“Yesung.”

“What?”

“Calm the down.”

“What?”

“You’re stressing me out and I’m not even playing anything tonight.”

“What?”

“For the love of God, shut up and play the damn song.”

“What?”

Yesung was...God what was he up to now? He was moving so much Kyuhyun was having a hard time keeping track of him. Five minutes ago he was jumping on his bed but now he was chewing his nails while bouncing his leg up and down at a rapid pace, so much that the couch was creaking. Kyuhyun had suggested he indulges in a last minute practice, but even that turned out like crap.

He was standing and pacing in the middle of the room. Even mumbling to himself. It was grating at Kyuhyun’s nerves. He understood that Yesung was nervous, but it was the first time to see him so out of it. Well, see wasn’t exactly it. He could hear him and feel the stress radiating from him.

“Alright, I’ve tried the brutal way, telling you to get a hold of yourself, but I guess that doesn’t work on you. So, let’s try something else. Sit at your piano, pretend nothing is wrong in the world, and play.”

“You’re a terrible friend and you bring me no comfort whatsoever,” Yesung whined.

Kyuhyun was not having it. “What, so you want me to bring in Eunhyuk or Donghae? You realise they feed off your stress and become stressed themselves which stresses you out. So, let me ask you again do you want my tough love or dumb and dumber stressing you out?”

There was a small exasperated sigh from Yesung, “noooo, why are you saying things like that again? I thought you had stopped.”

Kyuhyun chuckled, “I’m a man of opportunity, always looking for a good innuendo and a couch to crash.”

“Alright, you can stay.”

“Of course I can stay, you’re not going to kick out a blind guy at night, are you?”

“You live ten minutes away,” Yesung deadpanned.

“I’m crashing on your couch.”

Yesung sighed, resignated. Kyuhyun was a goddamn brat sometimes. Most days, Yesung couldn’t even tell there was a three and a half year difference between the two of them, but on some nights, especially if alcohol was involved, Kyuhyun would show a different, younger and more boyish character. Thank goodness that brat hadn’t brought out the wine; Yesung would not be able to deal with a handsy, drunk Kyuhyun with all the stress of his performance looming over him. His performance! He hadn’t thought about it in a good five minutes, and only now did the antsiness settled in again. He got up from the couch and started pacing again.

“Nooo! Not again,” Kyuhyun said in a dead tone. He had managed to keep Yesung’s mind off his recital for a grand total of five minutes. He would need to do better, especially since it started at seven in the evening. He needed to do better.

Yesung’s brain worked differently from most and to distract him Kyuhyun acted like a brat, that was the easiest way and Yesung responded so easily. But since now Yesung was onto him, he couldn’t go around being a brat anymore. It just wouldn’t work. He just pulled something out of his , at this point things were getting desperate. “Let’s watch a movie.”

“What?”

“Pick a movie, anything, just pick something. You’re getting on my nerves. So pick a movie on Netflix and sit down.” He pat the couch beside him. “Come on!”

“Won’t that be boring for you?”

Kyuhyun sighed, why was Yesung so damn difficult tonight. Well, he knew the answer to that but he had asked himself that in a rhetorical way. “Not if you pick something interesting. Come on, have a seat, calm your nerves. Seriously,” he softened his voice as Yesung settled beside him, “what is freaking you out so much?”

Yesung sighed, “I don’t know, I just… It always stresses me out, but this time, this recital, it feels different. It’s not in the same hall, I’m playing the center piece, I’m in charge of the logistics. It’s just a lot of stress and it’s all going to affect my performance. I can’t even get my hands to stop shaking today, I can’t even image what will happen tomorrow.”

Kyuhyun nodded, and extended his hands out. “Give me your hands and close your eyes.”

“What?”

