“God, Ahra! I already told you I couldn’t do it!”

“But you promised last week-!”

“Because I didn’t know the date!”

“But I already told them you’d be there!”

“Well then tell them you were wrong!”

“God, what the hell Kyuhyun!? Why can’t you do it!? All you do on a normal day is just sit on your and talk to that fat kid all day-!”

A door slammed somewhere in the house, but Kyuhyun’s sister continued yelling through the wall. Ryeowook stood outside the Cho house, feeling just a little horrified (and hurt). It was almost enough to make him turn back around, but instead he rang the doorbell. He waited a second. Then, an irate Kyuhyun stormed up to the screen door, looking ready to rip somebody’s head off. When he saw that it was Ryeowook however, his expression softened.

 “Ryeowook. You’re here early.”

 “Yeah,” he smiled cautiously. “I thought we could finish up the biking lesson right now since it’s not too hot right now.” The day was a dry and cloudy. They said it was supposed to storm tonight. “Plus, the park gets too crowded at night and I figured we could use all the space we could get.”

His boyfriend frowned. “The park?”

“Yeah, I said we would spend today at the park, remember? There are hills there.”

Kyuhyun’s eyes widened a little; a telltale sign that he had no clue what he was talking about. “Uh, yeah. Sure,” he glanced backwards in the room. “Just let me grab my bike and we can go.”

Instead of going inside to get the bike, Kyuhyun opened the garage door from the outside keypad. Snatching his bike, he also tossed the pads and helmet over the handle bars. No gloves this time. Hurriedly, his boyfriend pushed it out and started going down the driveway.

“Oh, Kyu,” he said concerned, “We don’t have to hurry; you can put this stuff on now-”

“Or later. Right now we should go.” he chirped anxiously.

Ryeowook was about to ask if he was okay when the front door opened. “Kyuhyun?”

“Go, go, go!”

“Kyuhyun!”

Rapidly, his boyfriend sprinted his bike down the side of the street.  Ryeowook stared at him then glanced at Ahra who looked every bit as shocked but significantly angrier than him, and then ran after him. They must have looked mighty stupid sprinting down the street with bikes in their hands, but Kyuhyun didn’t seem to care about that. In fact, he didn’t seem to have much care for anything except getting the heck away from his sister.

“Kyuhyun! Kyuhyun, stop!”. “Kyu…Kyuhyun,” he breathed between heaves. “What happened? What’s wrong with Ahra?”

Kyuhyun, who was breathing pretty hard himself, gave him a bizarre look. “What are you talking about? We’re not – nothing’s wrong with Ahra.”

Ryeowook gaped at him. “What? Then why were we running?”

“I was just – I was so excited to learn how to bike, you know? I was… I was…” It must have been obvious that he wasn’t buying that bull. Kyuhyun sighed, “I was running from Ahra. She wasn’t – isn’t happy with me right now.”

“Why?” he asked as if he hadn’t heard their conversation. Well, part of it anyways.

“It’s…” Kyuhyun hesitated. “…it’s stupid brother/sister stuff. Nothing for you to get involved in.”

“Oh,” Ryeowook doubted that but he didn’t want to push it. “Okay then. Well, let’s go to the park; maybe she’ll calm down by the time we get back.”

They ended up routing backwards because Kyuhyun had missed a turn to the park and on the way they passed a strolling family; the little girl of which asked her mommy why “that boy had a pink bike.” Ryeowook chuckled at her boldness. Of course then he turned to Kyuhyun who looked like the girl had just insulted his great ancestors, and Ryeowook felt his smile wither.

At the park, they picked up where they’d left off. Ryeowook made Kyuhyun show him that he still knew how to mount his bike. Apparently he didn’t. Ryeowook had to hold up the bike once again while he got on. Then they worked on coasting. Basic balance. Kyuhyun remembered to put on his protective gear which was good because he fell down twice while Ryeowook was holding him. Unfortunately, due to the lack of gloves he scraped his palms the second time.

Ryeowook continually reminded him to try to relax since that was all he could really think of. That only seemed to annoy Kyuhyun more. Ryeowook came to the conclusion that whatever was bothering Kyuhyun was not going away soon. It had him flustered, frustrated, and cursing every two seconds. All the “F” words galore. A bit of frustration dripped on him too, but he wasn’t going to show it. Instead, he just kept smiling and encouraging.

