Playing on a Person’s Weakness

            When I returned, the first thing I did was hold a secret meeting in the middle of the night at Mouse Rabbit.  We certainly couldn’t hold it at the dorms.  Plus, I missed my café.  Few things make me as happy as coffee does.  Were I not an international singer, I probably would have made a living as a barista.  I’m much happier as a singer, however.  It pays better.  And since I own a café as well, I can be a barista whenever I want.  This is what I was doing as the other members sat around at the table.  I was making their favorite drinks.

            I’d called up Leeteuk, Heechul, Eunhyuk, and Donghae.  I figured these were the key people that knew the most about what was going down with the maknaes.  Eunhyuk and Donghae lived with them.  Leeteuk was our leader and everyone told him the dirt on everyone else.  And Heechul was practically psychic.  Plus he happened to spend a good deal of time with Ryeowook. 

            “So, have we seen any changes since I’ve been gone…or nothing?” I asked, making Leeteuk’s plain latte. 

            “Oh, there’s definitely some changes,” started Donghae, stirring his coffee.  “I mean, Ryeowook spends nights with Kyu sometimes.”

            “He does?” I asked, looking over at Hyuk for confirmation.

            Eunhyuk nodded.  “He does, but nothing happens.  Trust me.  The walls are paper thin.  I’d know if something happened.  They share rooms on the road all the time too, but nothing happens then either.”

            Leeteuk stood up to get his finished drink from me and thanked me for it, showing more courtesy than the other members.  I just stood at the counter and gave them a dumbfounded look.  “Why?  Why are they so content to keep things the way they are when they could have so much more?” I wondered. 

            “They’re so cute together,” Leeteuk said, sipping his drink.  “Wook talks about Kyu all the time on the radio.”

            “All the time!” Eunhyuk stressed.

            “He talks about him all the time at the dorm too,” Donghae complained. 

            “And Kyu isn’t much better.  Anytime I say we should go do something, like eat out or catch a movie, he has to see if Wook wants to come with too,” Eunhyuk added. 

            “Wook cooks for him,” Donghae claimed.

            “And you know what,” Eunhyuk said, “whenever Kyu knows that Wookie is coming over, he cleans the dorm and dresses nice.”

            My brows rose at this.  “What’s Kyu’s version of dressing nice, out of curiosity?”

            “Tight jeans and any shirt that Ryeowook has either bought him or says he looks good in, which is usually a collared shirt or a sweater of some sort.  And he puts on cologne.”

            “He totally has a thing for Wook,” Heechul mumbled, sipping his mocha. 

            “So why the hell hasn’t he made a move?” I asked, making my own drink.

            “Because he’s chicken,” Heechul said.

            “Because he doesn’t realize that Wook’s in love with him, I think,” Eunhyuk said.

            “Because he’s happy the way things are for now and doesn’t want to mess up their relationship,” Donghae said.

            I looked over at Leeteuk.  “I think it’s complicated, but perhaps all of them are part of the answer.  And maybe he just isn’t completely sure of his own feelings.  Maybe he doesn’t realize that what he’s feeling is love.”

            “But it is love,” Eunhyuk insisted.  “I’ve never seen a worse case.  Even Sungmin wasn’t this crazy about Saeun, I swear!”

            “Don’t tell her that,” Leeteuk warned.

            “I won’t, but she probably knows it herself.  And considering the maknaes have known and loved each other much longer than them, she could hardly be surprised by it,” Eunhyuk insisted.  “But I don’t understand what we could possibly do to change all this.  It’s almost as if they’re determined not to be happy.”

            “I’ve had a lot of time to think about this,” I told him, after adding frothy cream to my coffee.  “And I thought back to one of my last conversations with Kyu before I left for the service.  I suggested that I should set Ryeowook up with someone, since he seemed lonely, and Kyuhyun was adamant that I leave him be.  He said that if I was worried about someone watching out for Wook, he would do it himself, as he always had.  I was hoping that he would take a hint and date Wook himself.  That didn’t happen, but that did make one thing clearly obvious.  Kyuhyun gets extremely jealous over the thought of someone else being with Wook.”

            “Oh yes!” Leeteuk agreed.  “He can’t stand the thought of anyone monopolizing him.”

            “He scared off Hyungsik,” Heechul agreed.

            “You won’t be able to find someone willing to take on Kyuhyun,” Donghae warned.  “Everyone’s afraid of him.  Or, if they will, he won’t take them seriously because Wook will still prefer him over them.”

            “No,” I said, shaking my head.  “I’ve already got the perfect person in mind.  And it will scare the hell out of Kyuhyun.”

            Heechul gave me a suspicious look.  “Who?”

            “Me!” I said, tapping my chest.

            “Brilliant!” declared Leeteuk. 

            Eunhyuk nodded.  “Kyuhyun respects you too much, he won’t be able to scare you off.  He’ll be jealous as hell though.  Especially since