Yoona knew her Super Junior oppas were practicing at the SM building.  They had kicked off their Super Show 2 in Korea in July, and just returned from Hong Kong in September.  Next they were scheduled for Shanghai this month, and Bangkok in November.  Then on to China in December and January.

Donghae was right.  Their schedules were bound to keep them apart, even if they had wanted to spend time together.  If they were to become a couple, it would require a long distance relationship during much of their time together.

She watched them as they ran through a rehearsal of the choreography for “Don’t Don” and chuckled as Heechul Oppa lingered in the back of the room, getting away with barely dancing, if you could call it that. 

He was a born rebel, and forever would remain a rebel.

The tap on her shoulder caused her to jump, and she swung around to face Kyuhyun’s beaming face.

“Spying on us now, Weirdo?”

Yoona shrugged and turned back to peer in the window on the door, her eyes seeking out Donghae.

“I just wanted to see what time you guys are going to be done.”

Kyuhyun looked down at his cell phone he was carrying.  He had stepped out to take an important call from Boa. 

“What are you doing tonight?”

That was an odd question coming from Kyuhyun.  If it were Teukkie or Donghae, or even Yesung, she would’ve expected it.

“I’m not sure,” Yoona said tentatively, “What makes you ask?”

He waved his cell phone at her and smiled.  “What if I told you that we have a mission to complete?”

“A mission?”

He nodded and leaned against the wall, folding his arms, feeling pleased with himself.

“What kind of mission?” she asked.

“The kind where you get to help out your Oppa.”

She scrunched her face at him.  Kyuhyun was a prankster.  They’d often played tricks on each other before, so this could easily be a ploy or a joke.

“I think I’ll pass,” Yoona decided.

He leaned closer to her, and whispered, “Even if it involves BBQ and beer?”

Her eyes grew larger and a sly smile crossed her lips.  Kyuhyun learned several years ago that Yoona would sneak sips when her oppas brought drinks to the building or used the SM Building’s karaoke room. 

“Keep talking,” she said as she watched Donghae and Hyukjae dance together.

“Boa is having a small gathering at her apartment tonight,” Kyu started, watching Yoona closely as her eyes sparkled with anticipation.  “Yunho and Changmin will be there. Boa asked for you, Qian and I to come too.”

Yoona took a step back and considered what Kyuhyun had just told her.

“Kyu,” she began, “I don’t think so.”

“Why not?” he asked her, but secretly understood her hesitation.  His best friend, Changmin, and Yoona used to be inseparable.  There were times whenever you would see one, the other was soon to follow around the corner, or glued side by side. 

“Yoona, he’s still your friend isn’t he?”

She nodded slowly, and sighed.  “He will always be my friend, Kyu, that’s not what I mean.”

“Ever since this mess with the lawsuit, he’s a wreck.  He won’t even play games with me!”

Before Yoona could pipe a word in edge-wise, he continued, “Look, I know that sounds stupid, but he loves playing videos games with me!  We would always chat via webcam, or go online together when he was in Japan, but it’s like he’s shutting down now.”

She watched the concern on her friend’s face as he spoke.

“It’s not just Changmin either.  Yunho has become a machine.  He won’t get mad, he won’t cry, he won’t laugh.  Everything he does now is mechanical... Boa noona says they need to be able to let loose.  She said if we are there for them, they’ll get through this ...”

Everyone in SM Entertainment had heard about the secret parent meeting back in June, and the subsequent lawsuit that was filed by Junsu, Jaejooong and Micky.  Everyone knew how netizen ‘fans’ attacked Changmin and Yunho for not joining them in the lawsuit. It had divided up friendships, even within Super Junior there was discord when the topic came up.  So most of the time, they avoided talking about it.

“You’ll come?” Kyuhyun asked her again.

Yoona looked back into the practice room and watched as Donghae finally saw her standing at the door and waved at her.  He broke into a smile that literally went from ear to ear.

“You should be the one to tell Donghae oppa,” Yoona told Kyuhyun while she waved back to Hae.

“Are you kidding me?  Tell him you’re going to spend the night with me and not him?”

“Do you want me to go or not?” she tried to stifle a smile.

“Yeah but... have you seen Donghae when he’s jealous?”

