December 27, 2022:

            Ryeowook woke a little before his alarm was set to go off and refused to get up early.  Today was the day and there was no reason to start the day any earlier than he had to.  It would be the first time that all the members of Super Junior—or at least the ones that were still active when they disbanded eight years ago—were together in at least six years.  It had been that long since he’d seen him.  In person, that is, it was impossible to completely avoid running across him in advertisements or on television.

            Should he even get up at all?  He could just call up and say something came up, or that he wasn’t feeling well, like he did the last time.  Leeteuk should know how hard it would be for him to show up there, under the circumstances.  The radio alarm clock clicked on as he was debating what to do.

sesang gajang keun nalgaereul dalgo seon
geudaen neomu areumdawo
geudaen modeun geol da ttwieo
neomeoseo ijen Higher yea yea
areumdaun geudae ege pyeol chyeojin
jeo haneureul Touch the sky
mideo on mankeum kkum kkwoon mankeum
bunmyeong nae ireun Rise and shine

            It was some kind of hellish torture, Ryeowook decided, as he listened to the Kyuhyun and Tiffany’s voices singing Rise and Shine.  Only his dumb luckless self would set the alarm to go off at the exact time and on the exact station when some damn deejay decided to resurrect an oldie like this one.  Obviously Ryeowook had some bad karma he needed to work off but damned if he knew what he’d done to deserve this.

            Then again, he just couldn’t turn it off either.  In fact, he turned it up.  That voice was central to all of his best and worst memories in life.  Kyuhyun’s deep voice whispering into his ear, telling him how much he loved him.  Kyuhyun’s voice belting out tunes while lying around on the couch.  Kyuhyun telling him he wanted to break up seven years ago.  It was a memory so engrained in his mind, he knew not a single miserable detail could ever be forgotten…

            It was their first day off together in three weeks.  Between the television show that Kyuhyun hosted and the musical play he was starring in, he had precious few days off and Ryeowook, still performing periodically and deejaying late at night, was rarely off when Kyuhyun was.  They should have planned something fun but they were both too tired and just wanted to recharge at home.  But where Kyuhyun just wanted to sit around and relax, Ryeowook wanted to clean the house and do some laundry.

            “Ah, this place is such a mess,” whined Ryeowook, walking around the living room picking up the clutter as Kyuhyun sat on the couch with his laptop.

            “I think we should talk about hiring a housekeeper to come in a couple times a week,” Kyuhyun said without taking his eyes off the screen.

            “That was fine when we lived with a bunch other guys but I don’t think two people need a housekeeper if one of us just gets better at throwing his clothes in the hamper and doing the dishes every now and then.”

            “But I’d rather have someone do that for me, since I can easily afford to hire someone,” Kyuhyun countered. 

            “It’s such a violation of privacy though,” Ryeowook said, taking an armful of garbage into the kitchen and throwing it in the trash before returning to the living room to grab the dirty dishes on the coffee table.

            “Wouldn’t you rather use your time off to relax?” Kyuhyun asked.

            “Of course I would, which is why it would be nice if you’d stop playing Starcraft for a few minutes and help me tidy up.”

            “I’m not playing games right now.  I’m going through my emails.”

            “Well, can’t you do that later?” Ryeowook asked, grabbing a bunch of bottles and cans.

            From the corner of his eye, he saw Kyuhyun set down his computer and walk over to the coffee table.  But instead of helping Ryeowook pick up, he came up behind him and wrapped his arms around Ryeowook and began kissing his neck.

            “Stop that,” Ryeowook said, trying to shrug out of Kyuhyun’s grip without dropping anything. 

            “Why?  We haven’t had a moment to ourselves in almost a month,” Kyuhyun reasoned, spinning Ryeowook around to face him and leaning in to kiss him but Ryeowook ducked back and walked into the kitchen, setting the bottles and cans on the counter to be rinsed out.

            Kyuhyun followed him into the kitchen, leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest.  “What is this?  We haven’t slept together in weeks and