A/N: Andddddd it’s been almost a month since I updated. Only one day away from it being a month. Lol I forced myself to finish it tonight just so that I can say that it technically didn’t take a month and ease up my conscience a bit. xD

Sorry about the wait. I’ve been spending about 10 to 12 hours a day at work. I’m already lucky if I’m able to get my work done by 10 hours. Also, a week ago, I was writing the “next” update and was finally in the writing mood… then, I realize that it wasn’t actually the next chapter that I was writing, but the next, next chapter instead. *facepalm*

I nearly forgot about this particular chapter. I had to double check my outline of chapters and saw that the next update really should be for the past.

So, here we go! The past!

Parts in grey are in the past.

Book 4: Blast from the Past

Chapter 6: Past

The hallways seemed to be dead silent as Leeteuk made his way through them. After having spent about twenty minutes with the other leaders in trying to convince their managers of some excuse or the other, not to mention the rest of the crazy events of the day, the Super Junior leader had been left feeling tired to the bones. And he wasn’t even sure if he, Yunho, and Taeyeon had been able to completely get their managers to believe the flimsy excuses.

Looking back now, their excuses don’t entirely seem to tie together.

Still, he and the other SM idols had decided that it was better to keep in the management in the dark about today’s events for now. And either way, even if they decided to tell the truth to their managers, they weren’t completely sure if the managers would have just taken their word for it. The day’s events were so crazy that they seemed quite unbelievable.

Still, it was one of those cases where the reality was much crazier than any kind of fiction or fantasy.

Come to think of it, Leeteuk himself wasn’t quite sure that everything that transpired today had really happened… Seeing Kyuhyun again… Finding out that Hankyung had him all this time… Learning about Minhyun… Being shocked that mpreg was real… Discovering that Kyuhyun’s child’s father was actually Changmin…

The Super Junior leader could only shake his head as he used his key card to open his hotel room.

Which, he quickly realized, was crowded full of s, who were all waiting anxiously for him. Leeteuk wasn’t even going to bother to ask how they all got into his room.

They immediately bombarded Leeteuk with a flurry of questions and reactions in a way that only Super Junior can.

“How’d it go, hyung?”

“Hyung! Hyung! You’re here!”

“I’m glad you’re back, hyung!”

“Did they believe you?”

“They believed you, right?”

“Hyung, what are we going to do?

“How do we get Kyuhyun back, hyung?”

You’d think that by now, Leeteuk was used to dealing with s when they get like this. Still, dealing with Super Junior’s flurry of questions and reactions can be a tad bit overwhelming. And Leeteuk was entirely sure how to answer the last two questions, especially the last question from Ryeowook.

The leader could clearly see that s were worried, and confused, and anxious, and panicked.

Just like they had all been when Kyuhyun had first gone missing…

“Did you check with his friends?” Leeteuk demanded at Sungmin.

The bunny lover quickly nodded, biting his bottom lip anxiously. “Yes, hyung. I checked with Minho and his Kyuline members. They haven’t seen him. I also checked with other SM artists and even other friends of his from other companies. They have no idea where he is.”

“His family hasn’t heard from since two days ago, either,” Ryeowook piped up, having just spoken to Ahra less than five minutes ago.

They hadn’t wanted to alarm Kyuhyun’s family with the news that no one’s seen Kyuhyun since Ryeowook checked in Kyuhyun’s room early yesterday morning (where Kyuhyun had still been sound asleep on his bed) before Ryeowook needed  to leave for the day. But what choice did they have? They had to check with the Chos if Kyuhyun had been there.

And most unfortunately, not even Kyuhyun’s family knew where he was.

Super Junior’s maknae was missing.

The manager and some staff members were out and about trying to look for him. The management had been trying to decide how to find out where he is and how to keep the current missing status of the Kpop idol a secret. And Kyuhyun’s poor Super Junior hyungs were now congregated in the dorm once again, beside themselves with panic as they had all tried and failed to find him.

