Three days. Three days till our plane left, three days till we had to go home. Three days till I leave LA and Kyuhyun’s childhood but not forever. This house would be ours once we were married and forever till death do us part. Just three days.

“Done packing yet?” Kyuhyun groaned.

I stared down at my suitcase, ignoring the burning feeling in my muscles. “No.” He was lying on our bed, half of his body hanging off the side. “Are you?”

He smirked. “I’m not the one who procrastinated.” I stuck out my tongue and turned back to my suitcase. I only had one more to pack to add to my three suitcases. Kyuhyun rolled off the bed and stretched then tilted his head and smiled at me. “Need help or should I go and order some take-out?”

“Take-out,” I answered absent mindedly as I began to finish packing. I looked up at Kyuhyun’s book shelf, stuffed with books. “Aren’t you going to take any books over?”

“I have doubles of each copy. They’re already in my room back home.” I listened as he silently shut the door and head downstairs. My finger skimmed over the covers once again and I stopped ever so often to look at the titles. School seemed so close and the only class I was really looking forward too was now dedicated to working on our memoirs. I paused when I got to Kyuhyun’s photo album, the one that he didn’t let me see back a few weeks. I peered over my shoulder, making sure no one was in the room besides me and that he wouldn’t be coming up anytime soon. I pulled the first album and flipped through its continents. Typical pictures of him with his friends at places like the mall, park, school, clubs, and things like that. Each pictures you could see the difference of his growth. Skinny little Kyuhyun was once very delicate and shy and each picture you could see his confidence grow, his smiles less small and he looked more like he was enjoying himself. I put back the album and pulled out the next one. This one was full of photos that Kyuhyun took himself. Some were nature and places and some were people. The ones of nature were not the typical perfect scenes you saw in paintings. Julian took pictures of real nature, the one that you don’t have to search hard for but that you don’t notice. They all had some little flaw that we usually wouldn’t notice but the way he took it made you feel aware and see just how delicate nature was. The ones taken of people were not the usual smiles you saw. They were real, unprepared emotions that showed the persons true self. Many of these photos were really rare, something that normal people wouldn’t see or wouldn’t be allowed to see and somehow Kyuhyun caught the moment and saved it. For one, I thought Eunhyuk looked very cute crying. My god, I will hold that against him for the rest of his life. I continued flipping through it, furrowing my brow when I could find no pictures of me. I know it sounded conceited but I would have thought that Kyuhyun would have taken pictures of me. Where were they? “You know-” I spun around, but Kyuhyun’s arms stopped me. His was against my back, arms caressing my waist. “It’s not nice to look at other people things,” he whispered, leaning into my ear.

I blushed. “How would I know they are private?” I could tell he was smirking. I closed the album and placed it back on the shelf. Kyuhyun’s hand brushed against mine as he reached for the bookshelf, taking the album next to the one I had just put back.

“This is the one you want to see.” He pulled me closer and placed the book into my hand. The way he had been holding it - gently and carefully - told me this one was the one most important to him. He placed flipped open the hard cover to start me off then moved his hands so he hugged my waist; his chin was rested on my shoulder. The first pictures made me blink and I had an urge to rub my eyes. It was an old picture, of me and Kyuhyun, where we weren’t arguing or fighting. In this one we were both asleep and holding onto one another’s hands. I have the same photo, taken by our parents. The picture brought back a flashback and the way that Kyuhyun’s grip became gentler, I could tell that he was already in it.

