Chapter VII

Thank You, Einstein

December 24, 2006

Eunhyuk’s House

Lee Eunhyuk’s alarm clock went off at exactly seven in the morning. He groaned a bit and scratched the back of his head. “Sweetie, wash up and breakfast is ready!” his mother’s voice was heard from down stairs. He sleepily got out of his bed, rubbing his eyes a bit—he really should stop doing so because they get so puffy.

“One day before Christmas…” He muttered to himself. “I hope all goes well today.” He walked inside his bathroom and took a quick shower, changed into something more decent than his favorite Batman sleepwear. As he was towel drying his hair, his LG flip phone chimed. The red LED light was flashing. Hi picked it up from his bedside table and flipped it open. He had about three new messages. Yawning a little, he read the first message, it was from Kyuhyun.

Kyuhyun: Hey, I was wondering if you’d want to hang out tomorrow. Maybe Eun Hye will be up for it as well. We can go to the theater and watch “The Nut Cracker”. Maybe we can let Henry tag along as well. That little boy is cute.

He nodded a little, liking the idea. He checked on the second message and it was from Henry. He smiled a little seeing that the younger boy greeted him good night. Then he saw the third message and it was from Eun Hye.

Eun Hye: Hey sleepyhead! Are you awake now? Well, if you are GOOD MORNING! Kyu sent me a text message asking me if we should watch his favorite Christmas play. So how about it? I already checked the schedule for tonight’s show! Keep me posted, okay?

Eunhyuk smiled at the text message that Eun Hye sent. He doesn’t know why but just hearing from her makes him feel so happy. He bit his bottom lip as he composed a reply to her message.

Choi Household

Donghae just finished his morning jog with Siwon. He was removing his running shoes while Siwon went back  up to his room to take a quick shower. Donghae decided to hang around in the garden a little bit more just to see the snow falling. He closed his eyes remembering what he and Yesung talked about at the stadium yesterday.

“Are you sure about this Yesung?” Donghae was still a little unsure if he should do what Yesung is asking him to do.

“Why are you chickening out?” Yesung asked, raising an eyebrow. Donghae shook his head.

“No. It’s not that…” He paused, looking down at his feet. “I just—I just feel like what we’re doing is wrong…and if Siwon will find out about our little plan…he’ll hate me. I mean, Eun Hye is his little sister.”

Yesung snorted as he drank his Gatorade. He wiped his lips with the back of his hand before walking towards Donghae. When he was up close already, he flashed the younger boy his signature, bad boy smirk. “Who are you more afraid of? Me or that little friend of yours?” He asked.

Donghae swallowed audibly.

“Your silence says that you are more afraid of me.” He said stepping back as he gave Donghae a pat on the shoulder. “We both know that you need the money.” He said. “But hey, if you are going to act like a girl because you don’t want your bestie to hate you, well, like I said, you can always walk away but judging from you homeless state right now, you clearly need the money…”

“Fine” Donghae said. He needs the money. He needs it bad. Yes. It’ll hurt Siwon and his family who were very kind enough to take him in their house and let him stay there for free but he needs to break away from here and that one thousand dollars will help him and if it runs out, he can always find a part time job.

Yesung smiled at him and slapped his cheek gently. “Good.” He took out his wallet and handed Donghae a five hundred dollar bill. “There. A little bonus for you—because as you know, money is no object—well for me and my family at least…you’ll get the full one thousand dollars once you finally humiliated that annoying Choi Eun Hye.”

Yesung walked out of the stadium and left Donghae feeling like a coward.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

Donghae snapped out of his reverie. He turned around and saw Mrs. Choi who was smiling from ear to ear. “Are you okay?”

“Uh…” Donghae couldn’t even look at Siwon’s mother straight in the eyes. “Yes, Mrs. Choi. I’m alright.”

“Well, I just baked chocolate chip cookies,” She paused, patting Donghae’s arm. “You should it some while they are still fresh.” She said as he went inside motioning for the boy to follow her.

Donghae sighed.

What have I gotten myself into?

Library that same day

“Are you sure you’re it’s alright for you to tutor me even if it’s a day before Christimas?” Siwon asked Kyuhyun quietly as they were making progress to Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.

Kyuhyun nodded as he wrote down the formula for Siwon. “Yeah, it’s okay, I get bored a lot so teaching you helps.” He flashed him a smile.

Thank You, Einstein. Siwon said to himself. “By the way, do you have plans for Christimas?” He asked the younger boy. Kyuhyun looked at Siwon briefly before answering.

“Yeah, I actually do. Me, Eun Hye, Eunhyuk, and Henry are planning to watch The Nut Cracker at the performing arts theater. At the mention of Henry’s name, Siwon started to feel a jealous tinge. For him, Kyuhyun is one of the best people he’s ever met and he doesn’t want anyone to steal him away from me. Siwon still thinks that what he’s feeling for the boy next to him is wrong but it felt so right at the same time.  

Then just like a light bulb turning on. Siwon thought of an idea but he’s too to even ask Kyuhyun. “Um…” He looked at the younger boy and bit his bottom lip. “I…”

Kyuhyun smiled at him. “Yeah?”

“I…uh…is it okay to…you know…um…go with you guys?” There I said it. Siwon thought to himself.

Kyhyun seemed surprised by this but smiled again. “I didn’t know you liked plays.” He paused, eyeing Siwon. “What your favorite play?”

Siwon scratched his head. “I have a lot of favorite plays…” He lied.

“Just give me one of your favorites and I’ll research on it. Maybe I’ll wind up loving it as well.” Kyuhyun said.