“Don’t be silly.  We aren’t dating ...” she paused and then smiled, “yet,” her thoughts added.

“Ok,” he agreed, “I’ll do it for Changmin.  But, if he looks like he’s going to kill me, you need to step in!”

“Pabo,” Yoona smacked his shoulder, “Donghae isn’t even the jealous type.  You’re being silly.”

Kyuhyun’s eyes popped wide open, “Are we talking about same Lee Donghae?  Do you even remember what happened when he found out when a certain actor, who will remain nameless, asked you for your cellphone number after the drama ended?  Remember how he wanted to call the actor’s agency because he was 6 years older?”

“Well that’s because I was 16...”

“You’re the pabo, if you believe that!  Anyways, it’s a deal.  I’ll tell Donghae, and you come with me tonight.”

 

Later that night Yoona began to wonder if she had made the right decision, when Boa unnie had told her it was fine for her to drink beer, since she would be staying over anyways.

But once the three of them were together, it was like old times again!

“Am I really like an elementary school girl?” she asked Kyuhyun, her eyes nearly pouting as she looked into his.

Before Kyuhyun could answer, Changmin interrupted, “No, you’re more like an elementary school BOY.”

The small fist swung into his arm before he had a chance to move.

“Yah!” she shouted in mock anger.

“See!” Minnie pointed his finger at her, “You just proved my point!”

Yoona grabbed his index finger that he was pointing at her, and attempted to bring it to to bite it, but Kyuhyun circumvented the action by placing his hand on top of both of theirs.

“I have something better to put in that alligator mouth of yours,” he grinned sideways at her as he raised a choco Pocky stick above her face with is free hand.  “Now say Ahhh,” he teased.

She giggled as she stretched her neck and snapped at the Pocky stick.

He pushed his weight down on their clasped hands until they broke apart and simultaneously dangled the Pocky at her, grinning from ear to ear.

“I said say Ahhh!”

Yoona turned away from Kyu and faced Changmin, “Keep your stingy Pocky, I can get my own.”

A wicked grin flash across Changmin’s face and he reached for the bowl of Pocky and placed one  in between his teeth and waggled it up and down, his eyebrows following suit.  The invitation was comically obvious and Yoong burst out laughing at his absurd teasing.

“And you call me a boy!  Now who’s acting like a kid!”

“Stop trying to steal my muse,” Kyuhyun reached over and karate-chopped Changmin’s Pocky stick in half.

He then grabbed a handful of Pocky and placed one behind each ear, one is his mouth, one in an open button hole on his chest, and two into the waist of his pants just above his fly.

“I dare you!” he mumbled while trying to hold on to the cracker stick in his mouth.

Both Yoona and Changmin burst out laughing.  She threw her head back, and Changmin clapped his hands together at the sight of Kyuhyun!

“Its POCKY MAN!” she exclaimed!

The words caught the others attention and Yunho pointed at Kyuhyun.  “Yah YOU!  What are you doing over there, you ert!”

“You’re not getting off that easy,” Changmin warned him before diving toward him and claiming the Pocky stick in his mouth with a crunch.

Boa called over, “Yoona if you don’t get the rest, Changmin will eat up all those prizes!”

Kyuhyun laughed at Changmin’s effort and pushed him away, chewing on the remainder of the stick in his mouth.  “Yah, that’s not for you!”

Boa smiled at the pair and shook her head, looking back at Yunho, “Oh, the carefree life of those maknae.”

“It’s good to see him smile again,” Yunho admitted quietly, watching Changmin tackle his best best friend as Yoona pelted Pocky at them.  “I think it’s been months now since he’s laughed.  He barely speaks to them now.  You know we changed rooms back in July.  He refused to sleep in the same room as Junsu anymore.  Not like it really matter since those three stopped sleeping in the dorm anyways.  It’s been really hard on him.”

“And you too,” Boa rubbed Yunho’s shoulder with one hand and clinked his empty glass with her own.

DBSK was hanging together by a thread.  Although they still performed here and there in Japan, their relationship had become very strained since JYJ filed the lawsuit.

“Refill time!” he nodded at the cans of Japanese Saporro beer.  Boa reached over and snapped one open and poured it into Yoona’s empty glass, winking at her.

