“Sungmin…I don’t know how to say this…but I want to break up,” Kyuhyun said, patting Sungmin’s hand apologetically from across the table.

Sungmin looked up from his plate full of cookies and cupcakes. He should have known that Kyuhyun was up to something when he asked him to go to the bakery with him for snacks and some coffee. Especially when he paid for it all himself. He finished swallowing down a bit of frosted sugar cookie and sipped from his cup. “But we aren’t dating.”

“I know, I know,” he said, running his hand through his hair. “What I mean is, I want to end KyuMin.”

Sungmin’s eyes went wide. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” he warned. “The fans are set on us being together.”

“I know that it won’t be easy to part, after all these years together, but I think it’s time that they understand that I love Wookie and not you. I’m sorry, Minnie,” he said.

Sungmin sighed and sat in silent reflection for a few minutes, looking out the window at the people walking past. “We’ll have to be careful how we go about this, you know. I don’t think faking a fist fight or bad-mouthing each other on radio and television shows is going to be the best way to break it to our fans.”

“Wookie and I were already discussing this and we thought if you moved out, that would send the right message to the fans.”

“Move out!”

“No, no!” Kyuhyun said, waving his hands. “Not out of the apartment—I didn’t mean that—just out of my bedroom.”

“We don’t share a room,” Sungmin reminded him, confused.

“I mean the pretend room we share. I think that you should say something on the air about moving into your own room; that will let the fans know that there’s nothing between us anymore.”

Sungmin considered this for a moment. “But everyone thinks that the apartment is too small for all of us, how can I claim to be moving to a different room now?”

“Well, Jongwoon doesn’t have his own room anymore, we could claim he moved out finally. Or, because Leeteuk and Heechul are in the military, you could say that you moved up to one of their rooms,” he suggested.

Sungmin picked up his coffee cup and held it up to his mouth as he thought. “It would seem odd to suddenly move upstairs now when Teukie left a couple months ago.”

“You could claim you were too busy until now.”

“Nah, I like the Yesung excuse better. I’ll have to let him know what the new status is then. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled that the fans will think we had a falling out since we’ve never been able to get a good YeMin following because of you.”

“I don’t want to part on bad terms, though.”

“Of course not,” Sungmin quickly agreed. “The fans can’t think that we regret breaking up. We just both grew apart and fell in love with other partners, that’s all.”

“Exactly,” agreed Kyuhyun, exhaling a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“You’ll have to stay away from me in live performances for a while. We can still talk but no hugging and such. And we can’t be seen in public like this either. Not alone, at least.”

Kyuhyun shook his head. “It has been fun. I will cherish all the memories.”

“Oh, so will I!” he said, smiling. “But now I’m going to have to remember to call you my ex-roommate, so I don’t confuse anyone. This is fun though, now I’ll be able to tell fans about how my room really looks. Well, I guess I still can’t quite complain about all Jongwoon’s junk in there but I can tell them how I’ve decorated it. That will be fun!”

“You’re so understanding, Min. I was worried you’d have a hard time.”

“Hey, have you been thinking of this for a while? Back in August, you were on a radio show, I think, with Hyukjae and you complained about having to share a room with me.”

“Oh, yeah! On Kyuwook day!” Kyuhyun recalled. “I hadn’t thought of pretending you moved yet but I was trying to make it apparent that I didn’t like sharing a room with you because we weren’t, in fact, romantically involved at all. No matter how hard Wookie and I try to promote KyuWook, it never created as big a following as KyuMin—which makes no sense, since we hardly ever interact with each other in public anymore—and Wookie and I have tried so hard to promote ourselves together for years now. I mean, the whole Celebrity Tour Guide; how much more obvious do we have to be? Do I have to make out with him in public? I even went on his show on KyuWook day!”

“Some of your fans know already,” Sungmin assured him, “just as some of ours already understand that Jongwoon and I are together. And, if we keep trying hard, I’m sure that they’ll eventually get it.”

“I should probably also warn you that I’m going to start having people insinuate that I’m gay and Ryeowook’s my boyfriend,” Kyuhyun said in a low tone, glancing around to make sure that no one was listening in.

“How?”

“Well, I’m going to have someone say that they think I’m gay on my show. I’m still going to act shocked at such an accusation but that will put an idea into their heads. Then I’m going to have people imply that we’re abnormally close, that sort of thing.”

Sungmin nodded his head. “I may have to brainstorm a bit, both for you and Wookie and for me and Jongwoon. That’s really an excellent idea! You’re so smart, Kyuhyun.”

“Actually, Hyukjae and Donghae have been giving me pointers,” he admitted.

Sungmin extended his hand to his friend. “Shall we shake on it?”

“On what?”

“The end of our long-term romance.”

Kyuhyun extended his hand and shook Sungmin’s. He then sighed in relief and leaned back in his chair. “I don’t suppose you could be out by next week, could you? I’d like to have it all said and done before the new songs for KRY and SJM come out.”

“All right, I guess!” Sungmin said, pretending to be inconvenienced.