Balance Me

Kyuhyun had a pretty major secret…. Okay, no. It was pretty stupid. But it was also really embarrassing, so he would have preferred to keep it locked away for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, Ryeowook was making that impossible.

“Come on, Kyu! Why don’t you want to go? It’ll be fun!” Ryeowook chirped, bouncing up and down on the bed.

 “No. I don’t want to go. Isn’t that reason enough not to go?”Kyuhyun groaned, eyes glued to the laptop screen.

Evidently not because Ryeowook continued to pester Kyuhyun in a seemlingly endless way.

“Cho Kyuhyun, if you don’t give me a legitimate reason for us not to bike up to the lighthouse on Friday then we are going to bike up to the lighthouse on Friday whether you are complaining or not!”

“Forget it!” Kyuhyun slammed the keyboard as “Game Over” flashed on the screen.

Ryeowook continued to yammer about the wonderfulness of the trip and the specialness of the day, and Kyuhyun just wanted to sink into his virtual game and die like his mini avatar.

Kyuhyun liked Ryeowook. He liked Ryeowook a lot. That's why they were dating. But sometimes, when it came to these little “anniversaries” of theirs, Kyuhyun just wanted to strangle him. First month, second month, fifth date, fifth date after their first kiss, 100^th day, the fourth month, and of course, a disturbingly punctual celebration of their first 1000 hours together. In less than half a year, Kyuhyun had celebrated more anniversaries than he’d wanted in three lifetimes. And now Ryeowook wanted to go biking? No. Just no.

Ryeowook refused to let up on the biking idea. “Look, I know you don’t like to make plans or do stuff, but that’s why we do it. You can’t lock yourself in this room forever. And besides, it’s our sixth month anniversary! We have to celebrate that!”

Kyuhyun tried not to groan. He failed.

“Don’t you get it, Kyu?” His bouncing was making the bed creak. “Six months is big for a high school couple. Most don’t even get past the first month! We deserve to brag about that.”

“But we celebrate every month!” he cried. “It’s not even special anymore! Can’t we just stay home for once and make out or something?”

“No, because if we stay home you’ll just end up playing your dumb games all night.”

Kyuhyun would have refuted that if he hadn’t just started another quest. “Fine, maybe I would,” he reasoned, “but that’s what long term couples do. They sit in a room and enjoy each other’s company; they don’t need to constantly interact. If you really wanted to prove that we’re a steady couple, we would spend our anniversaries doing nothing.”

Ryeowook pouted. “But that’s what we do all the time. I want have fun. Please Kyukyu?” He approached him from behind and laid his head on Kyuhyun’s shoulder. “Pretty please? Just one bike ride? It doesn’t have to be all the way to the lighthouse. It could just be to the park or down by the lake. We could bring a picnic, watch the clouds… Please?” As he said this, his arms found their way over Kyuhyun’s shoulders. Draped on over his chest, they made game play very, very challenging.

Sighing, Kyuhyun paused his game. “Okay, fine. We can go to the lake on Friday-”

Ryeowook squealed.

“-But,” he interrupted, “we are not biking there. We can drive.”

Almost immediately, his boyfriend deflated. “But-”

“No buts. There is no reason for either of us to get sweaty and gross before even getting to our destination. Especially if you plan on cuddling which I know you do.” One look at Ryeowook’s face and he knew he was right. Kyuhyun felt the weight, that’d been placed on his chest since the start of the conversation, begin to lift off.

A deep frown on his face, it almost looked like Ryeowook was going to drop the topic…but then he didn’t. “Okay, I see you point. However-” Kyuhyun tried so hard not to roll his eyes. “-the sweatiness wouldn’t matter if we brought our swim trunks to the lake. Then we could just swim it off!”

Crap.

“But – you…Swimming and biking all in one day, really?”

“Kyuhyun, you can’t possibly be that lazy…”

“And here It hought you knew me.”

“God, why are you being so difficult about this? You never ride your bike. It just sits in the garage gathering dust; this will be your one chance to use it!”

Kyuhyun just shook his head. “What are even you talking about? I don’t even have a bike.”

“Yes you do.” Ryeowook frowned. “It’s parked in the garage.”

“No I don’t. That’s Ahra’s bike.”

 “Kyuhyun,” he deadpanned, “I’ve seen Ahra riding her bike. Yours is pinker than hers.”

“It’s a salmon red!” Kyuhyun blurted before he realized he’d just confirmed its existence. “Okay fine; I have a bike. But, I also have a car which is a much more efficient-”

“-gas guzzling monster. Look, is it about the bike being too girly? Because you can ride mine if you want; no one would blink twice if they saw me on a pink bike.”

“It’s not pink and no, that’s not it.”

“Then what is it?”

“The biking.”

“What about the biking?”

“I don’t know!”

“You don’t know!?”

“Yeah!”

 “Kyuhyun, what do you mean you don’t know?”

“I mean I don’t know how, okay!? I don’t know how to ride a bike!”

Silence.

Ryeowook stared at him as if he’d just declared their breakup. “…What?”

“I don’t know how to ride a bike!” Kyuhyun shouted, turning away. “We can’t bike to the lake because I don’t know how! I never learned as a kid, and I just never bothered when I got older. Are you happy now?” he asked, cheeks burning.

There was a moment of quiet from Ryeowook. Then, his boyfriend’s face lit up, and his smile brightened the entire room as he screamed “YES!” knocking the breath out of Kyuhyun with a hug.

_

Before any of you tease Kyuhyun I would like to inform you that I did not learn how to ride a bike until like two weeks ago.