“To better times ahead!” she offered and raised the can in a toast to Yunho.

Qian returned from the bathroom in time to witness the boys still wrestling and placed her hands on her hips as she came to stand above them.

“Yoona are you going to let them have all the fun?”

Yoona shrugged and turned to reach for another snack from the food table, “Unnie, they’re proving a point on who acts the most immature, me or them.”

Before she could place the chips into a free hand reached up from the floor and pulled her down on top of them.  As Changmin wrapped his leg around her, imprisoning her, sandwiched between Kyuhyun and himself, he saying, “They claim girls mature faster than boys, Yoong, but seriously, whoever said that doesn’t know YOU.”

Qian shook her head, squatted down and began picking Pocky off the three entwined bodies. 

“And everyone says YOU’RE supposed to be the mature one, Minnie!”

The rough housing quickly took it’s toll on Yoona’s young stomach.  She was accustomed to only very small amounts of soju, so the beer had a completely different effect of her.  She felt an oncoming wave of nausea.  As her hand clapped over , Kyu took immediate notice and quickly sat up, pulling her up with him.

“Yah Yoong, don’t you dare vomit here!”

Changmin merely chuckled at her, “See, elementary kid that can’t hold her liquor!”

The sick quickly erupted into , and she gagged.  She attempted to swallow it back down, but it only made her gag harder.

Realizing she wasn’t playing any longer, Changmin sat up on the opposite side of her and rubbed her back, “You should go to the bath...”

His words were interrupted by another violent gag.  He didn’t wait another second before scooping her up into his arms, nearly stumbling as he stood and tried to sprint down the hall to the nearest restroom that Qian had just vacated moments ago.

“Geez you’re heavier than you used to be,” he struggled.

They had just crossed the threshold when the final wave of sick bursted from and into , and although she had covered it spurted out between her fingers onto Changmin’s chest.

He froze.  The warm goo soaked through his shirt, pasting it to his skin.

“Oh Yoona, we almost made it too!”

He walked over to the toilet, gently lowering her.  As she cradled her arms around the porcelain tank, he walked over to the door and closed it, locking the two of them inside.  He knew she would not want to be seen by anyone.

He knelt next to her and rubbed her back with one hand and twisted her hair softly around his fist with the other, preventing it from dangling.

“Better out than in, I always say” he whispered to her softly, recalling Hagrid’s words from their favorite author, JK Rowling, taking them both back to days long ago, when they would watch Harry Potter movies together, with Gryffindor scarves and makeshift wands.

She attempted to push him away, behind her, as the waves flushed out the sick from her stomach into the toilet bowl.

“Don’t watch,” she managed to croak out in between gags.

She always tried to be stronger than she really was, even now, after all these years, he reflected. 

Yoona, two years his junior, was one of his best friends back in their training years.  They both had entered the company in 2001, she was eleven and he was thirteen.  They were very active pre-adolescents, rambunctious, always laughing and playing during their breaks, constantly pranking each other as well as their sunbae.

Her skin was darker back then, he recalled as he looked down at her thin arms holding on to the toilet for dear life.  They both played out in the sun a lot, so both were darker.

The gagging and nausea began to subside as he continued rubbing her back.  He stopped momentarily, so he could reach for the roll of toilet paper and offer it to her to wipe clean.

Her face glistened with perspiration.

“Are you feeling ok now?  Should I take you home?”

She shook her head and sat down, leaning her back against the cool and refreshing marble wall.

He reached for one of her hands and placed it in the palm of his own.  He spread her fingers apart aligning them with his own.  Then he raised their hands high so she could see how much smaller her hand was compared to his own.  Her palm couldn’t even come close to covering his.

“You’ve got long fingers for a girl, Yoong.  But they are still so much smaller than mine.”

“Sorry about your shirt, Oppa,” she looked at his chest apologetically.

Typical Yoong, he thought.  Always worried about someone else, never herself.

He shook his head and pointed back to their hands.

“Do you know why my hand is so much bigger than yours?”

“Because you’re a freak.”

He chuckled and shook his finger at her.

“When we were kids I used to wonder how your arms and legs got so long.  You were the tallest girl in the company.  You were taller than your noonas.”

“I still am,” she smiled at him and attempted to pull her hand back down.

