A/N: Based on this story’s foreword, I started this story way back in October 2015. And now, July 2020, almost five years later, we finally get to this point.

THIS IS IT, GUYS. THE FINAL CHAPTER T___T

Book 4: Blast From the Past

Chapter 18: Irreplaceable

Super Junior was very stressed.

Of course, stress was unfortunately a natural part of the idol life. With so many commitments and hectic schedules, not to mention issues with fans as well as anti-fans, they were always stressed in some way. But this time, it was different. Much worse than the usual work-related stress that they would experience.

Lately, Super Junior’s dorm seemed to be like a treacherous battlefield, where just one wrong step and you’d be triggering a landmine, causing an extreme explosion and destroying yourself as well as everything and everyone around you.

For some reason unknown to s and his boyfriend, Kyuhyun was in a terrible mood lately. And everyone had to thread around him and tiptoe carefully like he was a dangerous landmine. One tiny thing from the others that would irritate him, and he would already set off and explode at them. All the hyungs were quite terrified.

“Do something!” Ryeowook all but begged Changmin one night. It was bad enough living with an evil maknae who constantly teased and pranked them—when Kyuhyun got into a bad mood, everyone’s suffering was multiplied tenfold!

“Why me?” Changmin protested. He loved Kyuhyun, but at this point, even he was wary of Kyuhyun. 

“Well, you are his boyfriend,” Yesung pointed out. “The love of his life and all that romantic stuff. He’d be less likely to kill you.”

But Changmin actually doubted that. He was Kyuhyun’s boyfriend alright, but even he wasn’t being spared from Kyuhyun’s wrath now. In fact, Changmin could swear that the dark looks that Kyuhyun would send him were even darker and worse than the looks that he gave to his hyungs. And the DBSK maknae had no idea what he had even done to deserve such antagonism from Kyuhyun.

Still, Changmin was greatly outnumbered by the Super Junior hyungs, so he had no choice but to acquiesce to their “request” (well, it was more of a demand, really).

Changmin found Kyuhyun in his bedroom, lounging on his bed and playing with his PSP. He was pressing the buttons so hard that it was as if the PSP had stepped on his tail and offended him. Yep, Kyuhyun was definitely still in a bad mood.

“Kyu?”

Kyuhyun glanced up at him for a second. Okay, it was actually more like Kyuhyun glared daggers at him for a second. Then, the Super Junior maknae returned his focus to his PSP.

“What?” Kyuhyun snarled. He was jamming his thumbs against the PSP buttons even harder.

See? Even Changmin wasn’t being spared from Kyuhyun’s wrath. Still, Changmin was an evil maknae, too, so he stupidly bravely sat on the bed next to Kyuhyun. “What’s wrong?” Changmin asked bluntly.

Kyuhyun glared up again at him. “Seriously?! You still have the gall to pretend that you don’t know your crime?!”

“Crime?” Changmin repeated incredulously. What “crime” had he even done? He frowned at Kyuhyun and said, “So, it’s really me that you’ve been mad at these past days? I’ve done nothing wrong to you, Kyu!”

He knew that Kyuhyun was a man (despite somehow managing to become pregnant), but Changmin would swear that sometimes, Kyuhyun could even rival a moody, temperamental, PMS-ing woman!

“I’m mad at you and the others!” Kyuhyun corrected. Everyone (his boyfriend and all of his hyungs!) had been causing him to suffer! “And stop pretending to be innocent!”

“Really, Kyu, just spit it out already! What are you ing about?”

Wrong choice of words.

Kyuhyun’s pillow smacked Changmin right on his face. But before Changmin could make any other protest, Kyuhyun was already shrieking his (and the hyungs’) crime.

“Stop stealing my son from me!”

Changmin’s annoyance at being smacked with a pillow turned to confusion and incredulity. 

