn’t trying to deepen it or try for anything more than just a kiss, he just wanted to savor this moment as long as he could, and as long as his lungs would allow the lack of air.

Finally, Kyuhyun let go of Jongwoon, in a deep breath before opening his eyes and finding Jongwoon’s grinning face before him. He wanted to pinch himself to make sure this wasn’t a dream, but Jongwoon’s voice made him realize that it was reality.

“Now that that’s settled, I want an autograph, Kyuhyun,” Jongwoon stated, glancing over at his album of Kyuhyun’s, but he didn’t move a muscle from the embrace to retrieve the album.

Kyuhyun chuckled, pulling Jongwoon closer into a hug, “Anything for you, Jongwoon.” He paused for a moment, before tightening his hold on the man and whispering those three words he’d wanted to say to the man for the longest time, this time with an entirely different meaning behind them than when he had first said them to the man, “I love you.”

Jongwoon hummed, “I love you too, Kyuhyun. Now you can rest at ease with everything that’s probably been a whirlwind in your head the past few days.”

Kyuhyun nodded, sighing from the weariness at remembering the past few days, they were horrible, “I can… only if you spend the night with me at the dorms tonight.”

Glaring slightly, Jongwoon pulled back and was about to speak when Kyuhyun cut him off with an amused chuckle, “We’re not at that stage yet, hyung, such a erted mind you have!”

A blush started tinting Jongwoon’s cheeks as he pushed Kyuhyun away, “Annoying brat.” He walked over to where his copy of Kyuhyun’s album lied on the makeup table, “Now, sign!”

“Most fans add a magic word to that, hyung,” Kyuhyun grinned, pulling out a marker from his pants pocket.

Jongwoon rolled his eyes before asking nicely, “Please, sign my album…” smirking when he tacked on, “brat.”

This time Kyuhyun rolled his eyes, then took the album and started writing on the cover, “As long as I’m your brat.”

“Always.”

Kyuhyun smiled softly at the answer, not lifting his gaze from writing a small message on the album, “So tell me, my number one fan, which of my songs is your favorite?”

“Oh, I don’t know, I love them all, you have a beautiful voice, Mr. Award-Winning Kyuhyun!” Jongwoon replied with fake enthusiasm, but then he shook his head, humming, “I don’t know though, I do like them all, Kyuhyun, but there’s just something about Flying, Deep In The Night.” Then Jongwoon sung one of the lines, “Love is like a beautiful dream.”

That beautiful voice caused Kyuhyun to pause from finishing the message on the album, he glanced up at the man in front of him, how he’d missed hearing that voice singing so much. He placed the album down on the makeup table again along with his pen and when Jongwoon threw a confused glance at him, he reached for the man’s hands and sang the next line.

“I can hold your pretty hands,” he cradled the man’s hands in his, they were so small compared to Kyuhyun’s.

“As we fly in the night sky toward the castle,” they both sang in unison the next line before sealing the song with another kiss. One that both of them started to deepen. One that made Kyuhyun's heart soar and Jongwoon's filled with happiness.

Listening outside the door stood Donghae and Victoria, wearing the biggest grins at how everything played out in the two’s favor. Victoria whispered, “Quick, crack the door and snap a picture, send it to Leeteuk and Heechul so that diva doesn’t kill Jongwoon the next time he sees him.”

Donghae nodded, fishing out his phone, quietly opening the door and getting the perfect angle to show the couple was still in a lip-lock in the picture. He quickly closed the door and sent the picture after showing it to Victoria.

Leeteuk’s phone buzzed while he was in the kitchen, fixing himself a bowl of ramen, he clicked on the message and almost burnt himself on the stove from the shock of the image that was displayed on the phone.

“Leeteuk! That brat scored!” Heechul shouted, running into the kitchen with his phone in hand, the same picture being displayed on it as the one on Leeteuk’s phone, “Haha, that brat did it, oh my gods, I can’t believe it, they’re together! Kissing! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”

Leeteuk scrolled down below the picture to read the message from Donghae and it was exactly what Heechul was shouting and dancing around the kitchen about. The two were together now. He couldn’t stop the grin from spreading across his face, nor the laugh that left his lips when Heechul pulled him away from the kitchen to dance in celebration with him.

But then Heechul stopped abruptly, “But we have to protect them now.”

“My lips are sealed, and it’s not like any one of us will spill about this.”

“Good because my hard work is not going to waste,” Heechul grinned, then started out of the kitchen, only turning around to glance back at Leeteuk returning to the stove to add with a wink, “I’d buy some earplugs though, they’re aren’t known as Super Junior’s best vocals for nothing.”

Leeteuk’s eyes widened when he realized what the man was implying, “Heechul!”

A/N: I'm so in love with Kyuhyun's album so I couldn't resist this idea for this prompt! Hope you enjoyed! :D