He realized she was probably uncomfortable, since it had been so long since he held hands with her.  Maybe it was because he had just watched her throw up, but he hesitated in letting her hand go.  Her eyes were still just as clear and shiny as they’d ever been.

He enclosed his fingers around hers and gave her hand a warm squeeze.

“My arms are longer and my hands are bigger so I can protect you.”

She blinked at his suddenly serious tone.

“Oppa...” she said softly, touched by the intimacy of his words. 

When he was thirteen, he worried for her because she didn’t seem to know she was a girl.  When he was sixteen he worried because because even though she acted like a tomboy, she was blossoming into a pretty young woman.  He knew she had a crush on him back then, and it only made her more adorable. 

By the time she was eighteen, he rarely saw her anymore. 

Today he found himself wondering who was there to protect her now?  How had she made it this far, being such a soft-hearted and innocent girl?

He immediately blushed at his own unexpected confession and cleared his throat.

“Well... you know what I mean.  You’re my dongseng afterall.”

Just as quickly as her heart skipped a beat when he mentioned protecting her, it sank into her empty stomach when she realized he wasn’t confessing, but rather confirming her status as one of his favorite dongsengs.

A sister.  A friend. 

And she admitted to herself, it was wonderfully fortunate to be this close to Shim Changmin, her friend of nearly a decade.

“Lucky.” she smiled, “Lucky friends.”

Kyuhyun and Qian were leaning on the other side of the bathroom door, trying to eavesdrop to ensure Yoona was ok.

“What did they say?” Qian asked, moving her hair around her ear and placing it back against the door.

“Ducky friends.” Kyuhyun whispered back.

“What?” Qian raised her ear off of the door, dumbfounded by his words.

“Ducky friends,” Kyu repeated.  His eyes suddenly popped open as wide as they could possibly go.

“Oh my god,” he clapped his hand over his mouth and then grabbed onto Qian’s shoulders.

“What?” she whispered back to him, trying to comprehend his meaning.

“Ducky friends... you mean they used to bathe together when they were trainees?”

She rolled her eyes at the grown man that still acted as a teen, and flicked his forehead.

“PABO!”

He rubbed his forehead, watching in horror as Qian raised her hand again, but this time as he ducked, she rapped on to the door.

“Yoona, are you ok?” she called out.

Changmin and Yoona broke apart, she scurried to her feet and turned the tap on, to rinse and Changmin began to the cotton shirt. 

“Yes Unnie, I’m fine, thanks.” She leaned into the sink and continued to rinse.

“Let me know if you need anything.”

“A shirt,” Changmin called out.

Yoona raised up with full of water to glare at him, for telling the world that she threw up on him when she saw he was from the waist up, examining his soiled shirt.

She spit the water out onto the mirror, shocked that he felt comfortable enough around her to strip off his shirt.

After all, even though they were very close when they were adolescents, he was now a  man, and from the looks of his bare, broad chest, rippled stomach and arms, she could see how manly he had become!

Changmin’s head snapped up at her spraying water, and he tilted his head to one side, and gave her a fiery glare.  She responded by pointing to his bare chested reflection in the water-spotted mirror and she silently mouthed words, “Do you wanna die?!”

Kyuhyun eyes got even larger than they had before at the ‘ducky friends’ comment.

“A SHIRT?” he called out.

He reached for the doorknob, only to find it locked.

“YAH SHIM CHANGMIN, OPEN THIS DOOR NOW!”

Yoona turned from left to right, front to back, scrambling around for something, anything to cover up the half friend in front of her.

She reached for a towel and threw it at him, hitting him in the face. Then rolled up massive amounts of toilet paper around her palm, so she could dry off the mirror.

“Sorry Unnie,” she whispered her apologies to Boa for messing up the bathroom.

“Noisy as usual, Kyu,” Changmin reached for the door only to have his hand swatted violently away by Yoona.

She her finger into his shoulder, “Cover yourself,” she mouthed out to him, in a very low but extremely urgent voice.

“Why? It’s just Qian and Kyu.” Changmin said in his melodic, teasing, baritone voice.

She snatched the soiled shirt from his hand and ran it under the water, rinsing the sick from it.