“What do you mean ‘stealing Minhyun from you’?” Before Changmin went to find Kyuhyun, he saw that Minhyun was at the balcony, watching Sungmin practice his guitar. “How is Minhyun even being stolen? He’s with Sungmin hyung right now.”

“Exactly! Minhyun’s always with someone else now! He’d rather hang out with other people! He’d rather that other people make food for him! He’d rather that other people care for him! But it used to be me! Minhyun used to love me the most! But now, you and the hyungs get all of Minhyun’s attention and affection! Especially you, Shim Changmin! Minhyun’s now always ‘appa this’ and ‘appa that’! Appa, appa, APPA!! He used to be a mama’s boy before you came butting in!”

Changmin’s eyes were as wide as saucers by the end of Kyuhyun’s rant. 

There was silence between the two maknaes for a while. The only sound that could be heard was Kyuhyun’s panting for air due to his raging rant.

And then—

“HAHAHA!” Changmin burst out into laughter, even doubling over and clutching his stomach from so much hilarity.

“YAH!” Kyuhyun was even more angered. He was rightfully (in his opinion) furious, and Changmin was just laughing at him?! Some boyfriend!

Kyuhyun started beating him up with the pillow, but Changmin was too overcome with laughter and just let the pillow repeatedly hit him. Eventually, his laughter subsided enough for him to gain control, and he blocked the once again incoming pillow with his arm, pulling it away from Kyuhyun.

“Seriously, that’s why you’ve been in such a bad mood lately?” Changmin chuckled.

“Well, of course I’m in a bad mood about it! I’ve been replaced as my own son’s favorite!” Kyuhyun snapped.

“Kyu, Minhyun IS a mama’s boy,” Changmin pointed out. And he had to hold back another snort of laughter at “mama’s boy.” While Kyuhyun did conceive and give birth to their son, it’s still weird to think of Kyuhyun as a “mama”… Nonetheless, Changmin was quite certain about the truth of his words: Minhyun was one hundred and ten percent a mama’s boy.

“Not anymore,” the Super Junior maknae grumbled sulkily, complete with a full pout.

Changmin couldn’t resist it, and he leaned in and quickly placed a soft peck on Kyuhyun’s lips.    

“Yes, he is,” Changmin then said gently when he pulled away from Kyuhyun. “He seems more attached to us lately, but that’s probably just because we’re ‘new’ to him. Like a shiny new toy. But his love and affection for you hadn’t really changed. Just pay closer attention. You’ll see that he’s still a mama’s boy through and through.”

Changmin smiled at him and then left the room, leaving Kyuhyun to his thoughts.

Kyuhyun tilted his head. Pay closer attention? Hmm… maybe he will.

As his beloved had suggested, Kyuhyun began to pay closer attention to Minhyun’s interactions with others and with him. And Kyuhyun was surprised as he began to see that maybe—just maybe—Changmin was right after all. Maybe Kyuhyun hadn’t lost his son to the others.

Kyuhyun first began to see that Minhyun still favored him the most during one interview.

Kyuhyun and Changmin had been hesitant and unwilling to let Minhyun be a part of the entertainment industry; they knew how rough and insane it could get, and while they love their careers, they didn’t want this kind of life for their son. However, they did recognize that they can’t completely hide away Minhyun, so while Minhyun would definitely not be an idol as well (the little boy was more interested in becoming the world’s supreme ruler and overlord, anyway), Kyuhyun and Changmin allowed Minhyun to be in some pictorials and interviews as long as he was with either Super Junior or DBSK.

It was mainly a Super Junior talk show, but most of the focus, of course, went to the little boy. The hosts as well as the audience couldn’t help but be drawn by Minhyun’s cuteness, wit, and… well, evilness. The evilness was undeniably a part of the little boy’s charms.

“So, Minhyunnie, who in Super Junior is the best cook?” the male host, Yoo Jaesuk, asked.

“Who among the members makes the most delicious meals and snacks for you?” the female host, Kim Wonhee, added.