“Well, is uh…Miss Saigon…the story is really awesome.” He said. He’d only had the chance to watch the play once and he distinctly remembers falling asleep but hey, that was a fast answer. I guess being with Kyuhyun makes me think faster than the usual.

Kyuhyun flashed Siwon a smile. “I’ll research on that then.” Kyuhyun paused. “But are you sure you’d want to hang with us, I mean, we’re not really in you league…” he said.

“Don’t say that. It makes me feel like I’m an Alien.” Siwon pouted.

Kyuhyun chuckled. “Welcome to my world.” He said. “But okay then. The show starts a ten and ends at exactly twelve midnight. Then we plan on heading to Eunhyuk’s house for a little movie marathon.”

“Sounds cool.” Siwon said.

After finishing up their tutoring session, Siwon and Kyuhyun were getting their bikes ready. The older boy looked at Kyuhyun worriedly. He seemed to notice Siwon staring at him so he spoke. “Is something on my face?” He asked, touching his cheek, checking if there is any dirt on it.

“Uh. No. It’s just that I’m worried that you’ll get hurt again because of us biking together. Kyuhyun looked at Siwon and smiled.

“I’ll be okay.” He said. “Besides, Superman is here to give me a piggyback ride if I ever get hurt again.” The younger boy took out the knitted cap that Siwon gave him as a Christmas present and put it on gently on his head.

“You don’t have to wear that.” Siwon looked down, a little embarrassed.

Kyuhyun flashed him a smile. “I’ll only wear it when I’m with you.” He said as puff from his breath came out in little circular motion. What Kyuhyun said made Siwon happy. Without any words he walked towards his friend and fixed the knitted hat so that it was a fit on his head.

“There you go.” Siwon said as he petted Kyuhyun’s head.

Kyuhyun looked up at him blushing but he suddenly turned away. Siwon chuckled a little. “Should we get going?” He asked. Kyuhyun nodded as he hopped on his bike. Siwon did the same and they pedaled towards the snowy way.

That Night

“Remind me again why those two are with us?” Eun Hye looked at Kyuhyun and arched an eyebrow. She was wearing a pink cashmere sweater—which she swears wasn’t this color when she bought it two years ago, a pair of dark washed denim jeans and her trusty gray uggs.

Kyuhyun pouted at Eun Hye. “Well, your brother asked if he can come as well and I told him that it was okay.”

“You could’ve informed us, you know. I mean, I’m okay with Siwon being here but seriously, Lee Donghae? For sure we’ll be hearing a lot of side comments from him about how lame this play is.” Eunyuk said as he clutched his old coat from Banana Republic which was handed down to him by his older brother.

Kyuhyun who was wearing a mint green coat from The GAP and a turtleneck long sleeve underneath, and black winter boots handed down to him by his father.

“I think it’s cool!” Henry exclaimed. He was wearing a Cookie Monster sweater, a pair of Guess Jeans and Converse Sneakers,

“No. It’s not. Just look at them.” Eun Hye pointed at their right side, Siwon and Donghae were in a shoving match. Eun Hye believes that it’s their third round already and it irked her a bit.

Kyuhyun chuckled. “I’m sure they’ll be well behaved once were inside the theater.”

And boy oh, boy, Kyuhyun couldn’t have been even more mistaken. Upon entering the theater, Donghae kept on commenting about how lame the play is and as it progressed he kept on snickering, making people look at them with a disdained expression on their faces. Meanwhile, Siwon upon hearing the first few lines of the story immediately fell asleep, to make matters worse—if that’s even possible, he snores.

Henry didn’t even say a nary peep once the show started. Clearly the fourteen year old boy understood the nuances of the play and how people should behave inside the theater.

After the play, it’s sufficed to say that everyone was annoyed at the two of them. Eun Hye walked like a robot, she was so fast no one bothered to catch up with her. Eunyuk just took his phone out and called his mother. Henry wandered off alone at the snack bar and once he was there, he was entranced. Meanwhile Kyuhyun walked a bit slowly—clearly disappointed. As fate would have it, Siwon and Donghae still seemed oblivious of what happened.

“Do you guys even have anything to say?” Kyuhyun asked them quietly as he looked at them. Siwon and Donghae shrugged.

“What do you mean Kyu?” Siwon asked, smiling so brightly. Kyuhyun found this a bit offensive and cocky.

“The four of us really wanted to see this play for Christmas. We were so happy to see it even once a year. That has been our tradition every Christmas as friends.” He said looking at the two of them and sighed. He suddenly felt bad because Eun Hye, Eunhyuk, him, and especially Henry was looking forward to watch this great play since has hasn’t seen it yet.

“What did we do?” Donghae asked, a little annoyed at Kyuhyun.

Kyuhyun ignored him and looked at Siwon. “I think I shouldn’t have agreed to this. It was a mistake to even tell you that you could join us and watch the play when you clearly didn’t want to. You were just being nice to me because you pity me.” He paused as he put on his knitted cap—the cap that Siwon gave him.

“What do you mean I didn’t want to? I asked to come because I wanted to see the play with you guys…” Siwon said. “And I don’t pity you…why would I? I think of you as a friend.”

Kyuhyun shook his head. “No. You don’t. You don’t see me as a friend because if you did, you would have the manners to stay awake when we’re watching my favorite theatrical play” He looked at him and flashed him a sad smile. “It was nice spending time with you, I guess. Regardless of what happened. We can resume our tutoring sessions after the New Year.” He paused and looked at Siwon and Donghae. “I hope you guys will have a happy Christmas. I’ll see you soon, Siwon.” With that, Kyuhyun left, leaving Siwon a little hurt.

End of Chapter

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