Kyuhyun's Pov:

I couldn't stop thinking of what happened at Eunhyuk and Donghae's place even after reaching home. I simply couldn't. It was stronger than me and my mind seemed to wander on its own, wanting to replay the scenes as many time as possible, until the only face that really mattered was Ryeowook's.

After apologizing to Eunhyuk, I didn't even wait for Donghae's return, as I feared he would have started asking me strange questions about what was the actual relationship between me and Ryeowook, and took a taxi to reach home. Well, Eunhyuk was likely to be starting talking nonstop as well, telling me that I had mistreated one of his guests and who knows whatever else he might have babbled thereafter...

I only knew that my head buzzed in an unbearable way, I wouldn't have been too much surprised if it actually burst due to the amount of annoying thoughts I was dealing with.

It was an incredibly chilly night and I felt extremely uneasy...I wandered bare foot from the dark deserted living room of my house to the kitchen, where a I distractedly grabbed a wine glass and picked an untouched bottle of red wine from the small cellar I had right below the kitchen metal sink. I looked attentively through the labels and ended up choosing something pretty strong flavored. If my mind was about to explode, then I'd have let it explode after pluging with my all self into my most favorite kind of alcohol. 

I turned off the lights and walked straight to the living room again, where I threw my whole weight on to the cold black leather sofa. I pulled the cork off and bent over the low glass table, where I had put my glass. The pouring sound of that ruby liquid that glistened under the moonlight, which filtered throught the window, was the most heavenly one I could hear in quite awhile. Wine wasn't called "gods' nectar" for nothing, and I perfectly knew why it had such a poetic name.

I pushed my back against the backrest, folded legs and brought with me the half-filled glass, sniffing the fruity sweet and sour notes of my drink, before actually sipping it. This was really what I needed the most: a relaxing time on my own, in the stillness of my house, without annoying friends who did their best to crack my nerves and piss me off...they didn't do that too often, but when they did, they did it pretty well...

...and I guess that wine didn't help at all, if I was still thinking of Eunhyuk's house. I couldn't stop thinking of it not even after my third glass, not even when I noticed that I had finished drinking until the last tasty droplet.

"Stupid Eunhyuk and damn Ryeowook!" I cursed them both with a low hiss, standing up and walking towards the cellar again, grabbing two bottles this time and getting back on my seat, focused into opening the first one.

As I drank my thoughts brought me back to Ryeowook, and his scared face when I grabbed him by the collar. I really truly wanted to hurt him so bad, but I felt something inside my chest, something that was holding me back...his shut eyes, his trembling lips...everything from him was telling that he was scared of me, but why then he didn't shield himself? Why he stood still as if waiting for my moves? He wasn't like that...the Ryeowook I used to remember was always cheerful and brighter than anyone, probably the most noisy person existing on earth, and even if he didn't have the same level of wit as me, he had a pretty sharp tongue and, if possible, was talkative beyond any excess, just to match my skills! That was why I liked whenever he showed up at our house...I liked enjoying my time with him...well, I liked him...

*flashback memories - around 10 years before*

"You've graduated already! Are you still tutoring juniors from the school?" Kyuhyun asked, puffing his cheeks and looking at his sister, before bending his head again on thick volumes of maths and geometry. He was at his last year of high school and was focusing hard into studying before his final exams. There were still three months to go, but he didn't intend to waste any of his time, especially when he had got an older sister who was playing her violin from day to night and pretty much disturbed him every day.

On top of that, he didn't need one of her juniors to show up at their home and practice music together to double his feeling of pointless annoyance.

"Oh, Kyu, stop complaining! You know, before going to Vienna and take my exams at the conservatory, I need to collect some extra hours through tutoring juniors, that's the only way!" she was taking from the fridge a couple of strawberry mini puddings and two little spoons. She gently pushed one on the table towards Kyuhyun's side and placed the spoon atop of it, smiling.

"Thanks, noona..." he blushed and took a break from his exercises.

She sat at the kitchen table next to her brother and dipped her spoon, taking a small bite of the pink jelly, humming: "Uhm!" she waved the spoon mid-air, as if she had suddenly remembered something important "Don't worry, though! We will not bother you. I've been assigned one single student and I'll stick to him throughout the next three months"

"Do you know anything else about him?" Kyuhyun asked, quite interested in his sister's explanation.

She was Cho Ahra, the best student and violin player around. She graduated with perfect score from the music college and was now a promising aspiring member of the Vienna Philarmonic Orchestra. She was in, however she had to take care of little annoying details to see her place confirmed by the judging commission.

She shrugged: "He's called Kim Ryeowook. He's your same year, well he's one year older than you, but you both belong to the same academic year as far as I know..." Kyuhyun listened to her without taking his eyes off her sister, the only movement was done by his hand, which brought the spoon closer to his mouth at each bite of the pudding "...I heard he's a little genius among piano students, he's got pretty skilled fingers on the keyboard and highest marks. He's the kind of student every professor praise" she giggled as she was reminded of her own past academic life.