“I’m going to tell you how things are from my perspective before a performance. My performance is in the Great Hall, right? I don’t know how big it is, how full it is, how full it’ll be. Maybe there will be five hundred people, maybe there will be five. I get on stage, I find the piano and the first thing on my mind is finding Middle C. Then I find the starting position and I wait. I count to fifteen and then I start.” Kyuhyun paused, “Sure people are watching, but I don’t really care about that, I don’t play for them, I play for me, and a single person I know, that will be sitting in the audience, as he has been for over ten years, carefully listening to and taking notes to help me improve. The rest of the people, I really couldn’t care for while I’m sitting at the piano. That’s how I get my stress out. I think you just have to find something to focus on, and then just let everything else fall in the background.”

His hands had stopped shaking, and his breathing evened out. The movie was playing but neither of them were paying attention to it.

“You play for me?” Yesung asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

“I do. I always have.”

“Why?”

Kyuhyun smiled, “if there’s anyone in the world that deserved to be played for, it’s you. You’ve always been a constant in my life, from before I was blind and then so much after. You’ve always been there for me, I think playing for you is only fair.”

Although he couldn’t see it, Kyuhyun knew Yesung was smiling, but it wasn’t one of those stupid smiles. The atmosphere was different, it wasn’t the time for witty banter. Yesung let out a shaky sigh. “God Kyuhyun…” He started but didn’t know how to continue; the mood was weird and there was an intense amount of tension between the two. Yesung put his hand to Kyuhyun’s chin, tilting it to face him. “You’re a walking contradiction, Cho Kyuhyun,” he whispered. Something was about to happen, something that excited but terrified him. Yesung leaned in, and then, there was a series of knocks on the door.

“Hyung! Open up, it’s third Thursday of the month pizza party. We have pizza!”

That instantly and effectively killed the mood. “Dumb and dumber?” Kyuhyun asked, sounding incredibly unimpressed and a little frustrated.

“Yeah. I forgot about the pizza party. They didn’t.” Yesung replied, feeling regret and resentment.

“And are you fine? You seem definitely less stressed out, but how are you really feeling?” Kyuhyun had seemingly moved on from the possibility that that moment could have led to. He was concerned about Yesung, and his impeding stress-related doom. That had been his top priority all evening, and it wasn’t about to change even if Eunhyuk and Donghae came in the picture.

“You know what, I’m feeling okay. Still a little worried but I’m not going to start pacing again.”

“Good, I’ll go open up, you get the plates.”

Kyuhyun followed the wall to the front door, only tripping on the shoes Yesung put away. He opened the door, but quickly barred the way.

“Hey Kyu!” Donghae said, as happy as ever. Donghae was rarely in a bad mood.

“Listen, I have been trying to calm him down for hours and I think it finally worked, so you two better not this up. The second I hear him pace, you guys are out, pizza party or not. Got it?”

“Yes sir,” Eunhyuk replied, pushing Kyuhyun aside with the pizza boxes. Donghae quickly followed suite, and sprung in the appartment.

After the pizza was distributed, everyone settled on the couch. “You already have a movie on,” Eunhyuk noted. “Was it any good?” Both Kyuhyun and Yesung mumbled something unintelligible. “Were you guys making out on the couch before we came in?”

In the end, Kyuhyun walked home with Eunhyuk and Donghae. He reluctantly left Yesung’s appartment, after he was assured that Yesung was fine and wouldn’t start chewing his nails the second Kyuhyun walked out the door.

“You like him a lot,” Eunhyuk commented.

“Hmm? You mean in a I’ve known him for years way or more like yes taking off his with my teeth is on my bucket list? Because yes to both.”

They both laughed. “You’re a funny guy, Kyuhyun. See you tomorrow.”

Surprisingly enough, Kyuhyun felt him completely calm the next day. He saw him briefly before his performance, and he didn’t even pace. He was completely and utterly calm. Somehow, it seemed like he completely had his stress under control. He seemed...out of it, or maybe he was just concentrated, but there was something different about this pre-recital Yesung.

“Good luck. I need to go now, but good luck, I know you’ll be amazing,” Kyuhyun told him. There was nothing but a soft sigh from the other man.