“Oppa and Unnie, can we get some ice please?  I just got sick and it would help.”

“No problem Yoona, be right back.” Qian grabbed Kyu’s hand and they walked down the hall, Kyu following reluctantly behind her. 

“A shirt?”  he pondered again, “You don’t think they’re in there doing anything naughty...”

“This is what happens when you watch too much ,” Qian jested as she pulled him away, “Letting your imagination run wild.”

“Why ice?” Changmin asked her as he watched her scrub at the stained shirt with hand soap.

“Because it helps get out stains.”

“But you’ve gotten my shirt all wet now, what am I supposed to do?  I am sure Yunho hyung has an extra in his bag.  He always carries one.”

“And let the everyone know that I threw up on the almighty SHIM CHANGMIN? No way!”

“Yoong,” he started.

“NO!” she stated fervently.  “I’ll wash this out and we can use Unnie’s blow dryer to dry it.”

“We’ll be here all night,” he tried to reason with her.

“Then you’ll wear it damp!” she pleaded.

“I don’t want to.” he smiled at her, realizing this wasn’t about the shirt at all. 

He walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, hugging her from behind, which only caused her to drop her head in embarrassment.

“I’m not child,” she said softly.

“No, you’re not.  But you’re not legally an adult yet either.”

He nuzzled his chin gently on top of her head looking at their reflection in the newly cleaned mirror.

“I’m almost an adult,” she said full of promise, trying to convince herself as much as she was him.  For some reason it was very important to her that he not think of her as a choding any longer.  She had grown up.

“You’ve become a beautiful young woman,” he conceded.  “The entirety of Asia knows who you are.  You’ve got millions of admirers...”

Her head quickly raised up and she met his eyes in the mirror.  He was smiling at her with those uneven eyes of his, and his large lips parting, showing his pearly whites.  They didn’t call him Prince Changmin, Charisma God for nothing.  It infuriated her that her heart still swooned just as it did when she was 14  years old, and worked with him and DBSK in their Magic Castle music video.

“And you’re not really my Oppa,” she said to him, a bit too harshly.

“What?” Changmin asked her, feeling wounded by her words.

“We aren’t brother and sister.”

He raised his chin from her head but tightened his hold on her.

“You’re half , Changmin, and you’re holding a girl who isn’t really your sister.”

The smile dropped from his face and immediately his eyes darkened.

“Don’t, Yoona,” he warned her.

“Are you saying you see me as a woman now, Changmin?  Or are we going to just pretend to be kids still?”

There it was. 

She finally confronted him. 

After all these years of beating around the bush, of horseplay, of long distance calls, and texts.  Eight long years of on-again, off-again contact.  Yet whenever he came back, it was as if he had never left.

They had always been so ambiguous, never questioning before. 

But tonight it bothered her. 

He had called her a kid.  He had told her he would protect her, but as a ‘little sister’.

Perhaps she wasn’t special to him at all.

But she had to know.  Too many years of innuendo.

Before he could answer her, the door rapped loudly, causing them both to jump.

In a split second he made a fateful decision.  He patted her head, and leaned down to whisper in her ear, “There, there, Yoona, everything will be fine.  Trust me.”

He reached for the door and before she could stop him he swung it open, without attempting to cover himself in any form or fashion, dropping the pre-offered towel to the ground.

Kyuhyun and and Qian gawked openly at the sight.

“I’ve got a weak stomach,” Changmin explained, “I threw up on myself... I guess can’t watch other people throw up.” He shrugged, and took the bag of ice from Kyu’s hands and whispered softly to Qian.  “Can you please go ask Yunho Hyung for his spare shirt, if we leave it to Pavarotti here, he will announce to the world that I’m a weakling.”

“Yah!” Kyu finally mustered, and his finger into his best friend’s bare chest, “Cover yourself up!  How can Yoona’s innocent eyes ‘un-see’ this!”

Changmin grinned wickedly back at him, “Are you jealous, Kyu?”

When Kyuhyun rolled his eyes, Min leaned in to whisper to his friend this time, “Are you jealous for Yoona or are you jealous for me?”

Yoona heard and couldn’t help but chuckle at the wise crack.  The tension and heat she had felt earlier had dissipated, as they resumed their comfortable roles again.

