Waiting, waiting, waiting. The minutes become hours, stretching on and on.

What's the point? Kyuhyun wonders aloud to no one in particular one day.

They’re standing in line for a rollercoaster (in fact, rollercoaster number nineteen for them). It’s one of Donghae’s outlandish schemes again—can we ride twenty-six rollercoasters in one day?—and Kyuhyun is bored.

Montagnes russes. Kyuhyun mumbles the French words to himself (Russian mountains, he translates in his head) and wonders if the mountains in Russia are really this crazy. He decides he wants to go to Russia someday. Maybe.

Donghae shifts to eye him, and his eyes become softer, somehow more distant. Sometimes, you wait your whole life for something that only lasts a second.

(Kyuhyun doesn’t expect this—this kind of extraordinarily incomprehensible answer.)

He can’t resist, and teases—you sound like an old bearded hermit, earning him a shut up from the elder.

Still, Donghae’s eyes stay misted over for a moment, so unlike the cheerful, naïve Donghae that Kyuhyun knows (or thinks he knows).

Then Minho’s too-deep, too-cheerful voice sounds out of nowhere, and suddenly Donghae is all flailing arms and legs as he tries to keep himself upright.

Hyukjae glowers and rolls his eyes, his bleached-blonde hair fringing his cheekbones. .

-

Kyuhyun’s impatience heightens as they near the front of the line—It’s a Small World is getting stuck in his head—and he starts to fidget restlessly.

A uniformed teenager approaches them; he is delicate and gentle-looking, with bronze hair that is swept artfully to one side.

Large hazel eyes blink rapidly at them. A darting smile. How many?

Four, Kyuhyun replies. The boy nods and walks away, sending a wink at Minho (who looks rather smitten).

(I don’t like him, Minho protests, but they anyway.)

-

The rollercoaster is fast and breathtaking and exhilarating; Kyuhyun's stomach drops a little each time their car makes a rapid, swerving turn or takes a sudden plunge deeply and utterly down. Minho looks dazed, knuckles white on the safety bar; Kyuhyun can hear Donghae and Hyukjae's fleeting screams behind them.

(Is this worth the one-and-a-half hour wait?

Maybe.)

-

It’s when they’re sitting and waiting (again) for the big Main Street parade that Kyuhyun sees him. He’s not dressed exuberantly and doesn’t look special in any way (except for the fact that in his right hand is a large, swimming mass of colorful balloons).

Hey, look. Kyuhyun points vaguely in the man’s direction. Balloons.

Donghae thinks it would be nice to buy a balloon or two, so he elbows Minho (but he is currently busy with a familiar-looking bronze-haired boy).

When Kyuhyun presses a coin into the balloon vendor’s palm, the man lifts his eyes uncertainly.

Kyuhyun smiles, and the man’s eyes dart down for a second before he returns the smile.

(Hi.)

-

Sometimes, Kyuhyun takes a long walk: through iron-wrought gates, down Main Street and past the frozen smiling statues, over the glistening black waters wherein is reflected a glittering castle, on and on and on until he reaches a little bench covered in strings of glowing lights (the same one he sat on that colorful day so long ago).

It's a waste of time (he knows it is) but he just can't help wondering, hoping, wishing—

(Maybe we’ll meet again.)

It’s a small world after all, it’s a small world after all, it’s a small, small, world...

He stands there amid shimmering lights and childish laughter, staring into nothing, and wonders if it is possible to love someone that he has never known.

(I'll always be waiting.)

A/N: What do you think? Feel free to comment—I'd love to see what you wonderful readers think about this little drabble. :)