Eunhyuk simply scoffed and effectively stomped to the counter again. I lowered my chopsticks after biting off the noodles that I already had in my mouth. Although I'd put up a show for Eunhyuk eating his bowl of noodles as he walked away, I was too upset to actually feel like eating. I forecefully swallowed what was in my mouth, and then I aimlessly started playing with the noodles with the chopsticks.

It was the first fight I had with anyone since I had been at the hospital. I bit my lip and rested my chin in my hand with my elbow resting on the table. And then I stared into the half-empty bowl of ramen noodles.

I don't get it. This isn't even anything and he got angry at me.

I began with just a soft, slow swirling of the noodles at first, then as I thought more about the situation, I felt myself get even more angry, and I sped up the swirling, which also became more and more rough until I finally exploded.

"You're so stupid!" I shouted, then I slammed my chopsticks down on the table. I saw a few heads turn to look at me, perplexed, but then I got up from the table and walked to the counter where Eunhyuk was standing. And then I grabbed him by the back of his shirt.

"We need to talk," I seethed.

Eunhyuk turned his head towards me with an annoyed frown on his face. "Let go," he said, shoving my hand away. I lost my grip on his shirt, but I didn't back away.

"We're going to talk, and it's going to be right now," I announced. "It's going to be before you get in that van for your next schedule."

Eunhyuk didn't say anything and turned back to the counter, where he took his food from the cashier. He forgot to thank her as he turned to me with with his lunch box in his hand.

"I have to go. Now."

"I don't care," I said.

"Seunghwan hyung's waiting to take me to the recording studio right now," he said.

"I don't care."

"And everyone's staring. You're making a scene."

"I don't care."

I saw Eunhyuk's face grow red as well, and I was momentarily afraid that he'd punch me; but then he took me by the arm with his free hand.

"Fine," he said under his breath, then he roughly started dragging me outside of the cafeteria. I barely kept up as he pulled me through the hallways. We stopped at the elevators. Eunhyuk pushed the button, and I began angrily as we waited for the elevator to come.

"What is your problem?" I asked, crossing my arms. "I know I was harsh on you during practice today, but so are you when you teach me to dance! And you were being like a little child, getting angry at me for eating a tiny bit of your food, and - "

At that moment, the elevator dinged and opened, revealing that it was empty. We both stepped inside it and Eunhyuk pushed the button to take us to the underground parking lot. As I did, I lost my train of thought and at that moment, Eunhyuk snatched the time to talk instead.

"I never said you could have any!" shouted Eunhyuk.

"So? I'm your dongsaeng, and it was literally one bite!" I yelled, tears of anger and frustration welling up in my eyes.

"I don't care who you are!" said Eunhyuk. The elevator dinged again, and we stepped out of the elevator, but we made no move to travel to the van right next to us as we stood, glaring at each other in the empty parking lot.

"Liar, what if Jungsu hyung did it? What if the manager hyung?" I shouted, the sound echoing through. "You're only doing this because you have a problem with me being harsh on your singing earlier!"

"No, I'm not!" yelled Eunhyuk, then with a flash in his eyes, shoved me chest hard with the hand that wasn't holding the lunch box so that I had to take a step back in order not to fall. I winced a little at a stab of pain that travelled up my hip as I steadied myself.

I felt another huge surge of anger coming up in my chest at that, and so I stepped closer to him again, and shoved his shoulders, making him stumble backwards as well. "Then why are you being like such a child?"

"I'm not being like one! I - "

"You are! You're being like this because I yelled at you today! And that hurt!"

Eunhyuk glared at me. "I already said it wasn't because you were being harsh during practice."

"Then why are you being like that?"

"Because - " said Eunhyuk, then he looked to his side, then he froze and stopped talking.

"Because what?" I demanded, taking Eunhyuk roughly by his shoulder, but Eunhyuk still didn't say anything and had his gaze fixed on whatever was to our side. I frowned and turned my head to look at what he was staring at, and realized that the manager hyung was standing was standing against the van with his arms crossed and watching our exchange calmly.

I paled too, and I felt my lips suddenly drying up. I quickly let go of Eunhyuk's shoulder.

"Sir - I - he - we - " I stuttered, but the manager hyung just smiled in... wait, was that amusement?

"It's okay, I'll wait for the two of you to sort it out," said Seunghwan hyung, sounding equally as amused as he looked.

Eunhyuk looked confused as he looked me and the manager hyung back and forth. "I - I'm sorry, I just - he - I tried - but I - "

"Why are you two stuttering?" asked the manager hyung mildly with a small laugh.

Eunhyuk and I exchanged a glance, confused. I knew that the manager hyung hated when the members fought, and I'd witnessed him yelling at the members for it more than once.