“Uncle Wookie!” Minhyun answered right away. 

Ryeowook beamed. On the other hand, Kyuhyun, who was sitting next to Minhyun, had to keep his smile fixed on his face as this was work and he couldn’t let his irritation show.

“Ah, Ryeowook?” Jaesuk said, smiling at the eternal maknae.

“Ryeowook-ssi is known to be the cook in Super Junior, after all,” Wonhee said to her co-host.

“That is true,” Jaesuk agreed. Then, he turned to the little boy again. “So, it’s not your umma, Minhyunnie? Your umma is not your favorite cook?”

Jaesuk didn’t know how much he was endangering his life by saying those words. Fortunately for him, Kyuhyun still had enough sense and professionalism to recognize that Super Junior’s reputation might become a teensy, weensy bit tarnished if their maknae murdered a host during a talk show interview.

“Pfft, why would Kyuhyunnie even be Minhyunnie’s favorite cook?” Eunhyuk (foolishly) teased their evil maknae. “Our maknae can’t even cook!”

“He almost burned down the kitchen once,” Sungmin told the hosts.

“Years ago, Kyuhyun created some kind of ‘mixture’ from a number of weird ingredients,” Shindong added. “We swear that it became alive and moved out of the pot on its own!”

“He melted a hole right through my best steel frying pan,” Ryeowook accused, shooting a nasty look at Kyuhyun. The eternal maknae had never really gotten over losing that frying pan.    

“Our Kyuhyunnie basically can’t cook to save his life,” the Super Junior leader effectively summarized.

While Kyuhyun couldn’t murder the host, he could very well murder his hyungs. And he really will do so when they got back home tonight! How dare they mess with the evil maknae, especially during an interview that was being filmed and broadcasted?!

Minhyun looked up and saw his mother scowling at his uncles. Oh, no! His umma was upset! That’s not okay!

“Umma can cook some things, you know!” the little boy suddenly piped up, frowning at his uncles. They were being mean to his umma!

“Minhyun, your mother serves you with burned food,” Yesung said. None of them were about to forget that morning when they were all woken up by Minhyun’s crying, all because his mother had given a plate of so-called “scrambled eggs” that were completely blackened.

“I don’t burn everything!” Kyuhyun protested indignantly, making the hosts and the audience laugh.

“Yes, you don’t burn the food—you completely char it instead,” Ryeowook countered.

“I make good instant ramen!”    

“Ah, yes, our maknae is quite talented in the cooking department! He can boil water and pour it to pre-packaged instant ramen!” Leeteuk joked.

Kyuhyun was red in the face, but his son was there to back him up.

“Well, umma makes the best instant ramen!” Minhyun asserted. “I love umma’s instant ramen!”

“How can any instant ramen even be the ‘best’?” Eunhyuk asked skeptically. “They’re already pre-made and pre-packaged, so the ramen and its taste would always turn out just the same.”

“And you don’t even like instant food, Minhyunnie,” Ryeowook reminded his nephew. Like the food monster of DBSK, Minhyun took great personal offense if he was served with instant food.

“Umma’s instant ramen is the best because umma made it! Umma is naturally the best at everything, so his instant ramen would be the best, too!” Minhyun argued with his uncles. “And I love umma’s instant ramen because my umma made it!”

And the audience all went “Awwww!” with those words from Minhyun.

All of Kyuhyun’s annoyance at his hyungs’ audacity to was momentarily forgotten (just momentarily, though, for he really will still kill them when they got home later). His little dumpling was so sweet!

The Super Junior hyungs all sighed and groaned at another one of Minhyun’s “umma is always the best at everything!” tirades.

“Kyuhyun has clearly done a good job of brainwashing his son,” Sungmin, looking completely dismayed, said to the hosts.

One night found Minhyun on the living room floor, gaming with his appa again. The older Super Junior members were cheering for their nephew. Meanwhile, Kyuhyun was sitting on the couch, sulking to himself and being ignored by the others. His son had chosen to play video games with his appa again! Ugh!

