Chapter 21
Kyuhyun gulped nervously, his eyes flitting all over the place, as he sat on the posh living room couch. The place seemed bigger than how Jin Ri had described it to him. The whole house was all high-ceilings, tall glass windows and huge expensive-looking curtains. The floor was shiny marble, the staircase grand and there were footmen everywhere. There was one who helped him with his coat, a different one who ushered them to the living room and the one who called Jin Ri to his uncle was also a different one. He took a deep breath and wondered if this was a good idea at all. It wasn’t that he was putting off meeting her uncle, but he always felt relieved every time that he had a schedule coinciding with their family dinner. He had no doubts that Chung Mong Koo was the kind man that his girlfriend says he was. But that didn’t say anything as to how he would be when he met him. What if he’s scary to his girls’ boyfriends? He mentally scolded himself, wondering why he never thought of asking Il Sung anything. He was about to stand up when a voice stopped him.

“You look like you’re getting ready to run away.”

Kyuhyun froze and looked up to see Jin Ri standing in the hallway, an amused smile on her face. Before he denied what she said, he paused to really look at his girlfriend. They were in such a rush to leave earlier that he hadn’t really gotten a good look at her yet. She was wearing a gray, all-over shirred, wrapped, sleeveless dress with an asymmetric neckline*, which hugged her body on all the right places. The black stockings and black heels she wore made her even look ier on top of that. She was y and looked regal. It jolted him when he came to the realization that she was the niece of a very powerful man in the country. 

Finally standing up and walking over to her, he slightly brushed back her hair behind her shoulders. She looked up at him, still looking amused, her earlier comment still hanging in the air.

“I was not running away,” he told her, his breath brushing her cheek. “I was merely standing up to pace around because I’m a bit nervous. Besides, even if I did want to run away, I would never.”

Jin Ri rolled her eyes. “It was a joke, Kyu,” she stated, fighting back a giggle. “You didn’t have to go all cheesy on me.”

“Why is it that whenever I say something that should supposedly make you melt, you never melt and you mock me instead?” he shot back, pouting like a cute kid.

She giggled. “I’m sorry that I’m not the melting type and I do not mock you,” she defensively declared. “I merely state facts. It’s really no secret that you can be CheesyKyu when you want to be.”

“How many times do I have to keep telling you? That’s PrinceKyu,” he emphasized. “PrinceKyu!”

Before he started pointing at himself to continue underlining his point, she interrupted him, “Have I ever told you who my favorite Kyuhyun is?”

“No,” he slowly answered, looking surprised.

“It’s PrinceKyu,” she confirmed, brushing some lint off his dark suit. She looked at him and smiled warmly. “He’s the most handsome out of the Kyuhyuns that I know.”

“But—but I thought you liked KidKyu the best,” he countered, startled at this admission, although he didn’t know why he was startled. But he’d always thought that the nicknames were all just for fun.

“I do like KidKyu best,” she began. But before she could continue, footsteps echoed down the hall. She looked at Kyuhyun and straightened his tie, smiling in the process. “You ready?”

He gulped. “No.”

“He’ll love you,” she chuckled.

As her uncle, the famous Hyundai chairman, walked in the living room, Kyuhyun found himself standing straighter like his back was pressed upon a wall. The man seemed taller than he looked on news articles and on TV. He also looked more intimidating. He couldn’t help but gulp as the man’s steely eyes found his and held it.

“You must be Cho Kyuhyun,” Mong Koo’s voice boomed.

~ * ~

“Are you sure Kyuhyun oppa’s going to be okay with us playing with his PlayStation games?” Taeyeon asked as she sat down on the couch and grabbed a magazine on top of the table, flipping through it.

Before any of the present Super Junior boys could answer, Sooyoung snorted, “Who cares? He’s out busy with Jin Ri. He won’t even notice.” She then continued on blasting Sungmin’s character with the male countering it with every bit of strength that he had.

“Be careful, Sooyoung,” Taeyeon gently chided. “If you break the controller…”

“He won’t notice. Sooyoung’s right,” Shindong, who was sitting on one of the smaller sofas, agreed with Sooyoung, who smiled triumphantly. When it came to Jin Ri, Kyuhyun blocked everything else out. It was like she was the only one he could see. “But I don’t think you should be touching his laptop, Donghae.” He turned to the boy, who was seated on the sofa beside Taeyeon, tapping away at the device.

“I’m almost done,” Donghae said dismissively. “Besides, I haven’t broken any gadgets for a while.”

“What about my PMP?” Eunhyuk protested from the kitchen, where he was drinking his favorite strawberry milk, courtesy of Jin Ri’s brother.

“And my iPod!” Siwon called from one of the rooms. “That was just last week!”

“Mine too!” Eunhyuk seconded.

“Aish,” Donghae grumbled. “Fine! I’m done anyway.” He was about to close the laptop when Taeyeon suddenly grabbed his hand to stop him. The male turned to her. “Oh, did you want to use it?” He looked confused when he saw her expression. “Is something wrong?”

“Is that…?” Taeyeon got the laptop from Donghae and placed it on her lap. Her frown deepened when she continued reading whatever it was that she had seen earlier.