"Anything else?" he asked, teasing her. She was pretty much informed for a girl who pretended to know a bit less of what she had just affirmed earlier.

"What do you mean by that?" Ahra smiled even wider, looking straight into Kyuhyun's eyes, maybe perfectly aware of her looking slightly suspicious.

"Are you remembering your own achievements while looking at him, am I wrong?" Kyuhyun again, this time poking with the handle of the spoon on her upper arm.

"Stop it!" she kept on chuckling.

"Why? I already know that if he's only half like you, he'll be boring to be around...at least, you were! You are, Ahra!" Kyuhyun rolled his eyes and resumed "Every time the only thing you can think of is taking care of your violin, polishing it until it glistens and play music, so to screw up your non-existing social life!"

"Don't you dare!" she knew that was Kyuhyun's way to joke around and decided to take on the challenge: "Are you telling me that you're envious, this way?"

"Of what?" he pronounced with mouth stuffed by another bite of the pudding.

"Mom and dad asked you if you wanted to take lessons as well and you refused! You can only play that stupid harmonica of yours! And that's all...you're envious Kyu...you definitely are, because I'm better than you!"

"Don't talk nonsense! And here, the only good Cho around is me, keep it in mind, noona! But even if you forget it, I'm more than glad to remind you as many times you need!" he grinned and narrowed eyes, halfway to let out one of his evil-sounding-like small laughter "Moreover, my harmonica is not stupid, plus...I can sing, I'm quite in tune and I can play basic piano!"

Ahra seemed on the verge of defeat: it was pretty hard trying to win over her little witty brother, who had always the right thing to say at the right time. Therefore she tried something else: "Well, you might be...but not like this Ryeowook..." 

"You're the one who keeps on nagging here I see! Who ever talked about this Ryeowook of yours! And why do you compare him to me? Of course he'd be better...he's been studying piano for all his life, for what we know!" Kyuhyun rolled his eyes and finally set aside the empty plastic container that once was filled with a fruit pudding, devoured in no time.

"See? You must be really envious..."

"Wait! Why are you keeping on mentioning about him? Are you...are you by chance interested into this little Beethoven?" his jaw dropped when Ahra didn't speak then. She adverted Kyuhyun's eyes and became as red on the face as her sweater was. "You are!" the boy let out a quite thrilled scream, pointing at her as if she was guilty of a terrible thing.

"I...I..." Ahra stuttered at first "...well, I saw him two days ago...it was the first time actually, I'm not a stalker! And...I must admit he's quite good-looking for his age..."

"Noona! From what you told me he might be 18, right? You are only two years older! It doesn't make any sense giving the feel of an old lady! Flirt with him, if he's that interesting! He'll be spending more or less every afternoon of the next three months in our house!" and then Ahra blushed even more. It wasn't an usual thing having her little brother giving out lovelife advices and that made her feel even uneasier: "I...know!" she mumbled, pretty embarrassed, while scratching the back of her neck hidden by the long cascade of brown straight locks.

"I'll help you if you want!" Kyuhyun told her, acting as the real protective and supportive brother then, and smiled before resuming his homework.

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"Please, make yourself at home and don't call me 'teacher' I hate that!" Ahra was saying to the boy who followed her at home. He was taking off his shoes and wearing a pair of soft white slippers the family had displayed at the entrance door for guests. He smiled then, gaining his confidence back and walked behind Ahra to the living room of the girl's house, where there was a majestic shining black piano right under a big window, that let in the all the light from the afternoon sun.

"You're back!" 

Ahra turned around and the boy did the same, after placing his bag on the sofa.

She saw Kyuhyun standing with his left shoulder against the arched door-less frame, with crossed arms and a strange amused smirk depicted on his face.

"Oh! Kyu!" she walked a few steps towards her little brother and pointed at the new boy: "This is Kim Ryeowook, the pianist who will have some lessons here on the afternoons" she did her best not to wink in her brother's direction. She knew that Kyuhyun was perfectly aware of Ryeowook's identity, but she had to fake even the tiniest bit of professionalism, somehow.

Ryeowook bowed to Kyuhyun and stretched a hand out to him, brightly smiling, as if someone had told him that his smile might have served as a business card.

Kyuhyun was taken aback then: the warm touch of Ryeowook's soft smaller hand squeezing his made him shiver, even if he wasn't so sure which one among his warmth, his birght smile or his deep charming eyes caught his attention the most. He slightly bowed with his head, but couldn't take his eyes off him, his fixated glance on him resulting in Kyuhyun slightly parting lips in surprise.

Ahra had told him that Ryeowook was quite good-looking for his age...but Kyuhyun didn't expect him to be that good-looking! It totally exceeded the expectations he figured up in his mind when his sister had firstly described him.