Just then, with a wild series of combinations, Minhyun’s avatar won the virtual battle!

“I did it! I won! I won!” Minhyun crowed in victory, standing and jumping up and down in his great excitement.

The uncles all applauded. They were also very happy, glad that someone had finally beaten the DBSK maknae in video games. They would take this as their form of their revenge on Changmin!

Changmin, however, didn’t seem to be the slightest bit bothered that he lost to his son.

“I got beaten by a four-year-old,” Changmin chuckled self-depreciatingly, more amused than anything else.

Minhyun then flung himself onto his appa and wrapped his arms around Changmin’s neck, hugging his father tightly (Kyuhyun silently fumed even more). “I won, appa!” the little boy said again, grinning cutely up at his father.

“Yes, you did,” Changmin immediately agreed, ruffling his son’s hair. “Great job, Minhyunnie! I’m so proud of you!”

“Thanks, appa! I learned from the best!” Minhyun declared.

That effectively got Kyuhyun’s attention. What, what…?

“Umma taught me so well on how to play video games!” the little boy continued. “And umma’s the best at video games! Just like he’s the best at everything else—” his Super Junior uncles groaned at this “—And since umma is the best at video games, I’ve also become so good and undefeatable in video games!”

And just like that, Kyuhyun was no longer fuming.

GameKyu’s previously offended pride (due to his son wanting to play with others instead of with him) was immediately healed in that moment. His son thought that he was the best in video games! Minhyun was boasting about how his umma taught him to do well in video games! GameKyu now instead felt a great sense of pride and satisfaction.

Changmin got off the floor as Minhyun challenged a new opponent. “Uncle Hyukie, will you please play with me next? Let’s play that new video that we got last week!”

Eunhyuk quickly shook his head. His nephew had just been proclaiming about being undefeatable in video games! He didn’t want to play with someone “undefeatable”! And he had already lost to Minhyun so many times before—he didn’t think that his self-esteem could take it if he lost to such a young child again! But with Minhyun’s pouting lips and the Super Junior leader’s stern gaze at the Super Junior dancing machine, Eunhyuk had no choice but to give a resigned sigh and sit on the floor with Minhyun, taking the game controller that Changmin had just abandoned.

Changmin went to sit beside his boyfriend. He gently nudged Kyuhyun’s shoulder with his own shoulder, gaining Kyuhyun’s attention.

“Told you so,” the DBSK maknae said with a smirk. He wasn’t above saying “I told you so” to Kyuhyun, because really, he had told Kyuhyun so. And it was as clear as daylight that Changmin was right. Their son was still a mama’s boy through and through.

Kyuhyun gave him a slight nod. Hmm… Yeah, maybe Changmin was right after all…

“Umma! Umma! Umma!”

Kyuhyun immediately turned to his son, who was grinning up at him from the living room floor.

“Umma, watch me play against Uncle Hyukie!” the little boy demanded. “You will watch, right, umma? Watch and see how I completely destroy Uncle Hyukie with the moves and tricks that you taught me!”

Eunhyuk winced at thought of being destroyed in video games again, but Kyuhyun smiled warmly at his son and said, “Of course I’ll watch you, dumpling! Nothing gives me greater joy than seeing my little dumpling destroy others in video games!”

Satisfied that he had his mother’s one hundred percent attention, Minhyun grinned and turned back to the screen. And he proceeded to destroy his poor uncle in the video game, with his proud mother watching every second of it.

Late one afternoon, some of the Super Junior members were hanging out in their kitchen, eating snacks and chatting about the personal activities and schedules that they did for the day. Their attention was diverted, though, when their maknae limped into the kitchen.

“What’s wrong?” Leeteuk immediately questioned in not-so-slight alarm as he watched his precious baby Kyu limp—not walk, but limp—to the nearest vacant chair. Kyuhyun even visibly winced when he sat down, worrying his leader even more.