“What is it?” Donghae asked, leaning over to her and looking at the screen. Shindong stood up from his seat and stood behind the sofa. “Hey,” he said, recognition going through his face. 

Taeyeon had clicked on a link and it led to a page where a full-blown article on Kyuhyun and Jin Ri was written, complete with blurry fan photos of them in various places. It talked about them being seen with each other all the time and how Jin Ri, still unknown to the public, is making all fans and non-fans curious even if it wasn’t the first time that a rumor about an idol having a girlfriend sprouted up. She scrolled down to the comments and saw how there was a heated discussion on how the girl cannot be Kyuhyun’s girlfriend, as he’s not supposed to have one since he’s an idol. There were also some comments that suggested that the girl looked familiar.

“So it’s really bad,” Taeyeon muttered to herself, closing the laptop.

“What, you mean this has been going on for a while now?” Shindong questioned, moving to the armrest of the sofa to get a better look at Taeyeon.

“Er,” Taeyeon hesitated, glancing at Zhoumi, who was seated on the sofa across Shindong.

“What is it?” Sooyoung asked, looking from her leader to the Chinese man. She and Sungmin had paused the game and were curiously turned towards them. There was a look on the leader’s face that she didn’t like. She usually reserved that look when there was something that the press said that could hurt any of the members. But she knew that Taeyeon already treated Jin Ri like a sister so she wasn’t surprised that that look applied to her as well.

“It’s nothing,” Taeyeon said, smiling.

Donghae stopped Taeyeon from standing up by gently holding on to her arm. “There’s something you’re not telling us,” he observed. Even though he and Taeyeon never really hung out that much, they had still grown up together so he still knew her well.

“Just… the other day, Jin looked bothered about something,” Taeyeon recalled. She remembered her friend being too quiet and preoccupied about thinking about something. “And then she suddenly asked me and Zhoumi oppa how we dealt with the fans’ and the press’ negative comments.” She then shrugged.

“And…?” Sungmin prodded her.

Taeyeon sighed. She knew she could never lie to them about anything. Even though she was timid, she still wore her heart on her sleeve. “And she mentioned something about some fans coming up to her on the street and saying stuff, not necessarily bad things, but she got worried about it since their relationship was supposed to be a secret.”

“Has she told Kyuhyun oppa about it?” Sooyoung asked. She looked concerned. It wasn’t easy being in the center of all the negative remarks of the press and fans at the same time. Knowing what it was like, it wasn’t something that she wished on anyone else.

~ * ~

“I think dad likes him,” Sun Young commented as she watched her father laugh at something that Kyuhyun had said on the other side of the room. She smiled when her cousin reached down to squeeze her boyfriend’s hand encouragingly.

“It does seem like he’s taken with him,” Il Sung agreed, observing them as well.

“What’s not to like?” Jae Sun remarked. “The man’s proving to be humble and very un-idol-like.” In the short time that he’d known Kyuhyun, it seemed that he was a simple person. He did what he did because he loved to sing and perform. It was evident that once he put his mind to something, he did everything he could to see it through. He could also see clearly how much he loved his cousin. For him, as long as his cousin was happy, that was enough.

“I honestly didn’t think that it would go this smoothly,” Sung Ki admitted, looking relieved. He knew how their father worked so it was a relief to know that he wasn’t playing any of his games with Jin Ri and her relationship.

“Me too,” Yung Ho confessed. He’d witnessed his whole life how manipulative their father could be. It was good to know that Jin Ri was spared of all the mess of that.

“You guys should really have more faith,” Jae Sun told them, shaking his head. “I’m sure dad can see how happy Riri is. I don’t think anyone would have the heart to take that away from her, not even him.”

After the night’s after dinner conversations had started to die down, Kyuhyun and Jin Ri decided that they had better go because Kyuhyun had to start early the next day for his schedules. The couple said their warm goodbyes to her family and was off on their way back to Jin Ri’s apartment.

“You okay?” Jin Ri asked Kyuhyun, moving her glance away from the window and towards him. It was probably the best family dinner she remembered going to. Kyuhyun was simply amazing, making her uncle laugh and making everyone feel at ease. One wouldn’t really be able to tell that he was a famous celebrity with the way he’d handled himself throughout the evening.

Kyuhyun turned to her with a smile. “I’m fine,” he answered. “See, I told you I would impress him.” In all honesty, he was very much relieved that the evening was over. He really didn’t know what he expected to happen, but things going perfectly wasn’t the first thing that he thought of. Mong Koo seemed like he was a difficult one to please. But he found that he only needed to do one thing to do so. He just needed to love Jin Ri the right way.

“So I was probably imagining you being scared half to death earlier,” she reminded him teasingly.

“I wasn’t scared,” he said defensively. “I was just apprehensive.”

“Apprehensive is scared, Kyu,” she pointed out, chuckling a little. Reaching out to squeeze his hand, she went on, “You were wonderful, you know that?” She really felt proud of him. She was happy that things went well, that they got along fine.

He turned to her, a smirk on his face. “Who’s being cheesy now?” She rolled her eyes, pulled her hand from his and slapped him on the shoulder.

