As time went by, Kyuhyun started to be more and more able to express his emotions. Zhou Mi even laughed when Kyuhyun got angry at him for the first time for forgetting to bring him the important papers he had told him a hundred times to bring in the morning.

“Kui Xian, you got angry!”

And Kyuhyun, just noticing that fact too, smiled and forgot his anger as he laughed with Zhou Mi.

But there was one emotion Kyuhyun would never show. Sadness. Tears. Kyuhyun never seemed to be sad. Not long after he got able to show his anger and laughter, someone called him at work to tell him that his mother got very sick and was transported to the hospital in an ambulance. Kyuhyun rushed to the hospital, worried, but that was it. He didn’t cry even after learning she had cancer and would die in less than a year for sure. Zhou Mi had come with him, and he asked him in the car: “You’re not crying? Your mom is going to die.”

It was not his kind to be so depressing, but he had to make Kyuhyun realize that it was inhuman not to react to that kind of news.

“I can’t cry” was the only answer he got in return.

****************************

A few weeks later, Zhou Mi decided he had to do something. Life couldn’t just continue like that, as if nothing had happened. He entered Kyuhyun’s office and found him hugging the teddy bear he had given him. As soon as he saw Zhou Mi, the president hid the stuffed animal and tried to act normally.

“Zhou Mi? Can I do anything for you?”

Zhou Mi bit the smile he felt coming when he saw Kyuhyun with his teddy bear, and sighed to release any kind of amusement from his mind. He was here for a serious purpose only.

“Kui Xian, you can’t… you can’t just… aaiish, how to say it…”

He blamed his lack of Korean words to express himself properly, and tried to say it in another way.

“Sorry. Retry. Kui Xian, your mother is dying. She’s dying, Kui Xian! How can you just sit here and work peacefully? You’re… you’re not even sad…”

He felt tears flowing from his own eyes, and furiously wiped them off. He knew that, if his mother was dying, he would definitely leave everything here in Korea and go to her side until the very end. But Kyuhyun… Kyuhyun continued working as if nothing had happened!

“Kui Xian, it’s not human not to cry at all when your mother is dying…”

He wiped off the tears that continued to flow, and caught a glimpse at something wet appearing in Kyuhyun’s eyes.

“Kui Xian…”

“I’m not crying. Almost, but I’m not. The tears won’t flow…”

Suddenly, someone opened the door in a hurry.

“President! President, your mother is… your mother is…!”

They both froze for a moment. Until Kyuhyun jumped out of his chair, caught his teddy bear in a hand and Zhou Mi’s arm in his other hand, and rushed outside. Direction: the hospital.

When they stepped in the room where everyone was very busy, time seemed to stop. Kyuhyun’s mother saw him, and made a small move to tell him to approach. She wasn’t dead yet. It was a matter of minutes.

Kyuhyun walked, as in a movie where everything is in slow motion, while Zhou Mi stayed by the door, watching with teary eyes. His hand reached out to take his mom’s, already so cold and weak. He was trembling. His mother smiled.

“You are a good boy, little Kyuhyun. You are strong. You’ll do well without me.”

She sighed, and slowly closed her eyes.

“The only thing I regret is that I couldn’t let you cry like any kid would’ve cried…”

And as her eyes were almost closed for good, a pure, sad, painful cry tore the silence apart. Coming from Kyuhyun’s throat as tears couldn’t stop flowing on his cheeks, the cry made everyone in the hospital stop their movements, wondering who could let out a sound that seemed so full of despair and pain. Kyuhyun fell on his knees, crying, holding his mother’s hand, and he was not President Cho Kyuhyun anymore. He was little Kyuhyun, the little boy who never learned how to cry when he wanted to, the little boy who had grown into a man with emotions locked up in his heart, never surfacing. He was little Kyuhyun who had just become an orphan.

Zhou Mi walked to him, took him in his arms, and let him cry without saying a word. The teddy bear Kyuhyun had brought was on the hospital bed, keeping company to the woman Kyuhyun could never see smiling anymore.

*******************************

“Kui Xian…”

They were at her funerals. Zhou Mi walked to Kyuhyun, who couldn’t stop crying.

“I-I’m s-sorry… I-I j-just c-can’t seem t-to be able t-to stop c-crying…”

He couldn’t speak well because of the tears. Zhou Mi hugged him and handed him the teddy bear he had dressed with a mini black suit. Kyuhyun took it and hugged it like a kid.

“T-thank you for b-being here…”

“Kui Xian. Of course I’d be here.”

He patted his head and hugged him some more.

The price for the emotions had been high. He only hoped he could see Kyuhyun smile again even after this…

*******************************

“Zhou Mi-aaaah!”

Zhou Mi turned, and saw Kyuhyun arrive, a big smile on his face, holding the hand of a beautiful young lady.

“I’m so sorry, I’m late! I couldn’t find my watch and I never leave without it…”

“It’s okay. Who might be this gorgeous lady here?”

Kyuhyun smiled.

“My girlfriend. Lee Minnie.”

Zhou Mi smiled, and bowed to kiss the lady’s hand as any gentleman would do. He shouldn’t have worried about Kyuhyun. Now that the president could show his feelings, everything ended in a good way.

Ended? No, he thought, that was wrong. Everything was only beginning…