Eventually, Kyuhyun got back to where he was yesterday in terms of balance. He could turn with no problems now. However, pushing him around the empty lot, Ryeowook felt his arms getting tired. Already sore from yesterday, there was no way he could keep this up without letting Kyuhyun fall over.

“Hey, Kyu?” he said stopping the bike.

“I swear,” Kyuhyun snapped at a stunned Ryeowook. “If you tell me one more time to relax, I am going to ditch this bike right here. How do expect me to relax when I obviously can’t even ride this thing. I could fall over at any moment and break my arm; is that supposed to be relaxing? Huh?”

Ryeowook blinked at this sudden outburst. “I – I’m sorry. I was just going to suggest we take it to the hills. My - my arms were getting tired.”

Almost immediately, the taller’s face crumpled. With regret? Maybe. Averting his gaze, Kyuhyun nodded stiffly and got off the bike with great difficulty. Grabbing his own bike, Ryeowook led him over to the park paths. They dipped up and down in little hills, surrounding a playground and tennis courts. Ryeowook smiled at the children rolling around in the grass. It made him feel better.

“Okay,” he said, clasping his hands together, “We’re going to do what we’ve been doing except on these hills. I read online that’s it’s good to have some speed when learning to balance and what better pusher than gravity, right?”

He turned towards Kyuhyun only to find that the latter had hardly been listening to him. His eyes instead were focused on the playground and tennis courts, looking severely displeased.

“Kyuhyun,” he snapped, “What’s wrong?”

It actually took him a moment to respond. “There are people here. Like a lot of people.”

“Well, yeah,” Ryeowook shrugged, looking at the two families and tennis players. “It’s the park. It’s not even usually this empty.”

“Yeah but…they’re still going to see me learning how to ride a bike; I mean…” He looked hopelessly at Ryeowook.

It was like all the pieces clicked into place. “Oh my gosh,” he deadpanned, “Did you never learn how to ride a bike because you were embarrassed people would see you fall?”

Kyuhyun scoffed uncertainly, “Well not just fall. I mean, I’m a sixteen year old guy; I shouldn’t be learning how to ride a bike.”

Ryeowook couldn’t believe this. They had spent probably five hours now trying to teach him how to ride a bike and now he was backing out because of an audience.

“Come on, Kyuhyun! You’re so close! Just go down this hill and I promise you, you will ride out of here on this bike, okay?”

If his boyfriend had any more reservations, Ryeowook didn’t care because he shoved the bike into his hands and demanded he get on. Kyuhyun obeyed for the sake of it. Swiftly, they pushed off and down the first hill. The bike picked up speed considerably fast. Ryeowook didn’t find it so hard to hold onto him anymore: a sign that Kyuhyun was beginning to balance on his own. The first hill wasn’t bad either. They had the required momentum and they were up in a breeze. Going downhill, Ryeowook had to jog to keep up. This was good. When they moved up third hill, Ryeowook yelled at him: “Don’t change anything! Just keep pedaling!”

“Okay!” Kyuhyun said and then doubled back. “Wait, why!?”

But he didn’t get his answer because then they made it over the third hill and suddenly Ryeowook was no longer beside him.

“Whoa! Whoa! What is this-? You let go!” Kyuhyun screamed in panic, speeding down the hill.

His cries of fear bounced off Ryeowook’s ears though as all he could hear were his own shouts of joy. It was like seeing a child take off for the first time. And boy was Kyuhyun taking off! He hadn’t fallen over at all and was balancing perfectly on his own. Heck, he was even pedaling up a hill! Ryeowook shouted at him to: “Keep going!” Running back to the parking lot, he went to retrieve his own bicycle. There was however, one minor issue.

Kyuhyun didn’t have his hands on the brakes.

By the time Ryeowook biked to catch up with him, he was in full view of the disaster. Kyuhyun was headed full speed for the tennis courts and by the looks of it, he’d frozen up again.

“Kyuhyun!” he screamed.

The other showed no signs of hearing him.