“Thanks Kyu,” he said softly.

Kyuhyun hesitated as he was leaving. He knew somehow Yesung would be fine but he was still reluctant to leave him like this. He was acting so strange, and despite knowing it was probably the concentration, it worried him. It was a new feeling. Never before had Kyuhyun been so invested in a performance that wasn’t his own.

He frowned all the way to his seat, tapping the ground anxiously with his cane as they waited for the recital to start.

“He’s going to be fine, you know,” Donghae told him. “He’s always fine, he’s always perfect.”

“I know, I’m just… Nervous. It’s stupid, I’m not even nervous for my own performances, but I don’t know. He was so stressed out yesterday, more than I had ever seen him, so I guess I’m just extra worried about him.”

The concert went by so quickly. Kyuhyun could only remember Yesung’s piece. At the end of the concert their group of friends rushed to Yesung, congratulating him for his amazing performance. And they weren’t empty compliments; his piece was beautifully played, both technically and as a performance. They went for drinks to celebrate and eat supper they had all skipped to attend the recital. After a few shots, a few beers, Kyuhyun and Yesung settle at the bar while the rest of their groups sat at a booth in a conversation neither of them really wanted to participate in. Donghae and Heechul were flatmates, which often lead to massive amounts of bickering when they hung out outside of their shared appartments. When they had started talking about the laundry, Kyuhyun had dragged Yesung away to finish his beer in peace.

“You were amazing, Yesung.” Kyuhyun told him, “so it worked then? Who’d you play for, your dad?”

Yesung chuckled and nudged him with his shoulder. “My dad terrifies me as a piano teacher, just thinking about it makes me stressed out. God, no I didn’t play for my dad. I played for you,” he said, coyly clinking their beers together.

“Me? You didn’t have to, I didn’t tell you to make you feel obligated to-”

“I wanted to. If I think about these past years, there’s really one person that I want to be playing for and it’s you. It just had to be you,” he repeated with more emphasis, sounding so convinced. “When I really think about it, at the end of the day, the person I want most listening to me is you.”

Kyuhyun couldn’t help smiling. “You’re disgusting,” he said with no real bite, “spouting nonsense like that in public.” He leaned in onto Yesung’s shoulder. “Thank you,” he said softly.

From afar, the rest of the group minus Zhou Mi who had an exam the next day. “Look at them,” Heechul commented, “they are seriously gross. Look at them, they’re practically snuggling at the bar.”

“Hyung, you realize you were cuddling with Hangeng while doing the monthly budget for the two of you. That’s pretty much the most digusting thing we’ve seen.”

“You were spoon-feeding Eunhyuk this morning,” Hangeng shot back. “That’s gross. But point taken, they are really pushing it, that’s unseemingly.”

At that very moment Kyuhyun leaned his head and rested it on Yesung’s shoulder. “I’m so drunk,” he drunk whispered loudly.

“Me too, this was one too many drinks,” Yesung replied, “this feels great though, I’m happy here. Are you happy?” He leaned his head on top of Kyuhyun’s. Kyuhyun breathed in deeply and nuzzled into his neck. He wrapped his arms around Yesung’s waist and snuggled in deeper. The alcohol made his brain all fuzzy, the smell of Yesung’s cologne tickled his nose, and the warmth of his body made him incredibly sleepy. He was feeling good, he was feeling nice, he had had a nice day, and everything was fallling into places.

“Yeah, I’m happy, I’m really happy.”

A/N

Okay so it's not often that I'm worried about typos and grammar, but I wrote this whole chapter after midnight, and edited with a headache, so I can't guarantee that everything is spelled right and makes 100% sense. Hopefully it does, I reread it fifteen times. I had a lot of trouble finishing this chapter anyway, I figured I thought I'd post something, get the story going instead of deleting the whole chapter.

Thanks for the comments it's really nice to see what you think of it :) let me know how you like this chapter :)