“Oh, where on earth could he be?” Leeteuk asked mostly himself, wringing his hands together. He knew that, as the leader, he should be trying to stay cool and calm for his other members, but he can’t help letting his anxiety show! His baby Kyu was missing! There was no way that the mother hen Super Junior leader could not let his anxiety show!

“That brat!” Heechul snarled. “Such an evil maknae, making us go all through this stress and trouble trying to find him!”

No one took Heechul’s display of anger seriously. They all knew that was just the diva’s way of letting his concern for the situation show. It was obvious to Heechul’s members that behind all that anger, he was indeed starting to get truly worried about their maknae.

“I’ll kill him for this once we find him!” the diva added the vicious vow.

Yet in the back of Heechul’s mind, and in the back of all his other members’ minds as well, there was that nagging suspicion and fear that Heechul’s planned murder of the maknae might not come true. Heechul killing the maknae once they find him? The Super Junior members couldn’t help but worry that it was really more of Heechul killing the maknae if they find him…

If they ever find Kyuhyun.

Because all the members can’t help but feel that they might not be able to find the maknae so easily…

A couple of floors above Leeteuk’s hotel room where the Super Junior members were panicking, the same mood could be felt in the DBSK suite.

The only difference was that if Super Junior was letting out voices of worry and questions, DBSK’s suite was dead quiet, with the four elder members eying each other anxiously, trying to get to each other to act or do something—anything!—with the looks and slightly wild hand gestures that they were sending to each other. But none of them really knew what to do.

None of Yunho, Jaejoong, Yoochun, and Junsu knew what to do with their maknae, who hadn’t said a word since they left Hankyung’s apartment and was now just standing as still as a statue by their suite’s window, his back toward them and just watching China’s skyline with a blank expression on his face.

They couldn’t read their maknae’s expression, and they had no clue what the maknae could be thinking of right now.

The DBSK hyungs had never felt so helpless, unsure what they could even do to help their maknae with what Changmin was currently going through.

Well… “had never felt so helpless” wasn’t entirely accurate. In fact, the DBSK hyungs recall one other moment when they had felt this helpless when it comes to their maknae.

The day that they had to inform Changmin about Kyuhyun’s disappearance … and had no idea how to comfort their maknae from the crushing pain that came with the news.

Changmin was sitting at the edge of his bed, his eyes on his bedside table.

The surface of the small table was covered with momentos, ornaments, souvenirs … and photos.

If a fan somehow managed to break into the DBSK dorm and get into Changmin’s room, the fan’s suspicion probably wouldn’t have been triggered by the photos. To most people not in the know, the photos were completely normal. Pictures of Changmin with his family, his DBSK members, his other SM artists, his Kyuline members, and his various other friends.

So, the picture of Changmin and Kyuhyun together, happily smiling at the camera, near the end of the row of displayed photos wouldn’t have made a fan suspicious (unless it was a Changkyu fan; Changkyu fans always drew connections whenever Changmin and Kyuhyun were seen together). After all, it was no secret that Changmin and Kyuhyun were good friends. Best friends. Evil maknaes that planned together when it comes to dominating their bands and the world.

But that picture was the only thing that Changmin could focus on right now.

It’s been months since he’d been together with Kyuhyun. And by “together,” he meant together together. Romantically together. Not just being together in the same location for work matters.

He missed Kyuhyun badly. He missed being able to hug him, and to hold him close, and to kiss him, and to make love to him, and to wrap him in his arms as they fall asleep.

These days, Changmin could only look at Kyuhyun longingly from a distance.

That would never be enough for Changmin.

However, at that moment, a soft knock on his door was heard. Changmin forced his eyes away from the picture to see his door slowly open. Yunho peeked in, saw Changmin, and slowly completely entered the room.

Then, Jaejoong slowly came in as well.

Followed by Yoochun.

And then Junsu.

Changmin’s eyebrow rose as his hyungs all slowly came into his room one by one and stood together in a line, glancing at each other but avoiding Changmin’s eyes, shifting their weight nervously from one foot to another.

Little did Changmin know that the news that they were about to break to him would make him wish for being able to watch Kyuhyun longingly from a distance. Because