“Kyuhyun, the brakes! The brakes!” But his boyfriend could only stay frozen in absolute horror until smashing into the tennis court fence at full force. Ryeowook cringed. Biking over there at full speed, he found his boyfriend lying on the ground face covered in agony. He was also bright red.

“Kyu!” Ryeowook cried. The taller was grasping his hand, but he could see the dripping blood. “Kyu,” he whispered, kneeling down. Prying his other fingers away, Ryeowook saw the hole that was in his hand. No joke; there was a hole in the bottom of right palm the size of thick pencil lead. He was completely lost as to where this hole came from until he spotted the ragged fence with all its loose ends sticking up. One of which was quite red. “Oh my gosh,” he mumbled.

Kyuhyun pulled his hand back, still in obvious pain. Through gritted teeth, he could hear him  flinging every curse word known to man.

“Hey,” One of the tennis players said, walking over to them. “Is your friend alright?”

“I’m fine!” Kyuhyun shouted before either of them could react. “I am completely, perfectly fine! Right!? I mean there’s only a ing hole in my hand; how could I not be fine!?”

Ryeowook quickly waved the man away before his boyfriend became anymore agitated. “Kyuhyun…” he mumbled, leaning in towards the other.

“ Ryeowook! Why did you let go!?”

He flinched backwards at the explosion. “I only-”

“You only what!? You only wanted me to learn so we could go on your stupid anniversary trip!? Is that what!? God, you said you weren’t going to let go!”

“I’m sorry-”

“And then you just disappear afterwards!? Like what the ? Why would you rush me like that!? I have a ing hole in my hand because of this! Look at it! It’s a rusted metal fence; I’m going to need shots for this!”

Ryeowook felt tears well up in his eyes as he listened to all of Kyuhyun’s yelling because this was true. Why hadn’t he at least stayed to watch; to make sure he was okay?

The tennis man came back, phone in hand. “Look, I have a first aid kit in my car. I could patch your friend up enough for you to get him home. Is that okay?”

Ryeowook nodded.

“Okay. Here’s my phone if you need to call anybody.”

Taking the sleek iPhone, he stared blankly at the screen. Kyuhyun had cooled down to furious murmurs while clenching his teeth in pain. Seated on the concrete, Ryeowook dialed the number he knew by heart.

“Hello?”

“Ahra? This is Ryeowook-”

“Ryeowook? Like my brother’s Ryeowook?”

He could barely utter an “uh-huh” before Ahra broke into a rampage.

“So you are the one forcing Kyuhyun to spend the whole day with you tomorrow! Oh my god, do you even know what tomorrow is? It’s our great aunt’s birthday and Kyuhyun promised to sing for her but he can’t now because you roped him into some kind obsessive agreement. What kind of boyfriend are you-?”

Ryeowook hung up before he could hear anymore. An apology slipped from his lips just seconds too late. Tears had already slipped down his face but he could hardly feel them. Numbly, Ryeowook placed the phone on the ground.

The tennis man returned with the familiar white box with red cross. While he had Kyuhyun distracted, Ryeowook considered leaving right there but he couldn’t because he had to make sure the man was trustworthy first. And he did. And he was. So he left.

 ***

The pain was blinding. Like seriously, agonizingly, blinding. The wire must have hit a nerve or something because his entire hand felt like it was being vaporized right in front of him. Kyuhyun was ready to attack anyone or anything; just to make the pain go away. Hell, he have been willing to punch a wall if it meant lessening the pain in his right hand.

The older man who was dabbing at it with a cotton swab only seemed to make it worse. Kyuhyun would have punched him. Only the pain subsided after a minute, dulling down to a strong ache.

As the hazy fog of sheer torture let up, Kyuhyun found himself sitting on a cold cement ground. Thunder struck overhead.

“Better get yourself home kid,” the man said, packing up his things. “I cleaned the surface but you’ll want to get that cut checked, okay?”

He nodded numbly, unsure who this man was or what had just happened. The tennis man grabbed his bag and phone and with his partner walked away.

He stood up shakily as the first drops of rain pattered down on him. He looked left and right. The whole three sixty. But no matter which way he turned, he could not find Kim Ryeowook.