Once they’d pulled into the underground parking lot of the I-Park building and parked, he turned the engine off and slowly turned to her. He once again took in her beauty and couldn’t help but think about how lucky he was that she was in his life. He really loved her and, even if she hadn’t told him yet, he knew she felt the same way about him. He just wished that he would learn to trust him completely.

When she realized that he was looking at her, she curiously asked, “Is something wrong?”

“Do you want to tell me a secret?” he asked, making her look surprised.

“A secret?” she repeated, blinking. “Kyu, what are you talking about?”

“I’m worried about the fans,” Kyuhyun confessed, deciding not to beat around the bush. He looked into her eyes. “I know you’re worried, too.” He watched as recognition lighted her eyes and she looked away. “Were you ever going to tell me anything?” When he had first told her about the fans suspecting that they were in a relationship, he clearly remembered telling her to tell him any incidents that may happen involving the fans and the press.

“I didn’t want to worry you,” Jin Ri finally said after a moment of silence. She looked at him apologetically. “Besides, nothing really happened. They just asked a couple of questions. Most were really nice.”

“But what if there comes a time when the ones who aren’t so nice comes up to you? What would you do then? You still wouldn’t tell me?” he pressed, his tone rising a bit.

“Kyu, I’m sorry,” she immediately pacified him, taking his hand in hers. “It won’t happen again. I will tell you when anything like that ever happens.”

He leaned over to her side and gave her a kiss on the lips. “I am going to do something about this,” he then told her as he sat back on his seat. “I will tell them about us.”

Her eyes shot to him, wide and searching. “You don’t have to do that. It’s not really that important.”

“It is important,” he insisted. “You’re important to me.” He gazed at her imploringly. “When I said no more secrets, it covers everything. I don’t want to keep us a secret.”

They decided to continue their conversation upstairs, inside Jin Ri’s apartment. They were in the living room, seated beside each other as Jin Ri continued to reason against Kyuhyun telling the world about her and his relationship with her.

“I don’t want to keep us a secret either, Kyu,” she responded earnestly. “But I don’t know what this would do to your career. This is your dream. I don’t want to ruin it for you.” Singing was something that he loved to do. Performing in front of an audience was something he’s wanted all his life because he was able to make people feel and inspire them. She wasn’t sure if his fans would still want to be inspired by him once they find out that he’s not so single anymore.

“Princess, dreams change,” he told her, taking her hands in his. “Singing and performing has always been a dream of mine, but,” he pursued, holding a hand up when he saw her opening hers to interrupt, “that’s changed since I met you.”

“Kyuhyun, why do you always end up making everything so cheesy?” she responded, looking amused, albeit feeling touched at what he said. He merely raised his eyebrows at this, telling her that he knew what she was doing, changing the subject. “Kyu, I appreciate everything that you’re doing for me. But I’m not going to destroy what you’ve worked so hard for. This means everything to you.”

“You mean everything to me,” he countered, shaking his head. “It’s not just about singing and performing for me anymore. It’s about a life with you and being happy with you. I don’t really care about the fans or anything that they say. You make me happy. That’s not something I want to keep to myself. Besides, sooner or later they would be able to confirm it. Isn’t it better that we just admit to it before them finding out some other way?”

Kyuhyun watched as Jin Ri thought about what he said. He knew that she was listing down the pros and cons of revealing their relationship to the public in her head. She bit her lip and looked at him. He really looked convinced that this was the right thing to do. Despite being afraid of the repercussions of such an action, she really didn’t want to stop him from doing what he thought was best.

“If this backfires…” she began, giving in with a sigh. She really felt that so many things could go wrong with an idol announcing that he had a romantic relationship, especially if that idol was very much besotted after.

“It won’t matter,” he responded, pulling her close to him, his arm around her. “As long as you’re beside me…”

As he leaned to kiss her, a giggle burst out from . Before he could protest, she beat him to it. “Yes, I know that was PrinceKyu talking. Not going to fight you about that anymore.” She giggled softly. “I do love him,” she then whispered without thinking, lifting her face up so that she could meet his lips.

Her words immediately registered in his brain, making him halt. He then grabbed both her arms and pushed her a bit so he could get a good look at her. “What did you say?” he demanded.

She blinked, feeling startled at the sudden change in atmosphere. “What?”

“I thought you said that you…” he started, but trailed away. He didn’t want to push the issue and scare her. But he could’ve sworn that she had just told him that—

“Yes, I do love you, Kyuhyun,” she suddenly repeated. Her eyes bore into his, wanting to let him know that she meant it. It was something that she’d always wanted to tell him ever since they got together, but was just too afraid to do so. However, since he was willing to risk everything for her, she wanted to be able to do the same for him. She should stop thinking about herself and stop being afraid. She had far less to lose than he did.

“Princess,” he spoke when he finally found his voice, “are you sure?” He was happy that she finally said those words aloud, but he was afraid that she had said them unwillingly. He never wanted her to do anything she didn’t want to do.

She smiled in reply. “Are you ready to graduate yet?” she teased.

“From which level?” he wanted to know, smirking.

“You decide,” she answered, somewhat suggestively, making him open his mouth in shock.