Qian came to her rescue as she pushed the boys apart, and placed the wet shirt into Changmin’s capable hands.  “We’ll see you two lovebirds out there when you work things out.”  And both she and Yoona walked back into the living room.

When they entered the living room, the lights had been dimmed and old home videos were glowing from the large 57” LCD TV.  Footage from the golden days... everyone was so much younger.

Those images were the last thing that Yoona remembered before hearing the soft “Tell Me Your Wish” singing to her from far away.  As the refrain continued, she vaguely felt a warmth pressed up against her face, and a very heavy weight over her legs.  The song repeated, and the weight felt heavier as the lyrics became clearer.

Something in her subconscious told her that it was her cell phone ringing and she attempted to reach for it when she realized her arm was pinned down by an equally heavy weight as her legs.  She turned, slightly repositioning herself when she attempted to peel her eyes open and noticed she was snuggled up against a broad, male back.  And to make matters worse, she realized she was sandwiched, and couldn’t see who was pinning her down from behind.

She pushed mightily at the arm, only to have it lowered around her waist, and spoon her closer.  She reached into her jeans pocket for the phone.

“Hello,” came her raspy whisper, without opening her eyes.  She was certain is was Yuri, asking why she she wasn’t home.

“Good morning, Sunshine!” a husky, deep male voice resonated into her ear.

That deep, definitive voice.  

“Oppa...” she responded softly, trying to dislodge the cobwebs from her brain, as well as dislodge the herself from the human trap that had her pinned down.

“Too heavy...” she said, still half asleep, trying to raise her leg up, to push the much longer, much stronger leg off of her.

“What?” Taecyeon asked her confused.  “Did I wake you up?”

“Mmm” Yoona yawned, still unable comprehend why she was being snuggled.

“You’ve got such a y voice in the morning, Yoona.”

“I want spaghetti,” was all she mustered. 

He chuckled. 

She really did sound so y in the morning.  Her raspy voice was deeper than usual, and it aroused him.  He also realized that she was nearly asleep on the phone, and probably wouldn’t remember a word he said.

“Too noisy,” a male voice said aloud from behind Yoona and he tightened his leg that was on top of her.  “Too early.”

“Yoona?” Taecyeon asked, alarmed at the muffled voice he heard.  Definitely male.  It was 6:00 in the morning.  Who would be with her at this hour while she was asleep?

“Yoona, where are you?”

It was the demanding urgency in his voice that finally washed over her, like cold water, splashing her awake.

“Taecyeon Oppa?” she stuttered and turned her head to see Changmin embracing her in his sleep, with Kyuhyun sleeping in front of her.

“Are you ok?” he asked her again.  “Who’s voice was that?  Where are you?”

Yoona’s eyes squinted open... she looked around the room.  Where was she?  

Their heads were against a sofa, where Qian unnie slept, with her arm draped over the edge. 

Boa unnie and Yunho Oppa were no where in sight.

“Who’s there with you?” Taecyeon asked, trying to remain calm, but this wasn’t working out as he had planned.

He had called to surprise her, with the news of their New Years Eve performance.  But he was the one that ended up surprised.

“Oppa,” Yoona whispered urgently in to the phone, “I’m at Boa Unnie’s ...”

“Too Noisy!” exclaimed Kyuhyun loudly, and he waved at her without moving any other part of his body, keeping his eyes closed.

“That’s definitely a man’s voice,” Taec exclaimed.

Before she could say anything else, the phone was snatched from her hands and closed shut. 

Changmin tucked it into his own jean’s pocket, and snuggled his face into her hair. 

“Too early.  Come back to sleep, Yoong,” he mumbled with his eyes closed.

He never saw the shocked expression on her face as she reached up and clapped closed to keep from screaming out loud.

What the hell happened last night?!

 

A/N:  I re-wrote this about 5 times.  I knew I what I wanted to write, but it was hard trying to fit DBSK and everything that had gone on with them in one chapter, and still not make it like a history lesson.  LOL Thus the 5,030 word count.  Sorry!  And for those of you that think this is coming from left field, it is... and it's all Nikka's fault.  She has infected me! ROFL  But truly, it wouldn't be a Yoong story if we didn't include her those closest to her, which include KyuMin. :-)