What was he doing? Is he being sarcastic? Is he going to pull us into the van before yelling at us?

The manager hyung looked like he was going to burst out laughing at any moment before opening the door of the van and stepping in the driver's seat. Eunhyuk and I looked at each other and hesitated. What were we supposed to do?

Eunhyuk looked at me hesitantly and shifted the lunch box in his hand. "We'll finish this after," he said, then he turned to get into the van. But I grabbed him by his arm.

"No. We'll finish this now," I insisted.

Eunhyuk sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. Then he turned towards me. "Fine. Then we'll finish this in the van. I don't want to get in any more trouble from Seunghwan hyung than what we're already in. Plus I still haven't eaten."

I nodded and followed him into the van and climbed into the back seat next to Eunhyuk. We'd left the passenger seat empty; we knew better than to get too close to Seunghwan hyung when he was angry.

There was a silence, and Seunghwan hyung didn't start the van for a long time. Then he finally spoke.

"I really don't mind waiting until the two of you sort it out," he said, more serious now.

Eunhyuk widened his eyes. "But sir - the recording is in minutes, and we're already late. We should get going," he said.

Seunghwan hyung shrugged and reached for his keys. "It's your call," he said, then he finally started the van. Then he looked at me through the rearview mirror. "Kyuhyun, are you sure you want to come? It's going to be an entire day until I can bring you back."

I nodded. "Sir, I'm sorry," I said timidly. "But I just - "

"Don't apologize. It's fine. Taking you is no problem," said Seunghwan hyung.

So he doesn't want me there.

As we maintained an awkward silence, Seunghwan hyung smiled at me through the mirror again. "Pretend I'm not here and the two of you, continue on."

God, I couldn't stand the sarcasm. I knew that as soon as I stepped into the dorm, he would probably ask for the broom. I sighed, but then I looked at Eunhyuk. This was more important.

The car started moving, but no one spoke. After a while, Seunghwan hyung started humming a little bit, which confused me - I could understand the threatening, sarcastic words, but humming?

Eunhyuk and I didn't say anything to each other and kept quiet the entire time, and after a few moments, Eunhyuk carefully opened his lunch box and started eating little by little. I frowned and crossed my arms, annoyed, when I heard Eunhyuk speak timidly.

"Kyuhyun, do you want a bite?"

I ignored my mouth watering and growling stomach - all I'd had for lunch was a mouthful of noodles after all - and shook my head. I had more pride than that.

"No," I said with a small frown.

Then to my annoyance, I saw Eunhyuk sigh a small breath of relief. Anger bubbled up again that he had no intention of actually sharing his food with me as he continued.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

I turned to him, annoyed.

"Actually, no, I'm not sure," I challenged. "I'll take the bite."

I saw Eunhyuk almost pale. He swallowed visibly; he clearly didn't expect me to ask for the food.

"Um - " he flustered, looking at his lunch box. And then he started playing with the food for at least a moment. Then looking like he finally made the biggest decision of his life, he scooped up the smallest bit of the fried rice with his chopsticks and held it out, but not far enough for me to reach from my side of the van. Out of spite, I wanted to do all that I could to take the bite, and so I moved closer to him until I was close enough. And from there, I saw his hand shake and draw his hand away ever so slightly as I got close enough with my mouth open.

I suppressed a laugh of disbelief and looked up into his eyes without eating the bite that he held out.

"Do you really feel like feeding your dongsaeng is so wasteful?" I aske sharply.

"No, that's not it," he said quietly, shaking his head and putting the chopsticks back down in the lunch box.

"Then what is it?" I insisted.

"I..." began Eunhyuk. He eyed Seunghwan hyung, but he wasn't looking at either of us and was driving. I looked at Eunhyuk expectantly though. "I just..." He bit his lip for a moment before continuing hesitantly. "For me, sharing food was never easy," he said quietly. "I come from - a really... My family's not so well-off. So food wasn't easy to come by when I was a kid."

I stared at him, never having heard this story before. He was staring into his lunch box for a long while, but then he looked up at me.

"So I know I must come across as really greedy sometimes," he said. "But - it's just how I grew up."

I felt my breath hitch in my throat as apology and embarrassment replaced anger. "Do - do all the other members know?"

Eunhyuk nodded. "I had a really - a really big fight over it with Heechul hyung before you joined, and so they found out then," he whispered.

He began playing with the rice grains in his lunch box again while I went back to the seat that I was in before he offered the bite of his food.

We stayed quiet for a moment, then with difficulty, I met his eyes.

"Hyung, I'm sorry," I said sheepishly.

There was a long silence, then Eunhyuk looked at me and smiled a little. "Me too," he said. He then reached over and ruffled my hair as I dropped my head a little.