“Rough day,” Kyuhyun grumbled vaguely as he seized a doughnut from one of the open boxes on the dining table.

“From dance practice?” Sungmin asked curiously, though he doubted it. As far as he knew, Kyuhyun was free today and didn’t have any schedules or rehearsals.

“No,” Heechul suddenly answered Sungmin instead, smirking at the maknae. “He and Changmin were busy with their own ‘activities’ earlier. You should have heard all the moans and groans and screams and thuds earlier.”

Kyuhyun choked on his doughnut while his other hyungs blanched.

“We didn’t need to know that, Heechul!” Leeteuk said indignantly. He still couldn’t bear the thought of his sweet and innocent baby Kyu being engaged in such… “activities”!

When Eunhyuk finally managed to get the nasty images of what Kyuhyun and Changmin had been doing out of his head, he said to the maknae sternly, “Well, you’re going to have to it up, Kyu, because we do have dance practice tomorrow morning.” They needed to rehearse for their upcoming Super Show.

“Ugh! That’s going to be hell!” Kyuhyun moaned. He pulled himself up from his chair and limped toward the fridge to get himself a cold drink. Apart from his aching backside, his throat felt raw and strained from all his earlier shouting and screaming, which had absolutely nothing to do with vocal practice, if you know what he meant.

“This is all Changmin’s fault for being so rough with me!” the maknae complained as he rummaged in the fridge, ignoring his hyungs wince again at the mental images of what that “roughness” might have involved. “Practice tomorrow is going to be a nightmare because of this, and I swear, I will kill him for it! And I’m also going to be limping for the rest of the week!”

Not that Kyuhyun didn’t enjoy it when Changmin was wild and rough with him (Kyuhyun loved it way too much, in fact), but he knew from experience that it was hell to do dance practice after being involved in “rough and passionate activities” with Changmin. And they had schedules for the rest of the week, but Kyuhyun wouldn’t even be able to walk properly and would have to conceal his limp in public!

Still… even with all the challenges that this caused and even with Kyuhyun’s nonstop complaining now, the immense pleasure that it brought to Kyuhyun made the “rough activities” all worth it! Kyuhyun had to smirk lasciviously as he remembered what transpired between him and Changmin earlier that afternoon.

What Kyuhyun didn’t know, however, was that there was a little boy standing at the threshold of the kitchen, hearing about his father “being rough” with his mother.

Minhyun had spent most of the day out with his Uncle Hannie. His uncle had taken him to the park and then to a burger restaurant, and they had just gotten home a few minutes ago. After helping Minhyun remove his coat and his shoes, his Uncle Hannie had suggested that Minhyun go find and greet his umma. Minhyun had located his mother in the kitchen with his uncles, and he had just been about to announce his presence and greet all of them when he heard his umma say that his appa had been so “rough.”

…Minhyunnie’s umma was hurt???    

Even worse, his appa was responsible for it?! His appa had hurt his umma!

None of the adults were aware that Minhyun was there; thus, none of them noticed that the little boy had become quite red in the face. His umma had gotten hurt! Nobody gets to hurt his umma!

The little boy stalked off to find his father. Nobody hurts his umma and just gets away with it! Even if it was his appa!

Changmin was on the bed, relaxing after a passionate afternoon of “activities” with his boyfriend. He was just checking his phone for messages from his manager, as well as his worrywart hyungs, who felt the need to check on their maknae every hour or so (his DBSK hyungs were still not used to and still not comfortable with their precious maknae living separately from them). The sound of the door opening made Changmin look up from his phone. The DBSK maknae was glad then that he had already put on some clothes, because it was his son that came in the room.

“Hey, Minhyunnie!” he smiled. “You’re back already? Did you have fun with your Uncle Hannie?”

Changmin opened his arms, waiting for Minhyun to jump onto him and give his appa a hug, which was how the l