"Nice to meet you! My name is Kim Ryeowook!" even his voice sounded heavenly. It was slightly high-pitched and maybe a bit full of cutesy for normal boys, but in his case it fit well the whole ensemble, considering that Ryeowook was a bit smaller than him and his figure was petite. He was perfect. And as a boy, Kyuhyun didn't know where all his sudden unexpicable excitement came from, as he laid his eyes on the boy's gentle facial features and admired everything from him from head to toe. Even his neat uniform was cause of temporary mental blackout. Why was that happening to him? And why he felt his heart strangely lighter and millions butterflies flying in his stomach, as if they were causing a never felt before strong storm within him?

"I...I'm Kyu...ehm, Cho Kyuhyun!" he stuttered, desperately hoping that his sister hadn't taken a glimpse of that absurd blushing of him when his eyes met Ryeowook's and tried to endlessly dive there.

Ryeowook lightly tilted his head backwards and flipped his hair fringe as he was used to do whenever his hair bothered his sight; Kyuhyun then hurriedly let go of his hand: "I'll leave you...to your practice...then..." and bowed to him again, uncertainly taking steps backwords until he reached the main corridor and the stairs. He rushed upstairs to hide in his room. After shutting the door he found himself lingering there as a perfect idiot. He absolutely ignored what was happening to him, but the best thing was not to be seen either by his sister or by Ryeowook...he might have resulted too ridiculous.

He didn't know where to start checking himself up: he went to the mirror hung above his desk and looked at his reflection. He wasn't used to look at his cheeks getting of that unfamiliar red shade. He touched them and cupped his face in his own hands, feeling the hotness of his skin. He gulped and tried to swallow his saliva, but his throat didn't want to cooperate as it was hoarse and dry...strangely dry. Not to mention the feeling of his stomach being literally turned upside down and his heart that pumped blood a little too faster than average...

...then he realized: how was he supposed to keep his promise and help Ahra flirting with Ryeowook, if he himself might have fallen at first sight for him? Life was unfair...

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...and the more Ryeowook spent his days practicing at their place, the more Kyuhyun thought that life was getting unmerciful towards him.

He did his best not to look too suspicious whenever, every day at 4pm, as Ryeowook showed up to practice his scores with Ahra, he quietly slipped into the living room and did his homework there, on the low table, pretending to stay silent and tending to his own business, while the only thing he really wanted to do was listening to Ryeowook playing the piano from day to night, without ever getting fed up with it.

Kyuhyun thought that no matter which hard score Ryeowook was given, he could perfectly express it through the keyboard and produce a continuous stream of majestic music that could either be gentle and poetic or rushed and passionate...it was only up to him...even if Ahra sometimes didn't agree with him.

"Ryeowook, it's moderato here, so don't press too much while playing this part, or you'll lose the leitmotiv throughout the piece!" she noisily nagged, while sitting at his side, lightly tapping with her fingers on the smooth shining black surface of the musical instrument to follow the beat.

Ryeowook did it again, and again...and again, not showing any sign of loosing his patience, instead tried his best to loosen his fingers and press on the white and black keys with a bit less strength, so to keep the sweet feeling of how Ahra wanted that music to be played.

Unlike him, Kyuhyun was silently grimacing and complaining: "Leave him be! He's already perfect that way! And I like this passage to be played a bit strongly, like he does, it...it gives me the right shivering feelings...it really makes me enjoy this..." he was thinking, not wanting to interrupt the both of them, but secretly hoping that Ryeowook would stand up to Ahra once in a while.

Instead Ahra kept on correcting him once more.

"Stop it now!" Kyuhyun turned to them and burst out, flashing his older sister with his stare "You're too much now, Ahra!" he kept on saying "He's already playing it at his best! Leave him be!"

"Shut up, Kyu!" this time was Ahra's turn to reply, fiercely responding to his brother's stare with hers "He needs to learn how composers wanted this to be played! And he's not playing it well enough..."

Kyuhyun frowned and took the courage to look up at Ryeowook, perched on the squared chair of the piano, his feet still placed on the golden yellow pedals. The older boy looked at Kyuhyun with a sort of thankful glance, wanting him to know that he appreciated Kyuhyun's efforts, but as soon as he was about to speak, Kyuhyun himself resumed what he had to say to his sister.

"That's why you have always been boring and I didn't want to take up on music!" Kyuhyun was now fully immersed in his conversation to defend Ryeowook's way of playing and his own opinions "You think that music is something rigid, something that has to be learned by heart like a manual people have to know and practice until they can remember it from the beginning to the very end, without pouring not even a bit of themselves into it! I think that is not really that way! It's about sharing! You learn from music, but you also learn how to give to music...and Ryeowook...he knows how to do that! He gives to famous composers' works a bit of his soul whenever playing! So we are not here arguing how he plays Beethoven or Mozart like they would have liked to; it's more like Ryeowook playing them in his own unique style..."