When I raised my head again, I caught sight of the manager hyung through the rearview mirror looking prouder of the two of us than he'd ever looked before.

I could feel my endurance deteriorating quickly throughout the day as I watched Eunhyuk's recording. Not having eaten a large enough lunch to sustain myself for the first time since I was discharged from the hospital, I felt a headache coming on.

I was therefore relieved as he finished about four hours later and we were ushered into the van. As soon as I sat down, I tilted my head back on my seat and closed my eyes.

"Kyuhyun, are you sick?" Eunhyuk asked worriedly as he climbed into his own seat.

I startled and quickly shook my head. "No. No, I'm fine."

"You do look sort of pale," said Seunghwan hyung, pulling on his seat belt. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm really okay," I insisted.

Seunghwan hyung still looked concerned though. "I think you should sit out the practice today, Kyuhyun. I think the representatives were right. You should get your health cleared by the doctor before you engage in - "

"No," I said, shaking my head vigorously. "I can't wait to go to practice. I'll be fine."

Seunghwan hyung looked skeptical. "At least get some rest and something to eat. The practice won't be for another two hours."

"Okay, hyung," I agreed, fully intending to eat a large meal as soon as I got back to the office before sleeping it off on a couch somewhere.

I did just that. After eating enough to account for both lunch and supper in one sitting, I found the practice room we were supposed to be at for the rest of the night and laid down lazily to sleep. I had actually fallen so deep into sleep that I didn't even awaken when the members began filing into the room one by one. I only awoke when the loud music of the new song began, startling me awake. I sat up quickly and looked around in surprise to find the rest of the team already practicing, facing the mirror.

"Wait," I said in panic as I quickly got to my feet.

Although the team wouldn't have heard me over the music, they stopped anyway.

"Oh, you're up," said Donghae.

I nodded. "Why didn't you wake me up?" I rebuked.

"Because you were sleeping," he said.

I shook my head and ran my fingers through my hair, trying to wake myself up enough to do this.

"Okay. I'm ready for practice too," I said.

However, the rest of them looked uncomfortable. "Seunghwan hyung said you're not actually ready to dance yet and not to let you," said Eunhyuk.

"What does he know?" I asked, brushing them off. "He doesn't know what I can do."

I jumped up and down a few times to show them now okay I was, but gritted through the pain in my hips and chest that followed. "Look, I'm fine," I said a little after, pretending I hadn't felt anything.

"Okay," said Eunhyuk reluctantly, then he started nodding. "I'll give you a personal lesson tonight, okay? For now, just do what you can and get the formations in your head."

"Okay," I agreed, then I faced the mirrors with the rest of the team.

"All right," said Eunhyuk. "Here we go. Slowly. One - two - "

"Wait," I said. "I know you have it to the point where you're practicing with music."

"But you don't know it," said Eunhyuk.

"It's okay. Don't let me slow you down and do what you've been doing. I'll catch up," I said.

"Are you sure?" asked Eunhyuk uncertainly.

"I always do. You know that," I said with a smile, and Eunhyuk nodded back slowly.

"Okay. Then for now, just - just do what you can do."

"Sure thing," I said, then I finally, finally began practice with everyone else.

An half hour into the practice, though, I was panting and sweating harder than I have ever before, when Seunghwan hyung came into the practice room to watch. He looked at me with disapproval as soon as he walked in.

"I told you not to dance," said Seunghwan hyung with a frown.

"I can, though," I gasped.

"You know you're not ready," he said.

I ignored him and continued.  I couldn't believe I was this out of shape, but I pushed through it all, hoping that I would get back into shape soon, and this was part of it.

I finally felt like giving up in the next half hour. I was exhausted, in pain, and every fibre of my body was telling me to stop. But I couldn't - if I showed them I couldn't even get through an hour of practice, there was no way they would let me perform with the team. On top of that, I was the one that insisted on this, so I really had no right to give up now. As I stumbled through the last run-through through ragged breaths, Leeteuk looked more worried than anyone else.

"Kyuhyun - " he said, stepping out of formation to sling his arm around my shoulder.

"D - don't let me sl - slow you down," I managed as my vision clouded up. My breaths were much quicker than they should have been, as exhausted as I was, but I just squeezed my eyes shut then opened them again to clear my vision.

"Kyuhyun, are you really okay?" asked a voice, but I couldn't actually register whose voice it really was.

"I - I'm - "

Come on, Kyuhyun, stay on your feet. You said you were strong enough for this, so show them you are.

I lifted my head again, swallowing to bite back the feeling of nausea. Oh god.

"I - "

I finally realized that I'm really not strong enough to do this as I felt my tongue and my fingertips go numb. I swallowed again to see if the feeling in my tongue would come back, but then everything - everything went white and I couldn't feel any part of my body anymore.

