Kyuhyun was forced to entertain his cousin until his jetlag finally got the best of him and he retired after a couple hours.  He could still hear Heechul arguing with Eunhyuk upstairs about the hot temperature of the room and the number of scratchy, wool blankets on the bed but at least his duty was done for the night.  Kyuhyun walked into the kitchen with two empty glasses of wine and found Ryeowook and Donghae both putting on their coats.

            “Where are you two escaping to?”

            “I need to get to the store before it closes,” Ryeowook informed him.  “I don’t have any bagels or cream cheese and I’d hate to ruin his breakfast the very first day.”

            “I’ll drive you myself,” he said, setting the glasses down on the counter and heading for the door.  “I need to get out of the house for a little while.”

            Donghae looked disappointed but Kyuhyun wasn’t about to retract his offer when he was liable to get a severe headache if he stayed.  And Donghae was far better at keeping Eunhyuk calm than anyone else in the house. 

            Donghae stomped his feet as he exited the kitchen and Kyuhyun looked over at Ryeowook as he slipped on his shoes.  He’d changed into regular clothes already and was buttoning up his navy peat coat over a black and grey stripped sweater.  He then put on a maroon and beige colored stocking cap and waited for Kyuhyun to finish getting dressed.  Kyuhyun headed out the door and Ryeowook quietly followed behind as Kyuhyun opened the garage and unlocked the doors to his car.  If Ryeowook was impressed by the sheer expense of the car, he didn’t show it, and simply sat down and buckled himself in. 

            “I can’t believe you’re making me drive you to a store at nine-thirty at night just to appease my cousin,” Kyuhyun grumbled as he pulled out of the garage.

            “He really isn’t that demanding.  Bagels aren’t anything hard to come by, we just don’t have any.  Besides, I didn’t ask you to drive me,” he pointed out. 

            “Are you cold?”

            “A little.”

            Kyuhyun the heater and then flipped the switch to activate the passenger’s side seat heater.  It took a couple minutes to kick in but suddenly Ryeowook squirmed in his seat.  “Wah!  Is this seat getting warm?”

            “Duh!  Feels like you just wet your pants, doesn’t it?”

            “Uh…yeah, it’s weird but it is warming up my legs.”

            “I’m surprised the plants are coming up already when it still feels this cold at night,” he observed, really having nothing more interesting to say since he didn’t want his whole conversation to revolve around his cousin but as he spent most of his time in his game room, he couldn’t think of anything else to talk about.  Unfortunately, Ryeowook only nodded his head in agreement and didn’t continue the conversation.  It would be a long ride if there wasn’t any conversation, so he the radio.  “Do you have a preference?”

            Ryeowook reached over and turned the station to one that played softer music but Kyuhyun just about swerved off the road when he heard his own voice over the radio.  Hope Is A Dream That Doesn’t Sleep.  If Ryeowook knew that it was him singing, he didn’t seem to show it and simply began singing along.  Kyuhyun debated switching the channel but would feel bad if he turned it off suddenly without providing some explanation. 

            “Do you like this song?”

            “Hmmm?  Yeah,” Ryeowook said, humming along for a bit.  “Don’t you?”

            “Oh, it’s okay.  The singer is decent enough, I suppose.”

            “You are probably a big music snob after being a professional singer,” Ryeowook said, shaking his head. 

            “Have you ever heard any of my songs?”

            Ryeowook shrugged.  “If I did I didn’t know it.  I’d never heard your name before moving into this town last year.”

            “I’m wounded,” he said, pretending to feel hurt.  “One of my own employees hasn’t even bothered to do his homework and look up every song of mine that they could find online.  Terrible!  How did you manage to get hired without name-dropping a few of my hits during the interview?”

            “I wowed him with my good looks and charm,” Ryeowook retorted. 

            That did make Kyuhyun laugh since he didn’t think of his new employee as being good looking until a few hours ago and his version of charm—if that’s what you can really call it—seemed to make appearances for everyone else but him.

            “Why did you quit singing anyway?”

            “The last time you asked that I ever so subtly remember redirecting you from that question by asking you not to be nosey—or something along those lines—and the answer hasn’t changed.”

            “You see, I’d be more likely to look that up online than your music because that’s the question you keep dodging and clearly I’m going to get misdirected by the media and they’re going to come to all sorts of horrible conclusions about why you don’t sing anymore where the truth probably sounds far more tame.  But you don’t want to talk about it.”

            “Correct.”

            “You’re one of those celebrities that like to have an air of mystery about them, aren’t you?  That’s why you don’t want to own up to the truth.  You’re kind of like—”

            “Don’t you dare say what I think you’re going to say next,” Kyuhyun warned.

            Ryeowook peered over at him, considering what to say next.  “You and your cousin are more alike than you want to admit.”

            “You are so walking home now,” Kyuhyun said, shaking his head.

            “But then you’ll have to make his breakfast.”

            “I was never the type of singer that has some huge entourage following them around all the time catering to them.”

            “But you do now.”

            “Shut up.  I was a ballad singer, not a rock star.”

            Ryeowook giggled to himself.  “It’s no different, really.  On the road or in your house.”

            “Whatever.”

            They kept up their debate over the differences between entourages and servants until they arrived at the grocery store and had only fifteen minutes to get what they came for before the store closed up for the night.  While Ryeowook headed to the bakery and dairy section, Kyuhyun wandered around until he found where they kept the coffee supplies and was relieved to find that they sold carafes and then browsed the coffee aisle and picked up a couple more bags, one a weaker morning brew and the other a Columbian variety, before searching for Ryeowook and tracking him down in the produce section.

            “What are you getting now?” Kyuhyun asked.