By then Ahra was speechless. She looked down at his brother with jaw dropped in astonishment, trying to think over what he had just said word by word and understand the whole situation. Kyuhyun, who wasn't even supposed to know how to read a score, which was considered the silliest of the basics, was now daring to lecture her on how to perceive music and personalize styles.

"Okay...that's all for today..." Ahra fumbled while speaking, violently blushing in front of Ryeowook, only wanting to beat Kyuhyun up for having caused her to look like a complete idiot. She wasn't used to that, she wasn't used to Kyuhyun talking back, but more than anything, she wasn't used to be corrected in front of another fellow music student, who happened to be her secret crush. She told Ryeowook to keep practicing before the meeting on the morrow and then she disappeared upstairs.

Kyuhyun then looked at him and smiled. Ryeowook shyly smiled him back, before gathering his things and scores.

Kyuhyun then looked down on his books again, knowing that Ryeowook had soon to go home.

He was totally surprised when he felt the boy's warm presence sitting right on his side, bending over his books as he looked quite interestedly at maths' formulas and geometrical designs. Kyuhyun gulped as he felt his heart pouding, uneasy. He turned to his side and could actually attentively examine Ryeowook's profile: he was only a few inches away and his being so close to him briefly set his brain to a total blackout.

"What?" Ryeowook suddenly asked, feeling Kyuhyun's gaze on him.

Kyuhyun was brusquely brought to reality by that sudden question: "Eh? What...what?"

"Why are you keeping on looking me like that?" Ryeowook turned and set his eyes onto Kyuhyun's face, trying to look at him straight into his eyes. That made Kyuhyun feel even stranger.

"Just...I don't know..." Kyuhyun shrugged "Why are you still here?"

"Why? Are you chasing me out now?" Ryeowook lifted one hand from the table and gesticulated in mid-air, pointing at himself, gracefully swinging his fragile-looking wrist.

"N-no...I'd never d-do it..." Kyuhyun felt slightly hotter...and maybe even a bit too much red on the face. He had never been put in such a difficult situation, but Ryeowook managed to every single time, and they didn't even talk that much one to the other...it was Ryeowook's simple presence around that turned him that way...it was both pleasant to know him there, but also very much burdensome, because Kyuhyun felt like constantly fighting against whatever unexplicable thing showed up in his heart, when he got to see him every day.

"Okay then, I'll stay a little bit more, if you don't mind..." Ryeowook smiled and showed a line of perfect white teeth. Soon after he took from his bag a thick book and a notebook where he could take notes. He hid half his face behind the book, blinking multiple times with his thick black eyelashes, looking terribly like a puppy asking for cuddles: "Would you...would you help me with my maths' grades?" he asked with a low smooth whisper.

Kyuhyun slightly widened eyes and didn't know whether to laugh out loud or pretend to be astonished: he decided not to do any of the two, or it might have appeared too rude, and he wanted to avoid that in the first stance. "Aren't you musicians supposed to be a little better in maths?" he joked, but Ryeowook didn't take it as a joke, as he was now looking a bit deceived: "Yeah, I know...but...it's stronger than me...I really don't know how to memorize all these formulas...and it's so annoying!!" he scoured and puffed his cheeks, rounding together his rosy lips so that they looked even plumpier. He looked slightly like a desperate little hamster begging for help and Kyuhyun was about to give his approval, when something suddenly came up in his mind: "Wait...how do you know that I'm good in maths, at least that good enough for you to take lessons from me, I mean..." Kyuhyun's question spontaneously aroused.

"Well...how can I put it..." Ryeowook moved his hand and lightly scratched the right side of his thin slender neck, tilting head on the side: "...Ahra noona...she talks about you quite a lot, actually...she always praises your abilities and she says you're enrolled in a private school and..."

"What?! Are you kidding?! My sister wouldn't do it for sure! I know her..." Kyuhyun interrupted him and laughed for real this time, being taken aback by what Ryeowook was now saying.

"...she made me really curious about knowing you better, Kyuhyun..." Ryeowook admitted.

"I do want to know you better as well, Kim Ryeowook..." Kyuhyun rushed his thoughts, but luckily for him he managed on time not to spill them out, or else he didn't want to know what might have happened next...

"So...deal? And we become friends?" Ryeowook was bringing him back to reality as he stretched out his pinky finger, to snatch a promise from him, smiling brightly.

"F-friends..." Kyuhyun repeated with a feeble sound "...yes...I guess that could work..." he accepted, nodding, and grabbed Ryeowook's pinky with his own, sealing the deal.

The step from friends to becoming something more was fast to achieve...and Kyuhyun was only waiting for his golden chance to clear up his feelings...