 

~~~*~~~

 

Flashback

 

 

It was another hopeless sleepover our mothers had arranged. It was the typical schedule. He came over, we fought, broke things - many of which were not replaceable - and finally when our parents had the decency to intervene, we watched a movie, waddled on either side of the nanny. Instead, today we had a babysitter who was probably much, much, older than our nanny and she fell asleep right when the movie started. It was a movie she had brought over, meant for little toddlers. We’re nine years old damn it (this was before the flashback in the first chapter).

“Hey,” Kyuhyun mumbled, half his face smothered by the old ladies arm, “Wanna watch something else?” I looked over the ladies shoulder. I had to climb onto my knees to do this and I was greeted by a pair of pretty brown eyes.

“I’m just glad that someone agrees here, even if that someone has no balls.” Kyuhyun snorted - well I think he did - and he glared at me. He began replying to my insult but he had to push away the grandma’s arm.

“I have balls! You’re the one with the !”

I smirked, “At least I know I have a .” Kyuhyun stuck his tongue out at me and struggled for a few minutes, trying to squirm his way out. Finally he stopped moving and stared down at his feet. I could tell he was blushing. I hopped of the couch and stood in front of him with a smug smile.

“I-I’m stuck,” he murmured.

“I know,” I smiled. I gave him my hand and began pulling him - I had to use both hands - out of the wedge between the old woman and the sofa’s arm rest. He popped out a second later and was able to get onto his feet. I headed to the TV and ejected the tape.

“Hey look.” I turned and watched as Kyuhyun pulled out another tape from the ladies purse. It was a huge -HUGE - purse with a flowery design, meant to make you barf. “It’s a scary movie,” he said.

I went over and peered at the tape and whispered, “Want to watch this?”

He looked at it frightfully. “Nuh-uh. I don’t think we should. What if…” I stared at it too. He did as well. “Well…it can’t be that bad right?” he whimpered. I stared at the tape. There was nothing else to watch right? And besides, the last time we watched a scary movie was a few months ago and it wasn’t that bad. 

“Yeah. It can’t be that bad.” We took the tape and pushed it into the slot in the VCR. We watched the movie. We both resisted the urge to scream or cry when it got too gory or violent. Conscious of the fact of the person next to us and that also brought a good sense of relief. The kind where you get the satisfaction that when you’re taken down, you can take the other person down with you. When the movie finally ended and it was just the list of names our babysitter finally woke up.

“Well, look at that! The movies already over.” She slid back into sitting position and slipped her feet back into her slippers. “My, my, I slept through the whole thing.” She ejected the movie and placed it back in her purse, not bothering to check which movie it was or the fact that we were both shaking from the relief that the movie was already over. “Well girls, off too bed.” Kyuhyun didn’t bother to correct her and I didn’t bother to . Instead, we both bolted up the stairs and to the sanctuary of my room.

 

I woke up to the sounds of someone whimpering beside me. I wiped the sweat off my hands and happily opened them, sitting up. Kyuhyun was already sitting, the blankets on his side was tangled around his feet and something wet glistened from his cheeks. His little hands were rubbing his eyes. The whimpering was coming from him. Instead of saying how he was such a crybaby I pulled on the edge of his t-shirt. He looked up at me, not hiding the fact that he was crying or that he was obviously upset.

“Are you OK?” I managed to croak out. My throat felt hoarse. Kyuhyun sniffed, keeping his scrunched up hands by his face like he was going to cry again and wanted to be prepared.

“I’m scared.”

I continued, gently, “The movie?” He nodded grimly and wiped at his eyes again, tears clinging to his long, black eyelashes that framed his brown eyes. “Nightmare?” I croaked.

He pouted, “I’m not a ,” he continued wiping his eyes. I nodded, not arguing or insulting him.

“You’re not a ,” I agreed, taking my words back from earlier.

He nodded. “I’m not a crybaby either.”

I smiled, not helping myself, “You’re scared though.”

He looked at me, “But you were scared too,” he urged then his voice became softer, “You were whimpering in your sleep.” I didn’t say anything. I hated nightmares. Hated being scared awake by the scary dreams. I wanted to cry too, to curl up between my mother and father. I frowned, trying to act angry, and fell back onto my pillow, closing my eyes and turned so I wasn’t facing him. Kyuhyun didn’t do anything for a few seconds. Then he did. He clutched the back of my shirt. “Yoona, are you mad?” Why do you care, I thought mentally. He sniffed and my heart sunk as I heard him start crying again, trying to strain the tears back. “Don’t be mad Yoongie,” he whispered. I felt like crying now too. Kyuhyun may be a crybaby and, well, a big baby, but being with him for my entire life affected me. It made me warm up to him in a way that I only feel when I’m around him. I felt like a mother, defending and protecting her child. I turned around so I was facing him. He was crying really hard now. Not just tears, actually crying. He was really scared. I felt like such a jerk. He was shaking when I pried his fingers off of my shirt. He stopped crying a few seconds later and watched as I intertwined each of his fingers with mine. I didn’t look up at him, just our hands since I didn’t want him to see me blushing.

“It doesn’t mean anything but doesn’t it make you feel reassured that if some monster jumps out and grabs you, he’ll be taking us both down?” Kyuhyun sniffed and I could tell he was smiling. I smiled too. “It’s okay,” I continued, “It’s okay. Everything’s okay. Just don’t let go and everything will be alright.” He lay back down and stared into my eyes. I didn’t flinch. He didn’t flinch.

“If I go down, I’m taking you with me.”

I smirked, “Same.” We gripped onto each other’s hands tighter and closed our eyes…

 

~~~*~~~

 

I opened my eyes. It was a dream. I was dreaming. The room was dark with nothing but the moons rays shining into from the window. I yawned and rolled over, facing Julian. He was asleep. I closed my eyes, thinking back to the dream, the flashback. The rest of the album had been pictures of me and him, sometimes only me. Many of the pictures were taken by Kyuhyun, ones of which I didn’t notice him. I rubbed my eyes and moaned. I couldn’t fall back asleep. Then I felt him. He positioned my fingers in between his.

“What are you doing?” I croaked. There was a smile in his voice, a gentle smile.

“It’s okay,” he continued, “It’s okay. Everything’s okay. Just don’t let go and everything will be alright.” I smiled too, holding him, feeling the pressure of his grip, knowing that we were alive and together. He moved closer till his lips were extremely close to mines that I was moving against his as I spoke.

“If I go down, I’m taking you with me.”

He smirked, “Same.” We gripped onto each other’s hand tighter and closed our eyes, falling asleep.