"...When I told you not to be a stranger, I didn't mean come back to the hospital after having overworked yourself."

I squinted through the brightness and blinked.

"W - what?" I whispered, then I was overcome with a few dry coughs as I craved for water.

"Long time no see," said a warm, familiar voice.

I tried as hard as I could to focus my eyes until the intern's face came into view.

"Hello," I said, dazed.

"When you were discharged, I thought I'd get a more enthusiastic hello than this the next time I saw you," he said.

"C - can I have some water?" I asked, still trying to figure out what was supposed to be happening right now.

"You didn't even miss me, eh?" said the intern, but my eyes were focused on the cup of water he was pouring for me.

I didn't speak until I took the cup in my hands and began drinking. When I finally wet my parched throat and cleared my thoughts was when I took in more of my surroundings. I was sitting in a small bed with light sheets over me. Everything around me was white, and that combined with the intern's face made me realize that I was back at the hospital.

"Oh," I said, looking at the intern and finally smiling. "Hi, doctor. I missed you."

"You're lying to me again," he said with a gentle smile.

"I - I'm not lying," I said with a wince as an exhausted breath escaped my lungs. "It's really nice to see you."

"I know. It's nice to see you, too," said the intern. "I just wish I'd seen you when you weren't sick."

I smiled apologetically. "I'm really not sick."

"Here he goes again, doctor," said an exasperated voice. I startled and looked to my other side to see that Seunghwan hyung was also at my bedside.

"Oh," I said again, somehow not expecting to see him there.

"Kyuhyun, you collapsed. You're sick," declared the manager hyung, taking the empty cup from my hands. "Lie back down."

I reluctantly did as I was told.

"Doctor, please tell him what you told me when he was still unconscious," said the manager hyung.

I looked at the intern curiously as he sighed.

"Kyuhyun, you realize that your body isn't very healthy yet, right?" he asked mildy. "You shouldn't be dancing, Kyuhyun. It's just too much."

I looked at him, about to sit up again, but the manager hyung put a firm hand on my chest and pushed me back down on the bed.

"But doctor - "

"There will always be next time. You just need to be patient right now," said the doctor.

As I stared, speechless, the doctor spoke again.

"What happened today proves you're not strong enough yet, Kyuhyun. It's already a miracle that you're even walking."

But all of that fell on deaf ears as I bit my lip and held back the tears that were threatening to well up.

"I ruined it," I said with my hands over my eyes. "First practice back and I already collapsed."

"No, not your first practice. Your only practice," corrected Seunghwan hyung sternly. "You're not doing this again."

I turned away from him so that he couldn't see the tears slide down my face.

"Why does that make you so upset?" asked the intern.

"Because - because I couldn't take part in the first album either," I said. "I really want to prove myself to everyone that I can do this. And I want to work hard for it."

"You could think of it as a break," suggested the intern.

I shook my head. "I don't want to take a break. I want to get back to work."

I heard a familiar chuckle, and I looked at the manager hyung, annoyed.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"I'm sorry," he said, a smile still on his lips. "I just remembered that one night when I punished you and you ran out of the dorm," said Seunghwan hyung. "And you said you wouldn't be restless if you didn't do anything for months."

I couldn't help but smile a little at that.

"I was wrong," I sighed. "And you were right. Like always."

"So just listen to me and stop being so stubborn," pleaded the manager hyung. He wiped the tears away from my face with his hand. He continued the comforting gesture when his phone rang, startling all of us.

"Excuse me," said the manager hyung, then he reached into his pocket. "Hello?"

He listened for a moment, then he spoke. "No. I'm not coming. Something came up."

There was another pause, then he spoke again incredulously. "They're not my team anymore, and you don't need me there."

He sighed as he rubbed his head. "I said, something more important came up. Congratulate them for me, but I'm not coming," he said, and with that, he closed his phone and shoved it back into his pocket.

"What's wrong?" I asked. "You have to go somewhere?"

He shook his head. "No. It's that girl group that I managed for a little bit," he said. "They're debuting today."

"Oh," I said, and then I eyed him carefully to watch his expression. I'd been there after all when he was fired from that job, just because he was at the hospital. "I'm sorry you're not still with them, hyung," I whispered.

However, Seunghwan hyung simply looked surprised. "Why are you sorry?"

"Be - because - because that was a promotion," I said, then I thought a little. "I'm sure they're less stubborn and better behaved."

"They are," he admitted. But then he smiled. "But I'm happier than ever to be able to work for you again."

I laughed a little, too, and he supported me back up.

"Are you ready to go back home?"

I nodded, and he smiled back.

*Author's note: I'm sorry it took so long to update! Also, I have a new angst fic that I'm really excited about, Under Red Lanterns, so if you're interested, please give it a shot :)