“Um, Kyuhyun?”

“Yeah?”

“Not to be rude but… why are you hugging me all of a sudden?”

Kyuhyun shrugged and just held onto Sungmin tighter. The members had all stopped for lunch during dance practice, and as soon as it was over, Kyuhyun decided he would initiate phase one of ‘Annoy the out of Sungmin’.

Sungmin could definitely see the members snickering about something, while looking at them--which was weird. Wait, was Kyuhyun trying to pull something?  Sungmin narrowed his eyes in suspicion and pulled back from the embrace, feeling a shiver run through him at the sudden loss of warm contact. He stared at Kyuhyun for a few moments, his eyes in a thin line. 

“Kyuhyun,” he started, speaking slowly.

“Yes?” Kyuhyun blinked a few times and cocked his head to the side.

For a moment, Sungmin thought that he looked so innocent and that he could do no wrong, but he stopped himself from thinking such things. This was Kyuhyun. He’d been partners in crime with Kyuhyun far too many times to not understand that kicked puppy look he liked to pull.

“What are you trying to pull?”

Kyuhyun looked genuinely hurt. “Can’t I hug my best friend?” he murmured, jutting his lower lip out.

Sungmin suddenly felt really guilty. “T-that’s not what I meant. It was just kind of out of the blue, you know?”

Kyuhyun scratched the back of his head and sighed deeply. He forced a small smile and said a quick goodbye before departing. Sungmin pursed his lips in thought. ‘Did I do something wrong?’ he thought. Sungmin caught Leeteuk’s eye, and Leeteuk sent him a thumbs down.

All the while, the only thing Sungmin could think was ‘what did I even do?’

Kyuhyun made a point to be as clingy as possible with Sungmin for the rest of the day, and after that incident in the morning, Sungmin was feeling so guilty that he just went along with it. When they sat in the van, Kyuhyun sat beside him and held his hand. Kyuhyun made sure that his arm was always draped over Sungmin’s shoulder, and he even made an effort to look shy and embarrassed, which was pretty difficult for him.

  Kyuhyun now knew that all of the members were sold on their relationship, judging by the way they sent not so subtle winks and eyebrow wiggles in their direction whenever they were together. Sungmin was still confused as hell, but Kyuhyun reasoned that sacrifices were necessary in times of war.

The members emerged from the waiting room, their hair and makeup all done for a Super Junior Strong Heart special. All of the members were participating, and they’d spent weeks fleshing out the right words and stories to tell. In the corner, Eunhyuk was ing at Donghae to make sure his story made people laugh, and he lectured him on his awkwardness, but Donghae seemed more content watching the fly that was trying to escape from a closed window.

Kyuhyun, while watching the two, felt like smacking his face against the wall. They were both as childish as each other. He decided to stop watching in fear of giving himself a headache, and instead turned to his target—no, friend, and decided to have a friendly, somewhat sane chat.

“So what’re you actually talking about today? I know what the others are talking about, but…” Kyuhyun opened, making sure to bat his eyelids super cutely. 

Sungmin coughed awkwardly and he avoided Kyuhyun’s eyes, staring at the ceiling since it was totally the most interesting thing there by far. “Just, yeah, um, yeah.”

Kyuhyun blinked. Well that was informative.

Sungmin adjusted his collar and cleared his throat. “Well, you’ll see.”

Kyuhyun stared at him. And he stared some more. Kyuhyun hated being curious, and Sungmin was just being plain cruel. With a twitch of his eye, Kyuhyun sighed and decided to let it go, seeing as Sungmin didn’t look like he’d be divulging information any time soon. 

He’d find out eventually, anyway.

The staff rounded them up and they took their seats, prepared for the long broadcast ahead. Everything was going pretty well… up until Sungmin started to speak anyway.

“He’s in charge of aegyo in Super Junior. Loveable man, Sungmin!” Lee Seung Gi introduced, and the studio clapped.

Sungmin decided maybe way too late that his story might not go over well and people would get the wrong idea, but it was too late for second thoughts. Besides, he just really looked up to him. There was nothing wrong with that. 

“The person that made my heart flutter. I first met the person when I was shooting a drama called President,” Sungmin said while wringing his hands nervously.  

Leeteuk stared at Sungmin and tried not to let his mouth drop open. What was Sungmin playing at? Was it not Kyuhyun that made his heart flutter?

“I thought about getting close to them so much that I dreamt about it. I dreamt about eating dinner and sleeping in that person’s house.”

Eunhyuk glanced at Kyuhyun to see him laughing, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion at Sungmin’s words. Leeteuk just stared at Sungmin like the world was coming to an end.

Leeteuk tried to salvage the situation. “Either he really likes, or really hates them.”

As Sungmin spoke, things got progressively more awkward between the members. Siwon turned around and gave Leeteuk a look that said, ‘well ’. All Leeteuk could think was, poor Kyuhyun. The audience all looked at Sungmin curiously as he prepared to say the mysterious person’s name.

“It’s actually Choi Soojong sunbaenim,” he confessed.

Kyuhyun knew that it was his time to roll. He laughed and put his head in his hands, whilst at the same time acting as if it were a sad laugh--as if, ‘ah, I’ve been betrayed’.

The members glanced at Kyuhyun with worry, wondering what Sungmin was trying to do by hurting their maknae like this. They seemed so close only minutes ago. Was this the end of their relationship? The members laughed awkwardly, wanting to strangle Sungmin, but trying not to seem too freaked out by what he was saying.

Yesung, in a surprising moment of wit, decided he had to step in. Having even more rumours piled up about Super Junior’s members being gay wasn’t something they needed. He could just imagine the field day the press would have. Seriously, Heechul filled up the ‘gay rumour’ quota just by being Heechul. Eunhae weren’t helping either.  

“I was double casted with him for a drama called Hong Gildong. Sungmin disappeared when it was lunch or dinner time. He was always having a meal with women, at a restaurant or a café,” Yesung said, trying to diverge away from all the gay.

Kyuhyun shared his two cents, and the members could only stare at him in pity.

After the broadcast had ended and they were all backstage, the members all shot the clueless Sungmin the stink eye. Kyuhyun felt a little bad. Kind of. But it was pretty funny, so he just let it go.

Leeteuk, having had enough with Sungmin’s cruel ways, shook his head and walked up to him, putting his hand on his shoulder. “How could you say that on broadcast Sungmin? How do you think he’s going to feel?” Leeteuk stared at Sungmin with sad eyes. “Haven’t you hurt him enough already? You need to stop denying everything and just tell the truth.”

Sungmin blinked. “Wait, what?”

Leeteuk just closed his eyes and hung his head. “Just,” he paused, “just think about it a little okay?”

Sungmin stared at Leeteuk’s retreating form with absolutely no clue as to what just happened.

Kyuhyun and Eunhyuk who were watching the exchange sighed in unison.
“He acts like you two aren’t even a thing,” Eunhyuk said. “I thought he was more caring than that.”

Kyuhyun blinked a few times, forcing some tears into his eyes with great difficulty seeing as all he wanted to do was burst out into laughter. “It’s okay, I’m used to it.”

Kyuhyun sighed and walked away, looking wistful.

Watching him go, Eunhyuk balled his fist in front of his mouth, gritted his teeth, and took a sharp breath in. “You poor dude.”

A/N: Yes I managed to squeeze and end of the world reference into there. Uh, happy end of the world day? 

The time lines are all jumbled up, but just roll with it. Heechul isn’t leaving or anything, Hankyung is still there, uh yeah. For anyone wondering: SH episode 93. all of SH episodes are here.